Wow. Tyre is on the coast, south of Beirut about two hours’ drive. It’s another world, a slower paced life tuned in to the sea. It is the place of ancient Phoenicians, who grew rich from the sale of murex—purple dye made from shells.
Within a half hour of arriving, a guy we had had a brief conversation with had paid for the fresh juice we had ordered, and another man walking by shared the peanuts he was eating with us. Everywhere we went people would great us with a bonjour and a smile. So nice. Our hotel was an old house in the Christian quarter, right on the beach.
In times past tourists have flocked to Tyre not only for the beach, but for the incredible
historical sites. To get to one of them we walked (normal people would surely have taken a taxi) along a main road that seemed to be lined with alternating car repair and live chicken shops. Go figure. We made our way to the site, Al Bass, a sprawling Roman city, UNESCO world heritage site, right next to a dense Palestinian refugee camp. We were the only visitors, alone yet again. There is a vast necropolis, with sarcophagi mostly from the 2nd and 3rrd century AD but some from 2nd century BC, outside the city gates. Also remains of a Byzantine church. A huge arch shows the entrance to the city, and an aqued
uct lies beyond. Reportedly the latter was almost intact as late as the 19th century, but did not do so well in the 20th.
Beyond the aqueduct lies the real star of the show: the hippodrome—the largest and best preserved Roman hippodrome in the world. The track is huge—about three soccer fields long, with tight turns at either end marked by turning stones, and stone bleachers for 20,000 spectators.
Another site, along the beach, has a long colonnade leading to the sea, the remains of a pool for some kind of water sport, and a huge bath complex. Nobody there either.
Later, at the public beach, lovely sand, T changes into trunks behind a bush (the facilities don’t open until May) and went for a swim in the Mediterranean. A gorgeous place only marred by
trash—fortunately fruits and vegetables and not glass or plastic, at least here. Odd to see lemons bobbing in the surf… The beach outside our hotel is rocky, and dotted with 3 – 5 foot long, 2 foot diameter sections of Roman columns that have washed up from somewhere, as well as small bits of tile and marble and even dishes, that may be relics of houses destroyed in the Israeli bombing of 2006, or ditto 1996.
More trash of the plastic bag variety here. Tom says the locals don’t see it. They went through 15 years of civil war, and occupation and bombing by Israel and they are just happy to be alive.
We see UNIFIL soldiers everywhere—UNIFIL is the United Nations peacekeeping force that has patrolled the Lebanese-Israeli border since Israel pulled out. We see small groups of Polish troops, Italian, French, Korean and the nice Indonesians who let me take their photo. Did you
know the Israelis bombed a UN base in 1996, killing 100 of the 300 civilians who had taken shelter there? We saw a monument to the fallen UNIFIL soldiers. We think that if Israel and Helzbollah start shooting at each other, they can’t do it with the UN troops in the way. We hope so. For sure, if we hear UNIFIL is pulling out, we know it’s serious.
In the evening, there is a full moon over the harbor. After dinner we sit on the beach on one of the Roman column pieces, until the waves start to lap at our toes.
Easter: lovely church bells and the imam’s call to prayer.
Within a half hour of arriving, a guy we had had a brief conversation with had paid for the fresh juice we had ordered, and another man walking by shared the peanuts he was eating with us. Everywhere we went people would great us with a bonjour and a smile. So nice. Our hotel was an old house in the Christian quarter, right on the beach.
In times past tourists have flocked to Tyre not only for the beach, but for the incredible
historical sites. To get to one of them we walked (normal people would surely have taken a taxi) along a main road that seemed to be lined with alternating car repair and live chicken shops. Go figure. We made our way to the site, Al Bass, a sprawling Roman city, UNESCO world heritage site, right next to a dense Palestinian refugee camp. We were the only visitors, alone yet again. There is a vast necropolis, with sarcophagi mostly from the 2nd and 3rrd century AD but some from 2nd century BC, outside the city gates. Also remains of a Byzantine church. A huge arch shows the entrance to the city, and an aqued
uct lies beyond. Reportedly the latter was almost intact as late as the 19th century, but did not do so well in the 20th.Beyond the aqueduct lies the real star of the show: the hippodrome—the largest and best preserved Roman hippodrome in the world. The track is huge—about three soccer fields long, with tight turns at either end marked by turning stones, and stone bleachers for 20,000 spectators.
Another site, along the beach, has a long colonnade leading to the sea, the remains of a pool for some kind of water sport, and a huge bath complex. Nobody there either.
Later, at the public beach, lovely sand, T changes into trunks behind a bush (the facilities don’t open until May) and went for a swim in the Mediterranean. A gorgeous place only marred by
trash—fortunately fruits and vegetables and not glass or plastic, at least here. Odd to see lemons bobbing in the surf… The beach outside our hotel is rocky, and dotted with 3 – 5 foot long, 2 foot diameter sections of Roman columns that have washed up from somewhere, as well as small bits of tile and marble and even dishes, that may be relics of houses destroyed in the Israeli bombing of 2006, or ditto 1996.More trash of the plastic bag variety here. Tom says the locals don’t see it. They went through 15 years of civil war, and occupation and bombing by Israel and they are just happy to be alive.
We see UNIFIL soldiers everywhere—UNIFIL is the United Nations peacekeeping force that has patrolled the Lebanese-Israeli border since Israel pulled out. We see small groups of Polish troops, Italian, French, Korean and the nice Indonesians who let me take their photo. Did you
know the Israelis bombed a UN base in 1996, killing 100 of the 300 civilians who had taken shelter there? We saw a monument to the fallen UNIFIL soldiers. We think that if Israel and Helzbollah start shooting at each other, they can’t do it with the UN troops in the way. We hope so. For sure, if we hear UNIFIL is pulling out, we know it’s serious.In the evening, there is a full moon over the harbor. After dinner we sit on the beach on one of the Roman column pieces, until the waves start to lap at our toes.
Easter: lovely church bells and the imam’s call to prayer.
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