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Buses from Beirut to Sidon (Saida) leave from the bus station at Cola intersection, depart as they fill up, usually 5-15 minutes. The ticket price to Sidon is 1000-1500 Lebanese pounds. Travel time is just over 1 hour.

Sidon (Saida, as the locals call it) is the third largest city in Lebanon, located on the Mediterranean Sea, 40 km south of Beirut. In ancient times, Sidon was one of the main Phoenician cities and perhaps the oldest. Sidon was often conquered and changed hands: Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks and finally Romans. Herod the Great, Saint Paul and Jesus Christ, as it is said in the Bible, visited this city. Later, the city was conquered first by the Arabs, and then by the Turks of the Ottoman Empire.

In the reports of travelers, I read that Sidon is a very pleasant city and many even spent 2-3 days there, but half a day was enough for me to see the most interesting. I especially liked the old town, which stretches between Sea Castle and St. Louis Castle. The old town is a labyrinth of narrow streets, which are still full of life and which are interesting to walk along and you can even get lost. On these streets there are souvenir shops, workshops, mini shops and pastry shops with pastries prepared according to old recipes. There is also a colorful old market (Old Souk) in the old town. I wandered these streets for almost two hours.

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On December 4, 1110, Sidon was captured by the crusaders and became the capital of the Seignory of Sidon, the state of the crusaders. The Arabs, led by Saladin, recaptured the city in 1187, but after another 10 years, the German crusaders restored power over the city. Sidon remained an important city for the crusaders until it was completely destroyed by the Saracens in 1249, and then again by the Mongols (can you imagine where the Mongols went??) in 1260.
In the 13th century, during the reign of the crusaders in Sidon: on a small island off the coast, the Sea Castle was built, which in our time has become the main attraction of the city. Since then, the castle has been destroyed and rebuilt many times, the castle has survived to this day in a dilapidated state, but tourists can inspect it and imagine how it looked 800 years ago.

12) Sea Castle in Sidon (entrance fee, 3000 pounds).

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15) View of the old town from the side of the castle

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After seeing the main sights in Sidon, I immediately drove further south along the coast to Tire. The bus can be caught almost anywhere on the main road that runs along the coast, I did it right at the crusader castle. Buses stop themselves and almost all of them go south to Tire or north to Beirut, depending on which side of the road you stand on. The fare is about 1000 or 1500 pounds. From Sidon to Thira is about 40 km or about an hour by bus.

Tyre, or as the locals call it - Sur (Syr), is one of the oldest Phoenician cities, from where the Phoenician "conquest of the Mediterranean" began. Tire is the birthplace of the legendary Europe, which Zeus kidnapped from there in the form of a bull. This fact alone already shows how rich the historical heritage of this city is. According to Herodotus, Tire as a city appeared in 2750 BC. and in ancient times was surrounded by huge (46 meters high) walls.
Only Roman ruins have survived to our time, which are now the main attraction of Tyre. The Roman Hippodrome was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1984 under number 299.

18) Roman Hippodrome

The Roman Hippodrome is part of an archaeological reserve called Al Bass Archaeological Site. Its territory is very large, you can easily spend a couple of hours walking through the ancient ruins. Entrance to the territory is paid (about 5-6 thousand pounds), but it's definitely worth it, as Al Bass, the second most beautiful and interesting Roman ruins in Lebanon, after Baalbek. The Roman ruins are a bit away from the city center, it takes 20-30 minutes to walk there, but if you don't know where they are exactly, it's better to take a taxi for 5000 pounds. In addition to the hippodrome already mentioned, the territory of the reserve is home to the Arc de Triomphe, the Roman paved road and the Roman Necropolis with a large number of ancient sarcophagi. The necropolis is the first thing that tourists meet at the entrance.

