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= The Secret of Monkey Island =
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The Secret of Monkey Island is a 1990 point @-@ and @-@ click graphic adventure game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games . It takes place in a fantastic version of the Caribbean during the age of piracy . The player assumes the role of Guybrush Threepwood , a young man who dreams of becoming a pirate and explores fictional islands while solving puzzles .
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The game was conceived in 1988 by Lucasfilm employee Ron Gilbert , who designed it with Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman . Gilbert 's frustrations with contemporary adventure titles led him to make the player character 's death almost impossible , which meant that gameplay focused the game on exploration . The atmosphere was based on that of the Pirates of the Caribbean theme park ride . The Secret of Monkey Island was the fifth game built with the SCUMM engine , which was heavily modified to include a more user @-@ friendly interface .
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Critics praised The Secret of Monkey Island for its humor , audiovisuals , and gameplay . The game spawned a number of sequels , collectively known as the Monkey Island series . Gilbert , Schafer and Grossman also led the development of the sequel Monkey Island 2 : LeChuck 's Revenge . LucasArts released a remake of the original in 2009 , which was also well received by the gaming press .
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= = Gameplay = =
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The Secret of Monkey Island is a 2D adventure game played from a third @-@ person perspective . Via a point @-@ and @-@ click interface , the player guides protagonist Guybrush Threepwood through the game 's world and interacts with the environment by selecting from twelve verb commands ( nine in newer versions ) such as " talk to " for communicating with characters and " pick up " for collecting items between commands and the world 's objects in order to successfully solve puzzles and thus progress in the game . While conversing with other characters , the player may choose between topics for discussion that are listed in a dialog tree ; the game is one of the first to incorporate such a system . The in @-@ game action is frequently interrupted by cutscenes . Like other LucasArts adventure games , The Secret of Monkey Island features a design philosophy that makes the player character 's death nearly impossible ( Guybrush does drown if he stays underwater for more than ten minutes ) .
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= = Plot = =
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A youth named Guybrush Threepwood arrives on the fictional Mêlée IslandTM , with the desire to become a pirate . He seeks out the island 's pirate leaders , who set him three trials that must be completed to become a pirate : winning a sword duel against Carla , the island 's resident swordmaster , finding a buried treasure , and stealing a valuable idol from the governor 's mansion . These quests take Guybrush throughout the island , where he hears of stories of the Ghost Pirate LeChuck , who apparently died in an expedition to the mysterious Monkey IslandTM , an act that was meant to win the love of the governor Elaine Marley . Guybrush meets several characters of interest , including a local voodoo priestess , Stan the Used Boat Salesman , Carla the Sword Master , a prisoner named Otis , and Meathook , whose hands have been replaced by hooks .
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Guybrush also encounters the governor and is instantly smitten , and she soon reciprocates . However , as he completes the tasks set for him , the island is raided by LeChuck and his undead crew , who abduct Elaine and then retreat to their secret hideout on Monkey IslandTM . Guybrush takes it upon himself to rescue her , buying a ship and hiring Carla , Otis , and Meathook as crew before setting sail for the fabled island . When Guybrush reaches Monkey Island , he discovers a village of cannibals in a dispute with Herman Toothrot , a ragged castaway marooned there . He settles their quarrel , and then recovers a magical " voodoo root " from LeChuck 's ship for the cannibals , who provide him with a seltzer bottle of " voodoo root elixir " that can destroy ghosts .
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When Guybrush returns to LeChuck 's ship with the elixir , he learns that LeChuck has returned to Mêlée IslandTM to marry Elaine at the church . He promptly returns to Mêlée IslandTM and gatecrashes the wedding , only to ruin Elaine 's own plan for escape ; in the process he loses the elixir . Now confronted with a furious LeChuck , Guybrush is savagely beaten by the ghost pirate in a fight ranging across the island . The fight eventually arrives at the island 's ship emporium , where Guybrush finds a bottle of root beer . Substituting the beverage for the lost elixir , he sprays LeChuck , destroying the ghost pirate . With LeChuck defeated , Guybrush and Elaine enjoy a romantic moment , watching fireworks caused by LeChuck exploding .
