Were Tyre's coastal suburbs (Ushu) fortified?

  • Clarifying the question

    Question: Were the “walls” and “pillars” of Tyre unique to the island district? Did the mainland suburbs lack these features?

  • Scholars agree that coastal Tyre (Ushu) was fortified

    • The Phoenicians: The Purple Empire of the Ancient World: “Less magnificently ornamental than her rich neighbour and less strongly fortified…” [By Gerhard Herm (HarperCollins, 1975), 127.]

    • Lebanon in History from the Earliest Times to the Present: “The part on the mainland was strongly fortified” [By Philip Khuri Hitti (Macmillan, 1967), 99.]

    • Phoenicia: History of Civilization: “It was strongly fortified by massive walls and towers, and by degrees extended itself over the plain, until it attained a circumference of about fifteen miles.” [By George Rawlinson (1889, Longmans, Green, and Co.), 41.]

    • Syria and Asia Minor: “Ancient Tyre, then, probably consisted of the fortified city, which commanded a considerable territory on the coast, and of the port which was "strong in the sea.” [By Josiah Condor (Fisher, Son, & Co., 1824), 48.]

    • A Manual of Ancient Geography: “Map Showing the Retreat of the 10,000 Greeks Under Xenophon By Leonhard Schmitz 'It stood in a plain on the coast, was strongly fortified, and had an excellent harbor, which is now almost entirely filled with sand.'” [(Blanchard and Lea, 1859)]

    • Ancient History: Illustrated by Colored Maps, and a Chronological Chart: “Taking of Tyre - Four years after, Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre, a strongly fortified and opulent city of Phenicia… when the place finally surrendered, the exhausted besiegers found no treasure within its walls to reward their labors, the inhabitants having removed their principal effects to an island about half a mile distant, where in short time a new city arose which far eclipsed the glory of the old.” [By Celesstia Angenette Bloss, John Jacob Anderson (Clark & Maynard, 1881), 12.]

“Yes, after all…

  • Nebuchadnezzar had to siege Tyre 13 years

    Nebuchadnezzar sieged Tyre for thirteen years. This is relevant because Nebuchadnezzar was not sieging the island (he did not even have a navy). Consequently, he was sieging Tyre's coastal district, and it would not have taken thirteen years to capture it if it was not fortified.

  • Joshua 19:29 refers to the walls of coastal Tyre

    It says in Joshua 19:29 -- “to Ramah and to the fortified city of Tyre.” This is relevant because this is a reference to Ushu (Tyre on the coast).1

    1. • C. F. Keil & E. Delitzsche: “'The fortified town of Zor,' i.e., Tyre, is not the insular Tyre, but the town of Tyre, which was on the mainland, the present Sur, which is situated by the sea-coast, in a beautiful and fertile plain (see Ritter, Erdk. xvii. p. 320, and Movers, Phönizier, ii. 1, pp. 118ff.).” [Commentary on the Old Testament Vol IV: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (T & T Clark, ), 201.]. See also Marten H. Woudstra, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament: The Book of Joshua (Wm.B. Eerdmans, 1981), 289.
“No, after all…

  • Ashurbanipal did not mention any walls

    Ashburbanipal (King of Assyria, 668-626 B.C.) boasted of having destroyed Tyre, and yet did not mention any walls.1 This is relevant because we might have expected him to mention the destruction of walls if there were any.

    By way of response, however, few scholars have found this argument from silence persuasive―the consensus is that coastal Tyre was fortified. (See above). It is explainable several ways (for example, by the walls not being as noteworthy as those on the island.)

    1. • Ashurbanipal (King of Assyria, 668-626 B.C.): “In my third campaign I marched against Baal, King of Tyre, who dwelt in the midst of the sea. Because he had not kept the word of my lordship nor heeded utterance of my lips, I erected against him siege-works and cut off his exit both by land and sea; their lives I made narrow and straitened; I caused them to submit to my yoke."; "On my return I captured Ushu, which is situated on the coast of the sea. The inhabitants of Ushu, who had not been obedient to their governers, who had not paid their tribute, I killed as the tribute of their land. Among the rebellious peoples I set my staff.” [George Aaron Barton, Archaeology and the Bible, 378.]