Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia . Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classical world . It became the capital city of the civilisation of Ancient Carthage and later Roman Carthage .
178-537: The city developed from a Phoenician colony into the capital of a Punic empire which dominated large parts of the Southwest Mediterranean during the first millennium BC. The legendary Queen Elissa, Alyssa or Dido , originally from Tyre , is regarded as the founder of the city, though her historicity has been questioned. In the myth, Dido asked for land from a local tribe, which told her that she could get as much land as an oxhide could cover. She cut
356-516: A Eurasian steppe population). One 2018 study of mitochondrial lineages in Sardinia concluded that the Phoenicians were "inclusive, multicultural and featured significant female mobility", with evidence of indigenous Sardinians integrating "peacefully and permanently" with Semitic Phoenician settlers. The study also found evidence suggesting that south Europeans may have likewise settled in
534-436: A Hellenization policy, whereby Hellenic culture, religion, and sometimes language were spread or imposed across conquered peoples. However, Hellenisation was not enforced most of the time and was just a language of administration until his death. This was typically implemented through the founding of new cities, the settlement of a Macedonian or Greek urban elite, and the alteration of native place names to Greek. However, there
712-468: A Punic term for 'Phoenicians', which may be reconstructed as * Pōnnīm . Since little has survived of Phoenician records or literature , most of what is known about their origins and history comes from the accounts of other civilizations and inferences from their material culture excavated throughout the Mediterranean. The scholarly consensus is that the Phoenicians' period of greatest prominence
890-457: A cardinal . He "saw himself as the reviver of the ancient Christian Church of Africa, the Church of Cyprian of Carthage", and, on 10 November 1884, was successful in his great ambition of having the metropolitan see of Carthage restored, with himself as its first archbishop. In line with the declaration of Pope Leo IX in 1053, Pope Leo XIII acknowledged the revived Archdiocese of Carthage as
1068-441: A sump , around which various other elements may be found. In some places, the ground is covered with mosaics called punica pavement, sometimes using a characteristic red mortar. Punic culture and agricultural sciences, after arriving at Carthage from the eastern Mediterranean, gradually adapted to the local conditions. The merchant harbor at Carthage was developed after settlement of the nearby Punic town of Utica , and eventually
1246-597: A "land of fnḫw ", fnḫw being the plural form of fnḫ , the Ancient Egyptian word for 'carpenter'. This "land of carpenters" is generally identified as Phoenicia, given that Phoenicia played a central role in the lumber trade of the Levant. As an exonym , fnḫw was evidently borrowed into Greek as φοῖνιξ , phoînix , which meant variably 'Phoenician person', ' Tyrian purple , crimson ' or ' date palm '. Homer used it with each of these meanings. The word
1424-496: A Greek historian from Sicily c. 300 BC, places the foundation of Carthage in 814 BC, which is the date generally accepted by modern historians. Legend, including Virgil 's Aeneid , assigns the founding of the city to Queen Dido . Carthage would grow into a multi-ethnic empire spanning North Africa, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, the Balearic Islands, and southern Iberia, but would ultimately be destroyed by Rome in
1602-774: A city of ruins, built out of ruins". Today, 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 . Tyre juts out from
1780-522: A claim that they came from Tylos and Arad ( Bahrain and Muharraq ). Some archaeologists working on the Persian Gulf have accepted these traditions and suggest a migration connected with the collapse of the Dilmun civilization c. 1750 BC. However, most scholars reject the idea of a migration; archaeological and historical evidence alike indicate millennia of population continuity in
1958-650: A complex and influential civilization. Their best known legacy is the world's oldest verified alphabet , whose origin was connected to the Proto-Sinaitic script , and which was transmitted across the Mediterranean and used to develop the Arabic script and Greek alphabet and in turn the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets . The Phoenicians are also credited with innovations in shipbuilding, navigation, industry, agriculture, and government. Their international trade network
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#17327573687442136-633: A failed rebellion against Artaxerxes III , enlisting the help of the Egyptians, who were subsequently drawn into a war with the Persians. The resulting destruction of Sidon led to the resurgence of Tyre, which remained the dominant Phoenician city for two decades until the arrival of Alexander the Great. Phoenicia was one of the first areas to be conquered by Alexander the Great during his military campaigns across western Asia . Alexander's main target in
2314-532: A fisherman by profession, who was also a traditional storyteller ( hakawati ) and thus interested in cinema – projected films on the wall of a Turkish hammam. In 1939 the Roxy opened, followed in 1942 by the "Empire": By the mid-1950s there were four cinemas in Tyre, and four more soon opened in nearby Nabatieh . Many also hosted live performances by famous actors and musicians, serving as community spaces where people from different backgrounds came together. In 1959,
2492-655: A halt after 2012 due to the war there, some of them instead started excavations in Tyre, amongst them a team headed by Leila Badre , director of the Archeological Museum of the American University of Beirut ( AUB ), and Belgian archaeologists. Threats to Tyre's ancient cultural heritage include development pressures and the illegal antiquities trade. A highway, planned for 2011, was expected to be built in areas that are deemed archaeologically sensitive. A small-scale geophysical survey indicated
2670-607: A hundred sites remain to be excavated, while others that have been are yet to be fully analysed. The Middle Bronze Age was a generally peaceful time of increasing population, trade, and prosperity, though there was competition for natural resources. In the Late Bronze Age , rivalry between Egypt, the Mittani, the Hittites, and Assyria had a significant impact on Phoenician cities. The Canaanite culture that gave rise to
2848-504: A limited area: the north coastal tell , the lower Bagradas river valley (inland from Utica), Cape Bon , and the adjacent sahel on the east coast. Punic culture here achieved the introduction of agricultural sciences first developed for lands of the eastern Mediterranean, and their adaptation to local African conditions. The urban landscape of Carthage is known in part from ancient authors, augmented by modern digs and surveys conducted by archeologists. The "first urban nucleus" dating to
3026-608: A major impact on the development of Lebanese music: Halim el-Roumi (1919–1983) and Ghazi Kahwaji (1945–2017). Some sources claim that the famous musician, composer, singer and actor el-Roumi was born in Tyre to Lebanese parents. However, others suggest that he was born in Nazareth and moved to Tyre from Palestine. For some time, he worked as a teacher at the Jafariya High School there. In 1950 he became director of Radio Lebanon 's music department, where he discovered
3204-553: A major part of Phoenician wealth. The violet-purple dye derived from the hypobranchial gland of the Murex marine snail, once profusely available in coastal waters of the eastern Mediterranean Sea but exploited to local extinction. Phoenicians may have discovered the dye as early as 1750 BC. The Phoenicians established a second production center for the dye in Mogador , in present-day Morocco . The Phoenicians' exclusive command over
3382-586: A more serious rift among Christians was the Donatist controversy , against which Augustine of Hippo spent much time and parchment arguing. At the Council of Carthage (397) , the biblical canon for the western Church was confirmed . The Christians at Carthage conducted persecutions against the pagans , during which the pagan temples, notably the famous Temple of Juno Caelesti , were destroyed. The Vandals under Gaiseric invaded Africa in 429. They relinquished
3560-661: A population coming from the North, related to ancient Anatolians or ancient South-Eastern Europeans (12–37%). The results show that a Steppe-like ancestry , typically found in Europeans, appears in the region starting from the Iron Age. The Phoenicians served as intermediaries between the disparate civilizations that spanned the Mediterranean and Near East, facilitating the exchange of goods and knowledge, culture, and religious traditions. Their expansive and enduring trade network
3738-420: A sanctuary for sea turtles and migrating birds. Due to its diverse flora and fauna , the reserve was designated a Ramsar Site in 1999 according to the international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Wetlands , since it is considered "the last bio-geographic ecosystem in Lebanon". It is an important nesting site for migratory birds , the endangered Loggerhead and green sea turtle ,
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#17327573687443916-462: A series of campaigns against neighboring states. The Phoenician city-states fell under his rule, forced to pay heavy tribute in money, goods, and natural resources. Initially, they were not annexed outright—they remained in a state of vassalage, subordinate to the Assyrians but allowed a certain degree of freedom. This changed in 744 BC with the ascension of Tiglath-Pileser III . By 738 BC, most of