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= = Development = =
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= = = Origin and writing = = =
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Ron Gilbert conceived the idea of a pirate adventure game in 1988 , after completing Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders . He first wrote story ideas about pirates while spending the weekend at a friend 's house . Gilbert experimented with introductory paragraphs to find a satisfactory idea . His initial story featured unnamed villains that would eventually become LeChuck and Elaine ; Guybrush was absent at this point . He pitched it to Lucasfilm Games 's staff as a series of short stories . Gilbert 's idea was warmly received , but production was postponed because Lucasfilm Games assigned its designers , including Gilbert , to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade : The Graphic Adventure . Development of The Last Crusade was finished in 1989 , which allowed Gilbert to begin production of The Secret of Monkey Island , then known internally under the working title Mutiny on Monkey Island .
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Gilbert soon realised that it would be difficult to design the game by himself ; he decided to join forces with Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman , both of whom he hired for Lucasfilm . The game 's insult sword fighting mechanics were influenced by swashbuckling movies starring Errol Flynn , which Gilbert , Schafer and Grossman often watched for inspiration . They noticed that pirates in those films often taunted their opponents instead of attacking them , which gave the designers the idea to base the game 's duels on insults rather than combat . Writer Orson Scott Card helped them write the insults during a visit to Lucasfilm 's headquarters at Skywalker Ranch . Many of Gilbert 's original gameplay ideas were abandoned during the production process , although he stated that " most of that stuff was left out for a reason " .
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The game 's plot , as described by Dave Grossman : “ It ’ s a story about this young man who comes to an island in search of his life ’ s dream . He ’ s pursuing his career goals and he discovers love in the process and winds up thinking that was actually more important than what he was doing to begin with . You ’ re laughing , but there ’ s actually something deeper going on as well . ” When work on the plot began , Gilbert discovered that Schafer 's and Grossman 's writing styles were too different to form a cohesive whole : Grossman 's was " very kind of a dry , sarcastic humor " and Schafer 's was " just a little more in your face " . In reaction , Gilbert assigned them to different characters and story moments depending on what type of comedy was required . Grossman believed that this benefited the game 's writing , as he and Schafer " were all funny in slightly different ways , and it worked well together " . Schafer and Grossman wrote most of the dialogue while they were programming the game ; as a result , much of it was improvised . Some of the dialogue was based on the designers ' personal experiences , such as Guybrush 's line " I had a feeling in hell there would be mushrooms " , which came from Schafer 's own hatred of fungi .
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The game 's world and characters were designed primarily by Gilbert . After having read Tim Powers ' historical fantasy novel On Stranger Tides , he decided to add paranormal themes to the game 's plot . He also cited Powers ' book as an influence on the characters , particularly those of Guybrush and LeChuck . Inspiration for the game 's ambiance came from Gilbert 's favorite childhood amusement park ride , Pirates of the Caribbean . Grossman said that Gilbert always wanted " to step off the ride " and " talk to the people who lived in that world " . Near the final stages of the design work , Gilbert introduced several characters who were not directly related to the game 's story . He considered this to be an important decision , as the player would need those seemingly minor characters in later parts of the game and would receive a chance to " really interact with them " .
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= = = Creative and technical design = = =
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Gilbert , Schafer and Grossman 's primary goal was to create a simpler and more accessible gameplay model than those presented in previous Lucasfilm titles . Gilbert had conceived the main designs and puzzles before production began , which resulted in the bulk of the designers ' work to flesh out his ideas . He was frustrated by the adventure games that Sierra On @-@ Line was releasing at the time , and later said that " you died any time you did anything wrong " . Gilbert considered such gameplay as " a cheap way out for the designer " . He had previously applied his design ideas to the 1987 graphic adventure title Maniac Mansion , but committed a number of mistakes during development , such as dead @-@ end situations that prevented the player from completing the game and poorly implemented triggers for cutscenes . Gilbert aimed to avoid such errors in The Secret of Monkey Island . The team decided to make it impossible for the player character to die , which focused gameplay primarily on world exploration . The Sierra game @-@ over screen was parodied , when Guybrush falls off a cliff only to be bounced back up by a " rubber tree " .
