ARKITES (ark-hes), (Hcb. tush), the inhabitants of Arka, mentioned in Gen. x I Chron. i:15, as descended from the Phcenician or Sidonian branch of the great family of Canaan.
This, in fact, as well as the other small north ern states of Phoenicia, was a colony from the great parent state of Sidon. Arka, or Acra, their chief town, lay between Tripolis and Antaradus, at the western base of Lebanon ( Joseph. Antiq. i :6, 2; Jerome, Qua•st. in Gen. x :t5). Josephus (Antiq. viii :2, 3) makes Bannah—•ho in t Kings iv :16 is said to have been superintendent of the tribe of Asher—governor of Akra by the sea ; and if, as commonly supposed, the capital of the Ark ites is intended, their small state must, in the time of Solomon, have been tinder the Hebrew yoke. Subsequently Akra shared the lot of the other small Phcenician states in that quarter ; but in later times it formed part of Herod Agrippa's kingdom. The name and site seem never to have been unknown, although for a time it bore the name of C:esarca Lebani from haying been the birthplace of Alexander Severus (Man nert. p. 390. It is repeatedly mentioned by the
Arabian writers (>I ichaelis. Spicii. pt. ii. p. 23 ; Schultens, Pita Saladini; Abulfeda, Tab. Syria', p. t t ). It lay thirty miles from Antaradus, sev enteen miles front Tripoli. and, according to Abulfeda. a parasang, or three and one-half miles, from the sea. In a position corresponding to these intimations, Shaw (Observut. p. 270), Burckhardt (Syria, p. 162), and others noticed the site and ruins. Burckhardt, in traveling from the northeast of Lebanon to Tripoli, at the dis tance of about four miles south of the Nahr-el kebir ( Eleutherus ). came to a hill called Tel Arka, which, from its regularly flattened conical form and smooth sides, appeared to be artificial. Upon an elevation upon its cast and south sides are large and extensive heaps of rubbish, traces of ancient dwellings, blocks of hewn stone, re mains of walls and fragments of granite col umns. These are no doubt the remains of Arka; and the hill was probably the acropolis or citadel, or the site of a temple.