19) Necropolis and many preserved sarcophagi

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Roman cobbled road and triumphal arch
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The Roman hippodrome was built in the 2nd century AD. and accommodated up to 40 thousand people. The hippodrome is 90 meters wide and 480 meters long.
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Walking through the ancient Roman ruins you experience strong sensations. Imagine how gladiators once fought on this very hippodrome and Roman chariots competed for speed, and patricians in white robes sat in the stands. I love places like this.

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40) Roman Mosaic

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If you leave the territory of the ruins and go to the old city along the sea, you can see another Roman ruins (an entrance fee of 3000 pounds). Roman columns go almost to the sea. A picture of a huge Roman (or Greek?) temple is immediately drawn in my head right on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.

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Modern Tire (Sur) is the fourth largest country and one of the largest cities in southern Lebanon, just a couple of tens of kilometers from the Israeli border. Lebanon and Israel are separated by the UN2000 Blue Line, which is not an official border. In Tyre, the presence of a huge number of UN soldiers related to UNIFIL (The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon), which were introduced back in 1978, is noticeable. In addition, there are many military checkpoints and separate checkpoints of the Hezbollah movement on the roads. Tire is mostly Shia, so the Hezbollah movement is very popular here, their yellow-green flags are everywhere. It is in this region that armed conflicts often occur between Hezbollah and Israel, so some kind of tension is constantly felt. But at the same time, the people are quite friendly, they often want to talk, they are interested in where they came from, whether I like it. The most frequent phrase I heard was "My brother is married to a Russian/Ukrainian".
Only in Tire did I first begin to hear the traditional Arabic greeting Salam Aleikum, unlike, for example, Bshare, where everyone says Bonjour to each other.

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From the square where buses stop and taxi drivers stand, through narrow streets you can go to the beach of Thira, where people even come from Beirut to relax, because it is considered one of the cleanest and most beautiful in the country. There are many cozy cafes and restaurants on these streets.

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46) Road along the beach

47) The lighthouse, which offers a gorgeous view of the sunset.

After walking around Tyre, already at sunset, I went back to Beirut.

Other reports from the Lebanese travel series.

