Helbon

Helbon was a Damascus-region city famous in antiquity for the quality of its wine, named in Ezekiel's great catalog of Tyre's merchant trade partners: "Damascus was thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making, for the multitude of all riches; in the wine of Helbon, and white wool" (Ezekiel 27:18). The site is identified with modern Halbun about 20 km north of Damascus, where Greek and Roman writers (Strabo, Athenaeus) also celebrated the wine; Persian kings reportedly drank only Helbon wine. The town's fame as a vineyard centre lasted from the Iron Age through late antiquity.