page_title: Tyre, Lebanon
section_title: Founding Millenium (2750–1700 BCE)
hierarchical_section_title: Tyre, Lebanon / History / Founding Millenium (2750–1700 BCE)
caption_attribution_description: English: Limestone figurine on a throne found on Cyprus, dated to the first half of the 6th century BCE, probably representing Astarte, the Middle Eastern goddess of fertility, on display at the Museum of Art History (Kunsthistorisches Museum) in Vienna, Austria العربية: تمثال من الحجر الجيري، يُعتقد أنه للإلهة عشتروت، إلهة الخصوبة عند الفينيقيين والكنعانيين؛ وهي تعتلي عرشًا. عُثر عليه في قبرص، يعود تاريخه إلى النصف الأول من القرن السادس قبل الميلاد، معروض في متحف تاريخ الفنون في فيينا، النمسا.
context_page_description: Tyre is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, though in medieval times for some centuries by just a tiny population. It was one of the earliest Phoenician metropolises and the legendary birthplace of Europa, her brothers Cadmus and Phoenix, as well as Carthage's founder Dido. The city has many ancient sites, including the Tyre Hippodrome, and was added as a whole to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1984.
  The historian Ernest Renan noted:
  One can call Tyre a city of ruins, built out of ruins.
  Today Tyre is the fifth largest city in Lebanon after Beirut, Tripoli, Aley and Sidon, 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.
context_section_description: The Roman historian Justin wrote that the original founders arrived from the nearby Northern city of Sidon / Saida in the quest to establish a new harbour. Herodotus, who visited Tyre around 450 BCE, wrote that according to the priests there, the city was founded around 2750 BCE as a walled place upon the mainland, now known as Paleotyre (Old Tyre). Archaeological evidence has corroborated this timing. Excavations have also found that there had already been some settlements around 2900 BCE, but that they were abandoned.
  The Greek historian Eusebius recorded as the common myth that the deity Melqart built the city as a favour to the mermaid Tyros and named it after her. Melqart - who got worshipped as a divine patron of Tyre for millennia - was called Melqart Heracles in Greek, but is not to be confused with the demigod Heracles (Hercules), hero of the 12 labors. However, there are two other main founding legends:
  
  According to the first one, there were two brothers in primeval times – Usoos and Shamenrum – living on the seashore who separated after a fight. Usoos took a tree trunk and was the first to sail in it on the sea. He landed on an island and consecrated two columns there, one to fire and the other to the wind, thus founding Tyre which was called Ushu in Egypt and Mesopotomia. The second legend explains why Astarte as the goddess of fertility was worshipped in Tyre as well: 
  "Originally the island was not attached to the sea floor, but rose and fell with the waves. An Olive tree of the goddess Ashtart rose there, protected by a curtain of Flames. A snake was wrapped around its trunk and an eagle was perched in it. It was predicted that the island would cease floating, when the bird was sacrificed to the gods. The god Melqart taught people how to build boats, then sailed to the island. The eagle offered itself, and Sur became attached to the sea floor. Since then, the gods have never stopped living there..."
  In Greek mythology, Zeus, the ruler of the gods, took the form of a bull to abduct the Tyrian princess Europa to Crete. There the couple had three sons  – Minos,.Rhadamanthus, and Sarpedon, whom became kings of Crete and after their deaths the judges of the Underworld. The continent Europe is named after her.
  
  Some sources go on to say that her brothers Cadmus and Cilix went to search for her, in vain. Instead, Cadmus became the founder and king of the Greek city of Thebes, who also introduced the Phoenician alphabet to the Hellenic world. Cilix fell in love during the quest and gave his name to Cilicia in Asia Minor. Their supposed third brother Phoenix became the eponym of Phoenicia. In this way the Ancient Greek culture expressed its appreciation of the influence that the Phoenician civilisation had on their own.
  "Third and second millenia BC strata from Tyre [..] are buried so deeply under debris of later periods that its early history is somewhat obscure."
  The first known textual reference to Tyre comes from a curse text dated to the 19th century BCE. In general, the first half of the second Millennium BCE in the Eastern Mediterranean was "a time of peaceful trade and Tyre probably shared in the commercial activity."
caption: Limestone figurine on a throne from Cyprus, 6th century BCE, "probably" representing Astarte, on display at Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna
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