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

_______________________________ 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

_____________________________ 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

___________________________ 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