The ancient city of Tyre. Its history is full of heroism and tragedy. Tire was the only city that, unlike other Phoenician cities, did not surrender to Alexander the Great. The inhabitants of Tyre preferred a cruel war to a humiliating world. The consequences of insane courage were horrendous. The once crowded streets are empty. The city has turned into a realm of the dead.
There were various legends about the foundation of Tyre. The Phoenicians themselves called their city Tzor, "rock", as it was located on a rocky island. Astarte found here a star that had fallen from the sky and gave birth to the sea god Melkart, the future patron of Tyre. Legends say that before the founding of the first settlement, this tiny piece of land plowed the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Melqart, who taught the Canaanites how to build ships, ordered the people to find their birthplace. There they were to sacrifice an eagle that fought a serpent. As soon as the blood of the eagle sprinkled the rocks, the island instantly stopped. It happened eight hundred meters from the shore. Since then, the Tyrian sailors began to donate ship anchors to Melkart, the "sea baal". In the XXVIII century BC. the townspeople erected a temple in his honor. In front of him stood two nine-meter columns of pure gold. The priests walked around the temple grounds barefoot. Daily sacrifices were accompanied by ritual dances. In gratitude, Melqart allowed the inhabitants of the city to colonize the vast Mediterranean coast.
Citizens of the colonies and the metropolis, in turn, attributed to their patron the creation of everything that they especially valued. According to legend, it was Melkart who taught people to extract purple-bearing mollusks from the bottom of the sea. After the body of the mollusk dried in the sun, a drop of bright liquid remained in the shell. The drops were gathering. They made the paint, which was used to dye the fabric. Its cost was incredibly high: only the kings and their entourage could afford to buy a cut for a tunic. Phoenician merchants supplied purple to the Greeks and Romans, who were convinced that their mainland was called Europe thanks to the Phoenician, the daughter of the Tyrian king Agenore. As you know, a bull with sad eyes stole Europa when she was walking on the Tyrian coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
In the X century BC. King Hiram rebuilt the main sanctuary of the city. It was surrounded by accommodation for the overnight stay of pilgrims. Melqart came to them in a dream. His divinations about the future were deciphered by Tyrian dream interpreters. The gods then did not know that in just a few centuries Phenicia would be visited by the descendant of Hercules and Achilles, the son of Zeus, at whose birth Artemis herself was present. This son was Alexander III, better known as Alexander the Great. Before the start of the campaign, he went to Delphi to Apollo to listen to his thoughts about the upcoming action. It was winter, and Apollo, as you know, flew away from Delphi for the winter. The oracles were silent. So there was no one to ask about the future. Alexander tried to drag the priestess of Apollo into the temple so that she could predict the fate of the Asian campaign. The priestess, fighting back, called out, "Oh, Alexander, do you think you're invincible?" The last word reassured the Macedonian king, and with a light heart he moved to the East to recapture the cities once lost by the Greeks. In the spring of 334 BC. the army of long-haired, short-legged, smooth-shaven and sweet-smelling from oils, Alexander treacherously, without declaring war, attacked the Persians. The Macedonian started the war almost as a beggar. After the first battle, the Persian king Darius promised Alexander to pay as much as the inhabitants of all of Macedonia could not carry away. Alexander refused. He had already decided to conquer the Phoenician cities, which provided ships and crew for the Persian navy. It was very easy to do this, since the city-states that competed with each other in the Mediterranean markets were at enmity with each other. Beeble gave up immediately. This city hoped with the help of Alexander to restore its former power. Then Sidon surrendered. Its inhabitants believed that under a new ruler they would finally see Tyr on its knees. Alexander's march southward from Sidon was briefly halted by Tyrian envoys. They laid a golden wreath on the head of the conqueror of Phoenicia and declared their readiness to submit to the will of the king. Alexander asked the ambassadors to tell the Tyrians that he wished to offer sacrifices to Melqart in a temple on the island. The Tyrians advised the Macedonian to make a sacrifice in Paletira, that is, in Old Tire, a city on the mainland. The commander could not endure such an insult. One of the longest and most stubborn sieges in the history of war began. Alexander the Great decided to connect the island to the mainland with a dam. He was the first to pour two buckets of sand into its base. The inhabitants of Paletir were forced to demolish their own houses so that the dam would not lack building materials. Everything was done by hand, without horse traction. From the mountains of Lebanon, cedar trunks were dragged, which were hammered into the seabed. This was the beginning of the predatory extermination of the Phoenician forests. Alexander built his fleet from cedar and got so carried away that this tree is still a rarity in Lebanon. Before the arrival of the Macedonians, the mountain slopes of Phoenicia were covered with lush vegetation.
The dam to the island was pulled for seven months, exactly the same time lasted forty thousand inhabitants of Tyre. In July 332 BC. troops entered the city. 6,000 Phoenicians were slaughtered, 13,000 sold into slavery. As a warning to the rebellious, 2,000 defenders were nailed to crosses. Crosses stood along the main road, and the corpses were not removed from them for several weeks. The Macedonians who died during the assault (there were about four hundred) were buried according to the rite described by Homer in the Iliad: the bodies were burned, the bones were washed with wine, wrapped in purple and placed in a tomb along with weapons. So they buried the Homeric Patroclus and Hector.
From Tyre, Macedonian went to conquer Egypt. This country attracted Alexander irresistibly. The peoples of the Mediterranean considered it the cradle of the most respected and most ancient culture. The Egyptians welcomed the king as a liberator from the Persian yoke. He was declared pharaoh, the son of the sun god Ra. The new ruler ordered the construction of a temple with a sanctuary in his honor in Karnak.
In 331 BC the victorious army returned to Phoenicia. Alexander set up a court camp in Tyre. The king was visited by architects, artists, sculptors, writers, philosophers, historians, poets. In Tire lived relatives of the defeated Phoenician aristocrats, the most noble of the hetaerae. Tribute flowed into the city from the already conquered cities, here, under the chairmanship of Alexander, a court was held, ambassadors of foreign powers were received here. No more than two years have passed since the beginning of the campaign, a third of the world was conquered, and Alexander decided to give the troops a break from military affairs. Idleness sucked. Alexander fought with her as best he could. He arranged sports games, like the Greek Olympiads. Chariot racing, pentathlon, wrestling and fisticuffs were especially popular. Comic battles were played out between "friends" and "enemies". "Friends", led by the king, invariably won, however, this did not give the commander much pleasure. Soldiers smeared him with sheep droppings, put him on a donkey and passed by, singing obscene songs. Theatrical olympiads were often held in Tyre. Actors from Italy, Asia Minor, Greece came here. They read poetry, staged Euripides and Sophocles. Soldiers preferred hilarious actors. They beat women with leather phalluses, performed theatrical violence on them, urinated and relieved themselves, engaged in masturbation right in front of the audience. The actresses performed something like a cancan, exposing "" everything that the public wanted to see. Alexander believed that such a "front-line theater" helps soldiers get rid of fear and longing for their homeland. In May 331 BC. the thirst for adventure led Alexander from Tire further east.
Having created a huge empire, the great conqueror died either from swamp fever, or from a severe form of a hangover, or from poisoning. After his death, his empire fell apart. Phoenicia was ruled by one of the commanders of Alexander the Great - Seleucus. By this time, the Greeks made up a significant part of the population of Phenicia. They brought technological progress with them, succeeded in building roads, laying reliable water pipes, and introduced a single monetary system. In a word, they planted a civilization here. The Greek language spread throughout the world. And who knows, Christianity would have gone beyond the borders of Judea, it would have become a world religion without the mediating mission of the Greek language, without the bloody conquests of Alexander III, better known as Alexander the Great.

Tire (Tzur proper, lit. "Rock"), a seaside city-state in Phoenicia (modern Sur in Lebanon). According to legend and archaeological data, it was founded around the 28th century. BC e. proto-Phoenicians-Canaanites (see Canaan). It existed as an independent urban community, later a city-state, where the tsarist government had to reckon with a strong communal organization. Since ancient times, the city, inaccessible to the enemy, who did not have a powerful fleet, consisted of two parts - a settlement on the mainland (Wushu) and an island citadel, where the population hid in case of danger. The main center of urban life was the temple of the city's patron god Melqart.

Around 1468 Tire was conquered by the pharaoh and entered the Asian territories of Egypt (around 1355-1300 under Hittite influence). Initially inferior to neighboring Sidon, after the defeat of which by the "peoples of the sea" around 1175 (which also caused a massive migration of the Sidonians to Tyre, so that all the southern Phoenicians, including the Tirians, were subsequently called "Sidonians"; perhaps the newcomers even dominated Tire at first) advanced to the first plan. At the end of the 12th - beginning of the 11th century, Tire carried out the first stage of the Phoenician colonization of the Mediterranean [colonies in Spain (Gadir, modern Cadiz), Africa (Utica, Lix), Sicily and on some islands of the Aegean], turning into a Mediterranean maritime power.

Around 1075, Egypt loses its power in Asia, and an era of independence begins for Tyre. By the beginning of the 10th century, the kings of Tyre subjugated Sidon, in memory of his power they take the title of “kings of the Sidonians” (meaning “all Phoenicians in general”) and control all of Southern Phoenicia. The greatest prosperity of the Tyro-Sidonian kingdom falls during the reign of Hiram I (969-936), who turned Tire into an impregnable fortress. Hiram strengthened the Mediterranean power of Tyre, bought part of Galilee and included some cities of Cyprus in the Tyrian sphere of influence. The alliance he made with Israel, of which Solomon was king at this time, existed for about a century. In the 10th century Tire is turning into the largest trading center in the Mediterranean, living primarily on shipping, piracy and the sale of purple, glass, and slaves. In the 9th century The Phoenicians were expelled from the Aegean by the Greeks. The usurper Itobaal (from 879) strengthened the position of Tire and resumed the colonization of the Western Mediterranean (including Sardinia), where many new Phoenician centers appeared (including Carthage, 823).

