dongiovanni1976x

Joshua 29:19 lists Tyre as a "Fortified city" but never specifies whether it is on the mainland or if it "inhabits an island" like the letter from Tyrian king Hiram to King Solomon mentioned in Josephus.

Apologists like Pastor Chuck Smith claim that, “Now, there is a modern city of Tyre which is a Palestinian stronghold in southern Lebanon. However, it is a few miles from the site of the ancient city…There is however a spring there in Tyre known as Ras El Ain, which the engineers have measured a water flow of ten million gallons a day. So it would be a very likely spot for a city to be built because of this abundant supply of fresh water. And yet in spite of that, the city has never been built on that site again.” –BLB Commentary on Ezekiel 26

This site of Ras El-Ain is located south of modern Tyre and not in Tyre (source: http://www.ikamalebanon.com/images/m...th_sum_res.gif)

My study Bible’s footnotes (NRSV 3rd Etd. Oxford, 2001) on this subject we read, “[v.] 7-14 Nebuchadnezzar will besiege the island city, which lay a half-mile offshore from the mainland city, after destroying the outlying settlements on the mainland (daughter-towns, v. 8). In fact, Nebuchadnezzar besieged the island of Tyre (after the mainland fell) for thirteen years. Tyre lost the war, but it was not destroyed or pillaged (as prophesied, v. 12).”

Strabo, in his Geography, says that the mainland was a distant 30 stadia away from the island...according to my calculations that is much more than a half a mile (6 kilometers/3 and 3/4 miles).

When I asked about this discrepancy from Dr. Martha Sharp Joukowsky of Brown University, all she replied was, "It [Palaetyrus] was the city of Tyre on the mainland. All the water resources for the island were there." This confirmed what I had read in Pritchard's ANET about Usu/Ushu but doesn't clear up where Usu/Palaetyrus etc was located.

Artifacts found and cited in Dr. Nina Jidejian’s book , Tyre through the Ages, depict Tyre as a fortified island amidst the sea, showing water all around the rocky island with tall towers and soldiers defending it and other Armana letter never mention the mainland.

Usu (Ras El-Ain - or what Chuck claims to be the fortified mainland city of Tyre) allied with Assyria against Tyre. Josephus, citing Tyrian archives as his source calls it Palaetyrus, the common Greek name in his day and says this event happened prior to Nebuchadnezzar’s siege. Why would Tyre attack Tyre if they were not in fact two separate urban centers with local authorities in each?

Another discrepancy arises when we read Pliny the Elder who says the whole area of the Island and mainland city together was 19 miles. Granted this is in the 1st century AD but it does nothing to clear this up.

Does anyone have any other information or sources that may shed light on this geography problem?

dongiovanni1976x

Here is an aerial view of Modern Tyre showing the Hotel Resort, Tyre Rest House. You can see the outline of the ancient Roman Hippodrome on the right a portion of the old island on teh left and the connecting causeway built by Alexander and silted up over the years. Ras El-Ain is not however in this area but if Palaetyrus was only a half mile from teh island then it would be in the vicintiy of the hippodrome area where there are modern buildings and inhabitants in Lebanon's fourth largest city...