Pussy el-Beida

Pussy el Beida (" the port blanc" in Arab) is an archeological site of the recent Bronze Age (second half of the 2nd millenium), located in Syria, near the current city of Lattaquié. It corresponds to the old city of Mahadou , the port of the kingdom of Ougarit, therefore the capital (the current site of Short-nap cloth Shamra) was located at less than one kilometer towards the interior of the grounds.

This site was discovered by local farmers, who reflect up to date in 1928 a tomb with room of the final Bronze Age. This discovery fell into the ears from the French authorities (Syria being then under mandate from this country), and the following year, a mission directed by Claude Schaeffer and Georges Chenet invested the site. They were not long in realizing of the greattest importance of the Tel. neighbor of Short-nap cloth Shamra, and Pussy el Beida passed in the second plan. After war, the installation of a naval base in the vicinity prevented the continuation of excavations.

Mahadou was the port of the capital city of the kingdom of Ougarit, whose commercial vocation was highlighted by the files which were discovered there. That thus conferred on Mahadou a great importance: only notable port between Byblos with the south and the Cilicie in north, it acted of a major maritime outlet for the trade of the interior of the grounds, very animated because of the proximity of the axis of penetration consisted by the Euphrate more in the east, and the importance of the internal communications on the Raising of the 2nd millenium. The sailors of Mahadou carried out forwardings on a ray of more than 600 km around the port. Main port of a kingdom very turned towards the sea, Mahadou has without any doubt be of great importance for this one, and even beyond, with the international level, so much the town of Ougarit was cosmopolitan and saw forwarding products of various horizons.

After the fall of the kingdom of Ougarit under the blows of the People of the Sea towards the beginning of the 12th century, Mahadou probably knows a phase of decline even of abandonment. But it is repopulated towards the beginning of the 5th century, and during the hellenistic time, as attest it Greek Céramique S that one found there. Its name was then Leukos Limen, “Port white”, therefore the origin of the current name of the site.

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