was determined to build a port which would outshine its glory, 

 but the site he chose, just to the east of Pharos, was not so good as 

 that of the original harbor. Not only were the reefs dangerous, which 

 led to the construction of the famous lighthouse by Ptolemy, but 

 the surrounding sea there was fairly shallow and it tended to fill 

 with sand. 



From 1931 to 1934 Pere Antoine Poidebard worked on the great 

 Phoenician port of Tyre and greatly improved on the methods of 

 Giinther and Jondet. For one thing he used aerial photography to 

 get a general outline of the submerged site ; then he surveyed it in 

 detail by using helmet divers and by taking many underwater 

 photographs. 



Herodotus dates the foundation of Tyre at 2750 B.C., but this is 

 probably incorrect. At any rate, the fame of the city was widespread 

 by 1400 B.C., and by 900 B.C. its sailors had passed Gibraltar and 

 received their baptism of the Atlantic. It was probably at this time 

 that the northern, or Sidonian, harbor was built. Hiram, who was 

 king of Tyre from 970 to 936 B.C., was a friend and ally of Solomon, 

 and it was during his reign that engineers from Tyre built the temple 

 at Jerusalem. When Hiram came to the throne. Tyre was separated 

 into three islands by arms of the sea. He filled these channels and 

 by so doing greatly increased the strategic strength of the city. 

 Along the south side of the reclaimed land he built the Egyptian 

 harbor, which was protected from the action of the sea by a mole 

 2500 feet long. 



As late as 332 b.c, Alexander regarded Tyre as the key to the 

 East. He cunningly captured it by building a colossal causeway to 

 the island. Over the years following his destruction of the city, 

 sand began accumulating along both sides of the causeway, with the 

 result that land was built up and the site is no longer an island. 



During his survey of Tyre, Poidebard relied on local divers who 

 knew the bottom very well, and who could guide him to points of 

 interest. But he found that the helmet divers were so clumsy that 

 men with no equipment at all had to swim down to help, and to 

 point things out. These men could dive down fifty feet and work 



This engraving of the old wall of the Port 

 of Tyre (view toward the mainland) shows 

 that part of the wall was visible as late as 

 1836. Alexander's causeway, which he built 

 to capture the port, is now covered by sand. 



151 