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The Secret of Monkey Island was the fifth Lucasfilm Games project powered by the SCUMM engine , originally developed for Maniac Mansion . The company had gradually modified the engine since its creation . For Maniac Mansion , the developers hard coded verb commands in the SCUMM scripting language . These commands become more abstract in subsequent versions of the engine . The developers carried over the practice of referring to individual segments of the gameworld as " rooms " , even though the areas in Monkey Island were outdoors . The game uses the same version of the engine used in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade , with minor changes . A dialog tree was added , which facilitated conversation options and the sword @-@ fighting puzzles . The developers removed the " What is " option ( an input command that describes an on @-@ screen object to the player ) in favor of allowing the player to simply highlight the object with the mouse cursor . The game 's improved interface became the standard for the company 's later titles . The game also introduced logical verb shortcuts , which could be performed with the mouse ; for example , clicking on a character defaults to the " talk " action , the most obvious action in the situation . SCUMM 's visuals were updated for the game — the original EGA version had a 320x200 pixel resolution rendered in 16 colors . According to artist Steve Purcell , that became a major limitation for the art team ; due to a low number of " ghastly " colors , they often chose bizarre tones for backgrounds . They chose black and white for Guybrush 's outfit for the same reason . The VGA version of the game later corrected these issues by implementing 256 color support , which allowed for more advanced background and character art . The VGA ( and other platform releases ) removed the infamous " stump joke " from the game , which was a joke in the EGA version in which the player would examine a tree stump in the forest . Guybrush would exclaim that there is an opening to a system of catacombs and attempt to enter , but this would result in a message stating the player needed to insert disc 22 , then 36 , then 114 in order to continue . The joke resulted in numerous calls to the LucasArts hotline asking about missing discs . As a result , the joke was removed from later editions and is a mentioned as a conversation option for the LucasArts Hint Hotline in the sequel .
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The game 's " pirate reggae " music was composed by Lucasfilm Games ' in @-@ house musician Michael Land in MIDI format . It was his first project at the company . The game was originally released for floppy disk in 1990 , but a CD @-@ ROM version with a high @-@ quality CD soundtrack followed in 1992 . The music has remained popular , and has been remixed by the musicians of OverClocked ReMix and by the game 's fans .
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= = = Special edition = = =
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LucasArts released a remake with updated audiovisuals titled The Secret of Monkey Island : Special Edition in July 2009 for iPhone , Microsoft Windows , and Xbox 360 exclusively via digital distribution . PlayStation 3 , Mac OS and iPad versions followed early in 2010 for download on their respective services . LucasArts confirmed the game 's development on June 1 , 2009 ; rumors appeared several days earlier when the Xbox 360 version of the game received an USK rating . The game was first displayed to the public at the 2009 E3 in June . The remake features hand @-@ drawn visuals with more detail , a remastered musical score , voice work for characters , and a hint system . The developers included the function to switch between 2009 and original audiovisuals at will . The voice actors included Dominic Armato as Guybrush Threepwood and Earl Boen as LeChuck ; most had provided voice work in sequels to The Secret of Monkey Island .
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LucasArts 's game producer Craig Derrick and his team conceived the idea of the remake in 2008 . After researching the Monkey Island series ' history , they decided to make " something fresh and new while staying true to the original " , which resulted in the idea of The Secret of Monkey Island 's remake . The developers tried to leave much of the original design unchanged . Any changes were intended to achieve the level of immersion desired for the original . To that end , they added details like a pirate ship or pirates talking in the background of scenes . While the team considered the SCUMM interface revolutionary at the time , LucasArts community manager Brooks Brown noted that it is incompatible with an analog stick , which most consoles use . The designers made the cursor contextual to the game objects as the primary interface . Brown had considered updating the reference to advertise Star Wars : The Force Unleashed because Loom was not on the market at the time , but concluded that the game would not be the same if such changes were implemented . Prior to the Special Edition release , however , LucasArts announced that Loom , along with other games from its back catalog , would be made available on Steam . Brown stated that the decision to distribute the game online was because " digital downloads have finally gotten going " .
