HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

El-Buss camp ( ar, مخيم البص) – also transliterated Bass, Bas, or Baas with either the article Al or El respectively – is one of the twelve
Palestinian refugee camp Camps are set up by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to accommodate Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA, who fled or were expelled during the 1948 Palestinian ...
s in Lebanon, located in the Southern Lebanese city of Tyre. It had been a refuge for survivors of the
Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...
from the 1930s until the 1950s, built in a
swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...
area which during
ancient times Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cov ...
had for at least one and a half
millennia A millennium (plural millennia or millenniums) is a period of one thousand years, sometimes called a kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting point (ini ...
been a
necropolis A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead". The term usually im ...
. In recent decades it has been "''at the center of Tyre’s experience with
precarity Precarity (also precariousness) is a precarious existence, lacking in predictability, job security, material or psychological welfare. The social class defined by this condition has been termed the ''precariat''. Catholic origins Léonce Crenier, ...
''" and "''a space that feels permanent yet unfinished, suspended in time.''"


Territory

El Buss is located in the North-Eastern part of the Sour
municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
. While Tyre as a whole is commonly known as Sour in Arabic, its urban area comprises parts of four municipalities: Sour,
Ain Baal Ain Baal ( ar, عين بعال) is a Lebanese village located in the Caza of Tyre in the South Governorate of Lebanon. The municipality is member of Federation of Tyr (Sour) District Municipalities. Origin of name E. H. Palmer wrote that the ...
, Abbassieh and Burj El Chamali. The two latter ones are close to El-Buss. Burj El Shimali, about 2 km to the East of El-Buss also hosts a Palestinian refugee camp, while the gathering of
Jal Al Baher JAL or Jal may refer to: Entertainment * Jal (band), a Pakistani pop/rock band * ''Jal'' (film), a 2014 Hindi film * Jal Fazer, a character in the British TV series ''Skins'' * "Jal", an episode of the British TV series ''Skins'' Places * Jal, ...
to the North and the neighbourhood of Maashouk 1 km to the East are informal settlements for Palestinian refugees. To the South of El Buss camp - separated through a wall and the remaining water pools of the original marshland - is the vast archaeological site of El-Buss, which is popular with tourists. The camp covers a total area of approximately 1
square kilometer Square kilometre ( International spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures) or square kilometer (American spelling), symbol km2, is a multiple of the square metre, the SI unit of area or surface area. 1 km2 is equa ...
. At its Northern side the camp borders the main roads at the entry to the Tyre peninsula and to its Eastern side the North-South
Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
-
Naqoura Naqoura (, ''Enn Nâqoura, Naqoura, An Nāqūrah'') is a small city in southern Lebanon. Since March 23, 1978, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has been headquartered in Naqoura. Name According to E. H. Palmer (1881), the nam ...
Sea Road. Hence, it is severely affected by heavy traffic jams at the crossroads, especially during peak hours at the El Buss
roundabout A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford En ...
. The camp has a number of entrances for pedestrians, but only one - on the South-Eastern side - for vehicles. Entry and exit there is controlled at a checkpoint by the
Lebanese Armed Forces ) , founded = 1 August 1945 , current_form = 1991 , disbanded = , branches = Lebanese Ground ForcesLebanese Air Force Lebanese Navy , headquarters = Yarze, Lebanon , flying_hours = , websit ...
. Foreign visitors have to present permits from
Military Intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...
to them.
''"although it is a
labyrinth In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the ...
of tiny alleys crisscrossing each other haphazardly, it is much less crowded and daunting than some of the other camps across the country."''
A 2017
census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...
counted 687 buildings with 1,356
household A household consists of two or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is im ...
s in el-Buss. Most of the buildings are
concrete block A concrete masonry unit (CMU) is a standard-size rectangular block used in building construction. CMUs are some of the most versatile building products available because of the wide variety of appearances that can be achieved using them. Tho ...
shelters, considered to be of poor quality. While the building situation in the eastern part around the former Armenian camp is dense, the western part of the camp has developed in a more informal manner. The many businesses, especially mechanical workshops for cars, on the Northern side along the main road integrate the outer fringe of the camp into the townscape. However,
"''Though very much a part of the city’s urban fabric, El-Buss remains a peripheral space''".
And as Tyre like all of Southern Lebanon has been
marginalised Social exclusion or social marginalisation is the social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society. It is a term that has been used widely in Europe and was first used in France in the late 20th century. It is used across discipline ...
throughout modern history, El Buss camp is actually even
"''peripheral within the periphery''".


