From Adlun continue to
Kharayeb, 26 km south of Sidon. It is located on a hill left
of the Sidon-Tyre road. The Directorate General of Antiquities
excavations in 1946 uncovered there one of the most important
settlements of South Lebanon. An almost square (11m x 12.6m)
building, a temple of the goddess Astrate-Isis, was excavated.
Above the door, a relief representing a sun disc surrounded by
two uraei was found. Inside the building, were three offering
tables or altars. The most spectacular find was the huge
collection of clay figurines representing the fertility
goddess naked and holding a lotus flower. Figurines of the
Egyptian god Bes who accompanies the pregnant goddess, or dea
gravida, and of the god Thot represented as an ape, have also
been found. The temple was rebuilt in the Hellenistic period
and became a rectangular (11m x 17m) monument, inside which a
second collection of clay figurines was found. Among these are
figurines of the goddess Demeter, of musicians and of various
animals, like the horse and the bull. The site continued to be
occupied in the Roman period as attested by coins bearing the
name of Tyre and dating to the second century A.D. (1122 and
115 A.D.).
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