TYRE or Sour, a seaport of Syria, anciently a city of extensive commerce and great riches, but which has now fallen into a state of insignificance and poverty. It was formerly called the Queen of the Sea, and ancient writers dilate with wonder on its magnificence and extent. The more ancient city of Tyre was founded by a colony of the Sidonians, on the shore of the continent: it was taken and destroyed by the king of Babylon, when a new city was built on an island about one third of a mile from the shore. Concerning continental Tyre we have no information except that which is contained in the Bible; from which we learn that it was a large, wealthy, and splendid city. Its existence is acknowledged by the Greek writers, but all trace of its history was lost, as it was destroyed before their time. It was never rebuilt, and not the least trace of it remains, nor could its site be determined. It was not known to have been built on the coast, opposite to the island. When Babylon was conquered by the Persians, the Tyrians were restored to comparative independence; and it was then that Tyre was rebuilt on the island, and attained greater splendour than before; and such was the power of this insular city, from the resources supplied by commerce, from its strength, and the advantages of its position, that it arrested the progress of Alexander’s conquests longer than any place under the Persian dominions. That celebrated conqueror spent eight months before Tyre, and only succeeded at last by constructing an embankment or cause way between the mainland and the island, giving his troops and engines free access to the latter. The Tyrians however made such a valiant defence, and occasioned so great a loss to the conqueror, that he vented his rage on the conquered city, ordering 2000 of the inhabitants to be nailed to crosses, and 30,000 to be sold for slaves. In the storm of the city 8000 bad been previously slain. He set fire to the town itself; yet it quickly recovered from the devastation of war, and, only nineteen years after, sustained a seige of fifteen months from the fleets and armies of Antigonus, when it was again taken. After this second capture, it was subjected, with all the surrounding country, to frequent changes of masters, from the continual contests which took place among Alexander’s successors, the kings of Egypt and Syria, until it was finally absorbed, with all the rest of the world, in the growing empire of Rome. But by this time it had greatly declined in importance. The rise of Alexandria in Egypt was perhaps more injurious to the prosperity of Tyre than its capture by Alexander, as it gradually rose to be a great emporium of traffic, which it thus diverted from Tyre, and dried up the source from which its prosperity had flowed for about a thousand years. Through the skill and industry of its inhabitants, it still remained a considerable town, so long as the Roman dominion continued. Tyre declined with the rest of the Roman empire, under the devastations of barbarian conquest. It was subdued with the rest of Syria by the Arabs; in 1124 it was taken from them by the crusaders; Saladin made an ineffectual attempt to recover it in 1187; and it was finally taken in 1291, by Khalit, the sultan of Egypt, who razed it to the ground, that it might never again afford a stronghold to the Christians. It was taken by the Turks in 1516, when it was finally ruined; and it now presents to the traveller the aspect of a miserable and ruined village. It has been visited by many modern travellers, who all concur in giving the same account of this desolate place. It is called by Sandys a “heape of mines.” Volney describes it as a miserable village of fishermen, containing only fifty or sixty poor families, living but indifferently on the produce of their grounds and of a trifling fishery. The houses are wretched huts, ready to crumble into pieces. And thus we see the fulfilment of the prophecy, that Tyre should “be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea;” conveying a lively image of desolation, a convenient place for the drying of nets being generally a naked rock or beach. According to the most recent accounts, Tyre was beginning somewhat [7:21:438] to revive, a number of peasantry having come down from the neighbouring mountains to carry on the trade for which its harbour affords an opportunity. It is said by Turner to contain 200 inhabited houses or huts, two thirds of which are occupied by the tribe called Mutualis, while the rest of the inhabitants are chiefly Greek Catholics. There are also twelve Maronite families. The chief staple is tobacco, which is exported to Cairo and Damietta. To the same places are also sent charcoal, a number of dried figs, and large faggots of wood. There are a large pottery and a fishery. The walls of the town, about a mile in circuit, very old, falling to pieces, and patched up, may still be traced. In many places they are mended with large columns of red and gray granite, with two or three old cannon mounted upon them. On the west they are almoβt overwhelmed by sand; but on the south and east sides they are thirty feet high. On the south-west and south-east corners are the remains of ancient niches. The only gate is one of wood, on the eastern side; while on the north, part of the wall is broken down in order to allow a passage. The harbour stretches fifty feet along the shore, and 150 along banks that run into the sea. Near the walls are the ruins of two square Arab towers, one thirty-five and the other forty feet high; supposed by Pococke to have served as reservoirs of water, to be distributed from the aqueduct over the city. Without the walls are the ruins of a very large church, built, in the Syrian style, of hewn stone; also some very perfect remains of several buildings to the north, which are supposed to have belonged to the archiepiscopal palace. Long. 35. 20. E. Lat. 33. 10. N. (f.)