History


Pre-modern history of the site


Ancient history


= Phoenician times

= El Buss refugee camp is located in a historical site that dates back at least three thousand years. A
Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...
n
cremation Cremation is a method of Disposal of human corpses, final disposition of a Cadaver, dead body through Combustion, burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India ...
cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...
from the
Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
was uncovered in an area of some 500 square meters in the southeastern corner of the camp, the first discovery of its kind and with about 320 excavated
urn An urn is a vase, often with a cover, with a typically narrowed neck above a rounded body and a footed pedestal. Describing a vessel as an "urn", as opposed to a vase or other terms, generally reflects its use rather than any particular shape or ...
s the most densely occupied Phoenician cemetery known in the
Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...
. El Buss was the principal graveyard for the maritime merchant-republic
city-state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world since the dawn of history, including cities such as ...
of Tyre in its most expansive and prosperous era for almost four hundred years. It thus offers unique windows into the Phoenician past: The cemetery was established at the end of the tenth century BCE on what was then a sea-beach at the edge of the coast opposite of what was then the
island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...
city of Tyre. The beach originally also bordered the southern edge of an ancient creek delta. The landscape shifted though over the centuries and millennia. Hence, the creek bay turned into a
lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...
, separated from the sea by a sand bar:
"'' Paleobotanical and
fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoo ...
l analyses of the sand sediment in the area show that the creek became a lake during the ninth and eighth centuries B.C.E.''"
The most common type of
burial Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...
in this necropolis was made up of twin-urns with the remains of the same individual - one containing the
ash Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...
es and the other the
bone A bone is a Stiffness, rigid Organ (biology), organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red blood cell, red and white blood cells, store minerals, provid ...
s mixed personal possessions, as well as two
jug A jug is a type of container commonly used to hold liquids. It has an opening, sometimes narrow, from which to pour or drink, and has a handle, and often a pouring lip. Jugs throughout history have been made of metal, and ceramic, or glass, and ...
s and a
bowl A bowl is a typically round dish or container generally used for preparing, serving, or consuming food. The interior of a bowl is characteristically shaped like a spherical cap, with the edges and the bottom forming a seamless curve. This makes ...
for drinking. About a fifth of the discovered urns with bone remains contained a scarab-
amulet An amulet, also known as a good luck charm or phylactery, is an object believed to confer protection upon its possessor. The word "amulet" comes from the Latin word amuletum, which Pliny's ''Natural History'' describes as "an object that protects ...
. The researchers, led by
Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...
María Eugenia Aubet from the
Pompeu Fabra University Pompeu Fabra University ( ca, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, UPF, ; es, link=no, Universidad Pompeu Fabra) is a public university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia in Spain. The university was created by the Autonomous Government of Catalo ...
in
Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
, also excavated a few
stelae A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...
which bore inscriptions and
human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
mask A mask is an object normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance, or entertainment and often they have been employed for rituals and rights. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practic ...
s sculpted from
terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...
. Some of them are considered to be
masterpiece A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...
s and on display at the
National Museum of Beirut The National Museum of Beirut ( ar, متحف بيروت الوطنيّ, ''Matḥaf Bayrūt al-waṭanī'' or French language, French: Musée national de Beyrouth) is the principal museum of archaeology in Lebanon. The collection begun after World ...
. Altogether, one has to imagine a beach with such personalised
gravestones A headstone, tombstone, or gravestone is a stele or marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. It is traditional for burials in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religions, among others. In most cases, it has the deceased's name, da ...
sticking out of the sand, with a view on the fortified island city. Aubet concludes:
''"The structure of the cemetery at Tyre is in some ways reminiscent of the European urnfields, in which apparently little formal differentiation according to the sex, age, and content of the burials can be seen, although their structure in fact conceals genuine social
asymmetries Asymmetry is the absence of, or a violation of, symmetry (the property of an object being invariant to a transformation, such as reflection). Symmetry is an important property of both physical and abstract systems and it may be displayed in pre ...
. .Rather than an '
egalitarian Egalitarianism (), or equalitarianism, is a school of thought within political philosophy that builds from the concept of social equality, prioritizing it for all people. Egalitarian doctrines are generally characterized by the idea that all hum ...
' society for Tyre, we should probably speak of an egalitarian
ideology An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied pri ...
, appropriate to a wholly urban and sophisticated society, characterized by the relative
simplicity Simplicity is the state or quality of being simple. Something easy to understand or explain seems simple, in contrast to something complicated. Alternatively, as Herbert A. Simon suggests, something is simple or complex depending on the way we ch ...
and lack of
ostentation In sociology and in economics, the term conspicuous consumption describes and explains the consumer practice of buying and using goods of a higher quality, price, or in greater quantity than practical. In 1899, the sociologist Thorstein Veblen co ...
of its funeral customs. A communal ideology that concealed differences of wealth and power is evident. .with only limited evidence of social stratification, such a conclusion should be regarded as tentative and subject to refinement on the basis of further and future excavations at Tyre."''


