Tyre is a city in Lebanon, and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It was one of the earliest Phoenician metropolises and the legendary birthplace of Europa, her brothers Cadmus and Phoenix, and Carthage's founder Dido (Elissa). The city has many ancient sites, including the Tyre Hippodrome, and was added as a whole to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1984. The historian Ernest Renan described it as "a city of ruins, built out of ruins".
Tyre is the fifth-largest city in Lebanon after Beirut, Tripoli, Sidon, and Baalbek. It is the capital of the Tyre District in the South Governorate. There were approximately 200,000 inhabitants in the Tyre urban area in 2016, including many refugees, as the city hosts three of the twelve Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon: Burj El Shimali, El Buss, and Rashidieh.
Territory
Tyre juts out from the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and is located about 80 km (50 mi) south of Beirut. It originally consisted of two distinct urban centres: Tyre itself, which was on an island just 500 to 700 metres offshore; and the associated settlement of Ushu on the adjacent mainland, later called Palaetyrus (Greek: Παλαίτυρος), meaning "Old Tyre" in Ancient Greek. The fortified city was on top of a rock from which its name was inherited, as S'r is the Phoenician word for "rock". It had two ports, the "Sidonian port" to the north, still partly existing today, and the "Egyptian port" to the south which very recently has perhaps been discovered.
From prehistoric times onwards, all settlements in the Tyre area profited from the abundance of fresh water supplies, especially from the nearby springs of Rashidieh and Ras Al Ain in the South. In addition, there are the springs of Al Bagbog and Ain Ebreen in the North as well as the Litani River, also known as Alqasymieh. The present city of Tyre covers a large part of the original island and has expanded onto and covers most of the causeway built by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE. This isthmus increased greatly in width over the centuries because of extensive silt depositions on either side. The part of the original island not covered by the modern city of Tyre is mostly of an archaeological site showcasing remains of the city from ancient times.
Four municipalities contribute to Tyre city's 16.7-square-kilometre (6+7⁄16 sq mi) built-up area, though none are included in their entirety: Sour municipality contains the heart of the city, excluding the Natural and Coastal Reserve; Burj El Shimali to the East without unpopulated agricultural lands; Abbasiyet Sour to the North without agricultural lands and a dislocated village; and Ain Baal to the South-East, also without agricultural lands and dislocated villages. Tyre's urban area lies on a fertile coastal plain, which explains the fact that as of 2017 about 44% of its territory was used for intra-urban agriculture, while built-up land constituted over 40%.
In terms of geomorphology and seismicity, Tyre is close to the Roum Fault and the Yammouneh Fault. Though it has suffered a number of devastating earthquakes over the millennia, the threat level is considered to be low in most places and moderate in a few others. However, a tsunami following an earthquake and subsequent landslides and floods pose major natural risks to the Tyrian population.
Vast reserves of natural gas are estimated to lie beneath Lebanese waters, much of it off Tyre's coast, but exploitation has been delayed by border disputes with Israel.
Etymology
Early names of Tyre include Akkadian Ṣurru, Phoenician Ṣūr (𐤑𐤓), and Hebrew Ṣōr (צוֹר). In Semitic languages, the name of the city possibly means 'rock' after the rocky formation on which the town was originally built.
The predominant form in Classical Greek was Týros (Τύρος), which was first seen in the works of Herodotus but may have been adopted considerably earlier. It gave rise to Latin Tyrus, which entered English during the Middle English period as Tyre. The demonym for Tyre is Tyrian, and the inhabitants are Tyrians.
Climate
Tyre has a Hot-summer mediterranean climate (classified as Csa under the Köppen climate classification), characterized by six months of drought from May to October. On average, it has 300 days of sun a year and a yearly temperature of 20.8°C (69.5 °F). The average maximum temperature reaches its highest at 30.8 °C (87.5 °F) in August and the average minimum temperature its lowest at 10 °C (50 °F) in January. On average, the mean annual precipitation reaches up to 645 mm (25½"). The temperature of the sea water reaches a minimum of 17 °C (63°F) in February and a maximum of 32 °C (90°F) in August. At a depth of 70 metres (200') it is constantly at 17–18 °C (63 to 64°F).
Meanwhile, rising sea levels due to global warming threaten coastal erosion to Tyre's peninsula and bay areas.
History
The ancient city of Tyre is located along the coast of Phoenicia in modern Lebanon. The site has been occupied since the Bronze Age. The city became a prominent Phoenician city-state between the 9th and 6th centuries BC, settling prestigious colonies around the Mediterranean Sea, such as Carthage and Leptis Magna. It came under Babylonian rule in 572 BC, before being conquered by siege by Alexander the Great in 332 BC. Eight thousand Tyrians died in the massacre that followed, against only 400 Macedonian deaths; 30,000 surviving Tyrians were sold into slavery.
Monumental archaeological remains dated from the subsequent Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Medieval periods led to its inscription on its archaeological remains on the UNESCO World's Heritage list in 1984.
The Roman historian Justin wrote that the city’s founders arrived from the nearby city of Sidon in the quest to establish a new harbour. The Greek historian Herodotus (c. 484–425 BC) visited Tyre around 450 BC at the end of the Greco-Persian Wars (499–449 BC), and wrote in his Histories that according to the priests there, the city was founded 2300 years earlier (around 2750 BC), as a walled place upon the mainland, now known as Paleotyre (Old Tyre).
