COST REGION

Syria's main port on the "Mediterranean". an important ancient Canaanite urban center and its language has had a marked effect on our knowledge of early religion and literature and Biblical studies. After the division of Alexander's Empire it fell under the influence of the Seleucids and became a major city and port. Seleucus I Nicator renamed the city Laodicea, in honor of his mother, had an important early Christian community, a fact attested by being mentioned in Revelations and Paul's letter to the Colossians

The golden age of Ugarit came between the 16th and 13th centuries B.C. Gold and ivory objects, bronze weapons, ceramic vases were discovered in addition to thousands of engraved tablets concerning different fields: diplomatic, legal, economic, literary and religious one. It was in Ugarit that the first consonantal alphabet was invented. Carried by the Phoenicians, it was later adopted by the Greeks and the Romans. This precious tablet of 30 signs is exhibited in the National Museum of Damascus 

Its Ruins represent a distinguished temple graved in the rocks and surroundedby water and a sport playground which had been used four centuries B.C. by the old Syrians in their sport events

This small inhabited island once one of the great Phoenician kingdoms flourished on he Mediterranean eastern coast, combines tow ancient castles, one Ayoubite at the coast and the other at the centre of the island