In 743, Tire recognized dependence on Assyria (before that, in 876 - around 780 it paid tribute), however, excessive tribute and Assyria's attempt to tear away all its possessions in Phoenicia from Tyre (725) led to a war (724-720), as a result of which Eluli of Tire finally recognized the Assyrian power, but regained everything lost. The new uprising of Eluli (about 704) ended with the siege of Tyre by the Assyrians, the flight of the king across the sea and the loss of all the Phoenician cities previously subject to Tyre (701). After the recognition (about 696) of the Assyrian supremacy, Tire repeatedly rebelled, incurring new Assyrian campaigns, and in 644 was defeated in its mainland by Ashurbanipal. At the turn of the 8th-7th centuries. BC e. lost overseas possessions (although ideas about the seniority of Tyre persisted until the 5th century BC).

Around 630, as a result of the sharp weakening of Assyria in the war with the Scythians, Tire again becomes a de facto independent city, its merchants control the trade routes of the Mediterranean, up to east-central Asia Minor, South Arabia, Spain, and maybe even Britain. However, the invasion of the region by the Egyptians (early 610s) and then by the Babylonians (605) placed Tire between two fires. Speaking on the Babylonian side and pressed by the Egyptians, Tire went over to the side of the latter (588), but the 13-year siege (about 587-575), organized by the king of Babylon

Tire is a Lebanese city founded in the third millennium BC by the Phoenicians. It is located near the Israeli border, 20 km. The area is under close surveillance by Israeli troops, but if the situation is calm, then there is no cause for concern and for fear before visiting the city.

Tyr is the mother of the Phoenician peoples. There is a legend about the foundation of the city. The appearance of Tyr is associated with the Phoenician god Melqart, who was the son of the goddess Astarte. According to legend, it was at the birthplace of Melqart that the ancient Phoenician city was founded. The same legend reports that even before the appearance of the first settlement on the site of Tire, this small piece of land moved freely across the Mediterranean Sea. Later, on the orders of Melkar, they found the place where he was born and sacrificed an eagle, when the blood of a majestic bird fell on the rocks of the island, the island stopped at a distance of about 800 meters from the coast. In the 28th century BC, the inhabitants of the town built a temple in honor of Melkart, in gratitude for this, he allowed the townspeople to colonize a fairly large section of the Mediterranean coast. In front of the entrance to the temple there were two columns of pure gold, each 9 meters high. They walked barefoot around the temple grounds, and daily there was a ritual of sacrifice, which was accompanied by dances.

