Al Bass is the mainland archaeological sector of Tyre, Lebanon, and the principal approach to the city in antiquity. A broad paved road runs between funerary monuments toward a second-century AD triumphal arch. Beyond it, aqueduct remains and one of the Roman world’s largest preserved hippodromes turn the site into far more than a cemetery.
UNESCO inscribed Tyre in 1984. The World Heritage property has two principal archaeological sectors: Al Bass on the mainland and the city site on the former island or promontory. They require separate visits. Calling every ruin “the necropolis” obscures the road, water system and entertainment architecture that explain ancient Tyre’s urban scale.