= Hellenistic times

= In 332 BCE,
Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...
had an
isthmus An isthmus (; ; ) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea counterpart of an isthmu ...
of about 1.000 meters length constructed in 332 BCE to breach the fortifications of offshore-Tyre. This
causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet Tra ...
increased greatly in width because of extensive
silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...
depositions on either side over the centuries. The growing
tombolo A tombolo is a sandy or shingle isthmus. A tombolo, from the Italian ', meaning 'pillow' or 'cushion', and sometimes translated incorrectly as ''ayre'' (an ayre is a shingle beach of any kind), is a deposition landform by which an island become ...
linked the original island permanently to the adjacent continent and made the city a peninsula. As a consequence of this
man-made Artificiality (the state of being artificial or manmade) is the state of being the product of intentional human manufacture, rather than occurring naturally through processes not involving or requiring human activity. Connotations Artificiality ...
metamorphosis Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some inse ...
of the Tyrian coastal system, the Phoenician graves in El Buss were buried under
sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand an ...
s of
clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
and
sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of s ...
. After almost two and a half millennia, they are now at more than 3.5 m under the ground level of El Buss. Before the landscape changed though, the Phoenician funerary site of El Buss was still used during the Hellenistic era. In addition, the area just neighbouring to the North, now known as Jal Al Bahr, became a burial ground, as recent excavations have shown. To the South of it, a sanctuary dedicated to the Olympian deity of
Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
was constructed, possibly still at the end of the Hellenistic era or latest in the first century CE:


= Roman times

= In 64 BCE the area of "
Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
" finally became a province of the late
Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kin ...
, which was itself about to become the
Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
. Tyre was allowed to keep much of its independence as a "
civitas foederata A ''civitas foederata'', meaning "allied state/community", was the most elevated type of autonomous cities and local communities under Roman rule. Each Roman province comprised a number of communities of different status. Alongside Roman colonies o ...
". Various sources in the
New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
state that
Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
visited Tyre (
Gospel of Luke The Gospel of Luke), or simply Luke (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). tells of the origins, birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Together with the Acts of the Apostles, it makes up a two-volu ...
6:17; Mark 3:8 and 7:24; Matthew 11:21–23 and 15:21). According to many believers in later centuries, he sat down on a rock in the Southern part of El Buss and had a
meal A meal is an eating occasion that takes place at a certain time and includes consumption of food. The names used for specific meals in English vary, depending on the speaker's culture, the time of day, or the size of the meal. Although they ca ...
there.
Scientific Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
analyses from archaeological excavations indicate that an
olive grove The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' 'M ...
planted was inside the Roman necropolis at the beginning of the Christian era. In the early second century CE, Emperor
Hadrian Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...
, who visited the cities of the East around 130 CE, conferred the title of Metropolis on Tyre: "great city" mother of other cities. Subsequently, a triple-bay
Triumphal Arch A triumphal arch is a free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, crow ...
, an aqueduct from the springs of Ras al-Ain some six kilometers to the South and the
Tyre Hippodrome The Tyre Hippodrome is a UNESCO World Heritage site of the city of Tyre in south Lebanon dating back to the Second century CE The Expositio, a description of the world written in the second half of the fourth century by an unknown writer abou ...
were constructed. The arch was 21 meters high and became the gateway of the Roman town. At its side pillars were erected that were more than four meters high and carried the water canal alongside the road into the town on the peninsula. The
hippodrome The hippodrome ( el, ἱππόδρομος) was an ancient Greek stadium for horse racing and chariot racing. The name is derived from the Greek words ''hippos'' (ἵππος; "horse") and ''dromos'' (δρόμος; "course"). The term is used i ...
is the largest (480m long and 160m wide) and best-preserved Roman hippodrome after the one in
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
. The
amphitheater An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...
for the horse-racetrack could host some 30.000 spectators. During the third century CE, the Heraclia games – dedicated to the
deity A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greate ...
Melqart-Heracles (not to be confused with the
demigod A demigod or demigoddess is a part-human and part-divine offspring of a deity and a human, or a human or non-human creature that is accorded divine status after death, or someone who has attained the "divine spark" ( spiritual enlightenment). A ...
Heracles Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive ...
, hero of the 12 labors) – were held in the hippodrome every four years. Meanwhile, between the first and fourth centuries CE, one of the largest known cemeteries of the region grew in El Buss with more than forty tomb complexes, at least 825 graves and the physical remains of almost 4,000 individuals. The
marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...
sarcophagi A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a cadaver, corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from ...
, which were imported from
Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
and
Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
, and the other tombs of the monumental necropolis spread on both sides of the road leading to the triumphal arch over a kilometer in length. It is unclear how far the burial grounds extended, but researchers argue that large parts of the modern camp could well have been part of the necropolis. Whereas the Phoenician funeral practices of an egalitarian ideology concealed social differences, the Roman graves did the opposite:
''"The tombs of Tyre .demonstrate that the coming of Rome was not just a new economic and military reality but also caused social and cultural changes, which were acted out in part in the cemetery. .Through the display of socioeconomic position and civic and group identity, the tombs played an important and new role in the definition of social groups, and perhaps in the renegotiation of the boundaries of these groups.''