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= = Reception = =
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The Secret of Monkey Island sold well and received positive reviews from critics . Hartley , Patricia , and Kirk Lesser of Dragon praised the designers ' attention to detail , and cited the game 's humor as a high point . Although they believed that the game was too expensive , they summarized it as " a highly enjoyable graphic adventure replete with interesting puzzles , a fantastic Roland soundtrack , superb VGA graphics , smooth @-@ scrolling animation , and some of the funniest lines ever seen on your computer screen . " Duncan MacDonald of Zero praised the graphics and found the game " quite amusing " . His favorite aspect was the fine @-@ tuned difficulty level , which he believed was " just right " . He ended his review , " At last an adventure game that 's enjoyable rather than frustrating . " Paul Glancey of Computer and Video Games consider the game superior to Lucasfilm 's earlier adventure titles , and wrote that , " Usually the entertainment you get from an adventure is derived solely from solving puzzles , but the hilarious characters and situations , and the movie @-@ like presentation ... make playing this more like taking part in a comedy film , so it 's much more enjoyable . " He considered the puzzles to be " brilliantly conceived " and found the game 's controls accessible . He summarized it as " utterly enthralling " .
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ACE 's Steve Cooke also found the controls convenient , and he praised the game 's atmosphere . He wrote that , " in graphics and sound terms ... Monkey Island , along with King 's Quest V , is currently at the head of the pack . " However , he disliked the designers ' running joke of placing " TM " after character and place names , which he thought detracted from the atmosphere . He singled out the game 's writing , characters and plot structure as its best elements . Amiga Power 's Mark Ramshaw wrote , " With The Secret of Monkey Island , the mouse @-@ controlled , graphic @-@ adventure comes of age . " He lauded its comedic elements , which he believed were the highlight of the game . The reviewer also praised the control scheme , noting that it allows the player to " more or less forget about the specifics of what [ they are ] physically doing ... and lose [ themselves ] in the adventure instead . " He noted that the game 's plot and visual and aural presentation fit together to create a thick atmosphere , and finished , " Forget all those other milestone adventures ( Zork , The Hobbit , Lord of the Rings et al ) — for sheer enjoyment and general all @-@ round perfection , The Secret of Monkey Island creams ' em all in style . " The game , along with its sequel , was ranked the 19th best game of all time by Amiga Power .
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Writing for The One , Paul Presley stated that " Lucasfilm appears to have taken all of the elements that worked in its previous releases and , not only incorporated them into this tale of scurvy swashbuckling , but even improved on them in the process ! " Like the other reviewers , he praised its controls . He also lauded its " hilarious storyline , strong characters and ... intriguing setting " , but complained about graphical slowdowns . Nick Clarkson of Amiga Computing cited the game 's graphics as " flawless " , noting that " the characters are superbly animated and the backdrops simply ooze atmosphere . " He highly praised its sound effects and music , and believed that its controls " couldn 't be simpler " . The staff of Amiga Action wrote that the " attention to detail and the finely tuned gameplay cannot be faulted . " They called the graphics " stunning throughout " , and believed that , when they were combined with the " excellent Caribbean tunes " , the result is a game filled with " character and atmosphere . " They ended by stating that " there is absolutely no excuse for not owning this game . "
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The Secret of Monkey Island has featured regularly in lists of " top " games , such as Computer Gaming World 's Hall of Fame and IGN 's Video Game Hall of Fame . In 1996 , Computer Gaming World ranked it as the 19th best game of all time , " writing " Who could ever forget the insult @-@ driven duel system or the identity of the mysterious Swordmaster ? " . In 2004 , readers of Retro Gamer voted it as the 33rd top retro game . In 2010 , IGN ranked the Xbox Live Arcade version as the 20th best title of all time for that platform . In 2009 , IGN named The Secret of Monkey Island one of the ten best LucasArts adventure games .