4094-490: A stretch of 2 km with agriculture lands of small family farms and the springs of Ras El Ain with three constantly flowing artesian wells , ranging from Rashidieh to the village of Chaetiyeh in the South. The former is divided into two zones: one for tourism that features a public beach of some 900 m and restaurant tents during the summer season hosting up to 20,000 visitors on a busy day, and another 900 m of conservation zone as
4272-505: A town has no need of an estate in the country." "One who has bought land should sell his town house, so that he will have no desire to worship the household gods of the city rather than those of the country; the man who takes greater delight in his city residence will have no need of a country estate. The issues involved in rural land management also reveal underlying features of Punic society, its structure and stratification . The hired workers might be considered 'rural proletariat', drawn from
4450-401: A town under Ottoman rule in the 18th century. Le Kram was developed in the late 19th century under French administration as a settlement close to the port of La Goulette . In 1881, Tunisia became a French protectorate , and in the same year Charles Lavigerie , who was archbishop of Algiers, became apostolic administrator of the vicariate of Tunis. In the following year, Lavigerie became
4628-626: Is Tyrian , and the inhabitants are Tyrians . Tyre has a Hot-summer mediterranean climate (classified as Csa under the Köppen climate classification ), characterized by six months of drought from May to October. On average, it has 300 days of sun a year and a yearly temperature of 20.8 °C . The average maximum temperature reaches its highest at 30.8 °C in August and the average minimum temperature its lowest at 10 °C in January. On average,
4806-543: Is already attested in Mycenaean Greek Linear B from the 2nd millennium BC, as po-ni-ki-jo . In those records, it means 'crimson' or 'palm tree' and does not denote a group of people. The name Phoenicians , like Latin Poenī (adj. poenicus , later pūnicus ), comes from Greek Φοινίκη , Phoiníkē . Poenulus , a Latin comedic play written in the early 2nd century BC, appears to preserve
4984-405: Is believed to have fostered the economic, political, and cultural foundations of Classical Western civilization . Being a society of independent city states, the Phoenicians apparently did not have a term to denote the land of Phoenicia as a whole; instead, demonyms were often derived from the name of the city an individual hailed from (e.g., Sidonian for Sidon , Tyrian for Tyre , etc.) If
5162-864: 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. Early names of Tyre include Akkadian Ṣurru , Phoenician Ṣūr ( 𐤑𐤓 ), and Hebrew Tsur ( צוֹר ). In Semitic languages ,
5340-613: Is credited with laying the foundations of an economically and culturally cohesive Mediterranean, which would be continued by the Greeks and especially the Romans. Phoenician ties with the Greeks ran deep. The earliest verified relationship appears to have begun with the Minoan civilization on Crete (1950–1450 BC), which together with the Mycenaean civilization (1600–1100 BC) is considered
5518-534: Is no record of Persian administrators governing the Phoenician city-states. Local Phoenician kings were allowed to remain in power and given the same rights as Persian satraps (governors), such as hereditary offices and minting their coins. The Phoenicians remained a core asset to the Achaemenid Empire, particularly for their prowess in maritime technology and navigation; they furnished the bulk of
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5696-437: Is regarded as a modern and artificial division. The Phoenicians, known for their prowess in trade, seafaring and navigation, dominated commerce across classical antiquity and developed an expansive maritime trade network lasting over a millennium. This network facilitated cultural exchanges among major cradles of civilization , such as Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. The Phoenicians established colonies and trading posts across
5874-553: Is significant for what it reveals about daily life of the Punic Carthage. The remains have been preserved under embankments, the substructures of the later Roman forum, whose foundation piles dot the district. The housing blocks are separated by a grid of straight streets about 6 m (20 ft) wide, with a roadway consisting of clay; in situ stairs compensate for the slope of the hill. Construction of this type presupposes organization and political will, and has inspired
6052-507: Is sometimes described as a "Phoenician renaissance". The Phoenician city-states filled the power vacuum caused by the Late Bronze Age collapse and created a vast mercantile network. The city-states during this time were Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, Aradus, Beirut, and Tripoli. The recovery of the Mediterranean economy can be credited to Phoenician mariners and merchants, who re-established long-distance trade between Egypt and Mesopotamia in
6230-460: Is unknown if the Phoenicians as a whole did so. Tyre, Lebanon Tyre ( / ˈ t aɪər / ; Arabic : صُور , romanized : Ṣūr ; Phoenician : 𐤑𐤓 , romanized: Ṣūr ; Hebrew : צוֹר , romanized : Tsur ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Τύρος , translit. Týros ) is a city in Lebanon , one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in
6408-479: Is used especially to describe vegetables and fruits from rain-fed, untreated agricultural production – originates from the Baal religion. The Tyrian municipality of Ain Baal is apparently also named after the Phoenician deity. The most visible part of ancient and medieval history on the other side have been the archaeological sites though: The first archaeological excavations were by Ernest Renan in 1860 and 1861. He
6586-539: The Arabian spiny mouse and many other creatures (including wall lizards , common pipistrelle , and European badger ). Also, there are frequent sighting of dolphins in the waters off Tyre. Altogether, the TCNR includes: 275 species distributed over 50 families. In addition, the reserve is home to seven regionally and nationally threatened species , 4 endemic and 10 rare species , whilst 59 species are restricted to
6764-575: The Atlas Mountains . An imperial fleet arrived and retook Carthage, but in 698, Hasan ibn al-Nu'man returned and defeated Emperor Tiberios III at the 698 Battle of Carthage . Roman imperial forces withdrew from all of Africa except Ceuta . Fearing that the Byzantine Empire might reconquer it, they decided to destroy Roman Carthage in a scorched earth policy and establish their headquarters somewhere else. Its walls were torn down,
6942-903: The Battle of Carthage in 698 to prevent it from being reconquered by the Byzantine Empire . It remained occupied during the Muslim period and was used as a fort by the Muslims until the Hafsid period when it was taken by the Crusaders with its inhabitants massacred during the Eighth Crusade . The Hafsids decided to destroy its defenses so it could not be used as a base by a hostile power again. It also continued to function as an episcopal see . The regional power shifted to Kairouan and
7120-608: The Bronze Age . The city became a prominent Phoenician city-state between the 9th and 6th centuries BCE, settling prestigious colonies around the Mediterranean Sea, such as Carthage and Leptis Magna . It went under Persian rule in 572 BCE, before being conquered by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE. Monumental archaeological remains dated from the subsequent Hellenistic , Roman , Byzantine , and Medieval periods led to its inscription on its archaeological remains on
7298-486: The Iron Age without interruption. It is believed that they self-identified as Canaanites and referred to their land as Canaan, indicating a continuous cultural and geographical association. The name Phoenicia is an ancient Greek exonym that did not correspond precisely to a cohesive culture or society as it would have been understood natively. Therefore, the division between Canaanites and Phoenicians around 1200 BC
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7476-485: The Medina of Tunis in the medieval period , until the early 20th century, when it began to develop into a coastal suburb of Tunis , incorporated as Carthage municipality in 1919. The archaeological site was first surveyed in 1830, by Danish consul Christian Tuxen Falbe . Excavations were performed in the second half of the 19th century by Charles Ernest Beulé and by Alfred Louis Delattre . The Carthage National Museum
7654-718: The Neolithic Revolution in the Levant . The Late Bronze Age state of Ugarit is considered quintessentially Canaanite archaeologically, even though the Ugaritic language does not belong to the Canaanite languages proper. The fourth-century BC Greek historian Herodotus claimed that the Phoenicians had migrated from the Erythraean Sea around 2750 BC and the first-century AD geographer Strabo reports
7832-630: The Punic qrt-ḥdšt ( 𐤒𐤓𐤕 𐤇𐤃𐤔𐤕 ) "new city", implying it was a "new Tyre ". The Latin adjective pūnicus , meaning "Phoenician", is reflected in English in some borrowings from Latin – notably the Punic Wars and the Punic language . The Modern Standard Arabic form Qarṭāj ( قرطاج ) is an adoption of French Carthage , replacing an older local toponym reported as Cartagenna that directly continued
8010-499: The Punic Wars (264–146 BC) before being rebuilt as a Roman city. As mercantile city-states concentrated along a narrow coastal strip of land, the Phoenicians lacked the size and population to support a large military. Thus, as neighboring empires began to rise, the Phoenicians increasingly fell under the sway of foreign rulers, who to varying degrees circumscribed their autonomy. The Assyrian conquest of Phoenicia began with King Shalmaneser III . He rose to power in 858 BC and began
8188-684: The Rhone valley and coastal Massalia ". Strabo states that there was a highly lucrative Phoenician trade with Britain for tin via the Cassiterides , whose location is unknown but may have been off the northwest coast of the Iberian Peninsula. Phoenicia lacked considerable natural resources other than its cedar wood. Timber was probably the earliest and most lucrative source of wealth; neither Egypt nor Mesopotamia had adequate wood sources. Unable to rely solely on this limited resource,
8366-518: The Roman Empire in the province of Africa . The question of Carthaginian decline and demise has remained a subject of literary, political, artistic, and philosophical debates in both ancient and modern histories. Late antique and medieval Carthage continued to play an important cultural and economic role in the Byzantine period . The city was sacked and destroyed by Umayyad forces after
8544-542: The Tyrians were hard at work: laying courses for walls, rolling up stones to build the citadel, while others picked out building sites and plowed a boundary furrow. Laws were being enacted, magistrates and a sacred senate chosen. Here men were dredging harbors, there they laid the deep foundations of a theatre, and quarried massive pillars... ." The two inner harbors, named cothon in Punic, were located in
8722-548: The UNESCO World’s Heritage list in 1984. The Roman historian Justin wrote that the original founders arrived from the nearby city of Sidon in the quest to establish a new harbour. The famous Greek historian Herodotus (c. 484–425 BCE), born in the city of Halicarnassus , visited Tyre around 450 BCE at the end of the Greco-Persian Wars (499–449 BCE), and wrote in his Histories that according to
8900-526: The primatial see of Africa and Lavigerie as primate. The Acropolium of Carthage (Saint Louis Cathedral of Carthage) was erected on Byrsa hill in 1884. The Danish consul Christian Tuxen Falbe conducted a first survey of the topography of the archaeological site (published in 1833). Antiquarian interest was intensified following the publication of Flaubert's Salammbô in 1858. Charles Ernest Beulé performed some preliminary excavations of Roman remains on Byrsa hill in 1860. In 1866, Muhammad Khaznadar
9078-597: The "Cinema Rivoli of Tyre" opened and quickly became one of the prime movie theatres of the country. According to UNIFIL , it was visited "by celebrity who's whos of the time, including Jean Marais , Brigitte Bardot , Rushdi Abaza and Omar Hariri." In 1964, the "Dunia" opened, two years later followed by the "Al Hamra Cinema", which became a venue for some of the Arab world's most famous performers, like Mahmoud Darwish , Sheikh Imam , Ahmed Fouad Negm , Wadih el-Safi , and Marcel Khalife . Meanwhile, two Tyrian artists had
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#17327573687449256-533: The 10th century BC. Early into the Iron Age , the Phoenicians established ports, warehouses, markets, and settlement all across the Mediterranean and up to the southern Black Sea. Colonies were established on Cyprus , Sardinia , the Balearic Islands , Sicily , and Malta , as well as the coasts of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. Phoenician hacksilver dated to this period bears lead isotope ratios matching ores in Sardinia and Spain, indicating
9434-468: The 1914 Man in the Opera Hat painting by Pablo Picasso . The proceeds totaled US$ 5.26 million. The painting was won by a 25-year-old fire-safety official from Pennsylvania . IAST president Maha al-Khalil Chalabi is a daughter of feudal lord and politician Kazem el-Khalil . In September 2017, she opened "Les Atelier", which is located in the middle of an orange grove covering an area of 7.300 m at
9612-467: The 4th and 3rd centuries, the sculptures of the sarcophagi became works of art. "Bronze engraving and stone-carving reached their zenith." The elevation of the land at the promontory on the seashore to the north-east (now called Sidi Bou Saïd ), was twice as high above sea level as that at the Byrsa (100 m and 50 m). In between runs a ridge, several times reaching 50 m; it continues northwestward along
9790-644: The African was born in Carthage. The Medina of Tunis , originally a Berber settlement, was established as the new regional center under the Umayyad Caliphate in the early 8th century. Under the Aghlabids , the people of Tunis revolted numerous times, but the city profited from economic improvements and quickly became the second most important in the kingdom. It was briefly the national capital, from
9968-761: The Antiquities Service in Lebanon and was the curator of the National Museum of Beirut . His teams uncovered most remains in the Al Bass / Hippodrome and the City Site/Roman baths. During the 1960s, Honor Frost (1917–2010) – the Cyprus -born pioneer of underwater archaeology initiated several investigations "aimed at identifying and documenting the significant archaeological potential for harbour facilities within coastal Tyre". Based on
10146-421: The Arab period and the eleventh-century historian Al-Bakri stated that they were still in good condition at that time. They also had production centers nearby. It is difficult to determine whether the continued habitation of some other buildings belonged to Late Byzantine or Early Arab period. The Bir Ftouha church may have continued to remain in use although it is not clear when it became uninhabited. Constantine
10324-477: The Bishop of Rome, the first archbishop and chief metropolitan of the whole of Africa is the bishop of Carthage. Later, an archbishop of Carthage named Cyriacus was imprisoned by the Arab rulers because of an accusation by some Christians. Pope Gregory VII wrote Cyriacus a letter of consolation, repeating the hopeful assurances of the primacy of the Church of Carthage, "whether the Church of Carthage should still lie desolate or rise again in glory". By 1076, Cyriacus
10502-423: The Carthaginians. According to K.L. Noll, the majority of scholars in believe that child sacrifice took place in Carthage. Between the sea-filled cothon for shipping and the Byrsa heights lay the agora [Greek: "market"], the city-state's central marketplace for business and commerce. The agora was also an area of public squares and plazas, where the people might formally assemble, or gather for festivals. It
10680-412: The Eastern Mediterranean area. It is also worthy to indicate that, several bio-indicator species as well as 25 medicinal species were recognized. TCNR encloses flora species belonging to the various habitats: the sandy shore, rocky shore, littoral and Freshwater ecosystems . A wide number of Gramineae , Fabaceae , Asteraceae and Umbellifereae families dominate the floristic resources. However,
10858-411: The Empire. Among its major monuments was an amphitheater . Carthage also became a center of early Christianity (see Carthage (episcopal see) ). In the first of a string of rather poorly reported councils at Carthage a few years later, no fewer than 70 bishops attended. Tertullian later broke with the mainstream that was increasingly represented in the West by the primacy of the Bishop of Rome , but
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#173275736874411036-439: The Great in 332 BCE to seize the city. This reportedly 750 m-long and 60 m-wide causeway was laid over a submarine shoal less than 5.4 m deep. This shoal was interpreted as a sandbank (also called a ‘salient’), formed by the accretion of sand in the lee of the island, under the effects of the refraction and diffraction of waves around the island. The causeway interrupted longshore sand transport, forcing sand to accumulate along
11214-451: The Hafsids. After repelling them, Muhammad I al-Mustansir decided to raze Cathage's defenses in order to prevent a repeat. Carthage is some 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) east-northeast of Tunis; the settlements nearest to Carthage were the town of Sidi Bou Said to the north and the village of Le Kram to the south. Sidi Bou Said was a village which had grown around the tomb of the eponymous sufi saint (d. 1231), which had been developed into
11392-407: The IDF bombed the conservation site. The oil spill which devastated the coast north of Ashkelon in February 2021 also contaminated Tyre's beaches. Arguably the most lasting Phoenician legacy for the Tyrian population has been the linguistic mark that the Syriac and Akkadian languages have left on the Arabic spoken in the region of Tyre. Most notably, the widely used term "Ba'ali" – which
11570-443: The Latin name. Carthage was built on a promontory with sea inlets to the north and the south. The city's location made it master of the Mediterranean's maritime trade. All ships crossing the sea had to pass between Sicily and the coast of Tunisia, where Carthage was built, affording it great power and influence. Two large, artificial harbors were built within the city, one for harboring the city's prodigious navy of 220 warships and
11748-403: The Levant since at least the Bronze Age . More specifically, the research of geneticist Chris Tyler-Smith and his team at the Sanger Institute in Britain, who compared "sampled ancient DNA from five Canaanite people who lived 3,750 and 3,650 years ago" to modern people, revealed that 93 percent of the genetic ancestry of people in Lebanon came from the Canaanites (the other 7 percent was of
11926-424: The Levant, including northern Phoenicia, were annexed; only Tyre and Byblos, the most powerful city-states, remained tributary states outside of direct Assyrian control. Tyre, Byblos, and Sidon all rebelled against Assyrian rule. In 721 BC, Sargon II besieged Tyre and crushed the rebellion. His successor Sennacherib suppressed further rebellions across the region. During the seventh century BC, Sidon rebelled and
12104-571: The Mediterranean. Excavations of colonies in Spain suggest they also used the potter's wheel . Their exposure to a wide variety of cultures allowed them to manufacture goods for specific markets. The Iliad suggests Phoenician clothing and metal goods were highly prized by the Greeks. Specialized goods were designed specifically for wealthier clientele, including ivory reliefs and plaques, carved clam shells, sculpted amber, and finely detailed and painted ostrich eggs. The most prized Phoenician goods were fabrics dyed with Tyrian purple , which formed
12282-584: The Mediterranean; Carthage , a settlement in northwest Africa, became a major civilization in its own right in the seventh century BC. The Phoenicians were organized in city-states , similar to those of ancient Greece , of which the most notable were Tyre , Sidon , and Byblos . Each city-state was politically independent, and there is no evidence the Phoenicians viewed themselves as a single nationality. While most city-states were governed by some form of kingship , merchant families probably exercised influence through oligarchies . After reaching its zenith in
12460-499: The Near East, the Phoenicians apparently made the pragmatic calculation of "[yielding] themselves to the Persians". Most of the Levant was consolidated by Cyrus into a single satrapy (province) and forced to pay a yearly tribute of 350 talents , which was roughly half the tribute that was required of Egypt and Libya. The Phoenician area was later divided into four vassal kingdoms—Sidon, Tyre, Arwad, and Byblos—which were allowed considerable autonomy. Unlike in other empire areas, there
12638-405: 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
12816-570: The Ottoman period like Khan Rabu and Khan Sour / Khan Ashkar have partly collapsed after decades of total neglect and lack of any maintenance whatsoever. In 2013, the International Association to Save Tyre (IAST) made headlines when it launched an online raffle in association with Sotheby's to fund the artisans' village Les Ateliers de Tyr at the outskirts of the city. Participants could purchase tickets for 100 euros to win
12994-580: The Persian Levant was Tyre, now the region's largest and most important city. It capitulated after a roughly seven month siege , during which many of its citizens fled to Carthage. Tyre's refusal to allow Alexander to visit its temple to Melqart , culminating in the killing of his envoys, led to a brutal reprisal: 2,000 of its leading citizens were crucified and a puppet ruler was installed. The rest of Phoenicia easily came under his control, with Sidon surrendering peacefully. Alexander's empire had
13172-618: The Persian fleet during the Greco-Persian Wars of the late fifth century BC. Phoenicians under Xerxes I built the Xerxes Canal and the pontoon bridges that allowed his forces to cross into mainland Greece. Nevertheless, they were harshly punished by the Persian King following his defeat at the Battle of Salamis , which he blamed on Phoenician cowardice and incompetence. In the mid-fourth century BC, King Tennes of Sidon led
13350-636: The Phoenician cities were mainly self-governed. Many of them were fought for or over by the warring factions of the Seleucid royal family. Some Phoenician regions were under Jewish influence, after the Jews revolted and succeeded in defeating the Seleucids in 164 BC. A significant portion of the Phoenician diaspora in North Africa thus converted to Judaism in the late millennium BC. The Seleucid Kingdom
13528-512: The Phoenicians apparently developed in situ from the earlier Ghassulian chalcolithic culture. Ghassulian itself developed from the Circum-Arabian Nomadic Pastoral Complex , which in turn developed from a fusion of their ancestral Natufian and Harifian cultures with Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) farming cultures, practicing the domestication of animals during the 8.2 kiloyear event , which led to
13706-504: The Phoenicians developed an industrial base manufacturing a variety of goods for both everyday and luxury use. The Phoenicians developed or mastered techniques such as glass-making , engraved and chased metalwork (including bronze, iron, and gold), ivory carving, and woodwork. The Phoenicians were early pioneers in mass production, and sold a variety of items in bulk. They became the leading source of glassware in antiquity, shipping thousands of flasks, beads, and other glass objects across
13884-475: The Phoenicians had an endonym to denote the land overall, some scholars believe that they would have used " Canaan " and therefore referred to themselves as "Canaanites". Krahmalkov reconstructs the Honeyman inscription (dated to c. 900 BC by William F. Albright ) as containing a reference to the Phoenician homeland, calling it Pūt ( Phoenician : 𐤐𐤕). Obelisks at Karnak contain references to
14062-554: 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
14240-536: The Tunisian mountains caused large amounts of silt to erode into the river. This silt accumulated in the harbor until it became useless, and Rome was forced to rebuild Carthage. By 122 BC, Gaius Gracchus founded a short-lived colony , called Colonia Iunonia , after the Latin name for the Punic goddess Tanit , Iuno Caelestis . The purpose was to obtain arable lands for impoverished farmers. The Senate abolished
14418-725: The Western Mediterranean culminating in the Sicilian Wars and the Pyrrhic War over Sicily , while the Romans fought three wars against Carthage, known as the Punic Wars , from the Latin "Punicus" meaning "Phoenician", as Carthage was a Phoenician colony grown into an empire. The Carthaginian republic was one of the longest-lived and largest states in the ancient Mediterranean. Reports relay several wars with Syracuse and finally, Rome, which eventually resulted in
14596-422: The ancient city under the name of Cartagenna (i.e. reflecting the Latin n -stem Carthāgine ). Phoenicia The Phoenicians were an ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean , primarily modern Lebanon . They developed a maritime civilization which expanded and contracted throughout history, with
14774-405: The ancient topics which Mago discussed. As well, Mago addresses the wine-maker's art (here a type of sherry ). In Punic farming society, according to Mago, the small estate owners were the chief producers. They were, two modern historians write, not absent landlords. Rather, the likely reader of Mago was "the master of a relatively modest estate, from which, by great personal exertion, he extracted
14952-486: The area of modern Lebanon. In a 2020 study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics , researchers have shown that there is substantial genetic continuity in Lebanon since the Bronze Age interrupted by three significant admixture events during the Iron Age , Hellenistic , and Ottoman period. In particular, the Phoenicians can be modeled as a mixture of the local Bronze Age population (63–88%) and
15130-472: The armed conflict and by anarchic urban development. In the late 1980s, "clandestine excavations" took place in the Al-Bass cemetery , which "flooded the antiquities market". Regular excavation activities only started again in 1995 under the supervision of Ali Khalil Badawi. Shortly afterwards, an Israeli bomb destroyed an apartment block in the city and evidence for an early church was revealed underneath
15308-554: The auspices of UNESCO from 1975 to 1984. The site of the ruins is a UNESCO World Heritage Site . The name Carthage ( / ˈ k ɑːr θ ɪ dʒ / KAR -thij ) is the Early Modern anglicisation of Middle French Carthage /kartaʒə/ , from Latin Carthāgō and Karthāgō (cf. Greek Karkhēdōn ( Καρχηδών ) and Etruscan [*Carθaza] Error: {{Lang}}: Non-latn text/Latn script subtag mismatch ( help ) ) from
15486-599: The biodiversity of the TCNR is threatened as shown by a strong decrease in the numbers of the caspian terrapin Mauremys caspica , the green toad Bufo viridis and the tree frog Hyla savigny . Also, since the 2000s, the North American camphorweed Heterotheca subaxillaris has invaded the TCNR as a neophyte from Haifa across the Blue Line. During the 2006 war, turtle breeding areas were affected when
15664-681: The bombardment had damaged frescoes in a Roman funerary cave at the Tyre Necropolis . Additional site degradation was also noted, including "the lack of maintenance, the decay of exposed structures due to lack of rainwater regulation and the decay of porous and soft stones". Since 2008, a Lebanese French team under the direction by Pierre-Louis Gatier of the University of Lyon has been conducting archaeological and topographical work. When international archeological missions in Syria came to
15842-427: The causeway, rapidly creating an emerged sandy isthmus (or tombolo ), linking the island to the mainland. This sandy isthmus rapidly inflated during the centuries following the construction of the causeway. By early Imperial Roman times, monumental buildings had been built over most of its surface. Their layout implies that the isthmus was by then nearly as wide as today. Therefore, the isthmus had completely reshaped
16020-493: The city of Carthage c. 310 BC: It was divided into market gardens and orchards of all sorts of fruit trees, with many streams of water flowing in channels irrigating every part. There were country homes everywhere, lavishly built and covered with stucco. ... Part of the land was planted with vines, part with olives and other productive trees. Beyond these, cattle and sheep were pastured on the plains, and there were meadows with grazing horses. Greek cities contested with Carthage for
16198-617: The city they hailed from (e.g., Sidonian for Sidon , Tyrian for Tyre , etc.) A 2008 study led by Pierre Zalloua found that six subclades of Haplogroup J-M172 (J2)—thought to have originated between the Caucasus Mountains , Mesopotamia and the Levant —were of a "Phoenician signature" and present amongst the male populations of coastal Lebanon as well as the wider Levant (the "Phoenician Periphery"), followed by other areas of historic Phoenician settlement, spanning Cyprus through to Morocco. This deliberate sequential sampling
16376-541: 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 700m offshore, and the associated settlement of Ushu on the adjacent mainland, later called Palaetyrus , meaning "Old Tyre" in Ancient Greek . The fortified city was on top of a rock from which its name
16554-416: The colony some time later, to undermine Gracchus' power. After this ill-fated effort, a new city of Carthage was built on the same land by Julius Caesar in the period from 49 to 44 BC, and by the first century, it had grown to be the second-largest city in the western half of the Roman Empire , with a peak population of 500,000. It was the center of the province of Africa , which was a major breadbasket of
16732-572: The core of their culture stretching from Arwad in modern Syria to Mount Carmel . The Phoenicians extended their cultural influence through trade and colonization throughout the Mediterranean, from Cyprus to the Iberian Peninsula . The Phoenicians directly succeeded the Bronze Age Canaanites , continuing their cultural traditions following the decline of most major cultures in the Late Bronze Age collapse and into
16910-559: The defeat and destruction of Carthage in the Third Punic War. The Carthaginians were Phoenician settlers of primarily Southern Mediterranean and Southern European ancestry. Phoenicians had originated in the Mediterranean coast of the Levant . They spoke Canaanite , a Semitic language , and followed a local variety of the ancient Canaanite religion , the Punic religion . The Carthaginians travelled widely across
17088-513: The designs, ornamentation, and embroidery used in Phoenician textiles were well-regarded, the techniques and specific descriptions are unknown. Mining operations in the Phoenician homeland were limited; iron was the only metal of any worth. The first large-scale mining operations probably occurred in Cyprus, principally for copper. Sardinia may have been colonized almost exclusively for its mineral resources; Phoenician settlements were concentrated in
17266-449: The discovery of 250 BCE to 500 CE harbour sediments behind this breakwater demonstrated the existence of a northern harbour repeatedly, if not permanently, throughout Antiquity under the modern harbour of Tyre. The location of the southern harbour is more elusive. Renan (1864–1874) envisioned it as an extensive structure now located offshore, south of the former island. Subsequent diving surveys identified submerged man-made structures on
17444-467: The eastern coast of Tyre Island within 6–10 centuries after the construction of the causeway, spurring a radical transformation of the city. Tyre enjoys a reputation of having some of the cleanest beaches and waters of Lebanon. However, a UN HABITAT profile found that "seawater is also polluted due to wastewater discharge especially in the port area". There is still also considerable pollution by solid waste. The Tyre Coast Nature Reserve (TCNR)
17622-550: The end of the reign of Ibrahim II in 902, until 909, when the Shi'ite Berbers took over Ifriqiya and founded the Fatimid Caliphate . Carthage remained a residential see until the high medieval period , and is mentioned in two letters of Pope Leo IX dated 1053, written in reply to consultations regarding a conflict between the bishops of Carthage and Gummi . In each of the two letters, Pope Leo declares that, after
17800-504: The extent of Phoenician trade networks. By the tenth century BC, Tyre rose to become the richest and most powerful Phoenician city-state, particularly during the reign of Hiram I ( c. 969–936 BC). The expertise of Phoenician artisans sent by Hiram I of Tyre in significant construction projects during the reign of Solomon , the King of Israel, is documented in the Bible. During
17978-512: The facade of their allied status to Rome and defeated the Roman general Bonifacius to seize Carthage, the once most treasured province of Rome. The 5th-century Roman bishop Victor Vitensis mentions in his Historia Persecutionis Africanae Provincia that the Vandals destroyed parts of Carthage, including various buildings and churches. Once in power, the ecclesiastical authorities were persecuted,
18156-434: The height of Phoenician shipping, mercantile, and cultural activity, particularly between 750 and 650 BC. The Phoenician influence was visible in the "orientalization" of Greek cultural and artistic conventions. Among their most popular goods were fine textiles, typically dyed with Tyrian purple . Homer's Iliad , which was composed during this period, references the quality of Phoenician clothing and metal goods. Carthage
18334-567: The history of Herodian , Carthage rivaled Alexandria for second place in the Roman empire. The Punic Carthage was divided into four equally sized residential areas with the same layout. The Punic had religious areas, market places, council house, towers, a theater, and a huge necropolis ; roughly in the middle of the city stood a high citadel called the Byrsa . Surrounding Carthage were walls "of great strength" said in places to rise above 13 m, being nearly 10 m thick, according to ancient authors. To
18512-682: The interior (via the Nahr al-Kabir and the Orontes rivers ). The cities provided Egypt with access to Mesopotamian trade and abundant stocks of the region's native cedarwood . There was no equivalent in the Egyptian homeland. By the mid-14th century BC, the Phoenician city-states were considered "favored cities" to the Egyptians. Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, and Byblos were regarded as the most important. The Phoenicians had considerable autonomy, and their cities were reasonably well developed and prosperous. Byblos
18690-496: The large terracotta jars used for transporting wine. From Egypt, the Phoenicians bought Nubian gold. From elsewhere, they obtained other materials, perhaps the most crucial being silver , mostly from Sardinia and the Iberian Peninsula . Tin for making bronze "may have been acquired from Galicia by way of the Atlantic coast of southern Spain; alternatively, it may have come from northern Europe ( Cornwall or Brittany ) via
18868-417: The local Berbers. Whether there remained Berber landowners next to Punic-run farms is unclear. Some Berbers became sharecroppers. Slaves acquired for farm work were often prisoners of war. In lands outside Punic political control, independent Berbers cultivated grain and raised horses on their lands. Yet within the Punic domain that surrounded the city-state of Carthage, there were ethnic divisions in addition to
19046-535: The locals were aggressively taxed, and naval raids were routinely launched on Romans in the Mediterranean. After a failed attempt to recapture the city in the fifth century, the Eastern Roman Empire finally subdued the Vandals in the Vandalic War in 533–534 and made Carthage capital of Byzantine North Africa . Thereafter, the city became the seat of the praetorian prefecture of Africa , which
19224-492: The maximum yield." Mago counselled the rural landowner, for the sake of their own 'utilitarian' interests, to treat carefully and well their managers and farm workers, or their overseers and slaves. Yet elsewhere these writers suggest that rural land ownership provided also a new power base among the city's nobility, for those resident in their country villas. By many, farming was viewed as an alternative endeavour to an urban business. Another modern historian opines that more often it
19402-528: The mean annual precipitation reaches up to 645 mm. The temperature of the sea water reaches a minimum of 17 °C in February and a maximum of 32 °C in August. At a depth of 70 m it is constantly at 17–18 °C. Meanwhile, rising sea levels due to global warming threaten coastal erosion to Tyre's peninsula and bay areas. The ancient city of Tyre is located along the coast of Phoenicia in modern Lebanon. The site has been occupied since
19580-574: The name of the city means 'rock' after the rocky formation on which the town was originally built. The predominant form in Classical Greek was Týros ( Τύρος ), which was first seen in the works of Herodotus but may have been adopted considerably earlier. It gave rise to Latin Tyrus , which entered English during the Middle English period as Tyre . The demonym for Tyre
19758-411: The name of the neighborhood, " Hannibal district", referring to the legendary Punic general or sufet (consul) at the beginning of the second century BC. The habitat is typical, even stereotypical. The street was often used as a storefront/shopfront; cisterns were installed in basements to collect water for domestic use, and a long corridor on the right side of each residence led to a courtyard containing
19936-450: The naval and commercial harbors, and another two were further up the hill toward the Byrsa citadel. Sites of pottery kilns have been identified, between the agora and the harbors, and further north. Earthenware often used Greek models. A fuller 's shop for preparing woolen cloth (shrink and thicken) was evidently situated further to the west and south, then by the edge of the city. Carthage also produced objects of rare refinement. During
20114-475: The ninth century BC, the Phoenician civilization in the eastern Mediterranean gradually declined due to external influences and conquests. Yet, their presence persisted in the central and western Mediterranean until the destruction of Carthage in the mid-second century BC. The Phoenicians were long considered a lost civilization due to the lack of indigenous written records, and only since the mid-20th century have historians and archaeologists been able to reveal
20292-425: The north east. Houses usually were whitewashed and blank to the street, but within were courtyards open to the sky. In these neighborhoods multistory construction later became common, some up to six stories tall according to an ancient Greek author. Several architectural floorplans of homes have been revealed by recent excavations , as well as the general layout of several city blocks . Stone stairs were set in
20470-572: The north. Egypt subsequently lost its coastal holdings from Ugarit in northern Syria to Byblos near central Lebanon. Sometime between 1200 and 1150 BC, the Late Bronze Age collapse severely weakened or destroyed most civilizations in the region, including the Egyptians and Hittites. The Phoenicians were able to survive and navigate the challenges of the crisis, and by 1230 BC city-states such as Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos, maintained political independence, asserted their maritime interests through overseas colonization, and enjoyed economic prosperity. The period
20648-402: The northeastern outskirts of Tyre. The city of Tyre appears in many biblical traditions: A multi-ring structured region on Europa , the smallest of the four Galilean moons orbiting Jupiter , is named after Tyre, the legendary birthplace of princess Europa. Originally called "Tyre Macula ", it is some 140 kilometers in diameter (about the size of the island of Hawaii ) and thought to be
20826-667: The northern harbour area of Tyre. In 2003, Randa Berri, president of the National Association for the Preservation of South Lebanon's Archaeology and Heritage and wife of Nabih Berri , veteran leader of the Amal Movement and longtime Speaker of the Parliament of Lebanon, patronized a plan to renovate Khan Sour / Khan Al Askaar, the former Ma'ani palace, and convert it into a museum. As of 2019, nothing
21004-415: The occurrence of child sacrifice, as claimed in the Bible and Greco-Roman sources, although there has been considerable doubt among archeologists as to this interpretation and many consider it simply a cemetery devoted to infants. Probably the tophet burial fields were "dedicated at an early date, perhaps by the first settlers." Recent studies, on the other hand, indicate that child sacrifice was practiced by
21182-552: 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 km 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
21360-400: The other for mercantile trade. A walled tower overlooked both harbors. The city had massive walls, 37 km (23 mi) long, which was longer than the walls of comparable cities. Most of the walls were on the shore and so could be less impressive, as Carthaginian control of the sea made attack from that direction difficult. The 4.0 to 4.8 km (2.5 to 3 mi) of wall on the isthmus to
21538-532: The oxhide into strips and laid out the perimeter of the new city. As Carthage prospered at home, the polity sent colonists abroad as well as magistrates to rule the colonies. The ancient city was destroyed in the nearly three year siege of Carthage by the Roman Republic during the Third Punic War in 146 BC. It was re-developed a century later as Roman Carthage , which became the major city of
21716-486: The presence of archaeological remains at proposed construction sites. The sites have not been investigated. Despite the relocation of a proposed traffic interchange, the lack of precise site boundaries confuses the issue of site preservation. A 2018 study of Mediterranean world heritage sites found that Tyre's City site has "the highest risk of coastal erosion under current climatic conditions, in addition to 'moderate' risk from extreme sea levels." Further coastal inspection
21894-439: The priests there, the city was founded 2300 years earlier (around 2750 BCE), as a walled place upon the mainland, now known as Paleotyre (Old Tyre). The Phoenician Tyrians' international trade network was based on its two harbours which are mentioned by ancient writers (Arrian, Anabasis, 2, 24; Strabo, Geography, 16,2,23). The northern harbour opened toward the Phoenician city of Sidon and has been therefore referred to as
22072-411: The production and trade of the dye, combined with the labor-intensive extraction process, made it very expensive. Tyrian purple subsequently became associated with the upper classes. It soon became a status symbol in several civilizations, most notably among the Romans. Assyrian tribute records from the Phoenicians include "garments of brightly colored stuff" that most likely included Tyrian purple. While
22250-562: The progenitor of classical Greece. Archaeological research suggests that the Minoans gradually imported Near Eastern goods, artistic styles, and customs from other cultures via the Phoenicians. To Egypt the Phoenicians sold logs of cedar for significant sums, and wine beginning in the eighth century. The wine trade with Egypt is vividly documented by shipwrecks discovered in 1997 in the open sea 50 kilometres (30 mi) west of Ascalon , Israel. Pottery kilns at Tyre and Sarepta produced
22428-641: The rare U5b2c1 maternal haplogroup was identified in the DNA of a 2,500-year-old male skeleton excavated from a Punic tomb in Tunisia. The lineage of this "Young Man of Byrsa" is believed to represent early gene flow from Iberia to the Maghreb . According to a 2017 study published by the American Journal of Human Genetics , present-day Lebanese derive most of their ancestry from a Canaanite -related population, which therefore implies substantial genetic continuity in
22606-561: The region in the 8th millennium BC". Brian R. Doak states that scholars use "Phoenicians" as a short-hand for "Canaanites living in a set of cities along the northern Levantine coast who shared a language and material culture in the Iron I–II period and who also developed an organized system of colonies in the western Mediterranean world". The Phoenician Early Bronze Age is largely unknown. The two most important sites are Byblos and Sidon-Dakerman (near Sidon), although, as of 2021, well over
22784-495: The region, and recent genetic research indicates that present-day Lebanese derive most of their ancestry from a Canaanite-related population. The first known account of the Phoenicians relates to the conquests of Pharaoh Thutmose III (1479–1425 BC). The Egyptians targeted coastal cities which they wrote belonged to the Fenekhu , 'carpenters', such as Byblos, Arwad, and Ullasa for their crucial geographic and commercial links with
22962-503: The reigns of the first Babylonian King, Nabopolassar (626–605 BC), and his son Nebuchadnezzar II ( c. 605 – c. 562 BC). In 587 BC Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre, which resisted for thirteen years, but ultimately capitulated under "favorable terms". In 539 BC, Cyrus the Great , king and founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire , took Babylon. As Cyrus began consolidating territories across
23140-618: The results, she suggested that the Al Mobarakee Tower may actually date back to Hellenistic times. All those works stopped though soon after the 1975 beginning of the Civil War and many records were lost. In 1984, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) declared Tyre a World Heritage Site in an attempt to halt the damage being done to the archaeological sites by
23318-482: The rubble. Its unusual design suggests that this was the site of the Cathedral of Paulinus which had been inaugurated in 315 CE. In 1997, the first Phoenician cremation cemetery was uncovered in the al-Bass site , near the Roman necropolis. Meanwhile, Honor Frost mentored local Lebanese archaeologists to conduct further underwater investigations, which in 2001 confirmed the existence of a human-made structure within
23496-518: The rule of the priest Ithobaal (887–856 BC), Tyre expanded its territory as far north as Beirut and into part of Cyprus; this unusual act of aggression was the closest the Phoenicians ever came to forming a unitary territorial state. Once his realm reached its largest territorial extent, Ithobaal declared himself "King of the Sidonians", a title that would be used by his successors and mentioned in both Greek and Jewish accounts. The Late Iron Age saw
23674-504: The seafloor within 150 m of the former island. Antoine Poidebard, who was the first to have them explored by divers in 1939, saw in these structures former breakwaters enclosing a harbour with two entrances. The geographic area enclosed within these structures is therefore often referred to as the “Southern Harbour”. These structures have also been interpreted as a polder-like area protecting an urban district (El-Amouri et al., 2005; Frost, 1971; Renan, 1864–1874). A Phoenician-style breakwater
23852-453: The seas and set up numerous colonies. Unlike Greek, Phoenician, and Tyrian colonizers who "only required colonies to pay due respect for their home-cities", Carthage is said to have "sent its own magistrates to govern overseas settlements". The fall of Carthage came at the end of the Third Punic War in 146 BC at the Battle of Carthage . Despite initial devastating Roman naval losses and Hannibal 's 15-year occupation of much of Roman Italy, who
