ancient Phoenician port (modern Jebeil, Lebanon) from which Egyptian papyrus was exported to Greece. The name probably is a Greek corruption of Phoenician Gebhal, said to mean literally "frontier town" or "mountain town" (compare Hebrew gebhul "frontier, boundary," Arabic jabal, Canaanite gubla "mountain"), which is perhaps a folk-etymology of the older Phoenician name, which might contain El "god." The Greek name also might have been influenced by, or come from, an Egyptian word for "papyrus."