Tyre was a major Phoenician seaport from about the 20th century BCE, mentioned in Egyptian records as Egypt's subject in the 14th century BCE. In the 9th century BCE Tyre founded the North African city of Carthage and today's Spain city of Cadiz. Tyre is frequently mentioned in the Bible (Old and New Testaments). In the 8th and 7th centuries BCE Tyre was under Assyrian rule, later besieged without success by Babylon, and then ruled for two centuries by Persia. In 332 BCE Alexander the Great destroyed the city, after a 7 month siege. After that Tyre was ruled by Egypt (the Ptolemaic dynasty), the Roman Empire, Arab Muslim rulers, the Cruseiders, the Mamluks.
The archaeological remains of Tyre are mostly from Roman times, in two separate zones: al-Mina (0:13), which was an island in the past, and al-Bass (2:34), where a necropolis, a triumphal arch, and a hippodrome are located. Tyre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.