Tyre District | |
|---|---|
District | |
 Tyre | |
 Location in Lebanon | |
| Country |  Lebanon |
| Governorate | South Governorate |
| Capital | Tyre |
| Area | |
• Total | 159.9 sq mi (414.1 km2) |
| Population | |
• Estimate (31 December 2017) | 270,516 |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+3 (EEST) |
The Tyre District is a district in the South Governorate of Lebanon.
The following 72 municipalities are all located in the Tyre District:
Founded at the start of the third millennium BC, Tyre originally consisted of a mainland settlement and a modest island city that lay a short distance off shore. It became an increasingly important port city in the region in the first millennium BC Phoenicia.
In the 10th century BC, Hiram I, king of Tyre, joined two islets by landfill. Later, he extended the city further by reclaiming a considerable area from the sea. Phoenician expansion began around 815 BC when traders from Tyre founded Carthage in North Africa. Eventually its colonies spread around the Mediterranean and Atlantic, bringing to the city a flourishing maritime trade. Early in the sixth century BC, Nebuchadnezzar II, king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, laid siege to the walled city for thirteen years. Tyre stood firm, but it was probable that at this time the residents of the mainland city abandoned it for the safety of the island. The conflict ended with Tyre accepting Babylonian rule.
Alexander the Great, in 332 BC, set out to conquer this strategic coastal city during the war between the Greeks and the Persians. Unable to storm the city, he blockaded it for seven months. Tyre held on but the conqueror used the debris of the abandoned mainland city to build a causeway and once within reach of the city's walls, Alexander used his siege engines to batter and finally breach the fortifications.
So enraged at the Tyrians' defense and the number of men lost in the battle, Alexander destroyed half of the city. The town's 30,000 residents were massacred or sold into slavery. Tyre and the whole of ancient Syria fell under Roman rule in 64 BC. Nonetheless, for some time Tyre continued to mint its own silver coins.
The Romans built great important monuments in the city, including an aqueduct, a triumphal arch and the largest hippodrome in antiquity. Christianity appears in the history of Tyre, with the name Tyre being mentioned in the New Testament frequently. During the Byzantine era the Archbishop of Tyre was the primate of all the bishops of Phoenicia. At that time, the city once again became very important in the region, as can be seen in the remains of its buildings and the inscriptions in the necropolis.
Tyre surrendered to the Islamic armies in 634, the city offered no resistance and continued to prosper under its new rulers, exporting of sugar as well as objects made of pearl and glass making was a good source of income for the city. With the decline of the Abbasid Caliphate, Tyre acquired some independence under the dynasty of the Shia Banu Aqil, vassals of the Fatimid Caliphate. This was a time when Tyre was adorned with fountains and its bazaar were full of different kinds of merchandise including carpets and jewelry of gold and silver.
Tyre was conquered by the Crusaders in 1124. After about 180 years of Crusader rule, the Mamluk Sultanate retook the city in 1291, until it fell under the control of the Ottoman Empire at the start of the 16th century.
With the end of World War I, Tyre was integrated into the new nation of Lebanon.
Post-World War I and French Mandate (1918–1943):
After World War I, Tyre became part of the French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon under the League of Nations. In 1920, the French made the State of Greater Lebanon, including Tyre. During the 1930s, camps were made for Armenian refugees escaping genocide, especially in El Buss. This time also started archaeological digs, showing the history of Tyre. [1]
Lebanese Independence and Refugees (1943–1970s):
Lebanon got independence in 1943, and Tyre became part of the new country. The city grew as an important port and cultural place. But after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, many Palestinian refugees came to Tyre. Camps like Burj El Shimali, El Buss, and Rashidieh were made for them. El Buss, which first had Armenian refugees, became mainly for Palestinians. [1]
Civil War and Israeli Occupation (1975–2000):
The Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990) caused much pain for Tyre. There were many fights, including those with Palestinian groups and the Israeli army. Israeli invasions in 1978 and 1982 caused big damage. More attacks happened in 1996 and 2006. Even after Israel left in 2000, problems continued in the area.
