Twenty kilometers south of Sidon you reach the town of Adlun, the southernmost city of Sidonian territory. The modern place name Adlun derives from the Latin toponym, Mutatio ad Nonum, mentioned in the Bordeaux Itinerary and said to be located 18 kilometers north of Tyre.
    Like Sarafand, the ancient settlement lies under the ruins of Tell Ras Abu Zayd on the seashore, while the modern village is built on the neighboring  hills.

    The ancient name of Adlun remains a debated question. It may be the Marubbu of the annals of Esarhaddon and this name survives in the modern toponym of near-by al Maarib. In the classical period, the site was called Ornithonpolis.

The Prehistoric Caves of Adlun.
    Adlun is one of the most famous prehistoric sites of Lebanon. A rock shelter, a deposit, as well as two caves were identified in Adlun as early as the 19th century.
The excavation of one of the caves, the so-called Mgharet al Bzez, yielded remains of human occupation from the Palaeolithic down to the Neolithic period. The cave entrance is now closed with an iron gate to protect it and is not open to the public.
    A second cave yielded remains of the Chalcolithic period. On the terraces overlooking the caves and the modern village, a Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlement was found.

The Necropolis of Adlun
    All western travellers have mentioned the large number of rock-cut tombs on the hills opposite the seashore. It is  unfortunate that these cemeteries have never been properly excavated and not even systematically surveyed.
    Most of them were robbed in antiquity. The tombs date to the first millennium B.C., from the Iron Age to the late Roman-Byzantine period. The oldest tombs have a shaft while the later ones are simple rock cavities and share the same plan: an entrance, a door leading to a square funerary chamber with loculi on three of its walls.