Were a northern necropolis to be discovered, some idea would be furnished of the extent of the city; but at present the plain has been very imperfectly examined in this direction.

It is from the southern necropolis that the remarkable inscription was disinterred which first established beyond all possibility of doubt the fact that the modern Saida is the representative of the ancient Sidon.[414] Twenty miles to the south of Sidon was the still more important city--the double city--of Tzur or Tyre.

Tzur signifies "a rock," and at this point of the Syrian coast (Lat.

33ｺ 17') there lay at a short distance from the shore a set of rocky islets, on the largest of which the original city seems to have been built.

Indentations are so rare and so shallow along this coast, that a maritime people naturally looked out for littoral islands, as affording under the circumstances the best protection against boisterous winds; and, as in the north Aradus was early seized and occupied by Phoenician settlers, so in the south the rock, which became the heart of Tyre, was seized, fortified, covered with buildings, and converted from a bare stony eminence into a town.