Cultural and Historical Importance:
In 1984, UNESCO named Tyre a World Heritage Site because of its historical and archaeological value. The old ruins show its Phoenician past, but problems like city growth, stealing, and pollution made it hard to keep them safe. [2]
21st Century Challenges:
The early 2000s were not easy for Tyre. Economic problems came from wars and Lebanon’s crises. Refugees increased the population, with the Tyre area having about 200,000 people by 2016. Issues like coastal erosion from rising sea levels also hurt the city.
The 2024 Conflict:
During the Israel–Hamas war the district suffered from the Israeli air strikes against Hezbollah, using the villages as launch sites. [3] [4] In October 2024, Tyre was hit by heavy Israeli airstrikes, causing big damage to the city center. Many buildings and historical sites were destroyed. UNESCO worried about harm to the World Heritage ruins. The attacks forced many people to leave. By the end of 2024, Tyre was almost empty, called a "ghost town," with an uncertain future because of the ongoing conflict. [5]
Latest reports published during December 2024, note that the Israeli army keeps demolishing houses within the Tyre district. [6] [7]
According to registered voters in 2014:
| Year | Christians | Muslims | Druze | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Greek Catholics | Maronites | Other Christians | Total | Shias | Sunnis | Alawites | Druze | |
| 2014 [8] | |||||||||
Sidon or Saida is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located on the Mediterranean coast in the South Governorate, of which it is the capital. Tyre, to the south, and the Lebanese capital of Beirut, to the north, are both about 40 kilometres away. Sidon has a population of about 80,000 within the city limits, while its metropolitan area has more than a quarter-million inhabitants.
Tyre is a city in Lebanon, and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It was one of the earliest Phoenician metropolises and the legendary birthplace of Europa, her brothers Cadmus and Phoenix, and Carthage's founder Dido (Elissa). The city has many ancient sites, including the Tyre Hippodrome, and was added as a whole to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1984. The historian Ernest Renan noted that "One can call Tyre a city of ruins, built out of ruins".
Camps were set up by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to accommodate Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA, who fled or were expelled during the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War or in the aftermath of the Six-Day War in 1967, and their patrilineal descendants. There are 68 Palestinian refugee camps, 58 official and 10 unofficial, ten of which were established after the Six-Day War while the others were established in 1948 to 1950s.
Deir al-Balah or Deir al Balah is a Palestinian city in the central Gaza Strip and the administrative capital of the Deir al-Balah Governorate of the State of Palestine. It is located over 14 kilometers (8.7 mi) south of Gaza City. The city had a population of 75,132 in 2017. The city is known for its date palms, after which it is named.
Jund al-Sham is or was the name of multiple Sunni Islamist jihadist militant groups.
Southern Lebanon is the area of Lebanon comprising the South Governorate and the Nabatiye Governorate. The two entities were divided from the same province in the early 1990s. The Rashaya and Western Beqaa districts, the southernmost districts of the Beqaa Governorate.
Ain al-Hilweh, also spelled as Ayn al-Hilweh and Ein El Hilweh, is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. It had a population of over 70,000 Palestinian refugees but swelled to nearly 120,000, as a result of influx of refugees from Syria since 2011. The camp is located west of the village Miye ou Miye and the Mieh Mieh refugee camp, southeast of the port city of Sidon and north of Darb Es Sim.
The Ar-Rashidiyah camp is the second most populous Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, located on the Mediterranean coast about five kilometres south of the city of Tyre (Sur).
The tourism industry in Lebanon has been important to the local economy historically and comprises a major source of revenue for the country.
