Souk al-Tawileh (‘al-Tawileh’ meaning long in Arabic) is the central north-south street of the Souks district; it once led all the way to the harbor. 1994 excavations in Beirut revealed that the street’s origins dated back to the Phoenico-Persian period. In 1874, the Ottoman urbanization plan of Beirut turned Souk al-Tawileh into a modern commercial street.