TYRE

TYRE, a famous city of ancient PHOENICIA, about 30 m. N. of Acre; comprised two towns, one on the mainland, the other on an island opposite; besieged and captured in 332 B.C. by Alexander the Great, who connected the towns by a causeway, which, by silting sands, has grown into the present isthmus; its history goes back to the 10th century B.C., when it was held by Hiram, the friend of Solomon, and sustained sieges by Nebuchadnezzar and others; was reduced by Cæsar Augustus, but again rose to be one of the most flourishing cities of the East in the 4th century A.D.; fell into ruins under the Turks, and is now reduced to only a few thousands of a population.