In the 6th century BC, Tire was destroyed by the army of Nebuchadnezzar, but the conquerors did not achieve their goal, they wanted to get gold, jewelry, and most of the inhabitants managed to collect all their property with them and move to an island near Tyre. A new Tire was built there. The mainland, next to which these two islands were located, was for them protection from storms. In the 9th century BC. The islands were connected by an isthmus to the mainland by order of King Hiram, thereby forming an artificial cape. During the time of Alexander the Great, the isthmus was destroyed, and a pier was built in its place, which was much larger than the isthmus. Macedonian personally poured the first two buckets of sand into the base of the dam. All work on the construction of the dam was carried out manually. The trunks of cedars brought from the mountains of Lebanon were hammered into the bottom of the sea, to fully provide the residents with building materials, they were forced to demolish their houses. Thus, the island eventually turned into a peninsula. By the way, it is worth noting that Tire is the only city that did not surrender to Alexander the Great without a fight, the inhabitants preferred a bloody war to a humiliating peace and, as best they could, fought for the honor of their native city. Some details of the battles and examples of the heroic deeds of the inhabitants that have survived to this day are known. When the ships of Alexander the Great anchored, thereby blocking the harbor, the inhabitants of Tyre swam to them and cut the ropes of the anchors. After this incident, by order of Alexander the Great, the ropes on all ships were replaced with anchor chains. The siege lasted seven months, after which, nevertheless, Alexander the Great seized power in his own hands. A significant part of the population of Tyre was killed, and those who still managed to survive were soon sold into slavery. It was during the reign of Alexander the Great that the Lebanese cedar became a rare tree, this was due to the fact that Alexander, in addition to building a dam, also used cedar in the manufacture of ships, cedar forests were massively cut down. During Phoenician times, Tire was famous for its glass and textiles. The merchants of Tyre conducted a peaceful expansion of the Mediterranean in order to find sources of raw materials and markets for products. It was Tire that was the first city where they began to use money - minted coins. The influence of Phoenicia affected the development of the city. Tire developed quite quickly. From Tire began a number of sea expeditions in the Mediterranean, including to Spain and beyond Gibraltar. In the 18th century, the city became one of the most important suppliers of building materials throughout the Mediterranean coast. At different times, the city was dominated by different countries and rulers, experienced many events, in memory of which there were interesting monuments, temples, ruins, and so on.

Tire is also an important religious center; it was here that the first Christian communities appeared. The city is also mentioned in the Bible as one of the places where Jesus Christ visited, here he performed the first miracle.

Since 1979, Tire has been under the protection of UNESCO as a city that is one of the world's treasures.

Now the old part of Tire is located on the peninsula, and the new one is on the mainland. There are few hotels in the city (about 2-3), but tourists have no problems with accommodation, there are enough places for everyone. Prices for hotel rooms are quite reasonable.

Tourists are mainly attracted by the ruins of Tire during the Roman Empire. The Roman road leading to the Arc de Triomphe, which in Roman times was the entrance to the city, has been perfectly preserved to this day. On both sides of the road, along the way, there are many sarcophagi carved from stone and marble. And one side of the road is accompanied by an aqueduct.

In the 2nd century a hippodrome was built on the territory of Tire, the ruins of which are well preserved. An arts festival is held at the hippodrome every summer. During the time of the Roman Empire, the hippodrome accommodated 20,000 spectators, and its length is 480 meters.

In Tyre, it is also worth seeing the Palace of Eshmun, the Colosseum, two ports from the time of King Hiram, the ruins of the temple of the crusaders.

Perhaps the most colorful part of Tire is the fishing harbor: a quiet marina, an abundance of fishing boats, workshops where these same boats are made using a technology that has not changed for several centuries. You can relax in one of the cafes or restaurants located in the harbour.

Walking from the fishing harbor towards the lighthouse, you will see the excavations of al-Mina. Be sure to take a walk here and get to know the city as it was many centuries ago. At the entrance there is a large shopping area of the era of the Roman Empire, after passing through the square, on the main street, the theater will appear in front of you. Once upon a time, water games were held here. The theater is a rectangular building, seating is arranged in five tiers, and a system of cisterns is placed around the theater. The theater is followed by a sports complex with baths, where wrestlers trained. A very interesting place is the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, built in the 12th century. Now the foundation of granite columns has remained from it, and earlier the cathedral was the place of coronation of the rulers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. According to some reports, the remains of Frederick Barbarossa, the outstanding German emperor, are buried here. During the existence of Phoenicia, on the site of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, there was a temple of the god Melkart, who was considered the patron saint of Tyre.

Every year Tire hosts a festival where folk performers from all over the Mediterranean perform. This festival is held on the ruins of a stadium from the time of the Roman Empire. If you want to learn more about the East, its culture, then you should definitely visit the Festival of Folk Performers in Tyre.