The Phoenician Tyrians' international trade network was based on its two harbours which are mentioned by ancient writers. The northern harbour opened toward the Phoenician city of Sidon and has been therefore referred to as the "Sidonian Harbour" by 19th and 20th century scholars, but it was referred to as the "Port of Astronoe" during Late Antiquity. The southern harbour opened toward Egypt and was referred to as the "Egyptian Harbour". The location of the two harbours has been the subject of speculations since the 17th Century. The submarine excavation of a large, 4-6th Century BC breakwater north of the city, and the discovery of 250 BC to 500 AD harbour sediments behind this breakwater demonstrated the existence of a northern harbour repeatedly, if not permanently, throughout Antiquity under the modern harbour of Tyre.
The location of the southern harbour is more elusive. Renan envisioned it as an extensive structure now located offshore, south of the former island. Subsequent diving surveys identified submerged man-made structures on the seafloor within 150 m of the former island. Antoine Poidebard, who was the first to have them explored by divers in 1939, saw in these structures former breakwaters enclosing a harbour with two entrances. The geographic area enclosed within these structures is therefore often referred to as the "Southern Harbour". These structures have also been interpreted as a polder-like area protecting an urban district. A Phoenician-style breakwater was recently found within this area, but excavation is needed to confirm its age ascription. Harbour sediments found behind the structure suggest that the breakwater was part of the Egyptian harbour. Harbour sediments found near Hiram's Tower, further north, mark an early location of the Sidonian Harbour.
The development of Tyre was profoundly affected by the construction of a causeway built by Alexander the Great in 332 BC to seize the city. This reportedly 750 metre (820 yard) long and 60 metre (200 ft.) wide causeway was laid over a submarine shoal less than 5.4 metres (18 ft.) deep. This shoal was interpreted as a sandbank (also called a 'salient'), formed by the accretion of sand in the lee of the island, under the effects of the refraction and diffraction of waves around the island. The causeway interrupted longshore sand transport, forcing sand to accumulate along the causeway, rapidly creating an emerged sandy isthmus (or tombolo), linking the island to the mainland.
This sandy isthmus rapidly inflated during the centuries following the construction of the causeway. By early Imperial Roman times, monumental buildings had been built over most of its surface. Their layout implies that the isthmus was by then nearly as wide as today. Therefore, the isthmus had completely reshaped the eastern coast of Tyre Island within 6–10 centuries after the construction of the causeway, spurring a radical transformation of the city.
Coast Nature Reserve
Tyre enjoys a reputation of having some of the cleanest beaches and waters of Lebanon. However, a UN HABITAT profile found that "seawater is also polluted due to wastewater discharge especially in the port area". There is still also considerable pollution by solid waste.
The Tyre Coast Nature Reserve (TCNR) was decreed in 1998 by the Ministry of Public Works. It is 3.5 km (2.2 mi) long and covers over 380 hectares (940 acres). The TCNR is within the best preserved stretch of sandy coastline in southern Lebanon and divided into two section zones: a 1.8 km (1 mile) sand lined beach, 500 meters (yards) wide-ranging from the Tyre Rest House in the north to the Rashidieh Refugee Camp in the South, and a stretch of 2 km (1¼ miles) with agriculture lands of small family farms and the springs of Ras El Ain with three constantly flowing artesian wells, ranging from Rashidieh to the village of Chaetiyeh in the South.
The former is divided into two zones: one for tourism that features a public beach of some 900 metres (yards) and restaurant tents during the summer season hosting up to 20,000 visitors on a busy day, and another 900 metres (yards) of conservation zone as a sanctuary for sea turtles and migrating birds.
Due to its diverse flora and fauna, the reserve was designated a Ramsar Site in 1999 according to the international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Wetlands, since it is considered "the last bio-geographic ecosystem in Lebanon". It is an important nesting site for migratory birds, the endangered Loggerhead and green sea turtle, the Arabian spiny mouse and many other creatures (including wall lizards, common pipistrelle, and European badger). Also, there are frequent sighting of dolphins in the waters off Tyre. Altogether, the TCNR includes:
275 species distributed over 50 families. In addition, the reserve is home to seven regionally and nationally threatened species, 4 endemic and 10 rare species, whilst 59 species are restricted to the Eastern Mediterranean area. It is also worthy to indicate that, several bio-indicator species as well as 25 medicinal species were recognized. TCNR encloses flora species belonging to the various habitats: the sandy shore, rocky shore, littoral and Freshwater ecosystems. A wide number of Gramineae, Fabaceae, Asteraceae and Umbellifereae families dominate the floristic resources.
However, the biodiversity of the TCNR is threatened as shown by a strong decrease in the numbers of the caspian terrapin Mauremys caspica, the green toad Bufo viridis and the tree frog Hyla savigny. Also, since the 2000s, the North American camphorweed Heterotheca subaxillaris has invaded the TCNR as a neophyte from Haifa across the Blue Line.
During the 2006 war, turtle breeding areas were affected when the IDF bombed the conservation site.
The oil spill which devastated the coast north of Ashkelon in February 2021 also contaminated Tyre's beaches.
Historical and cultural heritage
Arguably the most lasting Phoenician legacy for the Tyrian population has been the linguistic mark that the Syriac and Akkadian languages have left on the Arabic spoken in the region of Tyre. Most notably, the widely used term "Ba'ali" – which is used especially to describe vegetables and fruits from rain-fed, untreated agricultural production – originates from the Baal religion. The Tyrian municipality of Ain Baal is apparently also named after the Phoenician deity. The most visible part of ancient and medieval history on the other side have been the archaeological sites though: