Le port maintient une activité traditionnelle de pêche. Crédit Photo: Libnanews.com

We take you to the port of Tire, also known locally as Sour, a town located just 70 km from Beirut. Built on the so-called Sidonian port because it is oriented towards the ancient city of Sidon, today Saida, the port of Tire continues to welcome tourists and fishermen. We can see some colonnades in its funds, evidence of continued use of this site.

Sometimes, we imagine ourselves to be these Phoenician explorers leaving from this port leaving towards the high seas , going on an adventure to unknown shores to found the famous trading posts.

In Greek mythology, It is from Tire that Dido or Elissar among the Phoenicians will go into exile to found Carthage , following the assassination of Sychée (among the Greeks) Acherbas (among the Phoenicians) by his brother Pygmalion or Pumiatom. The latter will reign over Tire from -820 BC to 774 BC.
According to legends Elissar will not go alone, she will be accompanied. With her, a group of citizens loyal to her missing husband and eighty young girls destined for sacred prostitution and the male members of his escort.

In the same way the legends have share of truths: Of these 2 ports, the Phoenicians of Tire founded Carthage in 814 before JC, a rival time of Rome but that is another History.

Today, a fishing port

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Today, only the Sidonian port remains with some submerged archaeological remains . But the tradition remains with the traditional construction of fishing boats . We find the last workshop producing them in Lebanon.

It is also from these places that the Virgin Mary accompanied Christ.

Fishing in Lebanon involves many practices, more or less legal. We can in particular think of dynamite fishing, strongly criticized for its impact on marine fauna. Faced with these practices of another age, it is advisable to promote the use of less harmful tools, line fishing, net fishing.
Finally, in Tire, you can hire the services of a fisherman for a walk along the coast , in search of the buried ruins off the locality. He may also show you, sometimes, a turtle or other fish emerging from the depths.

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