A major Phoenician export was reddish-purple [[dyes]] which was created from a labor-intensive process from a secretion produced by several species of predatory sea snails. It was also known as the "land of milk and honey" to the Israelites. Milk and honey were common trade goods from the Phoenicians because the mountain part of their territory wasn't taken over as often by enemies surrounding them. It couldn't support "normal" agriculture but they could raise sheep and have advanced beekeeping, so it became "the land from which milk and honey flows." Milk and honey didn't mean "wealth" to the Israelites (they weren't luxury goods or anything) it meant *safety* because the Phoenican coast was fairly safe from invaders, which the Israelites would have valued. It also probably relates to the fact that the region isn't barren agriculturally, like much of the surrounding lands. [^sourceMilkAndHoney] Phoenician trade also helped facilitate the exchange of cultures, ideas, and knowledge between major cradles of civilization such as [[Greek|Greece]], [[Egypt]], and [[Mesopotamia]]. After its zenith in the ninth century BCE, Phoenician civilization in the eastern Mediterranean slowly declined in the face of foreign influence and conquest, though its presence would remain in the central and western Mediterranean until the second century BC. [^sourceMilkAndHoney]: 2021-01-11 - [[rAskHistorians|r/AskHistorians]] thread about [the land of milk and honey](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/kuxui4/what_makes_milk_and_honey_so_special_in_abrahamic/).