The trade of Tyre and her sister cities reached almost throughout
the world as then known. They imported the spices--notably the myrrh
and frankincense--of Arabia; the ivory, ebony, and cotton goods of
India; linen yarn and corn from Egypt; wool and wine from Damascus;
embroideries from Babylon and Nineveh; pottery, in the days of
Grecian art, from Attica; horses and chariots from Armenia; copper
from the shores of the Euxine Sea; lead from Spain; tin from
Cornwall. Phœnicia exported not only these articles of food and use
and luxury, but the rich purple dyes made from the murex (a kind of
shell-fish) of its own coast, the famous hue of Tyre, with which
were tinged the silken costly robes of the despots. From Sidon went
the famous glass produced in part from fine white sand, found
plenteously near Mount Carmel. There was gold from Ophir, and
interchange of cedar, sent by Hiram, king of Tyre, for building
Solomon’s Temple, in barter for the wheat and balm and oil of
Israel’s fertile land.
So important was the trade by caravans through Babylon with the
interior of Asia that the great town Palmyra (or “Tadmor in the
desert”) was founded or enlarged by Solomon to serve the traffic on
its route through Syria to the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates.