 A number of ancient texts mention the Eshmun Temple and its location . The Phoenician inscriptions on the sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II , a Sidonian king , commemorate the construction of a " house " for the " holy prince " Eshmun by the king and his mother , queen Amashtart , at the " Ydll source by the cistern " . Dionysius Periegetes , an ancient Greek travel writer , identified the Eshmun temple by the Bostrenos River , and Antonin de Plaisance , a 6th @-@ century AD Italian pilgrim recorded the shrine as near the river Asclepius fluvius.Strabo and other Sidonian sources describe the sanctuary and its surrounding " sacred forests " of Asclepius , the Hellenized name of Eshmun , in written texts . 
