Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 10/06/2004 06:40, Yigal Levin wrote:

> Sorry Vadim,
>
> I thought that we might have a scoop here, if we could prove that the
> "Alexandrian mole" is a myth. So I speant a couple of hours in the library,
> looking up fairly recent books about the archaeology and history of Tyre. In
> all of the relevant ones, including several reports by Pierre and Patricia
> Bikai, who have been digging at Tyre for years, it is made clear that the
> geology confirms that island was, indeed connected to the coast
> artificially. The island and the immediate coast are kurkar, by the way. The
> Limestone and chalk only start beyond the coastal strip.
>
> I also had a look at Shalmanessar III's "Balawat Gate" from Khorsabad. The
> relief clearly shows King Ettobaal of Tyre loading tribute on a boat, to be
> taken to Shalmanessar, who is waiting on the coast across a strip of water.
>
> Yigal
>
>  
I have just remembered where I saw a comparable example: in Newcastle, 
New South Wales, Australia. There, what was formerly a small rocky 
island at the mouth of the Hunter river was, some time in the 19th 
century, joined to the mainland by a mole a few hundred metres long, to 
help to form a better harbour. The mole is still visible and forms a 
roadway, but on one side it is now flanked by a wide beach and sand 
dunes deposited by the sea, and on the other side by a grassy meadow 
deposited by the river. Only at the end nearest the island does water 
approach the mole, right up to it on the river side and across a now 
narrow beach on the sea side. And this after only about 150 years. I 
would expect that after more than 2000 years the mole could easily be 
buried and forgotten.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/