Names of the Levant attributed to the region's easterly location on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The ancient Egyptians called the Levant "Reṯenu". Ancient Egyptian texts (c. 14th century BCE) called the entire coastal area along the Mediterranean Sea between modern Egypt and Turkey "rṯnw" (conventionally "Reṯenu"). Reṯenu was subdivided into four regions: "Kharu" ("ḥꜣ-rw"), North Syria, "Amurru", South Syria (the land of the biblical Amorites), "Rmnn", Lebanon, "Ysriar" ("ysrỉꜣr"), Israel, and "Ḏahy" ("ḏꜣhy";"Ṯahi", "Ḏahi"), the region of Palestine (comprising the southern and central Levant—west of the Jordan River and south of Lebanon—and all the kingdoms, territories, tribes, etc., that existed within that
Geology of Lebanon deposits, often housed in Oligocene and Miocene deposits. Deposition has continued since the Cretaceous, with periods of tectonic contraction, including one that is still slowly ongoing, resulting in the erosion of the Palmyride fold belt in Syria. The oldest exposed rocks in Lebanon date to the early Jurassic. Although the basement geology of the area remains poorly studied, geologically similar locations are known from deep drilling in Syria, Israel and Jordan. In those areas (inferred to be nearly the same in Lebanon), the Paleozoic is marked by thick siliclastic deposits, while Mesozoic and Cenozoic rocks are typically carbonates or evaporates.