Alexander the Great And The Siege of Tyre

Lets start off with something I find very interesting: The Siege of Tyre by Alexander the Great. This is considered one of the greatest militaristic feats of the Ancient World, and it shows exactly how far Alexander would go to expand his already powerful empire.
Founded as early as the third  millennium B.C., Tyre was a very prominent port city. In fact it was sort of an island City just off the coast of modern day Lebanon.. Even back then, Tyre was considered a Large city, it profited off of the trades and markets that passed though it. Because of it's general security being and island, man wealthy merchants stored their goods, and profits in Tyrian warehouses. This often prompted many ancient rulers to assail the city for profit, but even up to Alexander's's era, none had been able to breach the walls of the city.



That All Changed as Soon as Alexander Saw the benefits of Tyre  He was on a winning streak at this point winning and conquering city after city and steadily expanding ancient Macedonia, and so he reasoned if he wanted to conquer the world, he'd better do it right. The only problem was how to do so. he would first try to negotiate with the Tyrians for a win-win, because a siege against the un-impenetrable city would be very costly. their defense system was very impressive. consisting of Sturdy walls reaching up to 160 ft. built dropping directly into the water, which posed an immense challenge for Alexander. then Alexander's engineers came up with a brilliant idea. they would build a land bridge with wooden beams stones and dirt reaching out to the city.

Typical Macedonian Hoplite

Macedonian Phalanx 

Eventually, as building progressed, the Macedonians encountered fierce resistance form the Tyrians  who were now in catapult range, as well as their naval fleet, which continually harassed the invaders.Alexanders solution was to build two large siege towers with heavy catapults to repel the ships. As A response, Tyrians sent a large fire ship with the stern weighted, The Conflagration was able to successfully destroy both towers, leaving the bridge defenseless. Alexander then reinforced the bridge with breakwaters  which did the trick. at this point the Tyrians were very nervous because of the fact that the most powerful army at that age was right on their walls. although they were still able to rely on their walls, Alexander had now at this time set up torsion catapults that kept the defenders occupied with keeping their heads down by continually sending a storm of rocks and bolts at the walls.

  
     
 (Artist's Depiction of The latter stages of the invasion)

 This Forced the Tyrians to split their defenses between the between both locations, now realizing that surrender would not save their lives. they used wooden towers on their walls, using long bladed poles to sever siege ropes, poured hot sand and used nets to slow the attackers.  According to historians, the effort that Tyrians put into defending their city was so fierce Alexander even considered ending the siege because of the physical and economical costs it took. However, the sheer determination of the conqueror was what triumphed in the end. Eventually, a gap in the outer wall of the city (unable to be repaired) opened and Alexander took advantage of it. He drove his troops through the gap and into the city. At this point there were few forces that could hold their own against the well disciplined and vicious war machine that Alexander wielded and the city quickly fell.

                                          

What I've learned through this illustrative Story is how Sheer willpower and determination can overcome even the impossible. While Alexander was in the early stages of his bridge, the defenders mocked him from the walls for his ludicrous ideas, but he never gave up, when the Tyrians set fire to his siege towers and killed number of his men, he never gave up, and after seven months of dragging out the invasion, even when his war advisers told him to to quit, he never gave up. He had the determination of a conqueror and that is one of the reasons why he was able to dominate most of the known world.