Tyre, city, "Tower of Hiram"

At the beginning of the seventh century CE, the Sasanian king Khusrau II invaded Syria and destroyed many cities. This may or may not have been the occasion on which the Tyrians built the "Tower of Hiram" was built, a strong military tower that protected a fresh water spring. (The name is more recent: if there is a historical element in the stories about the legendary king Hiram, he lived in the tenth century BCE.) The well is accessible with a staircase inside the building.

The building was more or less at the place where the road from the mainland to the city, which can still be seen at the Al-Bass cemetery, reached the former island. It is possible that the road was built to pass along the well, which in turns suggests that there may have been a nymphaeum on the site that was later occupied by the Tower of Hiram.

The well was still in use in the early twentieth century.