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( Tyre (Lebanon))
Coordinates 33°16'8?N 35°12'59?E? / ?33.26889, 35.21639 Tyre is an ancient Phoenician city and the legendary birthplace of Europa and Elissa (Dido). Today it is the fourth largest city in Lebanon [4] and houses one of the nation's major ports known locally in French as Soûr. Tyre is a popular destination for tourists. The city has many ancient sites, including its Roman Hippodrome which was added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1979 (Resolution 459).[5] "The location of the city of Tyre is not in doubt, for it exists to this day on the same spot and is known as Sur." [6] This can be misleading since ancient Tyre was located on the mainland and on an island just off the coast. Modern day Sur is located between the two on the causeway that was created in the destruction of the mainland site of ancient Tyre.[7] Tyre originally consisted of two distinct urban centers, one on an island and the other on the adjacent coast, before Alexander the Great connected the island to the coast during his siege of the city. One was a heavily fortified island city amidst the sea (with defensive walls 150 feet high[8]) and the latter, originally called Ushu (later, Palaetyrus, by the Greeks) was actually more like a line of suburbs than any one city and was used primarily as a source of water and timber for the main island city. [9] Josephus even records them fighting against each other [10], although most of the time they supported one another due to the island city’s wealth from maritime trade and the mainland area’s source of timber, water and burial grounds. Tyre was founded around 2750 BC according to Herodotus and it appears on monuments as early as 1300 BC. Philo of Byblos (in Eusebius) quotes the antiquarian authority Sanchuniathon as stating that it was first occupied by one Hypsuranius. Sanchuniathon's work is said to be dedicated to "Abibalus king of Berytus" -- possibly the Abibaal who was king of Tyre.[11]
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