TYRE (^i [11 times nW] ZOr, i.e. 'rock' ; Ivpoi; Tel el-Aniarna tablets Zuru, Zurri ; referred to by Jerome as ~Jip, il^rpa, 17 Tvpiuy iriXis ; Arab. Si'ir). — i. Situation. — The modem small town of Tyre, built on the ruins of the once celebrated city, lies on a narrow strip of the Phcenician plain, about ciiuiilistant from Zidon and Acre. On the north the sandy coast-line rvins up to the headland of Sarafend (Sarepta), and on the south tlie view is blocked by the hiyh three-headed promontory, of ■which the middle point is the precipitous Ladder of TjTe {Hcala Ti/riorum). The ancient island, with its half mile of channel between it and the coast, is now a blunt headland, and there is nothing to remind the present inhabitants of the existence of the famous mole, and of the dilh- culties encountered in its construction. The path- way of 60 yards in width, along which the soldiers of Alexander ruslied to the attack, is now half a mile broad, owing to the drifting up of the sea sand on the S.W. side.
It was from the island that the town received its name. The Hock, lying oil', about a mile in length and three-quarters ol a mile in widtli, was the special feature that caught the e3'e, both on land and at sea. And it was owinf' to the accom- modation which the island provided for shipping, and the protection thus allbided to its inhabitants, that Tyre became the most celebrated maritime city of the ancient world. At these entrances of the sea Tyre sat like a pedlar spreading out his wares at a city gate, and became ' the merchant of the peoples unto many isles' (Ezk 27^). The island had two harbours, one on the north side and the other on the south, formed by the indenta- tion of the outline, and extended by breakwaters. These harbours were called the Zidonian and Egyp- tian, much in the same way as the west gate of Jeru.salem is called the Jail'a gate, and its northern the Damascus gate. The part of the town that was buUt on the mainland was strongly fortified, and in times of peace the inhabitants cultivated the neighbouring gardens, and received their supply of water by atpictluct from the great fountain now- called lia.s-cl-'ain, b'ing several miles to the south. As the wealth of Tyre increased, and the danger of military invasion became chronic, its inhabitants would come to regard the island as being not merely the storehouse of their merchandise, and a place of retreat in time of invasion, but as the actual city of Tyre. Thus the city on the shore, with its often-battered walls and scattering of pe.i-sant houses among the gardens by the aque- duct, was called ^ rdXat 'ivpos, iiaKa.iTvpot, Palie- tyrus, vetus Tynu.
According to a letter, quoted by Jos^phus {Ant, vni. it. 7)
u havin;; been written by kiiitf Hiram to 8oIoiuon, the request for payment in ^rain is liascd on ttie fact tliat Hiram's people inhabited an island. Tlte Ave years' 8iet;e by Slialmaiieser iv., and that of thirteen jears by Nebuchadnezzar, also seem to Indicate that Tyre could not be attacked in the ordinary way.
Nothing now remains of the strength and splen- dour of the island fortress, except that on a calm day one may look from a boat, and see in the
:e great iiiblcd p:
illars of rose-
waler along the rocky shore jjreat blocks of the ancient breakwi coloui'ed granite.
ii. Antiquity. — In the time of .Jo.shua, Tyro is niintioned as being a fortified city, and its char- acter as a stronghold is also noted in 2 S 24', Is 23'*, Zee 9^. It is included in the list of I'ha'nician towns visited by the Egyptian mohar in the time of Ramses II. Herodotus (ii. 44) states, on the
authority of the TjT-ian priests of Mel^arth, that the town was built almut B.C. 2750. Josephus, on the other hand, informs us (Ant. VIII. iii. 1) that Tyre was founded 240 years before the building of the temple, i.e. about B.C. 1217. Isaiah seems to be referring to a well-known claim when he speaks of the city 'whose antiquity is of ancient days' (23'). Strabo (XVI. ii. 22j calls it dpxtuordTi) xiXit TiJ/Jos.
iii. Relationship op Tyre and Zidon.— Isaiah speaks of Tyre as the ' daughter of Zidon ' (23"). With this agree the references in Greek and Latin poetry, where Zidon represents in a general way everything Phoenician. Zidon seems to have been the first to pass from bein^ a fishing village, as its name im2)Iies, to the undertaking of commercial transactions on the coast of Syria. From this small beginning, her ships began to traffic with Cyprus and northwards among the Greek islands. The transference of maritime power from Zidon to Tyre was owing, according to one account (Justin, IS. 3), to an attack by the Philistines of Ascalon upon Zidon by way of punishing that city for having seized Dor. Possibly, a number of the Zidonian merchants transferred their connexion to I'yre as being more convenient for the trade with the south-east of the Mediterranean. Isaiah refers to Tyre as having been replenished by the mer- chants of Zidon (23-). While Zidon had made its name familiar over the eastern half of the Medi- terranean, TjTe put a bolder spirit into its mercan- tile enterprises, and steadily advanced in wealth and power until it became 'the mart of nations' (Is 23^). See, further, under Zidon.