built upon an island not far from the shore, which could be more
easily defended from an enemy. The old city had gone to ruin, and its
place was occupied by old walls, fallen towers, stones, columns,
arches, and other remains of the ancient magnificence of the place.

The island on which the Tyre of Alexander's day had been built was
about half a mile from the shore. The water between was about eighteen
feet deep, and formed a harbor for the vessels. The great business of
the Tyrians was commerce. They bought and sold merchandise in all the
ports of the Mediterranean Sea, and transported it by their merchant
vessels to and fro. They had also fleets of war galleys, which they
used to protect their interests on the high seas, and in the various
ports which their merchant vessels visited. They were thus wealthy and
powerful, and yet they lived shut up upon their little island, and
were almost entirely independent of the main-land.

The city itself, however, though contracted in extent on account of
the small dimensions of the island, was very compactly built and
strongly fortified, and it contained a vast number of stately and
magnificent edifices, which were filled with stores of wealth that had
been accumulated by the mercantile enterprise and thrift of many
generations. Extravagant stories are told by the historians and
geographers of those days, in respect to the scale on which the
structures of Tyre were built. It was said, for instance, that the
walls were one hundred and fifty feet high. It is true that the walls
rose directly from the surface of the water, and of course a
considerable part of their elevation was required to bring them up to
the level of the surface of the land; and then, in addition to this,
they had to be carried up the whole ordinary height of a city wall to
afford the usual protection to the edifices and dwellings within.
There might have been some places where the walls themselves, or
structures connected with them, were carried up to the elevation above
named, though it is scarcely to be supposed that such could have been
their ordinary dimensions.

At any rate, Tyre was a very wealthy, magnificent, and powerful city,
intent on its commercial operations, and well furnished with means of
protecting them at sea, but feeling little interest, and taking little
part, in the contentions continually arising among the rival powers
which had possession of the land. Their policy was to retain their