Editing Beirut (section)

===Phoenician period===
{{main|Phoenician port of Beirut}}
The [[Phoenician port of Beirut]] was located between Rue Foch and Rue Allenby on the north coast. The port or [[harbor|harbour]] was excavated and reported on several years ago and now lies buried under the city.<ref name="Jidejian1973">{{cite book |author=Nina Jidejian |title=Beirut through the ages |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t29tAAAAMAAJ |year=1973 |publisher=Dar el-Machreq distribution: Librairie orientale}}</ref> Another suggested port or dry dock was claimed to have been discovered around {{convert|1|km|abbr=off}} to the west in 2011 by a team of Lebanese [[archaeologist]]s from the [[Directorate General of Antiquities]] of [[Lebanese University]]. Controversy arose on 26 June 2012 when authorization was given by Lebanese [[Minister of Culture]] [[Gaby Layoun]] for a private company called Venus Towers Real Estate Development Company to destroy the ruins (archaeological site BEY194) in the $500&nbsp;million construction project of three skyscrapers and a garden behind Hotel Monroe in downtown Beirut. Two later reports by an international committee of archaeologists appointed by Layoun, including Hanz Curver, and an expert report by Ralph Pederson, a member of the institute of Nautical Archaeology and now teaching in [[University of Marburg|Marburg]], Germany, dismissed the claims that the trenches were a port, on various criteria. The exact function of site BEY194 may never be known, and the issue raised heated emotions and led to increased coverage on the subject of Lebanese heritage in the press.<ref name="star2">{{cite journal |url=http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Jun-25/178036-phoenician-port-in-beirut-faces-mega-project.ashx#axzz1zwmIpaYS |title=Phoenician Port in Beirut faces Mega Project |journal=The Daily Star |access-date=25 August 2016 |archive-date=29 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180929184610/http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Jun-25/178036-phoenician-port-in-beirut-faces-mega-project.ashx#axzz1zwmIpaYS }}</ref><ref>Ralph K. Pederson, Archaeological Assessment Report on the Venus Towers Site (BEY 194), Beirut – For the Venus Towers Real Estate Development Company, Philipps-Universität Marburg, 30 May – 3 June 2012.</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Jun-29/178652-archaeological-report-razed-ruins-not-phoenician-port.ashx#axzz1zwmIpaYS |title=Justin Salhani, Archaeological report: Razed ruins not Phoenician port |work=The Daily Star |location=Lebanon |date=29 June 2012 |access-date=8 July 2012 |archive-date=23 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181123154233/http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Jun-29/178652-archaeological-report-razed-ruins-not-phoenician-port.ashx#axzz1zwmIpaYS }}</ref>