In ancient times what was Canaan?

Canaan was the name of a large and prosperous ancient country (at times independent, at others a tributary to Egypt) located in the Levant region of present-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Israel. It was also known as Phoenicia. The origin of the name 'Canaan' for the land comes from various ancient texts (among them the Bible) and there is no scholarly consensus on precisely where the name originated nor what it meant. According to the Bible, the land was named after a man called Canaan, the grandson of Noah (Genesis 10).