The Phoenicians were from the eastern Mediterranean coast, mainly in what is now Lebanon and parts of coastal Syria and northern Israel, often called the Levant.

Core answer

  • The historical region of Phoenicia was a narrow coastal strip along the eastern Mediterranean, centered on cities like Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, and later Carthage as a colony.
  • Culturally and linguistically, the Phoenicians emerged from the local Bronze Age Canaanite population, so ancient authors and the Phoenicians themselves often referred to their land simply as “Canaan.”

Mini background

  • “Phoenician” is actually a Greek nickname (an exonym), not what these people originally called themselves; it was later applied to the maritime trading cities along that Levantine coast.
  • Genetic and archaeological studies support that they were long-established in this Levant region rather than recent migrants, even though some ancient Greek writers speculated they came from areas around the Red Sea or Persian Gulf.

Quick forum-style takeaway

When people ask “where were the Phoenicians from,” the short, historically grounded answer is:
They were seafaring Canaanites from the Levantine coast, basically today’s Lebanon plus nearby bits of Syria and Israel, who later spread their trading colonies all over the Mediterranean.

TL;DR: The Phoenicians were originally from the Levantine coast of the eastern Mediterranean—roughly modern Lebanon and adjacent coastal Syria/Israel—not from Greece, Rome, or North Africa (Carthage was a later Phoenician colony).

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