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Sidon
(Saida), three views. This was one of the great Phoenician cities,
the center of trade for purple murex dye which signified royalty.
Although settled as far back as 4000 BCE, Sidon is today more famous for
its Crusader castle by the sea and well preserved medieval center of
narrow street and alleys. Formerly prosperous as the terminus of an
oil pipeline which terminated here from the 1950s, the town suffered
greatly during the civil war as control passed between various warring
militias. |
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Sidon, Sea
Castle. This small fortress lies on a small self-contained island
just a few meters off the coast from the central part of Sidon, and was
built by the Crusaders to defend the main harbor after they had conquered
the town in 1228. |
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Sidon
harbor. I found this unfortunate view just opposite one of the outer
walls of the Sea Castle. Environmental consciousness apparently has
not yet taken hold among the majority of Lebanese. |
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Tyre (Sour),
harbor. Also once an important Phoenician settlement, little
evidence of this period remains, although Tyre features prominently in the
Book of Kings in the Bible. Captured by the Arabs in 636, it was
taken by the Crusaders after repeated attempts in 1124. The most
southerly major town in Lebanon, it has been at a dead-end close to the
border with Israel since 1948. |
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Tyre,
El Mina ruins, three views. Roman rule began in Tyre in 64 BCE,
although it enjoyed a certain degree of autonomy and much prosperity
through trade. It was one of the first towns in the area to embrace
Christianity, and was the seat of a bishopric during the Byzantine
period. Most of these ruins, which show the ancient Roman agora its
and colonnaded approach, date from the late Roman period (3-4C). |
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Tyre,
El Bas, two views. This complex of ruins lies about 2kms from the
main part of Tyre, and was the necropolis for and entrance to the Roman
city. The top photo shows a colonnaded street leading to the El Mina
area above, which passes through a necropolis of funerary monuments dating
from the 2-4C. The lower photo shows the 2C hippodrome, whose
seating capacity of 20,000 made it one of the largest ever built in the
Roman era. |
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