In antiquity, Sidon held prominence as a significant
Phoenician city. It was nestled on a mainland promontory and boasted two harbors.
Prehistory Sidon has been inhabited since very early in
prehistory. The archaeological site of Sidon II shows a
lithic assemblage dating to the
Acheulean, whilst finds at Sidon III include a
Heavy Neolithic assemblage suggested to date just prior to the invention of
pottery.
Late Bronze Late Bronze II Amarna period. Around 1350 BC, Sidon was part of the
Egyptian Empire and ruled by
Zimredda of Sidon. During the Amarna Period, Egypt went into decline, leading to uprising and turmoil in the Levant. There was rivalry between Lebanese coastal city-states fighting for dominance, with
Abimilku of Tyre in the south, and
Rib-Hadda of Byblos in the north. Byblos became significantly weakened as the dominant city on the Lebanese coast. Further north, the Akkar Plain rebelled and became the
kingdom of Amurru with Hittite support. The Mitanni Empire, an ally of the Egyptians, had dominated Syria but now fell apart due to the military campaigns of
Suppiluliuma I of Hatti. Tutankhamun and his general Horemheb scrambled to keep Egyptian control over southern Levant, as the Hittites became overlords in the north. The oldest testimony documenting words in the
Phoenician language of Sidon, is also from this period. The Book of Deuteronomy (3, 9) reads: "the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion". In other words:
Mount Hermon was called "Sirion", in (the Phoenician language of) Sidon.
Iron Age found in Sidon gives testimony of the
Achaemenid rule and influence. Marble, 5th century BC Sidon was one of the most important
Phoenician cities, and it may have been the oldest. From there and other ports, a great Mediterranean commercial empire was founded.
Homer praised the skill of its craftsmen in producing glass, purple dyes, and its women's skill at the art of embroidery. It was also from here that a colonising party went to found the city of
Tyre. Tyre also grew into a great city, and in subsequent years there was competition between the two, each claiming to be the metropolis ('Mother City') of
Phoenicia. During the Phoenician era, Sidon thrived on two pivotal industries: glass manufacturing and
purple dye production. The city's glass production operated on an extensive scale, while the manufacturing of purple dye held nearly equal importance. The magnitude of Sidon's purple dye production was evident through a considerable mound of discarded
Murex trunculus shells discovered near the southern harbor. In this inscription the gods
Eshmun and
Ba‘al Sidon 'Lord of Sidon' (who may or may not be the same) are mentioned as chief gods of the Sidonians. ‘Ashtart is entitled
‘Ashtart-Shem-Ba‘al, '‘Ashtart the name of the Lord', a title also found in an
Ugaritic text.
Nebuchadnezzar II subjugated the city to be part of the
Neo-Babylonian Empire. Sidon's navy played a significant role in the
Battle of Salamis in 480 BC, aligning with the Persian fleet against the Greeks. From the mid-fifth century BC onward, warships became a prominent feature on the city's coinage. At the end of the
Persian era, in 351 BC, Phoenicia was invaded by
Artaxerxes III.
Persian and Hellenistic periods of Sidon, now in the
Istanbul Archaeology Museums Like other Phoenician city-states, Sidon suffered from a succession of conquerors, first by the
Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC, ending with its occupation by
Alexander the Great in 333 BC, and the start of the
Hellenistic period of Sidon's history.
