The exhibition focuses on the material culture of the Phoenicians, seafaring merchants who resided in cities along the coast of the Eastern Mediterranean basin, and their contribution to maritime architecture.

The exhibition hall has been designed to recreate the atmosphere of a Phoenician site: the artifacts are displayed in glass showcases mounted upon original stones found in maritime excavations; broken seashells litter the floor and calm ocean sounds fill the space. Most of the finds in the exhibit were discovered in excavations of Phoenician sites at Achziv, off the coast of Shavei Zion, Tel Akko, Tel Keisan, Tel Abu Hawam, and the Phoenician harbor at Atlit.

The Greeks gave the name 'Phoenicians' to the population of traders who lived in the seaports along the coastal strip at the foot of Mount Lebanon and to the south of it. The biblical name for those living along the northern coast was 'Sidonians.' David and Solomon recognized the superiority of the Phoenicians in maritime trade, and they maintained political and commercial ties with Hiram, King of Tyre. Diplomatic ties led to the marriage of Ahab, King of Israel, to Jezebel, daughter of Ethba'al, King of Sidon.

During the 11th and 10th centuries BCE, according to some scholars, or in the 8th century, according to others, the process of Phoenician expansion and settlement took place. It was usually accomplished by peaceful means through trade in a westward direction – first to Cyprus, then to other islands of the Mediterranean, and finally to its distant shores: North Africa, Sicily, Sardinia, Malta, and Spain – and in a southward direction to settlements along the southern shores of the Land of Israel.