BIBLOS. - One of the oldest cities of Phoenicia, called in Greek Βοῦλος, Assyrian Gubal (in the el-'Amārnah letters: Gubla), Egyptian Kbū (from the 12th dynasty onwards Kbū), Hebrew Gēbhal (Ez. 27,9), today Ġebel, situated on the Mediterranean coast, about 40 km north of Beirut. According to Philo of B., the city was dedicated by Ba'al-Kronos himself to the goddess Ba'althis (Ba'ala). B. owes its importance mainly to trade with Egypt, attested by Egyptian texts from as early as the 4th dynasty (c. 2600 B.C.), particularly active in the time of the 6th dynasty (c. 2300 B.C.): archaeological excavations at B. have uncovered gifts sent by kings Pepi I and Pepi II of this dynasty to the temples of B.
From B. various kinds of wood were exported, while Egypt imported papyrus. B. thus became the center of the trade in this material, and for this reason the Greeks called the book written on papyrus Βοῦλος or Βιβλος. These commercial relations, interrupted for almost four centuries, were later resumed under the 12th dynasty (c. 2005-1788 B.C.); indeed for a time the city seems to have been subject to an Egyptian governor, whose tomb has been discovered in the royal necropolis not far from the sea. Again suspended during the Hyksos period (c. 1750-1580 B.C.), trade flourished briefly under the powerful 18th dynasty (1580-1350 B.C.). But in the first half of the 14th century the city was taken by the Ḥabiru, and from then on dependence on Egypt seems to have almost ceased, except during the time of Ramses II (1292-1226 B.C.). The statues of Sheshonk I (945-924 B.C.) and Osorkon I (924-895 B.C.), discovered in excavations, nevertheless prove that commercial relations were still maintained.
Later, made tributary to the Assyrians under Tiglath-Pileser III (745-727 B.C.), B. passed in the 6th century to the Persians, in the 4th to the Seleucids, and, "liberated" under Pompey, from then on formed part of the Roman Empire. After Constantine it became the seat of a bishop. Passing under Muslim rule in the 7th century, during the Crusades it enjoyed a brief Christian revival (episcopal see, cathedral of St. John), only to pass definitively into the hands of the Muslims. Today Gebel is a village of about 1,500 inhabitants, seat of a bishop, patriarchal vicar of the Maronite patriarch.
The Old Testament mentions B. only three times: Josh. 13, 5 (doubtful text) as the northern boundary of the Promised Land; in 1 Kings 5, 18, the Gebalites appear as workers (carpenters and masons) in the construction of Solomon's temple; in Ezek. 27, 9, the elders and experts of B. are said to be the repairers of the leaks in the ship of Tyre.
B. was first of all famous for its pagan cults. The proper deity of B. was Ba'alath Gebhal ("Lady of Gebhal," Egyptian nbt kbnj, Akkadian bêlit šu gubla), of which a large temple (or two temples?) has been discovered.
Ba'alat was also venerated in Egypt, where she was identified with the goddess Hathor. In an inscription of the 13th century B.C. King Yachimlik of B. invokes the protection of "Ba'alâmêm and of Ba'al of B. and of all the holy gods of B." Ba'alâmêm is probably the 'Eljôn mentioned by Philo of B.; of the Ba'al of B. no other information is available; he seems to have been of secondary rank, inferior to the goddess Ba'alat. B. was also, as Lucian recounts (De dea Syria, 6-8), a center of the cult of Adonis (v.), who was said to have been killed by a boar in the same territory of B.
Archaeological excavations carried out by P. Montet (1921-1924) and by Dunand (from 1925 onwards) have brought to light, in addition to the above-mentioned temple, 9 royal tombs of B., belonging partly to the temple of the 12th dynasty (19th and 18th centuries B.C.), partly to subsequent centuries; the most recent is that of Ahiram, of the 13th century (according to others, of the end of the 12th), important for the inscription on the sarcophagus.