Phoenician civilization

Phoenicia (UK: /fɪˈnɪʃə/ or US: /fəˈniːʃə/; from the Ancient Greek: Φοινίκη, Phoiníkē meaning either "land of palm trees" or "purple country") was a thalassocratic ancient Semitic civilization, that originated in the Eastern Mediterranean and in the west of the Fertile Crescent. It included the coastline of what is now Lebanon, Israel, Gaza, Syria, and south-west Turkey, though some of its colonies later reached the Western Mediterranean (most notably Carthage) and even the Atlantic Ocean. The civilization spread across the Mediterranean between 1500 BC and 300 BC.