The temple derives its modern name from the numerous obelisks and votive stelae that once filled its courtyard—upright stone monuments often inscribed or dedicated to local deities, particularly the god Resheph. The complex is among the clearest material expressions of Byblos’ religious and intercultural life during its period of Egyptian contact and internal consolidation.

The temple was unearthed in the 1920s and 1930s during the extensive excavations led by Pierre Montet and later Maurice Dunand, whose stratigraphic work in Byblos formed the foundation of the site’s Bronze Age chronology. Archaeological evidence indicates that the Temple of the Obelisks was erected around the turn of the 2nd millennium BCE, during the Middle Bronze I–II period, when Byblos had become a thriving maritime city-state engaged in trade with ancient Egypt and the interior Levant. Built atop the ruins of the older L-shaped Temple (circa 2600–2000 BCE), the new sanctuary retained its predecessor’s sacred orientation but introduced a distinct layout marked by the inclusion of obelisks and votive offerings, signaling a fusion of Egyptian and local Levantine religious iconography.

Inscriptions and finds suggest that the principal deity venerated in the temple was Resheph, a Canaanite god of plague and war often syncretized with Egyptian deities such as Montu or Seth. The temple’s extensive assemblage of bronze figurines, stone stelae, and ex-votos—many bearing hieroglyphic inscriptions or Egyptianized motifs—testifies to the close diplomatic and commercial relationship between Byblos and Egypt during the 12th and 13th Dynasties. Yet, despite its Egyptian stylistic influences, the sanctuary’s cultic structure and votive practices remain distinctly local, preserving the character of Byblos as an autonomous coastal polity that selectively appropriated foreign symbols to express its own divine and political legitimacy.

circa 2600-2400 BCE

The Temple of the Obelisks is notable for its complex superimposed design and ceremonial arrangement. The underlying L-shaped Temple, first constructed in the Early Bronze Age, was partly dismantled and repurposed when the later temple was built. The newer sanctuary consisted of a rectangular cella oriented roughly north–south, with a large open courtyard paved in beaten earth and gravel. Within this courtyard stood dozens of limestone obelisks of varying sizes, some inscribed or carved with reliefs, arranged in apparent ritual order around central altars and offering tables. Many of the obelisks bore dedicatory symbols such as the ankh or representations of deities, reflecting a syncretic fusion of Egyptian religious imagery with local Canaanite worship practices.

To the west of the main sanctuary stood subsidiary chapels and storage rooms, likely used for the deposition of votive offerings. The structure was built of rough local limestone, with doorways framed in well-dressed stone blocks and plastered walls. Beneath the temple lay a subterranean favissa—a ritual pit where hundreds of offerings, including bronze figurines, weapons, and miniature obelisks, were deposited as part of periodic renewal or purification rites. This underground repository is one of the most significant finds from the site, revealing extensive cultic activity over multiple centuries.

The temple was eventually destroyed around 1600 BCE, possibly during one of the widespread regional upheavals marking the end of the Middle Bronze Age. It was never rebuilt, though later Iron Age structures were established elsewhere in Byblos. The Temple of the Obelisks remains a key example of Levantine sacred architecture during the Bronze Age, illustrating how Byblos—situated between the Egyptian and Mesopotamian spheres—developed a distinctive religious identity through architectural form and votive practice rather than monumental scale. Its discovery not only clarified the religious stratigraphy of Byblos but also provided one of the earliest known examples of monumental obelisks outside Egypt, adapted into a Canaanite ritual context.