= Byzantine period (395–640)

= In 395 Tyre became part of the
Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
and continued to flourish. Likewise, the necropolis in El Bus grew further to be arguably one of the largest in the world, though many graves were "''reused''". A main road of some 400m length and 4,5m width paved with limestone was constructed there during Byzantine times. Another arch, smaller than the Roman triumphal arch, was erected some 315 meters to the East. At the entrance to the oldest monument in the El Buss site - the Apollo Shrine from the 1st century BCE - a fresco was found that has been dated to 440 CE and is "''possibly the earliest image of the
Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...
''" worldwide. Close by, two churches with marble decorations were built in the 5th and early 6th century CE respectively, when construction in ancient Tyre reached its
zenith The zenith (, ) is an imaginary point directly "above" a particular location, on the celestial sphere. "Above" means in the vertical direction (plumb line) opposite to the gravity direction at that location (nadir). The zenith is the "highest" ...
. Over the course of the 6th century CE, starting in 502, a series of earthquakes shattered the city and left it diminished. The worst one was the 551 Beirut earthquake. It was accompanied by a Tsunami and destroyed the Great Triumphal Arch in El Buss. In addition, the city and its population increasingly suffered during the 6th century from the political chaos that ensued when the Byzantine empire was torn apart by wars. The city remained under Byzantine control until it was captured by the Sassanian shah Khosrow II at the turn from the 6th to the 7th century CE, and then briefly regained until the Muslim conquest of the Levant, when in 640 it was taken by the Arabs, Arab forces of the Rashidun Caliphate.


Medieval times


= Early Muslim period (640–1124)

= As the bearers of Islam restored peace and order, Tyre soon prospered again and continued to do so during half a millennium of Caliphate rule. The Rashidun period only lasted until 661. It was followed by the Umayyad Caliphate (until 750) and the Abbasid Caliphate. In the course of the centuries, Islam spread and Arabic became the language of administration instead of Greek. Although some people reportedly continued to worship ancient cults, the necropolis of El Buss and the other installations there were abandoned still in the 7th century CE and quickly covered by sand dunes. At the end of the 11th century, Tyre avoided being attacked by paying tribute to the Crusades, Crusaders who marched on Jerusalem. However, in late 1111, Baldwin I of Jerusalem, King Baldwin I of Jerusalem laid siege on the former island city and probably occupied the mainland, including El Buss, for that purpose. Tyre in response put itself under the protection of the Seljuk military leader Toghtekin. Supported by Fatimid forces, he intervened and forced the Franks to raise the siege in April 1112, after about 2.000 of Baldwin's troops had been killed. A decade later, the Fatimids sold Tyre to Toghtekin who installed a garrison there.


