Tyre (Phœ;n. Stir or Sor, 'rock'), a city of ancient Phoenicia, situated in 33° 12' N. lat. There were two towns - one on the mainland, the other on the island opposite. Tyre was a city on an island in the 14th century B.C., when it is described in an Egyptian papyrus. Explorations were made here in 1874, 1877, and 1881. Alexander the Great made a causeway from the shore, which has increased in breadth to a quarter of a mile by drifting sand. Tyre was enlarged and beautified by Hiram, and sustained sieges by Shalmaneser, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander (332 b.c.), and Antigonus. Cleopatra received Tyre as a present from Antony; but the last trace of independence was taken from it by Augustus. In St Jerome's time it was again the noblest and most beautiful city of Phoenicia, nay, almost of the whole East. In the 7th c. it came under the Saracens, and so remained until taken and held by the Crusaders (1124-1291). Soon after it was destroyed by the Moslems; a visitor in 1355 found it a mass of ruins. About 1766 the town began to be rebuilt. About 5000 inhabitants now dwell among the ruins. Here Origen and Frederick Barbarossa are buried.