24030-644: The seashore, and forms the edge of a plateau-like area between the Byrsa and the sea. Newer urban developments lay here in these northern districts. Due to the Roman's leveling of the city, the original Punic urban landscape of Carthage was largely lost. Since 1982, French archaeologist Serge Lancel excavated a residential area of the Punic Carthage on top of Byrsa hill near the Forum of the Roman Carthage. The neighborhood can be dated back to early second century BC, and with its houses, shops, and private spaces,
24208-586: The seventh century, in area about 10 hectares (25 acres), was apparently located on low-lying lands along the coast (north of the later harbors). As confirmed by archaeological excavations, Carthage was a "creation ex nihilo ", built on 'virgin' land, and situated at what was then the end of a peninsula. Here among "mud brick walls and beaten clay floors" (recently uncovered) were also found extensive cemeteries, which yielded evocative grave goods like clay masks. "Thanks to this burial archaeology we know more about archaic Carthage than about any other contemporary city in
24386-511: The several growing regions that surrounded the city wrote admiringly of the lush green gardens, orchards, fields, irrigation channels, hedgerows (as boundaries), as well as the many prosperous farming towns located across the rural landscape. Accordingly, the Greek author and compiler Diodorus Siculus (fl. 1st century BC), who enjoyed access to ancient writings later lost, and on which he based most of his writings, described agricultural land near
24564-470: The site where an asteroid or comet impacted Europa's ice crust. The asteroid 209 Dido is named after the legendary Tyrian-Carthaginian princess. It is a very large main-belt asteroid , classified as a C-type asteroid which is probably composed of carbonaceous materials. 209 Dido was discovered in 1879 by C. H. F. Peters . The first cinema in Tyre opened in the late 1930s when a café owner established makeshift film screenings. Hamid Istanbouli –
24742-465: The son of the Prime Minister of Tunisia , carried out the first locally led excavations. A more systematic survey of both Punic and Roman-era remains is due to Alfred Louis Delattre , who was sent to Tunis by cardinal Charles Lavigerie in 1875 on both an apostolic and an archaeological mission. Audollent cites Delattre and Lavigerie to the effect that in the 1880s, locals still knew the area of
24920-455: The south of the city. Considering the importance of the Byrsa , the citadel area to the north, our knowledge of it is patchy. Its prominent heights were the scene of fierce combat during the fiery destruction of the city in 146 BC. The Byrsa was the reported site of the Temple of Eshmun (the healing god), at the top of a stairway of sixty steps. A temple of Tanit (the city's queen goddess)
25098-461: The southeast; one being commercial, and the other for war. Their definite functions are not entirely known, probably for the construction, outfitting, or repair of ships, perhaps also loading and unloading cargo. Larger anchorages existed to the north and south of the city. North and west of the cothon were located several industrial areas, e.g., metalworking and pottery (e.g., for amphora ), which could serve both inner harbors, and ships anchored to
25276-572: The southern parts of the island, close to sources of copper and lead. Piles of scoria and copper ingots, which appear to predate Roman occupation, suggest the Phoenicians mined and processed metals on the island. The Iberian Peninsula was the richest source of numerous metals in antiquity, including gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, and lead. The significant output of these metals during the Phoenician and Carthaginian occupation strongly implied large scale mining operations. The Carthaginians are documented to have relied on slave labor for mining, though it
25454-483: The streets, and drainage was planned, e.g., in the form of soakaways leaching into the sandy soil. Along the Byrsa's southern slope were located not only fine old homes, but also many of the earliest grave-sites, juxtaposed in small areas, interspersed with daily life. Artisan workshops were located in the city at sites north and west of the harbors. The location of three metal workshops (implied from iron slag and other vestiges of such activity) were found adjacent to
25632-652: The surrounding African countryside was brought into the orbit of the Punic urban centers, first commercially, then politically. Direct management over cultivation of neighbouring lands by Punic owners followed. A 28-volume work on agriculture written in Punic by Mago , a retired army general ( c. 300 ), was translated into Latin and later into Greek. The original and both translations have been lost; however, some of Mago's text has survived in other Latin works. Olive trees (e.g., grafting ), fruit trees (pomegranate, almond, fig, date palm), viniculture , bees, cattle, sheep, poultry, implements, and farm management were among
25810-465: The usual quasi feudal distinctions between lord and peasant, or master and serf. This inherent instability in the countryside drew the unwanted attention of potential invaders. Yet for long periods Carthage was able to manage these social difficulties. The many amphorae with Punic markings subsequently found about ancient Mediterranean coastal settlements testify to Carthaginian trade in locally made olive oil and wine. Carthage's agricultural production
25988-472: The water supply from its aqueducts cut off, the agricultural land was ravaged and its harbors made unusable. The destruction of the Exarchate of Africa marked a permanent end to the Byzantine Empire's influence in the region. It is clear from archaeological evidence that the town of Carthage continued to be occupied, as did the neighborhood of Bjordi Djedid. The Baths of Antoninus continued to function in
26166-461: The west were truly massive and were never penetrated. Carthage was one of the largest cities of the Hellenistic period and was among the largest cities in preindustrial history. Whereas by AD 14, Rome had at least 750,000 inhabitants and in the following century may have reached 1 million, the cities of Alexandria and Antioch numbered only a few hundred thousand or less. According to
26344-493: The west, three parallel walls were built. The walls altogether ran for about 33 kilometres (21 miles) to encircle the city. The heights of the Byrsa were additionally fortified ; this area being the last to succumb to the Romans in 146 BC . Originally the Romans had landed their army on the strip of land extending southward from the city. Outside the city walls of Carthage is the Chora or farm lands of Carthage. Chora encompassed
26522-598: The western Mediterranean." Already in the eighth century, fabric dyeing operations had been established, evident from crushed shells of murex (from which the 'Phoenician purple' was derived). Nonetheless, only a "meager picture" of the cultural life of the earliest pioneers in the city can be conjectured, and not much about housing, monuments or defenses. The Roman poet Virgil (70–19 BC) imagined early Carthage, when his legendary character Aeneas had arrived there: "Aeneas found, where lately huts had been, marvelous buildings, gateways, cobbled ways, and din of wagons. There
26700-537: The world, though in medieval times for some centuries by just a small population. It was one of the earliest Phoenician metropolises and the legendary birthplace of Europa , her brothers Cadmus and Phoenix , as well as 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
26878-406: The “Sidonian Harbour” by 19th and 20th century scholars, but it was referred to as the "Port of Astronoe" during Late Antiquity. The southern harbour opened toward Egypt and was referred to as the “Egyptian Harbour”. The location of the two harbours has been the subject of speculations since the 17th Century. The submarine excavation of a large, 4-6th Century BCE breakwater north of the city, and
27056-473: Was sown with salt after being razed, but there is no evidence for this. When Carthage fell, its nearby rival Utica , a Roman ally, was made capital of the region and replaced Carthage as the leading center of Punic trade and leadership. It had the advantageous position of being situated on the outlet of the Medjerda River , Tunisia's only river that flowed all year long. However, grain cultivation in
27234-578: Was 1200 BC to the end of the Persian period (332 BC). It is debated whether Phoenicians were actually distinct from the broader group of Semitic-speaking peoples known as Canaanites . Historian Robert Drews believes the term "Canaanites" corresponds to the ethnic group referred to as "Phoenicians" by the ancient Greeks; archaeologist Jonathan N. Tubb argues that " Ammonites , Moabites , Israelites , and Phoenicians undoubtedly achieved their own cultural identities, and yet ethnically they were all Canaanites", "the same people who settled in farming villages in
27412-473: Was an attempt to develop a methodology to link the documented historical expansion of a population with a particular geographic genetic pattern or patterns. The researchers suggested that the proposed genetic signature stemmed from "a common source of related lineages rooted in Lebanon ". Another study in 2006 found evidence for the genetic persistence of Phoenicians in the Spanish island of Ibiza . In 2016,
27590-494: Was conducted in 2019, leading to a new hypothesis about the local relative sea level rise and to discovery of yet unreported submerged coastal structures. Like many of the cities in the Levant and in Lebanon , the architecture since the Lebanese Civil War in the 1970s has been of poor quality, which tend to threaten the cultural heritage in the built environment before the war. Meanwhile, historical buildings from