= Crusader period (1124–1291)

= On 7 July 1124, in the aftermath of the First Crusade, Tyre was the last city to be eventually conquered by the Christian warriors, a Francia, Frankish army on the coast - i.e. also in the El Buss area - and a fleet of the Venetian Crusade from the sea side. The takeover followed a siege of five and a half months that caused great suffering from hunger to the population. Eventually, Tyre's Seljuk ruler Toghtekin negotiated an agreement for surrender with the authorities of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Under its new rulers, Tyre and its countryside - including El-Buss - were divided into three parts in accordance with the ''Pactum Warmundi'': two-thirds to the royal domain of Baldwin and one third as autonomous trading colonies for the Italian merchant cities of Genoa, Pisa and - mainly to the Doge of Venice. He had a particular interest in supplying silica sands to the glassmakers of Venice and so it may be assumed that El Buss fell into his interest sphere. It has to be assumed that at least the Southern part of El Buss was populated, since the Savior Church was built during the crusaders era in a place of the former hippodrome where Jesus supposedly sat down on a rock and had a meal. Hundreds of pilgrims left their signatures on its walls.


Mamluk period (1291–1516)

In 1291, Tyre was again taken, this time by the Mamluk Sultanate's army of Al-Ashraf Khalil. He had all fortifications demolished to prevent the Franks from re-entrenching. After Khalil's death in 1293 and political instability, Tyre lost its importance and "''sank into obsurity.''" When the Moroccans, Moroccan Exploration, explorer Ibn Battuta, Ibn Batutah visited Tyre in 1355, he found it a mass of ruins. Many stones were taken to neighbouring cities like Sidon, Acre, Beirut, and Jaffa as building materials. It may be assumed that this was true for the ancient ruins of El Buss, especially the Roman-Byzantine necropolis, aquaeduct and hippodrome as well, as far as they had not been buried underneath sand dunes already. The aquaeduct became the "''lone witness to the city’s glorious past''."


Modern history


Ottoman rule (1516-1918)

The Ottoman Empire conquered the Levant in 1516, yet Tyre remained untouched for another ninety years until the beginning of the 17th century, when the Ottoman leadership at the Sublime Porte appointed the Druze leader Fakhr-al-Din II, Fakhreddine II of the Maan family as Emir to administer Jabal Amel (modern-day South Lebanon) and Galilee in addition to the districts of Beirut and Sidon. It is not known whether the area of El Buss was part of his development projects. However, as he encouraged Shiites and Christians to settle to the East of Tyre, Fakhr-al-Din II, Fakhreddine laid the foundation of modern Tyre demographics as many of those settlers – or their descendants respectively – later moved to the town, thus providing the socio-political context for the subsequent erection of El Buss camp. In 1764, the French people, French geographer Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, Jacques Nicolas Bellin published a map of Greater Tyre which included the ruins of the aquaeduct in El Buss, but no settlements. Around 1786, Bellin's fellow countryman Louis-François Cassas visited the place and drew a painting of the ruins of the aquaeduct. In 1878, the London-based Palestine Exploration Fund's PEF Survey of Palestine, ''Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) – led by Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, Herbert Kitchener at the beginning of his military career – mapped Tyre and its surroundings. It described the area of ''Birket el Bass'' – north of the aquaeduct – as a "''ruined birket''" (water reservoir or pool) and as "''dry.''" A map from a 1906 Baedeker travel guide designated the area as a "''Swamp''" though.


French Mandate colonial rule (1920–1943)

On the first of September 1920, the French colonial rulers proclaimed the new State of Greater Lebanon under the guardianship of the League of Nations represented by France. Tyre and the Jabal Amel were attached as the Southern part of the Mandate. The Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon, French High Commissioner in Syria and Lebanon became General Henri Gouraud (general), Henri Gouraud. In 1932, the colonial authorities offered a piece of land of some 30,000 square meters in El Buss to the Jabal Amel Ulama Society of Shia clerics and feudal landlords to construct a school there. However, such plans were not realised due to internal divisions of the local power players and a few years later the French rulers attributed the swampy area to survivors of the Armenian Genocide, who had started arriving in Tyre already in the early 1920s, mostly by boat. A branch of the Armenian General Benevolent Union had been founded there in 1928. It is unclear when exactly the camp for Armenian genocide survivors, Armenian refugees was set up. According to some sources it was in 1935–36, when also another camp was built in Rashidieh on the coast, five kilometres south of Tyre city. However, the UNRWA, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) states that El Buss camp was constructed in 1937, whereas the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN HABITAT) dates it to 1939. During the following years - neither the exact dates are known nor the Christian denominations - an Armenian chapel and a church were constructed in El Buss camp. The defunct chapel is nowadays part of an UNRWA school building, while the church of Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul belongs to the Maronite Catholic Archeparchy of Tyre and is still in service. On 8 June 1941, a joint British Empire, British-Free France, Free French Syria–Lebanon campaign liberated Tyre from the Nazi Germany, Nazi-collaborators of Marshal Philippe Pétain's Vichy France, Vichy regime.


