Siege of Tyre (332 BC): Alexander Builds a Causeway to the Island

The siege of Tyre was a seven-month siege in 332 BC in which Alexander the Great captured the island city of Tyre, the most powerful of the Phoenician ports, off the coast of modern Lebanon. Unable to reach the walled island with his army, Alexander built a causeway across the sea and assembled a fleet to attack from the water. The city’s fall, followed by mass killings and enslavement, secured the eastern Mediterranean coast for Macedon and permanently changed the geography of Tyre.

Background

Tyre was one of the oldest and richest cities of Phoenicia, a centre of seaborne trade and the mother city of Carthage and many other Phoenician colonies. The main city stood on an island roughly 700 to 800 metres from the shore, protected by walls that ancient writers say rose to about 45 metres on the landward side. It had already withstood a famous 13-year siege by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II in the 6th century BC.

After defeating Darius III at the Battle of Issus in November 333 BC, Alexander marched south along the coast rather than pursuing the Persian king. The Persian fleet, largely crewed by Phoenicians and Cypriots, still controlled the Aegean, and by taking its home ports Alexander could deprive it of bases. Byblos and Sidon submitted to him.

The cause of the siege

Tyrian envoys offered Alexander their submission, but when he asked to sacrifice in the temple of Melqart on the island, whom the Greeks identified with Heracles, the Tyrians refused. They offered to let him sacrifice at the old temple on the mainland, but would admit neither Persians nor Macedonians to the island. Their king, Azemilcus, was absent with the Persian fleet.

Alexander would not leave a strong, independent naval city behind him. According to Arrian he told his officers that it was unsafe to march on Egypt or Babylon while Tyre and the Persian navy remained unconquered. Curtius adds that heralds he sent to the city were killed, though this detail is not in Arrian.

Building the mole

In January 332 BC Alexander began building a mole, a causeway of stones, earth and timber, from the mainland towards the island. Stone was taken from the ruins of Old Tyre on the shore. Near the coast the water was shallow and work went quickly, but closer to the city the channel was deeper, and the builders came under attack from Tyrian ships and from archers and catapults on the walls.

Alexander built two siege towers at the end of the mole, protected by hides. The Tyrians answered by sending a fire ship, an old horse transport filled with dry wood, pitch and sulphur, against them. The towers burned, and Tyrian boats landed men who destroyed much of the work.

Alexander ordered the mole to be widened and new towers built. He also realised that the city could only be taken with a navy. Curtius adds that a storm damaged part of the structure, and that whole trees, with their branches still attached, were sunk to bind the rubble together.

The Tyrians were equally inventive. Ancient writers describe them using heated sand, poured from shields onto attackers, cutting nets on poles, and stone-throwing machines on the walls. Diodorus also mentions rumours among the defenders that the god Apollo was about to desert them, and says they bound his statue with golden chains to stop him leaving.

The fleet and the final assault

The kings of Arados, Byblos and Sidon, hearing that their cities were in Alexander’s hands, abandoned the Persian fleet and brought him about 80 ships. Around 120 more came from the kings of Cyprus, along with smaller contingents from Rhodes, Lycia and Macedonia itself. With a fleet of over 200 warships, Alexander blockaded the Tyrians inside their two harbours.

His engineers, among them Diades of Thessaly, mounted rams and siege engines on ships lashed together. The Tyrians dropped stones into the water to keep the ships off, cut anchor cables with divers and attempted a surprise sally against the Cypriot squadron, which Alexander defeated.

In July 332 BC, after testing the walls at several points, the Macedonians opened a breach on the southern side of the city. Alexander led an assault from ships with bridges, while his fleets forced their way into both harbours. The city fell.

Losses and aftermath

The capture was followed by great violence. Arrian says that about 8,000 Tyrians were killed in the assault and that around 30,000 people, including foreigners in the city, were sold into slavery. Curtius and Diodorus add that some 2,000 young men were executed along the shore, though these figures cannot be verified. Arrian gives Macedonian losses during the whole siege as about 400.

Those who had fled to the temple of Melqart, among them King Azemilcus and envoys from Carthage who had come for a religious festival, were spared. Carthage had promised help but sent none. Alexander finally made his sacrifice to Heracles and held a procession and games in the god’s honour.

During the siege Darius III sent an offer of peace, which ancient writers report as including a large ransom, all lands west of the Euphrates and a daughter in marriage. Arrian tells that Parmenion said he would accept if he were Alexander, and that Alexander replied that so would he, if he were Parmenion.

Key people

• Alexander the Great (356-323 BC): king of Macedon.
• Azemilcus: king of Tyre, absent with the Persian fleet at the start of the siege.
• Diades of Thessaly: Alexander’s chief siege engineer.
• Craterus: Macedonian general who commanded the left wing of the fleet in the blockade.
• Admetus: officer of the hypaspists, killed while leading the assault on the breached wall.

Consequences

After Tyre, Alexander besieged Gaza for about two months and then entered Egypt, which surrendered without fighting. Alexander appointed a governor for the region and left Tyre with a Macedonian garrison. With the Phoenician cities lost, the Persian fleet ceased to be a fighting force, and Alexander’s rear was secure for his march into Mesopotamia in 331 BC.

Tyre was resettled and recovered as a trading port under Hellenistic rule and later Rome. Ancient historians treated its fall as an example of Alexander’s determination and of the ruthlessness of ancient warfare.

The causeway today

Alexander’s mole had a permanent effect. Sand carried by currents piled up against it over the following centuries, widening it into a broad isthmus. Geological studies have shown that a natural sand spit already existed beneath the sea there and that the mole accelerated its growth. Tyre, now the Lebanese city of Sour, has stood on a peninsula ever since. Its ancient remains were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.

Timeline

• 333 BC, November: Alexander defeats Darius III at Issus.
• 332 BC, January: Tyre refuses Alexander entry; work on the mole begins.
• 332 BC, spring: Tyrian fire ship destroys the siege towers.
• 332 BC, spring: Phoenician and Cypriot fleets join Alexander.
• 332 BC, July: Breach in the southern wall; Tyre is taken by storm.
• 332 BC, autumn: Siege of Gaza, lasting about two months.
• 332 BC, late: Alexander enters Egypt.

Why it matters

The siege of Tyre showed that Alexander could take a fortress previously considered impregnable, combining engineering, naval power and persistence. Its fall ended Persian sea power in the Mediterranean and left a lasting mark on the coastline of Lebanon.