By JUDITH H. DOBRZYNSKI

Sidon, a port city about 25 miles south of Beirut whose rich history dates to 4000 B.C., was among the most successful of the Phoenician city-states. In the fourth century B.C., it fell to Alexander the Great, entering a Hellenistic age that lasted for more than 100 years until the Romans took over. It changed hands several more times before becoming part of the Ottoman Empire in the 17th century.

So it is not surprising that when, in the mid-1800s, archaeologists started exploring Sidon, they found treasures. The French turned up (among other things) a sarcophagus that belonged to a Phoenician king named Eshmunazar II and sent it back to the Louvre. Later, a Turk named Osman Hamdi Bey, who had studied in Paris, became director of the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul and began leading his own excavations in Sidon. In 1887, his team hit upon more than two dozen sarcophagi. Many were stunning, including the Sarcophagus of Mourning Women, which shows 18 comely, elegant females in varying expressions of grief; it’s now in the Istanbul ­museum.

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• Martine Andraos waves to the audience after being crowned Miss Lebanon 2009 during the beauty pageant held at the studios of Lebanese television company LBC in Jouniyeh, north of Beirut June 26, 2009. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir (LEBANON ENTERTAINMENT)

  Reuters via Yahoo! News – Jun 26 11:15 AM

    127 deputies convened on Thursday 25-2009 at Nejmeh Square at 10.00am and re-elected MP Nabih Berri for a fifth (4-year-term) as parliament speaker by 90 votes out of 127. MP Farid Mkari was also re-elected Deputy Speaker for a second term. 13 political blocs and 11 independent MPs — took part in the […]

The Lebanese side of the Lebanese-Syrian committee tasked with following up issue of missing and detainees in Syria has received a list of 23 Lebanese who were recently freed from Syrian jails, An Nahar daily reported Tuesday. The newspaper said that the Syrian side handed over the names of the 23 whose names were on […]