Appeal to Save the Phoenician Port of Tyre
The current situation in Tyre remains as worrying as ever. This Phoenician city continues to face great threats to its outstanding universal value.
The Cultural Heritage and Urban Development (CHUD) project has been in its operational phase since 2004. It was launched in 2002 by the Lebanese government, with the support of the World Bank, the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Italian government.
Proposition of the redevelopment of the Port of Tyre
The project aims to safeguard, develop and revitalize the heritage of five Lebanese cities, including Tyre. It endeavors to restore coherence to the cultural and architectural heritage of these cities and turn them into a center for cultural tourism development.
In Tyre, the project is divided into two phases. The first focuses on a cultural circuit of the old city and was achieved in 2009. The second phase, started in 2010 and to be completed in 2012, is aimed at infrastructure rehabilitation (port, thoroughfares, popular market and archeological sites).
However, these works carried out under the supervision of the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR) are not in accordance with the plan set out by the late Sheikh Pierre El-Khoury, who was in charge of the project:
1. Initially, it was planned to redevelop the fishing port in its antique form, renovate the maritime façade of the port and rehabilitate the souks near the port and the coastal promenade between the fishing port and the archeological sites. However, despite our interventions to try to save the antique port's foundations, we remain powerless before the chaotic works that do not respect the areas to be protected, defined by the experts. For instance: a dike is widened 8 meters in an area rich in archaeological remains and huge cement blocks were piled up in that area, seriously threatening the subaquatic heritage. Moreover, modern constructions are underway within the antique port itself.
2. The building that housed the fishermen's syndicate built illegally during the war at the center of the port was meant to be demolished and the syndicate moved to the building recently erected on the Northern dike. However, another building will now be built at the same location of the syndicate, with a modern architectural design that would stand out from the rest of the site, burying archeological remains under tons of concrete and obstructing the port view.
3. Also it is primordial, before renovating the façade, to demolish the illegal floors of the two buildings overlooking the port, which were built during the war.
4. The popular markets, located at the entrance of the old city next to a car parking lot in
