Byblos, assumed birthplace of the Phoenician alphabet, is located in which country?

Nestled in a cove on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea, Byblos is a small city of 40,000 inhabitants located 42 km (26 miles) north of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.

Historically, Byblos has been synonymous with the spread of the written word by sea-faring traders during the Phoenician period. This distinction, as well as an exceptionally long and diverse succession of civilizations, led the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to designate Byblos as a World Heritage site in 1984.

Byblos is now known to be one of the world's most ancient continuously inhabited cities. The earliest artifacts unearthed in Byblos are dated at around 8800 BC, when the site was a prehistoric fishing settlement. Structural ruins found in Byblos include Bronze Age temples, Persian fortifications, Roman roads, Byzantine churches, a Crusade citadel, as well as Medieval and Ottoman buildings.

The origins of the Phoenician alphabet. which evolved into the contemporary Modern Roman alphabet, were also discovered in Byblos, including a Phoenician carved inscription dating from about 1000 BC.

Modern-day Byblos is also known under its Arabic name, Jbeil, which stems from the pre-Phoenician name, Gubla or Gebal which appear in Phaoronic, Akkadian and Hebraic writings.