By these means an area was produced sufficient for the site of a considerable town.

Pliny estimated the circumference of the island Tyre at twenty-two stades,[417] or somewhat more than two miles and a half.

Modern measurements make the actual present area one of above 600,000 square yards.[418] The shape was an irregular trapezium, 1,400 yards along its western face, 800 yards along its southern one, 600 along the face towards the east, and rather more along the face towards the north-east.
The whole town was surrounded by a lofty wall, the height of which, on the side which faced the mainland, was, we are told, a hundred and fifty feet.[419] Towards the south the foundations of the wall were laid in the sea, and may still be traced.[420] They consist of huge blocks of stone strengthened inside by a conglomerate of very hard cement.

The wall runs out from the south-eastern corner of what was the original island, in a direction a little to the south of west, till it reaches the line of the western coast, when it turns at a sharp angle, and rejoins the island at its south-western extremity.

At present sea is found for some distance to the north of the wall, and this fact has been thought to show that originally it was intended for a pier or quay, and the space within it for a harbour;[421] but the latest explorers are of opinion that the space was once filled up with masonry and rubbish, being an artificial addition to the island, over which, in the course of time, the sea has broken, and reasserted its rights.[422] Like Sidon, Tyre had two harbours, a northern and a southern.