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= = = Special edition = = =
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Like the original release , The Secret of Monkey Island : Special Edition received positive reviews from critics . Sean Ely of GamePro praised its updated audio , and said that the new graphics " blow the old clunker visuals ... out of the water " . He cited its script , humor , plot , puzzles and balanced difficulty level as high points , and finished , " The Secret of Monkey Island : Special Edition is impressive , hilarious and downright worth your money . " Daemon Hatfield of IGN wrote , " Almost 20 years after its release , [ The Secret of Monkey Island ] remains a blast to play . " He called the new graphics " slick , if a little generic " , and noted that the " original graphics have a certain charm to them that the fancy pants new visuals just don 't . " However , he enjoyed the redone music , the new hint function , and the added sound effects and voice acting . He summarized it as " one of the best times you 'll ever have pointing and clicking " , and noted that " few games are this funny . " Justin Calvert of GameSpot noted that " the Special Edition looks much better and is the only way to play if you want to hear ... what characters are saying , whereas the original game 's interface is less clunky . " However , he wrote that " the voice work is such a great addition to the game that it 's difficult to go back to the original edition . " He praised its humor , writing , puzzles and characters , and he believed that it had aged well . Eurogamer 's Dan Whitehead wrote , " Purists like me will almost certainly find something to grumble about over the span of the game , but the overall impact of the redesign is undeniably for the better . " However , he preferred the original game 's Guybrush design , and believed that the new control system was " rather less intuitive " than the old one . He finished by stating that " few games can stand the test of time with such confidence " .
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= = Legacy = =
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The Secret of Monkey Island spawned four sequels . The first , Monkey Island 2 : LeChuck 's Revenge , was released in 1991 and focuses on LeChuck 's return . Six years later , LucasArts released The Curse of Monkey Island , which features a new visual design . In 2000 , the company released Escape from Monkey Island , which uses the GrimE engine of Grim Fandango to produce 3D graphics . The next title , Tales of Monkey Island released in 2009 , is a series of five episodic chapters .
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Elements of the game have appeared elsewhere in popular culture . The original version was selected as one of five for the exhibition The Art of Video Games in the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 2011 . A fictive drink recipe in the game for grog was mistakenly reported as real in 2009 by Argentinian news channel C5N , which urged adolescents against consuming the dangerous " Grog XD " drink . In Tales of Monkey Island , Guybrush refers to this news story while pushing the Grog XD button on a Grog machine .
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= Temple of Eshmun =
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The Temple of Eshmun ( Arabic : معبد أشمون ) is an ancient place of worship dedicated to Eshmun , the Phoenician god of healing . It is located near the Awali river , 2 kilometres ( 1 @.@ 2 mi ) northeast of Sidon in southwestern Lebanon . The site was occupied from the 7th century BC to the 8th century AD , suggesting an integrated relationship with the nearby city of Sidon . Although originally constructed by Sidonian king Eshmunazar II in the Achaemenid era ( c . 529 – 333 BC ) to celebrate the city 's recovered wealth and stature , the temple complex was greatly expanded by Bodashtart , Yatan @-@ milk and later monarchs . Because the continued expansion spanned many centuries of alternating independence and foreign hegemony , the sanctuary features a wealth of different architectural and decorative styles and influences .
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The sanctuary consists of an esplanade and a grand court limited by a huge limestone terrace wall that supports a monumental podium which was once topped by Eshmun 's Graeco @-@ Persian style marble temple . The sanctuary features a series of ritual ablution basins fed by canals channeling water from the Asclepius river ( modern Awali ) and from the sacred " Ydll " spring ; these installations were used for therapeutic and purificatory purposes that characterize the cult of Eshmun . The sanctuary site has yielded many artifacts of value , especially those inscribed with Phoenician texts , providing valuable insight into the site 's history and that of ancient Sidon .
