Phoenicia (/fəˈnɪʃə/;^[5] from Ancient Greek: Φοινίκη, Phoiníkē) was an ancient Semitic-speaking thalassocratic civilization that originated in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, specifically modern Lebanon.^[6][7] It was concentrated along the coast of Lebanon and included some coastal areas of Syria and northern Palestine reaching as far north as Arwad and as far south as Acre and possibly Gaza.^[8][9][10] At its height between 1500 and 300 BC, Phoenician civilization spread across the Mediterranean, from Cyprus to the Iberian Peninsula.

The term Phoenicia is an exonym originating from ancient Greek that most likely described Tyrian purple, a major export of Canaanite port towns; it did not correspond precisely to Phoenician culture or society as it would have been understood natively.^[11] Scholars thus debate whether the Phoenicians were actually a distinct civilization from the Canaanites and other residents of the Levant.^[12][13]

The Phoenicians came to prominence following the collapse of most major cultures during the Late Bronze Age. They were renowned in antiquity as adept merchants, expert seafarers, and intrepid explorers. They developed an expansive maritime trade network that lasted over a millennium, becoming the dominant commercial power for much of classical antiquity. Phoenician trade also helped facilitate the exchange of cultures, ideas, and knowledge between major cradles of civilization such as Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. After its zenith in the ninth century BC, Phoenician civilization in the eastern Mediterranean slowly declined in the face of foreign influence and conquest, though its presence would remain in the central and western Mediterranean until the second century BC.

Phoenician civilization was organized in city-states, similar to those of ancient Greece, of which the most notable were Tyre, Sidon, Arwad, Berytus, Byblos, and Carthage.^[14][15] Each city-state was politically independent, and there is no evidence the Phoenicians viewed themselves as a single nationality.^[16] The Carthaginians, who descended from a Phoenician settlement in northwest Africa, emerged as major civilization in their own right in the seventh century BC. Their multi-ethnic empire, which maintained a strong Phoenician identity, spanned the western Mediterranean and challenged the Roman Republic. The destruction of Carthage by Rome at the conclusion of the Third Punic War in 146 BC marked the end of the last major, independent Phoenician state.

Long considered a lost civilization due to the lack of indigenous written records, academic and archaeological developments since the mid-20th century have revealed the Phoenicians to be a complex and influential civilization.^[17] Their best known legacy is the world's oldest verified alphabet, which they transmitted across the Mediterranean world.^[18][19] The Phoenician alphabet formed the basis of the Greek alphabet, which in turn was adopted for the Latin script, the world's dominant writing system. The Phoenicians are also credited with innovations in shipbuilding, navigation, industry, agriculture, and government. Their international trade network is believed to have fostered the economic, political, and cultural foundations of Western civilization.^[20]