The Temple of Eshmun is an ancient place of worship dedicated to
Eshmun, the Phoenician god of healing. Located near the Awali river,
2 kilometres (1.2 mi) northeast of Sidon in southwestern Lebanon, the
site was occupied from the 7th century BCE to the 8th century CE.
Originally constructed by Sidonian king Eshmunazar II in the Achaemenid
era (<abbr title="circa">c.</abbr> 529–333 BCE) to celebrate the
city's
recovered wealth and stature, the temple complex was greatly expanded
by Bodashtart, Yatan-milk and later monarchs. The sanctuary consists of
an esplanade and a grand court limited by a huge limestone terrace wall
that supports a monumental podium which was once topped by Eshmun's
Graeco-Persian style marble temple. The Eshmun Temple declined and fell
into oblivion as paganism was overrun by Christianity and its large
limestone blocks were used to build later structures. The temple site
was rediscovered in 1900 by local treasure hunters who stirred the
curiosity of international scholars. Maurice Dunand, a French
archaeologist, thoroughly excavated the site from 1963 until the
beginning of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975. After the end of the
hostilities and the retreat of Israel from South Lebanon, the site was
rehabilitated and inscribed to the World Heritage Site tentative list.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Eshmun>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
661:
With the assassination of Ali, the fourth Sunni Rashidun Caliph and
first Shia Imam, the Rashidun Caliphate, the first Arab caliphate
founded after Muhammad's death in 632, effectively ended.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali>
1343:
Pope Clement VI issued the papal bull Unigenitus to justify the power
of the pope and the use of indulgences.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Clement_VI>
1909:
The Young Liberals of Norway, the youth league of the Norwegian
political party Venstre was founded, today advocating a more liberal
version of the mother party's social liberalist ideology.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Liberals_of_Norway>
1967:
The Apollo 1 spacecraft was destroyed by fire at the Kennedy Space
Center in Florida, U.S., killing astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White
and Roger Chaffee.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1>
1996:
Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara deposed Mahamane Ousmane, the first
democratically elected president of Niger, in a military coup d'état.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim_Bar%C3%A9_Ma%C3%AFnassara>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
dubitation (n):
1. The process of doubting or the state of being in doubt; hesitation,
uncertainty.
2. A pang or expression of doubt
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dubitation>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Twas brillig and the slithy toves,
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the
mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son,
the jaws that bite and claws that
scratch
Beware the jubjub bird
and shun the frumious bandersnatch."
--Lewis Carroll
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lewis_Carroll>