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HISTORY OF ENGINEERING.
is at present a town of considerable importance, known as Saide or Seide. Thisancient port is nearly choked up with sand; the houses which rise from it, and containupwards of 15,000 inhabitants, are built along the shore, and impart, as the traveller
SCALE'OF 3 SEA
KIL.LA
approaches, the idea of a place of some extent. Considerable employment is stillgiven to the spinners of cotton and manufacturers of leather, and at a short distance fromthe shore is the island of Said, once connected by a mole with the main land, and forminga second well-sheltered harbour. The Roman bay is commanded by a modern battery,and behind this Turkish fortress are traces of the ancient city; and the remains of severaltombs. Homer , in the 15th book of his Odyssey , mentions this city ; and in describing thearrival of one of its ships, tells us how it was freighted, and that it contained toys andfancies of every sort. The same poet often alludes to the works of art, the mantles ofvarious hue, the dyes, the silver goblets, the beads of amber rivetted on gold, and otherarticles of luxury that were sent from Sidon ; and that the fair Sidonians were highlyaccomplished in embroidery and other ornamental works.
Sidon was rendered important from the mercantile disposition of its inhabitants, whotvere also skilled in producing all kinds of manufactures then in demand; the mountainsof Libanus in their rear afforded them abundance of timber for ship-building, with whichthey constructed vessels that carried their surplus produce to the most distant lands.Had Faccardine, the emir of the Druses , who dreaded the constant visits of the Turkish fleet, not demolished the ancient mole, we might have had it in our power to describe astructure of the golden age, or of the time when giants are said to have given their aid:for vast indeed in dimension are many of the stones that lie scattered along the coast, andwhich once formed the mole that shut in their harbours. Some of these stones are reportedto be long enough to have extended through the whole thickness of the mole. At presenta ledge of rock affords the only shelter to vessels which frequent this port; this is a shortdistance from the coast, and stretches itself in front of the citadel towards the north.This ancient port for a long period enjoyed the sovereignty of the entire Mediterranean;and as the surrounding country was barren, the inhabitants could not have subsistedwithout commerce, which brought in its train the arts. Some of their early bronze andsilver medals bear proof how highly they were advanced, and history attests the successwhich attended their navigation. Homer , according to Strabo , speaks only of Sidon , whenhe alludes to the inhabitants of Phoenicia .
Tyre , or Sor, called “the daughter of Sidon, ” stood also on the sea, at a distance of about200 stadia southward. We must be careful not to confound the three different citieswhich had this name. The first in order of time was old Tyre, on the continent.; thenTyre on the island; and Tyre on the peninsula, after the island was joined to the mainland. It had two harbours; one lying north, and the other south, or towards Egypt ,which were formed by the isthmus; the latter was a close harbour, and the openingthrough which ships entered was fortified by drawing a chain across it. An artificialmole still defends this bay ; and probably the rocks on the other side were once builtupon, thoroughly to enclose it. Northward, at the head of the island, stretches out, froma ruined light-house, another mole, which protected the northern harbour. Since theuniting of the island a gully has been formed, as if the sea had again broken through,and once more separated it from the continent. Tyre on the island, and old Tyre onthe main land, for a long time constituted one city: according to Pliny , the island was 700paces from the continent; but, according to Strabo , 30 stadia, or nearly three of ourmiles. The same author states that the walls which encompassed it were 150 feet inheight, proportionally broad, and built of large and massive blocks of stone, embedded inmortar. Modern travellers place the island at about a third of a mile distant from the