The ancient islet of Tyre
The appearance and the golden age
Tyre, the vassal of the kings of Mesopotamia and Persia
Tyre and Alexander
Tyre and Christianity
Under the Muslim authority
Historical Christian remains

Tyre (Sour) is a Lebanese city lying on the Mediterranean coast, 35 Km south of Sidon and 83 Km south of Beirut. The word Tyre means "rock".

1 – The ancient islet of Tyre:
Before Alexander the Great 333 BC, the city was built on a rocky islet, 600m far from the continent. The prophet (Ezekiel, XXVI, 4,14 and XXVII, 4), said that it rose "in the heart of the seas". The geographic situation as well as the ramparts rendered the city impregnable, It had a diameter of 4000 m² and got water by channels coming from the sources of "Ras-el-Ain" on the continent. The city had two natural harbors that were, thanks to the cleverness of the Phoenicians, very well positioned against the wind, the waves and the enemies.

Opposing the insular Tyre, the continental city was bigger and more ancient.

2 – The appearance and the golden age:
The foundation of the city is extremely obscure; Herodotus, goes back to 2750 BC, while Joseph in his "Antiquities" gives it birth in 1250 BC.

In the XIV century BC. Tyre was a flourishing city governed by a king. From 1252 (year when Sidon was destroyed by the Philistines) to 877. Tyre was somewhat reigning over the Phoenician cities. The city was extremely prosperous, very rich, and quite opulent; it was, according to Isaac (XXIII, 3), "the market of the nations". Its navy crossed Gibraltar and explored the British coasts. As for their essential products, they were the silkworm and the purple.

At the beginning of the X century BC, "Hiram" (969-936), the greatest king of the city, set up relations with the Hebrews (David and Solomon). He expanded and beautified insular TYRE and rebuilt the temple of "Melkart" by procuring artists and materials to king Solomon.

3 – Tyre, the vassal of the kings of Mesopotamia and Persia:
In the middle of the IX century, TYRE submitted itself to the Assyrians, then to the Babylonians in the VIII century and to the Persians in the VI century BC.

In spite of the vicissitudes, it kept its navy and its trade by paying tribute to the conquerors; and from time to time, desiring to be independent, it threw off the yoke of the strangers. The Assyrians besieged it for 25 years and the Babylonians for 13 years. A part of its inhabitants, following Didon (Elissa) sister of Tyre’s monarch, left the city and founded a "new village" (Cartage), on the Tunisian coasts.

4 – Tyre and Alexander:
In 333, Tyre refused to open its doors to Alexander the Great who wanted to make sacrifices in Melkart temple, (associated in Greece to Heracles).

After seven months of siege, the great Conqueror built a reef to link the islet to the continent. Thus he blockaded the city that collapsed and suffered an extremely severe revenge; the city was partly destroyed, 8000 inhabitants were massacred and 30000 sold as slaves.

After Alexander’s death, Tyre became the possession of his heirs (Ptolemy then Seleucides), with them commerce prospered again.
After his defeat, Hanibal took refuge, in 196, in Tyre, land of his ancestors.

5 – Tyre and Christianity:
In 64 BC, Tyre turned to the Romans, it enjoyed a certain autonomy, found back its prosperity, and became a philosophical center of studies.

The inhabitants of Tyre saw and heard Jesus in his travel through Galilee (Mark, III, 8; Lucas, VI, 17). The Lord himself, went, to the land of the city (Matth., XI, 21; Mark, VII, 24). The Savior quoted the city in his speech (Matth., XI, 21; Lucas, X, 13-14).

When Saint Paul came to Tyre in the middle of the I century, he found there quite a number of Christians. The theologian "Origene" was inhumed in the Basilica. In 355 a synod took place in the city.

6 – Under the Muslim authority:
The Muslims took hold of Tyre in 638. It became a simple village. From 1124 to 1291, it was under the domination of the Crusades, then it fell under the domination of the Muslims (Mamelouks) and was destroyed. In 1516 it shifted to the Ottoman authority and became a Shiite center.

Nowadays, built upon the ruins of the ancient Phoenician city, and limited by Palestinian camps, Tyre is inhabited by a majority of Shiite, and a minority of Christians.

7 – Historical Christian remains:

1 – The Cathedral:
Built in the IV c., on the ruins of a basilica destroyed in 303 after the edicts of Diocletian, the cathedral was reconstructed by the Venitians around 1127. Guillaume of Tyre became its archbishop; then from 1244 up till the end of the Frank presence, the kings of Jerusalem came to this cathedral to crown themselves. The Emperor Frederick Barbarous was inhumed in it.

From the Crusaders time we have the traces and the debris of the Cathedral which was used in the crowning ceremonies of the kings. Other Churches were in Tyre, in that time: St Cosme and Damien, St Demetrius, St John, Sainte Mary of Arces, St Peter and St Thomas. On the foundation of this last one lay the foundation of the actual church of the XVIIIth century. St James, St Nicholas, St Mark of Venise and Saint Laurent of Genoese, all those churches were destroyed when the French were chased out of Tyre and out of the Orient at the end of the XIIIth century.

At the present time every one of the Christian communities, Orthodox, Melkite and Maronite has its own church. The residence of the Bishops of those communities is in Tyre.

2 – Cana or Cana of Galilee (al-Jalil):
Lying 12 Km away from Tyre, Qana is a village mostly inhabited by Shiites and with a Christian minority. It is perhaps the town in which the Christ accomplished his first miracle by changing water to wine (cf. John: 2). There, we can find six jars resembling those stated in the Bible, as well as the figures of the Lord and his Apostles engraved on the rocks of the village cave.
The popular tradition gives a taumaturgic power to the site.

The witnesses advanced by Eusebius (III century) and by Saint Jerome (IV century) refer to the evangelical texts in order to place Cana of Galilee in southern Lebanon and to consider that the first miracle of Jesus took place there.

The popular tradition tells that the tomb of Joachim, blessed virgin’s Father, is situated in a village near Cana; It is the tomb of "Shaykh Oumran", the name that the Coran gives to Mary’s Father.

The modern archeological discoveries speak of the traces of the first church in the world found in Tyre. Every now & then Byzantine Churches appear with their mosaïcy around Tyre.