SIDON, once the principal city of Phoenicia, now the princi pal town of the southern district of Great Lebanon under the French mandate. Sidon is to-day a city of io,000 inhabitants, the majority of whom are Muslims. Its houses are grouped round a castle dominating a promontory to the south of which was the ancient Egyptian harbour, now little more than a memory, and the modern harbour to the north half silted up. Around the town as far as the eye can see stretch gardens of orange trees, apricots, bananas and lemons—the fortune of Sidon.
Older than Tyre and acknowledged as its mother, Sidon has had an eventful history. The Homeric poems laud the skill of its artisans. The Philistines destroyed its fleet and laid the city in ashes. Assyria and Babylonia coveted the wealth of her bazaars and a splendid succession of monarchs led armies against her to disturb her peace and loot her treasures. In the 7th century B.C. during a pause in Babylonian oppression Egypt intervened. The Persian yoke in due course supplanted the Babylonian and an injudicious revolt against Artaxerxes Ochus met with condign punishment. Unlike Tyre it submitted without resistance to Alex ander the Great. The Seleucids of Syria, the Ptolemies of Egypt, and the Romans exercised lordship in turn. Herod the Great, as was his wont, embellished the town. Jesus visited its neighbour hood and St. Paul on his way to Rome was permitted to land to visit his friends and refresh himself. Sidon's bishop attended the Council of Nicea. To maintain its independence it leagued itself with the Crusaders (1107), and four years later Baldwin dealt faithfully with the city for bad faith. Saladin took and dismantled
it after Hattin. The Franks were back again within it in 1197, only to see it relapse quickly into Muslim hands and be turned to ruins. The Franks rebuilt (1228), the Saracens redevastated (1249). King Louis restored it (1253) ; the Mongols ravaged it (1260). Once more assisted to rise by the Templars it was aban doned after the fall of Acre (1291). It blossomed into vigorous existence, in the 17th century under Fakhr ed-Din, the Druse emir, who encouraged and protected its commerce. Jezzar Pasha drove the French forth from its gates (1792). In 1840 it was bombarded by the allied fleets (Britain, Austria, Turkey), and British troops occupied it Oct. 6, 1918.
A large necropolis was discovered south-east of the town in 1855, and yielded in the tomb chambers numerous sarcophagi and wall-paintings. The most important were the sar cophagi of two Sidonian kings, Eshmunazar (now in the Louvre), and Tabnith (in Constantinople). Both have valuable Phoenician inscriptions. A further discovery of 17 magnificent sarcophagi was made in 1887, including the famous "Alexander" sarcophagus. (See GREEK ART.) They are now in the museum at Constanti nople. Recently a fresh archaeological survey and excavations have been made in the Sidon area under French auspices.
See T. Macridy Bey, Le Temple d' Echmoun a Sidon (19o4) ; G. Contenau, Mission Archeologique a Sidon (1914) ; C. C. Torrey, "A Phoenician Necropolis at Sidon": Annual Amer. Sch. Or. Research Jerusalem
; G. Contenau, La Civilisation Phenicienne (1926) 21 seq. (E. Ro.)