The Persian Empire, including modern Lebanon, eventually fell to Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia. He attacked Asia Minor, defeated the Persian troops in 333 BC, and advanced toward the Lebanese coast. Initially the Phoenician cities made no attempt to resist, and they recognized his suzerainty. However, when Alexander tried to offer a sacrifice to Melqart, Tyre's god, the city resisted. Alexander besieged Tyre in retaliation in early 332 BC. After seven months of resistance, the city fell, and its people were sold into slavery. Despite his early death in 323 BC, Alexander's conquest of the eastern Mediterranean Basin left a Greek imprint on the area. The Phoenicians, being a cosmopolitan people amenable to outside influences, adopted aspects of Greek civilization with ease
The al-Bass necropolis is a Lebanese UNESCO World Heritage Site, part of the al-Bass archaeological site in the city of Tyre situated next to the el-Buss refugee camp. The necropolis, constituting the principal entrance of the town in antique times, is to be found on either side of a wide Roman and Byzantine avenue dominated by a triumphal arch of the 2nd century. Other important monumental vestiges of this archaeological area are an aqueduct, which carried water to the city, and a 2nd-century hippodrome.
Burj el-Shamali is a municipality located some 86 km south of Beirut and 3 km east of the Tyre/Sour peninsula, merging into its urban area. It is part of the Tyre Union of Municipalities within the Tyre District of the South Governorate of Lebanon.
Al-Buss camp – also transliterated Bass, Al-Bass, or El-Buss with the definite article spelled either al or el – is one of the twelve Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, located in the Southern Lebanese city of Tyre. It had been a refuge for survivors of the Armenian genocide from the 1930s until the 1950s, built in a swamp area which during ancient times had for at least one and a half millennia been a necropolis. In recent decades it has been "at the center of Tyre’s experience with precarity" and "a space that feels permanent yet unfinished, suspended in time."
Deir Qanoun Ras al-Ain is a place abounding with immense fountains, with reservoirs and aqueducts 6 kilometers (3.7 mi) south of Tyre, and ca. 77 kilometers (48 mi) south of Beirut, in the South Governorate (Liban-Sud), in the municipality of Deir Qanoun Ras al-Ain. The place lies in a very green and fertile plain, about one kilometer from the sea coast. It is a popular tourist destination, owing to its artesian wells fed by underground springs and collected in stone reservoirs that have been maintained through the ages. It has been the main source of water for ancient Tyre since Phoenician days. One of the reservoirs fed the arched aqueducts of the Roman period, and which once stretched all the way to Tyre. Remains of these aqueducts, exhibiting strong and excellent masonry, with round arches and a continuous cornice above them, can still be seen today, and a short stretch of the original aqueduct is still used today in Tyre's present-day waterworks.
Tyre, in Lebanon, is one of the oldest cities in the world, having been continuously inhabited for over 4,700 years. Situated in the Levant on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Tyre became the leading city of the Phoenician civilization in 969 BC with the reign of the Tyrian king Hiram I, the city of Tyre alongside its Phoenician homeland are also credited with numerous innovations in shipbuilding, navigation, industry, agriculture, and government. The Phoenician Tyrians' international trade network was based on its two ports and is believed to have fostered the economic, political, and cultural foundations of Classical Western civilization.
Phoenicia was an ancient Semitic-speaking thalassocratic civilization that originated in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon. At its height between 1100 and 200 BC, Phoenician civilization spread across the Mediterranean, from Cyprus to the Iberian Peninsula.
Sidon is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world and has a rich and diverse history that spans over 6,000 years. The city's name has changed over time and has been known by various names, including Sidun, Saida, and Saïd. The earliest evidence of human settlement in the area dates back to the Neolithic period, around 4000 BCE. Sidon rose to prominence during the Bronze Age and became one of the most important city-states in the region. It was a major center for trade and commerce and played a significant role in the Mediterranean trade network. The city's strategic coastal location made it a hub for maritime activities.
The 2024 Tyre airstrikes refers to the ongoing airstrikes by the Israeli Air Force within the city of Tyre and several villages in the Tyre District in southern Lebanon. The airstrikes also struck near Roman, ancient Phoenician, and Crusader archaeological sites, causing significant concern from UNESCO for the potential damaging or destruction of cultural heritage.
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| Nabatieh Governorate | ||
| North Governorate | ||
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