Although the tourist infrastructure of Tire is not as developed as, say, in Beirut, Tripoli, it is still necessary to visit the city. Tire is an ancient city with a rich and interesting history that has evolved over several millennia. And this is not just the history of the city, it is a piece of the history of all of Lebanon and the Middle East. The old island part of the city and the newer mainland are rich in interesting monuments, museums, ancient and medieval buildings, ruins of once majestic buildings.

There were various legends about the foundation of Tyre. The Phoenicians themselves called their city Tzor, "rock", as it was located on a rocky island. Astarte found here a star that had fallen from the sky and gave birth to the sea god Melkart, the future patron of Tyre. Legends say that before the founding of the first settlement, this tiny piece of land plowed the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Melqart, who taught the Canaanites how to build ships, ordered the people to find their birthplace. There they were to sacrifice an eagle that fought a serpent. As soon as the blood of the eagle sprinkled the rocks, the island instantly stopped. It happened eight hundred meters from the shore. Since then, the Tyrian sailors began to donate ship anchors to Melkart, the "sea baal". In the XXVIII century BC. the townspeople erected a temple in his honor. In front of him stood two nine-meter columns of pure gold. The priests walked around the temple grounds barefoot. Daily sacrifices were accompanied by ritual dances. In gratitude, Melqart allowed the inhabitants of the city to colonize the vast Mediterranean coast.

Citizens of the colonies and the metropolis, in turn, attributed to their patron the creation of everything that they especially valued. According to legend, it was Melkart who taught people to extract purple-bearing mollusks from the bottom of the sea. After the body of the mollusk dried in the sun, a drop of bright liquid remained in the shell. The drops were gathering. They made the paint, which was used to dye the fabric. Its cost was incredibly high: only the kings and their entourage could afford to buy a cut for a tunic. Phoenician merchants supplied purple to the Greeks and Romans, who were convinced that their mainland was called Europe thanks to the Phoenician, the daughter of the Tyrian king Agenore. As you know, a bull with sad eyes stole Europa when she was walking on the Tyrian coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

In the X century BC. King Hiram rebuilt the main sanctuary of the city. It was surrounded by accommodation for the overnight stay of pilgrims. Melqart came to them in a dream. His divinations about the future were deciphered by Tyrian dream interpreters. The gods then did not know that in just a few centuries Phenicia would be visited by the descendant of Hercules and Achilles, the son of Zeus, at whose birth Artemis herself was present. This son was Alexander III, better known as Alexander the Great. Before the start of the campaign, he went to Delphi to Apollo to listen to his thoughts about the upcoming action. It was winter, and Apollo, as you know, flew away from Delphi for the winter. The oracles were silent. So there was no one to ask about the future. Alexander tried to drag the priestess of Apollo into the temple so that she could predict the fate of the Asian campaign. The priestess, fighting back, called out, "Oh, Alexander, do you think you're invincible?" The last word reassured the Macedonian king, and with a light heart he moved to the East to recapture the cities once lost by the Greeks. In the spring of 334 BC. the army of long-haired, short-legged, smooth-shaven and sweet-smelling from oils, Alexander treacherously, without declaring war, attacked the Persians. The Macedonian started the war almost as a beggar. After the first battle, the Persian king Darius promised Alexander to pay as much as the inhabitants of all of Macedonia could not carry away. Alexander refused. He had already decided to conquer the Phoenician cities, which provided ships and crew for the Persian navy. It was very easy to do this, since the city-states that competed with each other in the Mediterranean markets were at enmity with each other. Beeble gave up immediately. This city hoped with the help of Alexander to restore its former power. Then Sidon surrendered. Its inhabitants believed that under a new ruler they would finally see Tyr on its knees. Alexander's march southward from Sidon was briefly halted by Tyrian envoys. They laid a golden wreath on the head of the conqueror of Phoenicia and declared their readiness to submit to the will of the king. Alexander asked the ambassadors to tell the Tyrians that he wished to offer sacrifices to Melqart in a temple on the island. The Tyrians advised the Macedonian to make a sacrifice in Paletira, that is, in Old Tire, a city on the mainland. The commander could not endure such an insult. One of the longest and most stubborn sieges in the history of war began. Alexander the Great decided to connect the island to the mainland with a dam. He was the first to pour two buckets of sand into its base. The inhabitants of Paletir were forced to demolish their own houses so that the dam would not lack building materials. Everything was done by hand, without horse traction. From the mountains of Lebanon, cedar trunks were dragged, which were hammered into the seabed. This was the beginning of the predatory extermination of the Phoenician forests. Alexander built his fleet from cedar and got so carried away that this tree is still a rarity in Lebanon. Before the arrival of the Macedonians, the mountain slopes of Phoenicia were covered with lush vegetation.

