“ Burden of the lord’s doom where falls it now? This Tyre, how strong a fortress she has built, What gold and silver she has amassed, til they were as common as clay, as mire in the streets! Aye, but the lord means to dispossess her; cast into the sea all that wealth of hers, and herself burnt to the ground.”...........[Zachariah ix,1-8]

Many view the siege of Tyre to be an aside or a footnote in Alexander’s conquest of Asia; it is neither. It was an absolute necessity without which the defeat of The Persian Empire would not have occurred. Greece and Macedon would most likely have been invaded by a fleet of Persia and their allies and joined by the hostile Spartans and Cretans. This was no megalomaniacal fit of pique. Tyre was the sine qua non upon which the whole expedition succeeded or failed.

Tyre and subsequently Egypt, are often looked upon with some puzzlement by Alexander scholars. Why bother with these side issues? Why not push directly on to Babylon and Persopolis? The answer is a simple one; strategically it could not have worked and Alexander knew that from the start.

Before advancing inland to the heart of The Persian Empire, Alexander deliberately ringed the entire Eastern Mediterranean Sea, thereby securing not only his own rear, but also all of European Hellas. . With the fall of Tyre, the Persians ceased to be an effective sea power and European Hellas was spared the invasion which it had only been saved from by the fortuitous death of Memnon a year earlier.

Not even Alexander could have kept The Macedonian Army in Asia if their own homeland was under attack and I suggest that he was well aware of that fact. Taking Tyre was an absolute necessity. The personal success or failure of Alexander lay right before him on a little island half a mile off the shore and he gave it all he had.

The mole from Old Tyre to New Tyre was no great feat of engineering, yet it required a courage of concept few men would even consider. Alexander did and he saw his project through against all odds. The scope and daring of this project illuminates his exceptional spirit.

2336 years later the city of Tyre sits upon a peninsula on the coast of Lebanon just south of Beirut due to the inflexible self confidence of one man who changed the world with his indomitable will.

Over the years the debris of time accumulated on both sides of Alexander’s causeway widening it to the point where building became possible. The sea here was never deep, no more than 20 feet at its deepest point, the altitude of a normal two story house. The mole was built to be 200 feet wide, about 3 city residential lots side by side. The materials for the fill were at hand. Alexander used the old city of Tyre to bridge the sea to New Tyre. As for timbers needed for shoring and pilings, he had the forests of Lebanon famous throughout antiquity for their great trees. He had tens of thousands of laborers in his own army and could conscript more from the surrounding territories.

What is often overlooked is the difficulty in supplying that many persons for 7 months in one spot. Food, water, and sanitation would have been a gigantic problem. According to ancient sources, this would have been the responsibility of Hephaistion and his was a gargantuan contribution. We have records of the high priest of Jerusalem receiving requests for provisions from Alexander’s armies and it must be so that all the surrounding area was so burdened for a long time. It cannot be doubted that many were happy to see Tyre fall.
Even before the fall of Tyre, maritime allies of Persia began to defect to Alexander. The tale of what was occurring at Tyre coupled with the battle of Issus gave Alexander the cache of a conqueror. To even attempt such a thing lent him such an image that leaders wished to be on his side. Rhodes, formerly an ally of Persia sent Alexander ten triremes thereby declaring allegiance, The kings of Byblos and Aradas deserted The Persian Fleet. Cyprus sent 120 triremes to fight with Alexander. Lydia sent 10 and Soli 3.

For months the people of Tyre watched the slow progress of Alexander's advance through the sea. Every night when they went to their beds Alexander was a little nearer. The next night a little nearer still and the following night he was nearer yet. Pent in their walled city, the psychological effect must have been great indeed. These were an ancient people; they knew full well what atrocities impended. Many had been evacuated by sea at the begriming of the siege, but tens of thousands watched first hand Alexander's inexorable approach. With desperation born of terror the Tyrians fought back with an innovative ferocity remarkable even in ancient times. The ensuing skirmishes and battles left in their wake a sickening carnage of the burned and maimed which Alexander and his Macedones had never before seen.

Inevitably Alexander's march across the sea led him to the walls of Tyre. The results were a foregone conclusion. Their allies had all forsaken them. The Tyrians were trapped in a cage of their own design. In the end it was their own kinsmen, The Phoenicians who along with The Cypriots breached the port defenses and entered the city, ironically enough from their ships in the sea.

Alexander's vengeance was of a proportion appropriate to his legendary life. Close to 10,000 were on that day butchered. 2000 young men were crucified. 20,000 women and children were sold into slavery. And in the midst of the carnage Alexander decreed a celebratory feast and games on a lavish scale befitting the victory over Tyre.

With the fall of Tyre all coastal cities to the south surrendered with the exception of Gaza, that misfortunate spot on the sand befouled with the blood of men and women since the bronze age. It stood between Alexander and Egypt.

With the naval victories in The Hellespont and throughout The Aegean, Alexander needed only Egypt in order to form his ring around the eastern Mediterranean and control all the ports from The Hellespont to Cyrene. For the first time in history European Hellas would be free from the threat of invasion from The East. For once there should be no wolf at the eastern door to Hellas and Alexander's rear would be secure, his supply lines open.

The young king turned to the south and his gaze fell upon Gaza.

" What unspeakable horror lies neath Alexander's beautiful and dreaming eyes"...............Kallistos