Sidon, << SYD uhn, >> was an important manufacturing and port city in ancient Phoenicia. The present-day town of Sayda, Lebanon, occupies its site. Sidon was famous for its purple-dye and blown-glass industries. However, it was usually overshadowed by the Phoenician city of Tyre (now Sur, Lebanon), which was its chief commercial rival. Sidon enjoyed a brief period of supremacy and independent prosperity after Babylonia, which controlled Phoenicia for a time, crushed a revolt in Tyre in 573 B.C.
