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GEOFFREY MORGAN/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

ASTARTE’S THRONE. With sphinxes carved on its sides, this throne—attributed to the goddess Astarte—sits in a chapel in the Temple of Eshmun (about a mile northeast of Sidon in modern Lebanon). Stone lions rest at the throne’s base. Dedicated to Eshmun, the Phoenician god of healing, the temple was built during the reign of Eshmunazar II, king of Sidon, in the late sixth or early fifth century B.C.E. (during the Persian period). The above chapel, featuring a paved pool as well as Astarte’s throne, was added in the fourth century B.C.E. during a temple expansion in the Hellenistic period.