yards long from north to south, and nearly 400 broad from east to west,
wholly surrounded by land on three sides, the north, the east, and the
south, but open for the space of about 200 yards towards the west. In
fine weather this harbour was probably quite as much used as the other;
it was protected from all the winds that were commonly prevalent, and
offered a long stretch of sandy shore free from buildings on which
vessels could be drawn up.

It is impossible to mark out the enceinte of the ancient town, or indeed
to emplace it with any exactitude. Only scanty and scattered remains are
left here and there between the modern city and the mountains. There
is, however, towards the south an extensive necropolis,[413] which marks
perhaps the southern limits of the city, while towards the east the
hills are penetrated by a number of sepulchural grottoes, and tombs
of various kinds, which were also probably outside the walls. 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
Saïda 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. 33º 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