But the tree which is the glory of Phoenicia, and which was by far
the most valuable of all its vegetable productions, is, of course, the
cedar. Growing to an immense height, and attaining an enormous girth,
it spreads abroad its huge flat branches hither and thither, covering a
vast space of ground with its "shadowing shroud,"[226] and presenting
a most majestic and magnificent appearance. Its timber may not be of
first-rate quality, and there is some question whether it was really
used for the masts of their ships by the Phoenicians,[227] but as
building material it was beyond a doubt most highly prized, answering
sufficiently for all the purposes required by architectural art, and
at the same time delighting the sense of smell by its aromatic odour.
Solomon employed it both for the Temple and for his own house;[228] the
Assyrian kings cut it and carried it to Nineveh;[229] Herod the Great
used it for the vast additions that he made to Zerubbabel's temple;[230]
it was exported to Egypt and Asia Minor; the Ephesian Greeks constructed
of cedar, probably of cedar from Lebanon, the roof of their famous
temple of Diana.[231] At present the wealth of Lebanon in cedars is not
great, but the four hundred which form the grove near the source of the
Kadisha, and the many scattered cedar woods in other places, are to
be viewed as remnants of one great primeval forest, which originally
covered all the upper slopes on the western side, and was composed, if
not exclusively, at any rate predominantly, of cedars.[232] Cultivation,
the need of fuel, and the wants of builders, have robbed the mountain
of its primitive bright green vest, and left it either bare rock or
terraced garden; but in the early times of Phoenicia, the true Lebanon
cedar must undoubtedly have been its chief forest tree, and have stood
to it as the pine to the Swiss Alps and the chestnut to the mountains of
North Italy.