Post-Independence (since 1943)

Lebanon gained independence from French colonial rule on 22 November 1943. The Maronites, Maronite political leader Émile Eddé – a former List of prime ministers of Lebanon, Prime Minister and List of presidents of Lebanon, President – reportedly suggested to the Zionism, Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann that a Christian Lebanon
"''should relinquish some portions of the no longer wanted territory, but to the Jewish state-in-the-making. It could have Tyre and Sidon and the 100,000 Muslims living there, but when he put the matter to Weizmann, even he balked at what he called a gift which bites'''.''"''


= 1948/9 Palestinian exodous

= When the state of Israel was declared in May 1948, Tyre was immediately affected: with the Palestinian exodus – also known as the Nakba' – thousands of Palestinian refugees fled to the city, often by boat. El-Buss was one of the first sites which was assigned to the Palestinian refugees as a transit camp. The majority of the first wave of Palestinians who arrived in El-Buss were Palestinian Christians from Haifa and Acre, Israel, Akka. Most of them only found shelter in tents there. Soon the camp was overcrowded and more camps were set up in other parts of the country. Initially, Armenians and Palestinians cohabited in the camp. In the course of the 1950s, the Armenian refugees from El Buss were resettled to the Anjar, Lebanon, Anjar area, while Palestinians from the Acre, Israel, Acre area in Galilee moved into the camp. Many of them were apparently Farmer, agriculturalists. Before UNRWA opened its first school in El Buss, children received education under the roof of the church or chapel. In 1957, large-scale excavations of the Roman-Byzantine necropolis in El Buss started under the leadership of Emir Maurice Chehab, Maurice Chéhab (1904-1994), "the father of modern Lebanese archaeology" who for decades headed the Antiquities Service in Lebanon and was the curator of the
National Museum of Beirut The National Museum of Beirut ( ar, متحف بيروت الوطنيّ, ''Matḥaf Bayrūt al-waṭanī'' or French language, French: Musée national de Beyrouth) is the principal museum of archaeology in Lebanon. The collection begun after World ...
. The works stopped in 1967 and because of the political turmoil that followed Chehab could not take them up again. Publication of his research materials was never completed either. The whereabouts of most of the finds and the excavation documentation are unknown. In 1965, residents of El Buss gained access to electricity. After the Six-Day War of June 1967 another wave of displaced Palestinians sought refuge in South Lebanon. In the following year, El Buss camp had 3,911 registered inhabitants. As Tyre greatly expanded during the 1960s due to an increasing a rural-to-urban movement and many new buildings were constructed on the isthmus of the peninsula, El Buss became physically more integrated into the city. The solidarity of the Lebanese Tyrians with the Palestinians was especially demonstrated in January 1969 through a general strike to demand the repulsion of Israeli attacks on Palestinian targets in Beirut. At the same time though, the arrival of civilian refugees went along with an increasingly strong presence of Palestinian Militants. Thus, clashes between Palestinians and Israel increased dramatically: On 12 May 1970, the IDF launched a number of attacks in South Lebanon, including Tyre. The Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon escalated further after the conflict of Black September 1970 between the Jordanian Armed Forces (JAF) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The PLO leadership under Yasser Arafat, Yasir Arafat relocated to Lebanon, where it essentially created a state within a state and recruited young fighters - known as ''fedayeen'' - in the refugee camps. The Yom Kippur War, 1973 October Yom Kippur War signalled even more Palestinian military operations from Southern Lebanese territory, including Tyre, which in turn increasingly sparked Israeli Revenge, retaliation. In the following year, the Iran-born Shiite cleric Sayyid, Sayed Musa al-Sadr, Musa Sadr who had become the Shia Islam, Shia Imam of Tyre in 1959, founded ''Amal Movement, Harakat al-Mahroumin'' ("Movement of the Deprived") and one year later – shortly before the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War – its ''de facto'' military wing: ''Afwaj al-Muqawama al-Lubnaniyya'' (Amal). Military training and weaponry for its fighters was initially provided by Arafat's PLO-faction Fatah, but Sadr increasingly distanced himself from them as the situation escalated into a civil war:


=Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990)

= In January 1975, a unit of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) attacked the Tyre barracks of the Lebanese Army. The assault was denounced by the PLO as "''a premeditated and reckless act''". However, two months later, a PLO commando of eight militants sailed from the coast of Tyre to Tel Aviv to mount the Savoy Hotel attack, during which eight civilian Hostages and three Israeli soldiers were killed as well as seven of the attackers. Israel retaliated by launching a string of attacks on Tyre "''from land, sea and air''" in August and September 1975. Then, in 1976, local commanders of the PLO took over the municipal government of Tyre with support from their allies of the Lebanese Arab Army. They occupied the army barracks, set up roadblocks and started collecting customs at the port. However, the new rulers quickly lost support from the Lebanese-Tyrian population because of their "''Arbitrariness, arbitrary and often brutal behavior''". By 1977, the UNRWA census put the population of El Buss camp at 4,643. As their situation deteriorated, emigration to Europe increased. At first, a group of graduates went to what was then West Berlin, West-Berlin, because entry via East Berlin, East-Berlin did not require travel visa. Many settled there or in what was then West Germany, West-Germany:
"''They concentrated on working in the catering and the Construction, construction sectors. They still, however, maintained close connections with their country of departure by sending money to their families remaining in Lebanon. When they acquired German nationality law, German citizenship or valid residence permits they were able to visit their families in Lebanon. Afterwards, as their savings grew, they were able to facilitate the arrival of close relatives (e.g., brother, parent, sister). In many cases, their integration into German society was further enhanced by marriage with Germans.''"
At the same time, most of the Christian population gradually moved out of the camp. Allegedly, many of them were granted Lebanese citizenship by the Maronite ruling class in a demographic attempt to compensate for the many Lebanese Christians who emigrated. In 1977, three Lebanese Fisherman, fishermen in Tyre lost their lives in an Israeli attack. Palestinian militants retaliated with rocket fire on the Israeli town of Nahariya, leaving three civilians dead. Israel in turn retaliated by killing "''over a hundred''" mainly Lebanese Shiite civilians in the Southern Lebanese countryside. Some sources reported that these lethal events took place in July, whereas others dated them to November. According to the latter, the IDF also conducted heavy airstrikes as well as artillery and gunboat shelling on Tyre and surrounding villages, but especially on the Palestinian refugee camps in Rashidieh, Burj El Shimali and El Bass.


1978 South Lebanon conflict with Israel

On 11 March 1978, Dalal Mughrabi – a young woman from the Palestinian refugee camp of Sabra in Beirut – and a dozen Palestinian fedayeen fighter sailed from Tyre to a beach north of Tel Aviv. Their attacks on civilian targets became known as the Coastal Road massacre that killed 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children, and wounded 71. According to the United Nations, the
PLO ''"claimed responsibility for that raid. In response, Israeli forces invaded Lebanon on the night of 14/15 March, and in a few days occupied the entire southern part of the country except for the city of Tyre and its surrounding area."''
Nevertheless, Tyre was badly affected in the fighting during the 1978 South Lebanon conflict, Operation Litani. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) targeted especially the harbour on claims that the PLO received arms from there and the Palestinian refugee camps. El Buss suffered extensive damage from Israeli air and navy attacks.
''"On 15 March 1978, the Lebanese Government submitted a strong protest to the United Nations Security Council, Security Council against the Israeli invasion, stating that it had no connection with the Palestinian commando operation. On 19 March, the Council adopted resolutions 425 (1978) and 426 (1978), in which it called upon Israel immediately to cease its military action and withdraw its forces from all Lebanese territory. It also decided on the immediate establishment of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). The first UNIFIL troops arrived in the area on 23 March 1978.''"
However, the Palestinian forces were unwilling to give up their positions in and around Tyre. UNIFIL was unable to expel those militants and sustained heavy casualties. It therefore accepted an Enclave and exclave, enclave of Palestinian fighters in its area of operation which was dubbed the "Tyre Pocket". In effect, the PLO kept ruling Tyre with its Lebanese allies of the Lebanese National Movement, National Lebanese Movement (NLM), which was in disarray though after the 1977 assassination of its leader Kamal Jumblatt. Frequent IDF bombardments of Tyre from ground, sea and air raids continued after 1978. In January 1979, Israel started naval attacks on the city. The PLO reportedly converted itself into a regular army by purchasing large weapon systems, including Soviet WWII-era T-34 tanks, which it deployed in the "Tyre Pocket" with an estimated 1,500 fighters. On 27 April 1981, the Irish UNIFIL-soldier Kevin Joyce got kidnapped by a Palestinian faction from his observation post near the village of Dyar Ntar and, "according to UN intelligence reports, was taken to a Palestinian refugee camp in Tyre. He was shot dead a few weeks later following a gun battle between Palestinians and UN soldiers in south Lebanon." The PLO kept shelling into Galilee until a cease-fire in July 1981. On the 23rd of that month, the IDF had bombed Tyre. As discontent within the Shiite population about the suffering from the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian factions grew, so did tensions between Amal and the Palestinian militants. The power struggle was exacerbated by the fact that the PLO supported Saddam Hussein's camp during the Iran–Iraq War, Iraq-Iran-War, whereas Amal sided with Teheran. Eventually, the Political polarization, political polarisation between the former allies escalated into violent clashes in many villages of Southern Lebanon, including the Tyre area.


