Levant -- Ancient History Encyclopedia

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Timeline

c. 4000 BC

Founding of the city of Sidon.
c. 4000 BC - c. 3000 BC

Trade contact between Byblos and Egypt.
c. 2900 BC - c. 2300 BC

First settlement of Baalbek.
c. 2750 BC

The city of Tyre is founded.
c. 1450 BC

Kadesh and Megiddo lead a Canaanite alliance against the Egyptian invasion by Thutmose III.
1274 BC

Battle of Kadesh between Pharaoh Ramesses II of Egypt and King Muwatalli II of the Hittites.
c. 1200 BC

Sea Peoples invade the Levant.
1200 BC - 1100 BC

Hebrew tribes settle Canaan.
1114 BC - 1076 BC

Reign of Tiglath-Pileser I of Assyria who conquers Phoenicia.
1000 BC

Phoenician trading colonies in the western Mediterranean.
1000 BC

Rise of the kingdom of Israel.
c. 1000 BC

Height of Tyre's power.
965 BC - 928 BC

Solomon is king of Israel.
950 BC

Solomon builds the first Temple of Jerusalem.
721 BC

Israel is conquered by Assyria.
351 BC

Artaxerxes III sacks Sidon.
334 BC

Alexander the Great sacks Baalbek and renames it Heliopolis.
333 BC

Alexander the Great sacks Sidon.
332 BC

Alexander the Great besieges and conquers Tyre.
64 BC

Tyre becomes a Roman colony.
6 BC - 30 AD

Life of Jesus of Nazareth (most probably).

Definition

Levant is the name applied widely to the eastern Mediterranean coastal lands of Asia Minor and Phoenicia (modern-day Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon). In a wider sense, the term can be used to encompass the entire coastline from Greece to Egypt.

The Levant is part for the Fertile Crescent and was home to some of the ancient Mediterranean trade centers, such as Ugarit, Tyre, and Sidon. It is the homeland of the Phoenician civilization.

Written by Jan van der Crabben.

Articles

Agriculture in the Fertile Crescent

The ancient Near East, and the Fertile Crescent in particular, is generally seen as the birthplace of agriculture. In the fourth millennium BC this area was more temperate than it...
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