27768-602: Was decreed in 1998 by the Ministry of Public Works . It is 3.5 km (2.2 mi) long and covers over 380 hectares (940 acres). The TCNR is within the best preserved stretch of sandy coastline in southern Lebanon and divided into two section zones: a 1.8 km sand lined beach, 1.8 km long and 500 meters wide-ranging from the Tyre Rest House in the north to the Rashidieh Refugee Camp in the South, and
27946-491: Was delivering goods to Tyre. The adaptation to Macedonian rule was probably aided by the Phoenicians' historical ties with the Greeks, with whom they shared some mythological stories and figures; the two peoples were even sometimes considered "relatives". When Alexander's empire collapsed after his death in 323 BC, the Phoenicians came under the control of the largest of its successors, the Seleucids . The Phoenician homeland
28124-589: Was destroyed by Esarhaddon , who enslaved its inhabitants and built a new city on its ruins. By the end of the century, the Assyrians had been weakened by successive revolts, which led to their destruction by the Median Empire . The Babylonians, formerly vassals of the Assyrians, took advantage of the empire's collapse and rebelled, quickly establishing the Neo-Babylonian Empire in its place. Phoenician cities revolted several times throughout
28302-504: Was done by a French team under the leadership of Denyse Le Lasseur in 1921. It was followed by another mission between 1934 and 1936 that included aerial surveys and diving expeditions. It was led by the Jesuit missionary Antoine Poidebard , a pioneer of aerial archaeology . Large-scale excavations started in 1946 under the leadership of Emir Maurice Chéhab (1904–1994), "the father of modern Lebanese archaeology" who for decades headed
28480-457: Was done in that regard and the ruins have kept on crumbling. The hostilities of the 2006 Lebanon War put the ancient structures of Tyre at risk. This prompted UNESCO 's Director-General to launch a "Heritage Alert" for the site. Following the cessation of hostilities in September 2006, a visit by conservation experts to Lebanon observed no direct damage to the ancient city of Tyre. However,
28658-488: Was followed in the 1870s by Johannes Nepemuk Sepp. His most notable work was excavating at the cathedral in an attempt to find the bones of Frederick Barbarossa . More work was undertaken in 1903 by the Greek archaeologist Theodore Makridi , curator of the Imperial Museum at Constantinople . Important findings like fragments of marble sarcophagi were sent to the Ottoman capital. An archaeological survey of Tyre
28836-417: Was founded by Phoenicians coming from Tyre, probably initially as a station in the metal trade with the southern Iberian Peninsula . The city's name in Punic , Qart-Ḥadašt ( 𐤒𐤓𐤕 𐤇𐤃𐤔𐤕 ) , means 'New City'. There is a tradition in some ancient sources, such as Philistos of Syracuse , for an "early" foundation date of around 1215 BC—before the fall of Troy in 1180 BC. However, Timaeus ,
29014-430: Was founded in 1875 by Cardinal Charles Lavigerie . Excavations performed by French archaeologists in the 1920s first attracted an extraordinary amount of attention because of the evidence they produced for child sacrifice . There has been considerable disagreement among scholars concerning whether child sacrifice was practiced by ancient Carthage. The open-air Carthage Paleo-Christian Museum has exhibits excavated under
29192-468: Was held in high regard by the ancients, and rivaled that of Rome – they were once competitors, e.g., over their olive harvests. Under Roman rule, however, grain production (wheat and barley) for export increased dramatically in 'Africa'; yet these later fell with the rise in Roman Egypt 's grain exports. Thereafter olive groves and vineyards were re-established around Carthage. Visitors to
29370-440: 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 has perhaps been discovered very recently. Throughout history 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
29548-656: Was likely situated on the slope of the 'lesser Byrsa' immediately to the east, which runs down toward the sea. Also situated on the Byrsa were luxury homes. South of the citadel, near the cothon was the tophet , a special and very old cemetery , which when begun lay outside the city's boundaries. Here the Salammbô was located, the Sanctuary of Tanit , not a temple but an enclosure for placing stone stelae . These were mostly short and upright, carved for funeral purposes. The presence of infant skeletons from here may indicate
29726-668: Was made into an exarchate during the emperor Maurice's reign, as was Ravenna on the Italian Peninsula. These two exarchates were the western bulwarks of the Byzantine Empire, all that remained of its power in the West. In the early seventh century Heraclius the Elder , the exarch of Carthage, overthrew the Byzantine emperor Phocas , whereupon his son Heraclius succeeded to the imperial throne. The Roman Exarchate of Africa
29904-418: Was no organized Hellenization in Phoenicia, and with one or two minor exceptions, all Phoenician city-states retained their native names, while Greek settlement and administration appear to have been very limited. The Phoenicians maintained cultural and commercial links with their western counterparts. Polybius recounts how the Seleucid King Demetrius I escaped from Rome by boarding a Carthaginian ship that
30082-405: Was not able to withstand the seventh-century Muslim conquest of the Maghreb . The Umayyad Caliphate under Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan in 686 sent a force led by Zuhayr ibn Qays , who won a battle over the Romans and Berbers led by King Kusaila of the Kingdom of Altava on the plain of Kairouan , but he could not follow that up. In 695, Hassan ibn al-Nu'man captured Carthage and advanced into
30260-410: Was on the brink of defeat but managed to recover, the end of the series of wars resulted in the end of Carthaginian power and the complete destruction of the city by Scipio Aemilianus . The Romans pulled the Phoenician warships out into the harbor and burned them before the city, and went from house to house, capturing and enslaving the people. About 50,000 Carthaginians were sold into slavery . The city
30438-419: Was recently found within this area, but excavation is needed to confirm its age ascription. Harbour sediments found behind the structure suggest that the breakwater was part of the Egyptian harbour. Harbour sediments found near Hiram's Tower, further north, mark an early location of the Sidonian Harbour. The development of Tyre was profoundly affected by the construction of a causeway built by Alexander
30616-408: Was repeatedly contested by the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt during the forty-year Syrian Wars , coming under Ptolemaic rule in the third century BC. The Seleucids reclaimed the area the following century, holding it until the mid-first 2nd century BC. Under their rule, the Phoenicians were allowed a considerable degree of autonomy and self-governance. During the Seleucid Dynastic Wars (157–63 BC),
30794-469: Was seized by Tigranes the Great of Armenia in 82 BC, ending the Hellenistic influence on the Levant. The people now known as Phoenicians were a group of ancient Semitic-speaking peoples that emerged in the Levant in at least the third millennium BC. Phoenicians did not refer themselves as "Phoenicians" but rather are thought to have broadly referred to themselves as "Kenaʿani", meaning ' Canaanites '. Phoenicians specifically identified themselves with
30972-408: Was set ablaze and razed to the ground, leaving only ruins and rubble. After the fall of Carthage, Rome annexed the majority of the Carthaginian colonies, including other North African locations such as Volubilis , Lixus , Chellah . Today a "Carthaginian peace" can refer to any brutal peace treaty demanding total subjugation of the defeated side. Since at least 1863, it has been claimed that Carthage
31150-415: Was set free, but there was only one other bishop in the province. These are the last of whom there is mention in that period of the history of the see. The fortress of Carthage was used by the Muslims until Hafsid era and was captured by the Crusaders during the Eighth Crusade . The inhabitants of Carthage were slaughtered by the Crusaders after they took it, and it was used as a base of operations against
31328-442: Was the leading city; it was a center for bronze-making and the primary terminus of precious goods such as tin and lapis lazuli from as far east as Afghanistan . Sidon and Tyre also commanded interest among Egyptian officials, beginning a pattern of rivalry that would span the next millennium. The Amarna letters report that from 1350 to 1300 BC, neighboring Amorites and Hittites were capturing Phoenician cities, especially in
31506-409: Was the site of religious shrines, and the location of whatever were the major municipal buildings of Carthage. Here beat the heart of civic life. In this district of Carthage, more probably, the ruling suffets presided, the council of elders convened, the tribunal of the 104 met, and justice was dispensed at trials in the open air. Early residential districts wrapped around the Byrsa from the south to
31684-412: Was the urban merchant of Carthage who owned rural farming land to some profit, and also to retire there during the heat of summer. It may seem that Mago anticipated such an opinion, and instead issued this contrary advice (as quoted by the Roman writer Columella): The man who acquires an estate must sell his house, lest he prefer to live in the town rather than in the country. Anyone who prefers to live in
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