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The Eshmun Temple was improved during the early Roman Empire with a colonnade street , but declined after earthquakes and fell into oblivion as Christianity replaced paganism and its large limestone blocks were used to build later structures . The temple site was rediscovered in 1900 by local treasure hunters who stirred the curiosity of international scholars . Maurice Dunand , a French archaeologist , thoroughly excavated the site from 1963 until the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975 . After the end of the hostilities and the retreat of Israel from Southern Lebanon , the site was rehabilitated and inscribed to the World Heritage Site tentative list .
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= = Eshmun = =
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Eshmun was the Phoenician god of healing and renewal of life ; he was one of the most important divinities of the Phoenician pantheon and the main male divinity of Sidon . Originally a nature divinity , and a god of spring vegetation , Eshmun was equated to Babylonian deity Tammuz . His role later expanded within the Phoenician pantheon , and he gained celestial and cosmic attributes .
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The myth of Eshmun was related by the sixth century Syrian Neoplatonist philosopher Damascius and ninth century Patriarch of Constantinople , Photius . They recount that Eshmun , a young man from Beirut , was hunting in the woods when Astarte saw him and was stricken by his beauty . She harassed him with her amorous pursuit until he emasculated himself with an axe and died . The grieving goddess revived Eshmun and transported him to the heavens where she made him into a god of heaven .
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From a historical perspective , the first written mention of Eshmun goes back to 754 BC , the date of the signing of the treaty between Assyrian king Ashur @-@ nirari V and Mati 'el , king of Arpad ; Eshmun figures in the text as a patron of the treaty .
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Eshmun was identified with Asclepius as a result of the Hellenic influence over Phoenicia ; the earliest evidence of this equation is given by coins from Amrit and Acre from the third century BC . This fact is exemplified by the Hellenized names of the Awali river which was dubbed Asclepius fluvius , and the Eshmun Temple 's surrounding groves , known as the groves of Asclepius .
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= = History = =
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= = = Historical background = = =
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In the 9th century BC , the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II conquered the Lebanon mountain range and its coastal cities . The new sovereigns exacted tribute from Sidon , along with every other Phoenician city . These payments stimulated Sidon 's search for new means of provisioning and furthered Phoenician emigration and expansion , which peaked in the 8th century BC . When Assyrian king Sargon II died in 705 BC , the Sidonian king Luli joined with the Egyptians and Judah in an unsuccessful rebellion against Assyrian rule , but was forced to flee to Kition ( modern Larnaca in Cyprus ) with the arrival of the Assyrian army headed by Sennacherib , Sargon II 's son and successor . Sennacherib instated Ittobaal on the throne of Sidon and reimposed the annual tribute . When Abdi @-@ Milkutti ascended to Sidon 's throne in 680 BC , he also rebelled against the Assyrians . In response , the Assyrian king Esarhaddon laid siege to the city . Abdi @-@ Milkutti was captured and beheaded in 677 BC after a three @-@ year siege , while his city was destroyed and renamed Kar @-@ Ashur @-@ aha @-@ iddina ( the harbor of Esarhaddon ) . Sidon was stripped of its territory , which was awarded to Baal I , the king of rival Tyre and loyal vassal to Esarhaddon . Baal I and Esarhaddon signed a treaty in 675 in which Eshmun 's name features as one of the deities invoked as guarantors of the covenant .
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= = = Construction = = =
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Sidon returned to its former level of prosperity while Tyre was besieged for 13 years ( 586 – 573 BC ) by the Chaldean king Nebuchadnezzar II . Nevertheless , the Sidonian king was still held in exile at the court of Babylon . Sidon reclaimed its former standing as Phoenicia 's chief city in the Achaemenid Empire ( c.529 – 333 BC ) . During this period , Xerxes I awarded king Eshmunazar II with the Sharon plain for employing Sidon 's fleet in his service during the Greco @-@ Persian Wars .
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Eshmunazar II displayed his new @-@ found wealth by constructing numerous temples to Sidonian divinities . Inscriptions found on the king 's sarcophagus reveal that he and his mother , Amashtarte , built temples to the gods of Sidon , including the Temple of Eshmun by the " Ydll source near the cistern " .
