Royal Necropolis of Byblos

The royal necropolis of Byblos is a group of nine Bronze Age underground shaft and chamber tombs housing the sarcophagi of several kings of the city [1]. On 16 February 1922, heavy rains triggered a landslide in the seaside cliff of Jbeil, exposing an underground tomb containing a massive stone sarcophagus [1]. Intensive digs were carried out around the site of the tomb by the French Egyptologist Pierre Montet, who unearthed eight additional shaft and chamber tombs [1]. Each of the tombs consisted of a vertical shaft connected to a horizontal burial chamber at its bottom [1]. Montet categorized the graves into two groups [1]. The graves of the second group were all robbed in antiquity but the artifacts indicate that some of the tombs were used into the Late Bronze Age (16th to 11th centuries BC) [1].