Sidon

Sidon, Saida in Arabic, was one of the great Phoenician cities and is still a working port with a medieval core rather than a preserved one. The sea castle stands on a small island connected by a causeway, built by the Crusaders in the 1220s on the site of a temple of Melqart and patched together over the centuries with reused Roman columns visible in the walls. Behind the harbour the old souks run under stone vaults, and the Khan al-Franj, a seventeenth-century caravanserai, houses a soap museum in the trade the city was known for. The historic centre is on Lebanon's tentative list, not yet inscribed.

History

The Phoenician name Ṣīdūn probably meant "fishery" or "fishing town". As a Roman colony the city was renamed Colonia Aurelia Pia Sidon, and the Crusaders knew it as Sagittus, or Saete in Old French (Wikipedia, Sidon).

Highlights

• The sea castle - a thirteenth-century Crusader fort on an islet, reached by causeway.
• The vaulted souks - covered market lanes running back from the harbour.
• The soap museum - olive oil soap making in a restored Ottoman workshop.
• Khan al-Franj - a seventeenth-century caravanserai with a colonnaded courtyard.

When to go

March to May and September to November are the most comfortable. Summer is hot and humid on the coast. The souks are busiest and most interesting in the morning.

What to expect

The old town is lived in and parts are run down; this is not a restored heritage quarter. The castle interior is bare and takes twenty minutes. Traffic and parking near the harbour are difficult.

Nearby

The Temple of Eshmun is a few kilometres inland, and Maghdouche is in the hills above.

Key facts