The dam to the island was pulled for seven months, exactly the same time lasted forty thousand inhabitants of Tyre. In July 332 BC. troops entered the city. 6,000 Phoenicians were slaughtered, 13,000 sold into slavery. As a warning to the rebellious, 2,000 defenders were nailed to crosses. Crosses stood along the main road, and the corpses were not removed from them for several weeks. The Macedonians who died during the assault (there were about four hundred) were buried according to the rite described by Homer in the Iliad: the bodies were burned, the bones were washed with wine, wrapped in purple and placed in a tomb along with weapons. So they buried the Homeric Patroclus and Hector.

From Tyre, Macedonian went to conquer Egypt. This country attracted Alexander irresistibly. The peoples of the Mediterranean considered it the cradle of the most respected and most ancient culture. The Egyptians welcomed the king as a liberator from the Persian yoke. He was declared pharaoh, the son of the sun god Ra. The new ruler ordered the construction of a temple with a sanctuary in his honor in Karnak.

In 331 BC the victorious army returned to Phoenicia. Alexander set up a court camp in Tyre. The king was visited by architects, artists, sculptors, writers, philosophers, historians, poets. In Tire lived relatives of the defeated Phoenician aristocrats, the most noble of the hetaerae. Tribute flowed into the city from the already conquered cities, here, under the chairmanship of Alexander, a court was held, ambassadors of foreign powers were received here. No more than two years have passed since the beginning of the campaign, a third of the world was conquered, and Alexander decided to give the troops a break from military affairs. Idleness sucked. Alexander fought with her as best he could. He arranged sports games, like the Greek Olympiads. Chariot racing, pentathlon, wrestling and fisticuffs were especially popular. Comic battles were played out between "friends" and "enemies". "Friends", led by the king, invariably won, however, this did not give the commander much pleasure. Soldiers smeared him with sheep droppings, put him on a donkey and passed by, singing obscene songs. Theatrical olympiads were often held in Tyre. Actors from Italy, Asia Minor, Greece came here. They read poetry, staged Euripides and Sophocles. Soldiers preferred hilarious actors. They beat women with leather phalluses, performed theatrical violence on them, urinated and relieved themselves, engaged in masturbation right in front of the audience. The actresses performed something like a cancan, while exposing everything that the public wanted to see. Alexander believed that such a "front-line theater" helps soldiers get rid of fear and longing for their homeland. In May 331 BC. the thirst for adventure led Alexander from Tire further east.

Having created a huge empire, the great conqueror died either from swamp fever, or from a severe form of a hangover, or from poisoning. After his death, his empire fell apart. Phoenicia was ruled by one of the commanders of Alexander the Great - Seleucus. By this time, the Greeks made up a significant part of the population of Phenicia. They brought technological progress with them, succeeded in building roads, laying reliable water pipes, and introduced a single monetary system. In a word, they planted a civilization here. The Greek language spread throughout the world. And who knows, Christianity would have gone beyond the borders of Judea, it would have become a world religion without the mediating mission of the Greek language, without the bloody conquests of Alexander III, better known as Alexander the Great.