JOURNEY TO NOSTOS

The Pillars of Heracles - The Coastal Hellenic World

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Modular One-Week Road Tours

Slow. Deliberate. Coastal.
Each week stands alone. Each week can also lead into the next.

Week 13 — Down the Levant

Where the Hellenic world becomes one voice among many

Route
Samandağ → Latakia → Tartus → Byblos → Sidon

Endpoint locked: Sidon (Saida)

7 days • 3 bases • shared-shore week • exchange over dominance

At a glance

Bases
Latakia (2) • Tartus (2) • Byblos (3)

Hellenic anchors

Ugarit (region) • Arwad (Arados) • Byblos • Sidon

How to use this week

Begin here, or arrive from Cilicia.
This week is not linear history but overlap.
Move slowly. Let layers coexist.

Prologue — The Shared Shore

Along this coast, no single culture speaks alone.

Greek harbours sit beside Phoenician ports.
Writing, trade, and ritual circulate freely.
The Hellenic world does not vanish here—it learns to listen.

This is the Mediterranean at its most honest:
a shoreline shaped by exchange, not purity.

Route logic

Short coastal hops • repeated bases • minimal inland detours • harbours approached on foot

Day by day

Day 1 — Samandağ → Latakia

Overnight: Latakia

Focus
Entering the Levantine cadence.

Hellenic layer
The coast here reads as continuous labour—ports, quays, repair, return.

Do one thing properly
Harbour walk only.
Evening arrival.

Day 2 — Latakia (and hinterland glance)

Overnight: Latakia

Focus
Older voices beneath Greek form.

Hellenic layer
Ugarit’s legacy reminds us that writing, myth, and cosmology predate Greek arrival.

Do one thing properly
Museum or site focus only.
No second stop.

Day 3 — Latakia → Tartus

Overnight: Tartus

Focus
Island-facing coast.

Hellenic layer
Arwad (Arados) shows maritime continuity—Phoenician seafaring with Hellenic overlay.

Do one thing properly
Sea-edge orientation.
Short walk.
Stop.

Day 4 — Tartus

Overnight: Tartus

Focus
Working port, lived city.

Hellenic layer
Here, Greek presence is practical rather than monumental—harbour logic over architecture.

Do one thing properly
Morning port walk.
Afternoon rest.

Day 5 — Tartus → Byblos

Overnight: Byblos

Focus
The deep city.

Hellenic layer
Byblos bridges Phoenician writing, Egyptian trade, and Greek reception.

Do one thing properly
Arrive early.
Walk the harbour and ruins once.

Day 6 — Byblos

Overnight: Byblos

Focus
Staying with depth.

Hellenic layer
Greek contact here adapts rather than replaces—alphabet, ritual, exchange.

Do one thing properly
Repeat a walk at a different hour.

Day 7 — Byblos → Sidon (Saida)

Overnight: Sidon

Focus
Closing the descent.

Hellenic layer
Sidon anchors the eastern reach of this journey—a city older than most stories told about it.

Do one thing properly
Arrive before dusk.
Sea-edge walk only.

Navigation

← Previous Week — Cilicia to the Levantine Hinge
Next Week → Return West
Back to The Levant — Weeks 13–14

Optional: the long-form read

The manuscript expands this week into a meditation on writing, trade, and cultural humility—where the Hellenic world learns endurance through listening. (Paid)