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As two series of inscriptions on the foundations of the monumental podium attest , construction of the sanctuary 's podium did not begin until the reign of King Bodashtart . The first set of inscriptions bears the name of Bodashtart alone , while the second contains his name and that of the crown prince Yatan @-@ milk . A Phoenician inscription , located 3 kilometres ( 1 @.@ 9 mi ) upstream from the temple , that dates to the 14th year of Bodashtart 's reign , alludes to water adduction works from the Awali river to the " Ydll " source that was used for ritual purification at the temple .
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= = = Roman era & Decline = = =
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The Eshmun sanctuary was damaged by an earthquake in the fourth century BC , which demolished the marble temple atop the podium ; this structure was not rebuilt but many chapels and temples were later annexed at the base of the podium .
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The temple site remained a place of pilgrimage in the classical antiquity during the early Roman Empire and until the advent of Christianity , when the cult of Eshmun was banned and a Christian church was built at the temple site across the Roman street from the podium . Remnants and mosaic floors of a Byzantine church can still be seen on the site .
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A Roman colonnade was built in the third century , probably by emperor Septimius Severus , and a Roman Villa showed a period of renewed relative importance for the city during the late period of Phoenicia under Roman rule . Furthermore , within the original Phoenician temple site the Romans added the processional stairway , the basins for ablutions and a nymphaeum with pictorial mosaics , that are still largely intact . Worn statuettes of three nymphs stand in the niches of a Roman fountain .
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Another earthquake hit Sidon around 570 AD ; Antoninus of Piacenza , an Italian Christian pilgrim , described the city as partly in ruins . For many years after the disappearance of the cult of Eshmun , the sanctuary site was used as a quarry : Emir Fakhr @-@ al @-@ Din II , for example , used its massive blocks to build a bridge over the Awali river in the 17th century .
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The site later fell into oblivion until the XIX century
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= = = Modern discovery = = =
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Between 1737 and 1742 , Richard Pococke , an English anthropologist , toured the Middle East and wrote of what he thought were ruins of defensive walls built with 3 @.@ 7 @-@ metre ( 12 ft ) stone blocks near the Awali river . When the French orientalist Ernest Renan visited the area in 1860 , he noticed that the Awali bridge abutments were built of finely rusticated blocks that originated from an earlier structure . He also noted in his report , Mission de Phénicie , that a local treasure hunter told him of a large edifice near the Awali bridge .
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In 1900 , local clandestine treasure hunters digging at the Eshmun Temple site haphazardly discovered inscriptions carved onto the temple 's walls . This discovery stirred the interest of Theodore Macridy , curator of the Museum of Constantinople , who cleared the temple remains between 1901 and 1903 . Wilhelm Von Landau also excavated the site between 1903 and 1904 . In 1920 , Gaston Contenau headed a team of archaeologists who surveyed the temple complex . The first extensive archaeological excavation revealing the Eshmun Temple remains was undertaken by Maurice Dunand between 1963 and 1975 . Archaeological evidence shows that the site was occupied from the seventh century BC to the eighth century AD .
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= = = After 1975 = = =
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During the Lebanese Civil War and the Israeli occupation of South Lebanon ( 1985 – 2000 ) , the temple site was neglected and was invaded by vegetation overgrowth ; it was cleared and recovered its former condition after the Israeli withdrawal . Today the Eshmun sanctuary can be visited all year round and free of charge , it is accessible from an exit ramp off the main Southern Lebanon highway near Sidon 's northern entrance . The site holds a particular archaeological importance since it is the best preserved Phoenician site in Lebanon ; it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List 's Cultural category on July 1 , 1996 .
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In literature , the temple of Eshmun figures in Nabil Saleh 's 2009 novel , The Curse of Ezekiel as the setting where Bomilcar falls in love and rescues princess Chiboulet from the evil design of one of the temple 's priests .
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= = Location = =
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