Tyre
The great port of Phoenicia.
Description
"Viewed from the sea, Tyre looks like a huge mushroom extending its cap over the waves and sinking its roots into the coast. The isthmus is its foot. On both sides of the isthmus, there are two ports. One, the northern one, less enclosed, is filled with small boats; the other, to the south, better sheltered, has large ships arriving or departing. They go around the island, and I realize that the isthmus is artificial, a sort of cyclopean causeway that connects the island to the mainland. They built without difficulty, long ago! I infer from this work and the number of ships in the busy ports that the city was rich and commercial. Behind the city, after a flat area, there are pleasant small hills, and far away you can see the great Hermon and the Lebanese mountain range. I also conclude that it is one of the cities I saw from Lebanon."[1]
Its Name
Today Sour. Main port of the Phoenician coast, 40 km south of Sidon and 45 km north of Akko.
Where is it mentioned in the work?
EMV 251 EMV 319.1
Learn more about this place
See also the monograph on pheniciens.com[2].
Tyre had two settlements, one on an island some distance from the coast, the other on the shore.[3]
It is known from Egyptian texts as early as 1850 BC and took part early in the trade of luxury goods with Egypt; the Egyptians attempted to control the Phoenician coast. With Egypt’s decline, Tyre remained independent. Its king Hiram (979-945) was on good terms with David and Solomon[4]. He built a causeway connecting Tyre’s two ports. This era is known as the city’s Golden Age and its inhabitants later became the princes of trade in the eastern Mediterranean[5]. Their main commodities were their own glass and the scarlet purple dye made from murex. Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of Tyre, married Ahab, king of Israel, to seal the Covenant between the two countries. She brought with her the culture and the pagan worship.
Tyre paid tribute to the Assyrian Adad-Nirari in 803, and later to Tiglath-Pileser III but, by its submission to Assyrian rule, it retained great autonomy. It fell, like Samaria, into the hands of Sargon II in 722. The Tyrians tried several times, but unsuccessfully, to revolt with Egypt’s help. The Babylonians ended Assyrian supremacy.[6] Tyre was taken by Alexander the Great in 332. Herod the Great rebuilt the main Temple, which was visible when Jesus visited this region.[7] The Tyrians heard Jesus preach.[8] There were active Christians there in the first century.[9][10]
Excerpt from the Geographical Dictionary of the Gospel Salton Maria Valtorta, by Jean-François LavèreTyre, Es Sûr
Coming from Sicaminon, Jesus accompanied by some Disciples passes by boat before Tyre and evangelizes some fishermen not far from the town. Then the Apostles, escorting on the road to exile the Disciples Syntyche and John of Endor, stop at Tyre. It is the occasion for Maria Valtorta to describe authentically the city and its port facilities.
“The city strangely protrudes onto the sea, as if it were built on an isthmus, or rather as if a narrow isthmus united the part emerging on the sea to the part extending on the shore. Viewed from the sea, it looks like a huge mushroom extending its cap on the waves and sinking its roots into the coast. The isthmus is its foot. On both sides of the isthmus, there are two ports. One, the northern one, less enclosed, is covered with small boats; the other, to the south, better sheltered, has large ships arriving or departing. (…) They go around the island, and I realize that the isthmus is artificial, a sort of Cyclopean causeway linking the island to the mainland. They built without difficulties, long ago! I deduce from this work and the number of ships in the busy ports that the city was rich and commercial. Behind the city, after a flat area, are pleasant small hills, and far away you can see great Hermon and the Lebanese range. I also conclude that this is one of the cities I saw from Lebanon... The Master does not go down to Tyre, nor to the city on the shore.”[1].Coastal city and main port of the Phoenicians between 200 BC until the Roman period. Tyre is located 40 km south of Sidon, and 45 km north of Haifa. The remains of the initial port, south of the peninsula, were explored by the French Institute of Near Eastern Archaeology in 1863.The island city had two ports: one to the north, “the Sidonian port”; and the other to the south, “the Egyptian port.” A huge causeway about 500 meters long and 40 meters wide was built by order of Alexander the Great. At the time of Christ, taking advantage of Roman Peace, Tyre became an important commercial center again.
Silting over the centuries gradually transformed the island into an isthmus.
It can be noted that as of 1962, the causeway described by Maria Valtorta nearly 20 years earlier was still completely under sand[11].
Explore
• 33° 16’ 24’’ N / 35° 11’ 34’’ E
• +15m
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 EMV 251.
- ↑ pheniciens.com
- ↑ cosmovisions.com/cartes/VL/009d.htm
- ↑ 1 Kings 5:1ff.
- ↑ Isaiah 23:8.
- ↑ See the prophecies in Jeremiah 27 and Ezekiel 26.
- ↑ Matthew 15:21ff.
- ↑ Mark 3:8; Matthew 11:21f.
- ↑ Acts 21:3ff.
- ↑ Source: Dictionary of the Bible – A.M. Gérard – Ed. Robert Laffont.
- ↑ See Robert Donceel, Recherches et travaux archéologiques au Liban (1962-1965), l’Antiquité classique 1967, vol 36 no. 1. See also Jules de Bertou, Essai sur la topographie de Tyre 1843.