Phoenician ruins uncovered under Sidon building

Phoenician ruins, including what are believed to be sarcophagi, have been uncovered inside an historic tunnel on the site of the government hospital in Sidon while digging for the expansion of the complex were underway.

Employees at the Directorate of General Antiquities sealed off the area and closed the entrance of the two-meter-high by one-meter-wide tunnel with a metal cover as workers continued to unearth ruins and discover antiquities.

The officials refused to brief the media on their discoveries and banned journalists from taking pictures. But a worker on the site who requested anonymity said the tunnel is believed to be ten meters long and its walls and ceiling are said to be covered with old stones.

"I went inside with some members of the directorate to a depth of ten meters, and saw huge rectangular stones which I believed are sarcophagi," the worker said. "We left quickly as we feared the roof would not hold, because of the many holes in the ceiling," he added.

Mohammed Al Rawass, an expert in antiquities, said he believed the ruins belonged to the Phoenician period and may be related to other ruins discovered in Sidon in the 1960s, representing the Phoenician God Tabloun.