Temple of the Obelisks

Temple of the Obelisks

Temple of the Obeliques, Lebanon.
Temple of the Obelisks Shown within Lebanon
Location	Byblos
Coordinates	34°07′08″N 35°38′50″E / 34.11889°N 35.64722°E / 34.11889; 35.64722
Site notes
Excavation dates	1922

The Temple of the Obelisks (French: Temple aux Obelisques, Arabic: معبد الأنصاب maebad al'ansab), also known as the L-shaped Temple and Temple of Resheph^[1] was an important Bronze Age temple structure in the World Heritage Site of Byblos.^[2] It is considered "perhaps the most spectacular" of the ancient structures of Byblos.^[3] It is the best preserved building in the Byblos archaeological site.^[4]

Almost all of the artefacts found in the excavation of the temple are displayed at the National Museum of Beirut.^[3] It was excavated by French archaeologist Maurice Dunand from 1924-73. The original temple is now in two parts: the base is known as "the L-shaped temple", and the top is known as the "Temple of the Obelisks"; the latter was moved 40 meters east during Maurice Dunand's excavations.^[2]

Dunand uncovered 1306 Byblos figurines – ex-voto offerings, including faience figurines, weapons, and dozens of bronze-with-gold-leaf figurines – which have become the "poster child" of the Lebanese Tourism Ministry.^[5]

Description

Base: L Shaped Temple

The L Shaped Temple

The L-shaped Temple was constructed around 2600 BCE,^[6] two centuries after the construction of the Temple of Baalat Gebal (approximately 100m to the west) had been built.^[6] It was named the "L-shaped" temple by Dunand, as its two rooms and the courtyard were arranged in such a shape.^[6]

The temple had well built walls and temples, in contrast to the later Obelisk temple.^[2] It is thought that the L-shaped temple was burned down at the end of the Early Bronze Age.^[7]

Top: Obelisk Temple

The Obelisk Temple

The Temple of the Obelisks was constructed around 1600 BCE ^{[citation needed]} on top of the L-shaped temple, retaining its general outline.^[2] The temple's name, given by Dunand, refers to a number of obelisks and standing stones located in a court around the cella.^[7] Since it had been built on top of the L-shaped temple, it was necessary for Dunand to dismantle and move this upper temple in order to excavate the structure underneath.^[2]

In contrast to the L-shaped temple, the Obelisk temple was built with irregular walls. Among the significant discoveries within the temple was that of the Abishemu Obelisk, a limestone obelisk created around 1800 BCE commemorating the Phoenician king Abishemu I of Byblos. Written in Egyptian hieroglyphs, it includes an inscription which scholars have identified as a dedication to Heryshaf, whose appearance here tied to a Canaanite context is widely interpreted—though debated^[7]—as the Egyptian syncretic form of the Canaanite war god, Resheph.^[8][9]

Modern identification and excavation

The temple was first identified by Dunand.^[10][7] The majority of the obelisks found were underground in their original positions, standing upright, while a few others were discovered buried in a favissa (a well for votive deposits).^[7]

• 
  1959 view of the temple base and top
• 
  Montet's 1924 diagram of the Byblos archaeological site
• 
  Montet's 1924 diagram of the Byblos temples
• 
  The Byblos figurines
• 
  The Abishemu obelisk

References

1. Kilani 2019, p. 57a...based on a disputed translation of the Abishemu obelisk
2. Boda 1994, p. 146.
3. Michaelides 2001, p. 21.
4. Kilani 2019, p. 57.
5. Steiner, Margreet L.; Killebrew, Ann E. (2014). The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant: C. 8000-332 BCE. OUP Oxford. pp. 465–. ISBN 978-0-19-921297-2.
6. Bryce 2009, p. 138.
7. Kilani 2019, p. 57-58.
8. Kilani 2019, p. 57-59.
9. Ruins, Byblos. "Byblos Ruins". Byblos Ruins. Retrieved 2025-07-08.
10. Dunand 1937.

Sources

• Boda, Sharon La (1994). International Dictionary of Historic Places: Middle East and Africa. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-884964-03-9.
• Bryce, Trevor (10 September 2009). The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the Fall of the Persian Empire. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-15908-6.
• Kilani, Marwan (24 October 2019). Byblos in the Late Bronze Age: Interactions Between the Levantine and Egyptian Worlds. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-41659-8.
• Michaelides, Demetrios (2001), Report on Mission to Byblos (Lebanon), International Council on Monuments and Sites

Archaeological reports

• Dunand, Maurice (1937). Fouilles de Byblos: Atlas : 1926-1932. P. Geuthner.

Further reading

• Finkbeiner, Uwe [in German] (1981). Untersuchungen zur Stratigraphie des Obeliskentempels in Byblos: Versuch einer methodischen Auswertung. G. Mann.
• Miniaci, Gianluca. Deposit f (Nos. 15121–15567) in the Obelisk Temple at Byblos: Artefact Mobility in the Middle Bronze Age I–II (1850–1650 BC) between Egypt and the Levant, Aegypten und Levante 28, 379-408.
• Sala, Maura (2008). "Temple En L A Biblo" (PDF). Vicino Oriente. Vol. XIV. pp. 61–87.

External links

• Media related to Temple of the Obelisks at Wikimedia Commons