Lably
Skip to content

Tyre, Lebanon

City in Lebanon

  • 28 min read
  • 13 chapters
Ancient columns lie in the submerged Egyptian harbour of Tyre/Sour, South Lebanon, with the skyline of the modern city in the background.
RomanDeckert · CC BY-SA 4.0

Related on Lably

Through UNESCO, Prehistory and Fresh water

Lab · Class 5–8Cyclones & Extreme WeatherLab · Class 5Every Drop CountsLab · Class 8–12Ecosystem Dynamics

Tyre is the fifth-largest city in Lebanon after Beirut, Tripoli, Sidon, and Baalbek. It is the capital of the Tyre District in the South Governorate. There were approximately 200,000 inhabitants in the Tyre urban area in 2016, including many refugees, as the city hosts three of the twelve Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon: Burj El Shimali, El Buss, and Rashidieh.

Territory

Tyre juts out from the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and is located about 80 km (50 mi) south of Beirut. It originally consisted of two distinct urban centres: Tyre itself, which was on an island just 500 to 700 metres offshore; and the associated settlement of Ushu on the adjacent mainland, later called Palaetyrus (Greek: Παλαίτυρος), meaning "Old Tyre" in Ancient Greek. The fortified city was on top of a rock from which its name was inherited, as S'r is the Phoenician word for "rock". It had two ports, the "Sidonian port" to the north, still partly existing today, and the "Egyptian port" to the south which very recently has perhaps been discovered.

From prehistoric times onwards, all settlements in the Tyre area profited from the abundance of fresh water supplies, especially from the nearby springs of Rashidieh and Ras Al Ain in the South. In addition, there are the springs of Al Bagbog and Ain Ebreen in the North as well as the Litani River, also known as Alqasymieh. The present city of Tyre covers a large part of the original island and has expanded onto and covers most of the causeway built by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE. This isthmus increased greatly in width over the centuries because of extensive silt depositions on either side. The part of the original island not covered by the modern city of Tyre is mostly of an archaeological site showcasing remains of the city from ancient times.

Four municipalities contribute to Tyre city's 16.7-square-kilometre (6+7⁄16 sq mi) built-up area, though none are included in their entirety: Sour municipality contains the heart of the city, excluding the Natural and Coastal Reserve; Burj El Shimali to the East without unpopulated agricultural lands; Abbasiyet Sour to the North without agricultural lands and a dislocated village; and Ain Baal to the South-East, also without agricultural lands and dislocated villages. Tyre's urban area lies on a fertile coastal plain, which explains the fact that as of 2017 about 44% of its territory was used for intra-urban agriculture, while built-up land constituted over 40%.

In terms of geomorphology and seismicity, Tyre is close to the Roum Fault and the Yammouneh Fault. Though it has suffered a number of devastating earthquakes over the millennia, the threat level is considered to be low in most places and moderate in a few others. However, a tsunami following an earthquake and subsequent landslides and floods pose major natural risks to the Tyrian population.

Vast reserves of natural gas are estimated to lie beneath Lebanese waters, much of it off Tyre's coast, but exploitation has been delayed by border disputes with Israel.

Sign in to keep reading

12 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in Cities

Washington, D.C.Capital city of the United StatesBerlinCapital and largest city of GermanyChicagoMost populous city in Illinois, USViennaCapital and largest city of AustriaPhiladelphiaMost populous city in Pennsylvania, USBostonCapital and largest city in Massachusetts, United States