Tyre, built on an island and on the neighbouring mainland, was probably originally founded as a colony of Sidon. Mentioned in Egyptian records of the 14th century BC as being subject to Egypt, Tyre became independent when Egyptian influence in Phoenicia declined. It later surpassed Sidon as a trade centre, developing commercial relations with all parts of the Mediterranean world. In the 9th century BC colonists from Tyre founded the North African city of Carthage (North Africa), which later became Rome's principal rival in the West. The town is frequently mentioned in the Bible (biblical literature) (Old and New Testaments) as having had close ties with Israel. Hiram, king of Tyre (reigned 969–936), furnished building materials for Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem (10th century), and the notorious Jezebel, wife of King Ahab, was the daughter of Ethbaal, “king of Tyre and Sidon.” In the 10th and 9th centuries Tyre probably enjoyed some primacy over the other cities of Phoenicia and was ruled by kings whose power was limited by a merchant oligarchy.

Tyre was subsequently under the influence of Ptolemaic Egypt and in 200 became part of the Hellenistic Seleucid kingdom. It came under Roman (ancient Rome) rule in 64 BC and was renowned in Roman times for its textiles and for a purple dye extracted from sea snails of the genus murex (the dye was said to be worth more than its weight in gold, and purple cloth became a symbol of wealth and of royalty). By the 2nd century AD it had a sizable Christian community, and the Christian scholar Origen was buried there (c. 254). Tyre was under Muslim rule from 638 to 1124, when it fell to the Crusaders, and until the 13th century it was a principal town of the kingdom of Jerusalem (Jerusalem, kingdom of). The Holy Roman emperor Frederick I Barbarossa (Frederick I), who died on the Third Crusade, was buried in its 12th-century cathedral. Captured and destroyed by the Muslim Mamlūks (Mamlūk) in 1291, the town never recovered its former importance.

Excavations have uncovered remains of the Greco-Roman, Crusader, Arab, and Byzantine civilizations, but most of the remains of the Phoenician period lie beneath the present town. Areas of archaeological note include the ruins of a Crusader church, a street with a 2nd-century mosaic pavement and a double colonnade of white green-veined marble, Roman baths, the ruins of a Roman-Byzantine necropolis, and the largest Roman hippodrome ever discovered. Built in the 2nd century, the hippodrome hosted chariot races with a capacity of 20,000 spectators.

In 1984 UNESCO designated the historic town a World Heritage site. In the late 20th century the ruins were damaged by bombardment, most notably in 1982 and 1996 during Israeli offensives in southern Lebanon. The site is threatened by urban growth, looting, and the decay of stone because of airborne pollution. In 1998 UNESCO created a special fund for the preservation and archaeological excavation of the ancient treasures of Tyre.

The economy of the town was upset by the unrest of the late 20th century. Fishing remains a major source of income. Pop. (1961) 16,483; (1991 est.) 70,000.