"”'‘LESTINE 
places, while even the fields are very stony. Along. the coast olives, 
tobacco, and oranges are s7nwn and exported, the last-mentioned notably 
[rom Jaffa * while s+1' ;n the slopes of the Lebanon range, 
and wheat 1m en; ‘>r. The chief occupations are, 
however, pastora. 
On account of the plateau and mountains, communication between 
the coast and interior is difficult; but there is a railway from Jaffa to 
Jerusalem, and another from the port of Beirut to Damascus. Damascus 
stands at the western edge of the desert, in an oasis watered by the Abana 
or Barada, the valley of which defines a convenient route eastwards across 
Anti-Lebanon. To reach Beirut by this route it is necessary to Cross 
the Lebanon Mountains ; but the ancient city of Sidon could be reached 
by going south of these mountains, while the route from Damascus to 
Tyre lay south of both Mount Hermon and Mount Lebanon. 
In early historic times, when the Assyrians and Babylonians who 
inhabited Mesopotamia were, like the Egyptians, very highly civilized, 
there was a good deal of trade carried on between them and the Egyptians 
along these routes, and then by sea ; for the breadth of the desert in the 
south hindered direct communication by land. The Phoenicians, who 
then dwelt along the seaboard in the north, were thus able to profit by 
their intermediate position, and, having plenty of timber on the slopes 
of Lebanon with which to build boats, became a great maritime nation, 
and acquired a prosperity which only declined with the decay of the States 
between which they dwelt. 
The narrowness of the seaboard in Phceenicia, and the isolation of the 
fertile areas owing to the spurs of the mountain ranges behind, which jut 
out into the sea in places, fostered the rise of separate city communities, 
and also favoured the emigration of the increasing surplus population. 
The two most noted Phoeenician cities were Tyre and Sidon, the former 
being situated on a small island that has since become joined to the main- 
land by marine deposits, and the latter on a promontory. Both could 
be easily defended, and possessed good harbours for those times. In 
the selection of the sites of their colonies the Phosnicians kept in mind 
the importance of natural advantages. One of their most famous settle- 
ments was at Carthage, which had a good hinterland, and was situated 
on a little peninsula on the North African coast, so that it possessed a 
double harbour. Fishing was an important industry with the Pheenicians, 
and two kinds of shellfish which they obtained yielded a beautiful purple