Sidon

Sidon. The name means a fishery. A town in Palestine on the Mediterranean coast, about 25 miles north of Tyre. It received its name from the "first-born" of Canaan, the grandson of Noah (Gen. 10:15, 19). It was the first home of the Phoenicians on the coast of Palestine, and from its extensive commercial relations became a "great" city. It was the mother city of Tyre. It lay within the lot of the tribe of Asher. From the time of David its glory began to wane, and Tyre rose to its place of pre-eminence. Solomon entered into a matrimonial alliance with the Sidonians.

This city was famous for its manufactures and arts, as well as for its commerce.

Jesus visited the "coasts" of Tyre and Sidon and from this region many came forth to hear him preaching. From Sidon, at which the ship put in after leaving Caesarea, Paul finally sailed for Rome.

In 1900 it was a town of 10,000 inhabitants, with remains of walls built in the twelfth century A.D. In 1855, the sarcophagus of Eshmanezer was discovered. From a Phoenician inscription on its lid, it appears that he was a "king of the Sidonians," probably in the third century B.C., and that his mother was a priestess of Ashtoreth, "the goddess of the Sidonians." In this inscription Baal is mentioned as the chief god of the Sidonians.

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Initial text from Easton's Bible Dictionary, 1897 -- Please update as needed