Tell el-Burak


Located in a lush agricultural section of southern littoral of Lebanon, Tell el-Burak has been under investigation by the American University of Beirut and the University of Tübingen since 1998.
The excavations have revealed three occupations on the tell, the latest in the Ottoman Period, the next in the Iron Age, and the earliest in the Middle Bronze Age. During this earliest stage the mound was built as part of a defensive structure serving as the base for a fortress on its top. In the Iron Age, Tell el-Burak was home to a settlement that was prosperous and peaceful, as seen in its defenseless and fine architecture. There is no apparent occupation in the intervening Late Bronze Age as the site was seemingly abandoned in favor of Sarepta, four kilometers to the south.
The tell stands prominently amidst agricultural lands on a strip of plain fronted by the Mediterranean Sea and backed by a range of hills. The plain, a well-watered zone, is home to a large agricultural area where fruit trees currently predominate. The conical purpose-built tell towers above the plain to some 19 meters and is readily visible from both land and sea. From the top of mound, Sidon can be seen to the north, and to the south rising above Ras el-Qantara, the tell of the Late Bronze Age/Phoenician city of Sarepta can be seen.
In 2004 an underwater archaeological survey was conducted in the area of the tell by the archaeologist Ralph K. Pedersen .