Who were the Phoenicians?

            The Phoenicians were mighty seafarers of the ancient world. The coastal plains of present day Lebanon were home to the Phoenicians in the first millennium BC. They traded predominantly along the Mediterranean Sea. In the centuries that followed, the Phoenicians formed the major naval power of the region. They were the first people to venture into the western Mediterranean and beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, to the Atlantic coasts of Africa and Europe.

            Gradually, the Phoenicians established colonies throughout the Mediterranean. The most strategically important Phoenician trading outpost was Carthage, in North Africa.

            The Phoenicians grew rich exporting products such as wine, olive oil, embroideries, linen, fabric coloured in the famous Tyrian purple dye, and most notably, timber from the famous cedars of Lebanon.