Tyre was already ancient when Alexander the Great arrived in 332 before Christ. Then it was an island city just off the coast of what is now southern Lebanon, famously rich and famously stubborn, and when its citizens refused to open their gates, Alexander built a causeway out to the island and besieged it for months. Sand piled up against that causeway over the centuries, and the island became the peninsula you see today, with the modern city of Tyre spreading across it and the old harbour still busy with fishing boats.
The Phoenicians of Tyre were the great seafarers of the ancient Mediterranean, founding colonies as far away as Carthage, and they grew rich on purple dye extracted from murex sea snails, a colour so costly that it became the mark of emperors. The ruins listed by UNESCO are mostly Roman and Byzantine: colonnaded streets running down to the sea at the Al-Mina site, and at Al-Bass a vast necropolis, a monumental arch and one of the largest Roman hippodromes ever found, where chariot races once drew tens of thousands of spectators. The light here, reflected off the sea and the pale stone, has a particular soft brilliance.
Tyre is the main city of the south, with a lively souk, fish restaurants on the harbour and long sandy beaches south of town, part of which is a nature reserve where turtles nest. The coastal highway north towards Sidon and Beirut is busy, fast and chaotic, with drivers who take creative approaches to lanes, and side roads inland climb into hills of olive groves and tobacco fields. The southern border region has seen repeated conflict, including heavy fighting in recent years, so check current travel advice and the security situation carefully before going.
Fuel stations are frequent in and around the city, and food is excellent: grilled fish, fattoush, hummus and fresh bread, followed by sweet pastries and strong coffee. Spring and autumn bring the most comfortable riding weather, while summers are humid and hot. If you can, watch the sun set over the sea from the old harbour, where fishermen mend their nets much as they have done for millennia.