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| In its
time, Tyre was the leading Phoenician city-state, specially during the reign
of King Hiram, in whose time the Tyreans colonized Sicily and North Africa.
As the trade capital of Phoenicia, Tyre gave the world the Tyrean purple,
the dye extracted from the murex sea-mussel. It was so rare that it became
very expensive, and thus used as a mark of imperial and royal ranks. Cadmus
of Tyre introduced the alphabet to the Greeks, and laid the foundation to
the great civilization, the fruits of which the world still enjoys. Tyre
was also powerful. Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian King, laid siege to the city for thirteen years, and even Alexander the Great, had to struggle for almost a year before he could conquer it. The city resisted his siege bravely, until he was successful in building and maintaining a causeway, between the island and the mainland, which enabled his armies to scale Tyre's ramparts and formidable walls. |