PHOENICIA was an ancient civilization centered in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal plains of what is now Lebanon. Phoenician civilization was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean during the first millennium BC, between the periods of 1200 BC to 900 BC.
Legend has it that Aschmoun, was a young Phoenician man who loved to hunt. The goddess Astarte fell in love with him, but to escape her advances he mutilated himself and died. Not to be outdone, Astarte brought him back to life in the form of a God. North-Western Semitic God, known primarily as a God of healing, Aschmoun’s death and resurrection gave him the role of a fertility God who dies and is reborn annually.
Each Phoenician city-state had its own Gods, and Aschmoun was one of the favorites of Sidon. During the Persian era, Sidon was the first Phoenician city to be noted for the opulence of its kings, the advanced culture of its intelligentsia and the excellent reputation of its industry, where The Phoenician Temple built the eighth century B.C. and was dedicated to the healing God Aschmoun who was identified with Asclepius, the Greek God of Medical Art. It is from belief in the healing power of Aschmoun-Asclepius and the snake that we get the sign of the medical profession that is now used worldwide.
Phoenicia was an early example of a world-economy surrounded by empires. Authority seems to have stabilized because it derived from three power-bases: the king; the temple and its priests; and councils of elders. The collection of city-kingdoms constituting Phoenicia came to be characterized by outsiders and the Phoenicians themselves as one Phoenician conquest came to prominence after another.
The Phoenicians formed the major naval and trading power and the trade routes converged on the Phoenician coast as well, enabling the Phoenicians to govern trade between the East and the West.
In the Bible, King Hiram I of Tyre is mentioned as co-operating with Solomon on building the Temple which is considered to be built according to Phoenician design, and its description is considered the best description of what a Phoenician temple looked like.
"I am sending you a man of great skill, whose mother was from Dan and whose father was from Tyre. He is trained to work in gold and silver, bronze and iron, stone and wood and with purple, blue and crimson yarn and fine linen. He is experienced in all kinds of engraving and can execute any design given to him. He will work with your craftsmen and with those of my lord, David your father."
This is the architect of the Temple, Hiram Abbey of Masonic Lore.
FROM THE TEMPLE, THE PHOENICIANS CONQUER THE WORLD OF TRAVEL, TRADE AND CONSTRUCTION.