Roman period When Sidon fell under Roman domination, it continued to mint its own silver coins. The city was embellished by
Herod, king of
Judaea, By the
First Jewish–Roman War, Sidon sheltered enough
Jews that local pagans hesitated to attack them during the broader massacre of Jews in Greco-Syrian towns in 66 CE, as documented by
Josephus. showing the location of Tyre and Sidon within the Roman Empire The Romans built a theater and other major monuments in the city, and
an underground Mithraeum was discovered. In the reign of
Elagabalus, a
Roman colony was established there. The
Philogelos, a Greek-language joke book written circa the 4th century AD, features a series of jokes about Sidonians, who are stereotyped as unintelligent and literal-minded. During the
Byzantine Empire, when the
great earthquake of AD 551 destroyed most of the cities of
Phoenice, the
law school of Berytus took refuge in Sidon. The town continued quietly for the next century, until the
Muslim conquest of the Levant in 636. During the 12th century,
Benjamin of Tudela noted the presence of approximately twenty Jews, possibly Jewish families, in Sidon, which he described as a "large city." During the
Egyptian–Ottoman War, Sidon, like much of
Ottoman Syria, was occupied by the forces of
Muhammad Ali of Egypt. His ambitions were opposed by the British Empire, which backed the Ottomans. The
British Admiral
Charles Napier, commanding a mixed squadron of British, Turkish and Austrian ships, bombarded Sidon on 26 September 1840, and landed with a column. Sidon capitulated in two days, and the British went on to
Acre. This action was recalled in two Royal Navy vessels being named . The 19th century brought significant changes to the Jewish community of Sidon. By 1830, the community, comprising around twenty-five families of primarily Arabic-speaking merchants, had customs akin to those of
Judean Jews. Starting in 1850, the community witnessed growth as
Maghrebi Jews, initially settled in the
Chouf Mountains above Beirut, migrated to Sidon and
Beirut amidst escalating
Druze-
Maronite tensions and the ensuing 1860 war. With roots in mountain traditions, they introduced citrus cultivation on the outskirts of Sidon, leading to the construction of a new
synagogue in 1860 to meet the needs of the expanding community. During
World War II the city, together with the rest of Lebanon, was
captured by British forces fighting against the
Vichy French, and following the war it became a major city of independent
Lebanon. Following the
1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight,
Palestinian refugees arrived in Sidon, as in other Lebanese cities, and were settled at the large refugee camps of
Ein el-Hilweh and
Mieh Mieh. At first these consisted of enormous rows of tents, but gradually houses were constructed. The refugee camps constituted de facto neighborhoods of Sidon, but had a separate legal and political status which made them into a kind of enclaves. At the same time, the remaining Jews of the city fled, and the Jewish cemetery fell into disrepair, threatened by coastal erosion. On
Easter Sunday, 19 April 1981, at least sixteen people were killed in Sidon after the (
South Lebanon Army) SLA's long-range artillery indiscriminately shelled the city centre. It was reported that it was in response to a request from
Bashir Gemayel in connection with ongoing Syrian attacks on
Phalangist positions around
Zahle. Israel denied involvement. After the 1982 Israeli
invasion of Lebanon, Sidon was occupied by the
Israeli army for almost two and a half years. On 18 August 1997, following a roadside bomb near
Jezzine which killed two teenage members of a
SLA leader's family, SLA artillery shelled Sidon killing seven civilians and wounding thirty-five.
Hizbollah responded the following day by firing 60–80 rockets into the
security zone and northern Israel. According to
UNIFIL observers the missiles appeared to be targeted at uninhabited areas. The attack on Sidon is credited with leading to a truce between Hizbollah and
Amal and increased cooperation between the two groups and the
Lebanese Army. This was evident in the
Ansariya ambush the following month. On 8 June 1999, two gunmen entered the Palais de Justice, Sidon's main courthouse, and shot dead three magistrates and a chief prosecutor. The attackers escaped. No group claimed responsibility but suspicion focused on
Osbat al-Ansar whose leader had been sentenced to death
in absentia for the murder of the head of the
Sufi Al-Ahbash movement and the attempted assassination of the
mufti of
Tripoli. He was believed to be in hiding in the
Ain al-Hilwa refugee camp. Studies in 2000 showed a population of 65,000 in the city, and around 200,000 in the metropolitan area. The little level land around the city is used for cultivation of wheat, vegetables, and fruits, especially citrus and bananas. The fishing in the city remains active with a newly opened fishery that sells fresh fish by bidding every morning. The ancient basin was transformed into a fishing port, while a small quay was constructed to receive small commercial vessels (see "Old City" and the "Architecture and landscape" sections below).
Saida Municipal Stadium was inaugurated in 2000 for the
Asian Football Confederation's Cup 2000. ==Politics==