The inventors of the alphabet

Phoenicia, located in today's Lebanon, consisted of several city states, of which Arados was one of the most important. The Phoenicians were the leading naval and economic power in the 1st millennium BC. The development of a new writing system was their greatest accomplishment. It was the prototype for almost all known writing systems. When Tyre, the biggest Phoenician trade center, was captured and destroyed by Alexander the Great in 332 BC, Phoenicia lost its outstanding importance.