Accord­ing to leg­end, pur­ple dye was invent­ed in Tyre. This great Phoeni­cian city ruled the seas and found­ed pros­per­ous colonies such as Cadiz and Carthage, but its his­tor­i­cal role declined at the end of the Cru­sades. There are impor­tant archae­o­log­i­cal remains, main­ly from Roman times.