UGARIT'S LOCATION

The city of Ugarit lies on the northern coast of the eastern Mediterranean. The city is situated about a half mile (1 km) from the Mediterranean Sea, 6 miles north of the modern city of Latakia (ancient Greek, Laodikeia; Crusader, Port Blanc), and 150 miles north of Damascus (see Figure 1.1). The island of Cyprus lies just 50 nautical miles to the west. To the east, Ugarit was only a short distance from Alalakh. It was on the trade route from Mesopotamia up the Euphrates River from Mari, Emar, and Ebla—three well-known Late Bronze Age cities.

Natural boundaries defined the city of Ugarit. To the west, the Mediterranean Sea shaped its history as a commercial port. To the north, east, and south, Ugarit was bounded by mountains. A valley to the northeast of Ugarit (toward Alalakh and Ebla) provided an ideal gateway for commerce with the ancient kingdoms in north Syria and Mesopotamia. The ideal physical situation of Ugarit as a port on the Mediterranean and as a gateway to Mesopotamia and Asia Minor can be visualized as in Figure 1.2. Ugarit was as good a port as any of the famed Phoenician cities to the south but was much better situated as a gateway overland toward Mesopotamia. At its greatest extent, the kingdom of Ugarit extended north to Mount Zaphon, eastward to the Orontes River, and as far south as the tiny city-state of Siyannu, which became part of Ugarit's kingdom during its heyday during the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries BCE.