TYRE, FROM THE ISTHMUS. 
This View represents Tyi'e as it now exists, with the Causeway connecting it with 
the mainland. The length of the Island is a mile. On the right lies the principal 
harbour. The tower on the same side marks the two fountains of the Island, and 
the termination of the ruined aqueduct which once probably conveyed the water of 
the Ras-el-Ain. 1 The town spreads loosely along the eastern shore. On the south, 
the ruins of the Cathedral are seen; and the square Saracenic tower on the left is built 
on the extremity of a wall once extending across the Causeway, and, perhaps, forming 
a species of fortification. Between the houses and the western shore remains a broad 
strip of land used for tillage. 2 The interval between the southern wall and the end 
of the Island in that quarter is a rocky space, used to “ dry nets upon.” The western 
coast is wholly a ledge of rugged rocks, in some parts fifteen or twenty feet high, 
on which the Mediterranean dashes with a perpetual surge. This shore is strewed 
with columns of red and grey granite, the last evidence of the ancient grandeur of Tyre. 
The early history of Tyre ascends to the first ages of the commercial intercourse 
of nations. The Indian trade seems to have been in every age the fountain of wealth, 
or rather the great stimulant and reward of the commercial activity of man. This 
trade flowed to the West through the two channels of Tyre and Egypt, giving to the 
one its opulence and its arts, and to the other its opulence and its knowledge. Between 
them lay Palestine, withheld from the pursuits of both, but obviously withheld for 
the express purpose of being preserved from the corruptions of either, and of retaining 
religion for mankind. By a striking contrast, Egypt "was the great producer, yet 
with a strong distaste for naval adventure: while Phoenicia produced comparatively 
little, yet was the chief merchant: the one the manufacturer, the other the carrier, 
of the world. 3 
Whether the original Tyre was on the mainland or the island has been a question. 
But that the City which first obtained distinction was on the mainland is acknowledged. 
It is mentioned as a “strong city” so early as the Division by Joshua. It retained 
the same character in the time of David, and was “the strong city, Tyre.” The 
well-known compact between Solomon and Hiram its king gives further evidence 
of its power. Hiram disposes of the forests at Lebanon, at his will, for the building 
of the Temple. “ So Hiram gave Solomon cedar-trees and fir-trees, according to all 
his desire: and Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat for food 
to his household, and twenty measures of pure oil.” 4 
The superior security of the Island, with the alarm excited by the growth of the 
Assyrian power, probably impelled the population to take refuge in the new Tyre. 
If such were the reason, it was amply justified by the event; for on Shalmaneser’s invasion 
(b.c. 720), while the Palgetyrus (Old Tyre) was taken at once the City of the Island 
resisted for five years, and finally repelled him. The more warlike ability, and perhaps 
more disciplined force, of Nebuchadnezzar, though it destroyed Old Tyre, 5 wasted 
thirteen years in the blockade of the New. Even the great military genius of the 
1 Roberts’s Journal. 5 Bib. Res. iii. 499, &c. 
3 Stevenson, Hist, of Commerce. 4 1 Kings, v. 11. 
5 It is evidently to this destruction that the strong denunciations of the prophets are to be chiefly 
referred. Ezekiel, xxvi. 21, 27, &c. 