1982 Israeli invasion

Following an assassination attempt on Israeli ambassador Shlomo Argov in London the IDF started an 1982 Lebanon War, invasion of Lebanon on 6 June 1982, which heavily afflicted Tyre once again: Shelling by Israeli artillery and air raids killed some 80 people on the first day across the city. The Palestinian camps were bearing the brunt of the assault, as many guerillas fought till the end. Though El Buss was less affected than other camps, a contemporary United Nations report found that half of the houses in the camp were either badly damaged or destroyed during the invasion. The Advisory Committee on Human Rights of the American Friends Service Committee termed the destruction of homes in El-Buss "''systematic''". As a consequence, the drive to emigrate from El-Buss increased further:
"''Some of the refugees, in particular those who were injured or whose dwellings were completely destroyed, sought to leave Lebanon indefinitely. Connection between internal migration and international migration was effected at that time. Denmark and Sweden agreed to accept these refugees. Germany too continued to receive some of them. The migratory field thus extended to new countries further north, whilst Germany, the previous principal recipient country, now became primarily a country of transit towards Scandinavia''."
In 1984, the UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) declared Tyre, including el Buss, a World Heritage Site in an attempt to halt the damage being done to the archaeological sites by the armed conflict and by anarchic urban development.


1985-1988 War of the Camps: Amal vs. PLO

Under the growing pressure of suicide attacks by Hezbollah, the Israeli forces withdrew from Tyre by the end of April 1985 and instead established a self-declared "Security Zone" in Southern Lebanon with its collaborating militia allies of the South Lebanon Army (SLA). Tyre was left outside the SLA control though and taken over by the Amal Movement under the leadership of Nabih Berri:
"''The priority of Amal remained to prevent the return of any armed Palestinian presence to the South, primarily because this might provoke renewed Israeli intervention in recently evacuated areas. The approximately 60,000 Palestinian refugees in the camps around Tyre (al-Bass, Rashidiya, Burj al-Shimali) were cut off from the outside world, although Amal never succeeded in fully controlling the camps themselves. In the Sunni 'canton' of Sidon, the armed PLO returned in force.''"
Tensions between Amal and Palestinian militants soon escalated once again and eventually exploded into the War of the Camps, which is considered as "''one of the most brutal episodes in a brutal civil war''": In September 1986, a group of Palestinians fired on an Amal patrol at Rashidieh. After one month of siege, Amal attacked the refugee camp in the South of Tyre. It was reportedly assisted by the Progressive Socialist Party of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, whose father Kamal had entered into and then broken an alliance with Amal-founder Musa al-Sadr, Musa Sadr, as well as by the pro-Syrian Palestinian militia As-Sa'iqa, As-Saiqa and the "Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command". Fighting spread and continued for one month. By that time some 7,000 refugees in the Tyre area were displaced once more: On December 3, El Buss was taken over by Amal, as it "''overran the unarmed camps of El Buss and Burj el-Shemali, burning homes and taking more than a thousand men into custody.''" At the same time, many Lebanese Shiite families who were displaced from the Israeli-occupied southern "security zone" started building an informal neighbourhood on the Western side next to the camp. Meanwhile, emigration for Palestinians from El Bus to Europe became increasingly difficult, since favourite destinations like Germany and Scandinavia adopted more restrictive asylum policies:
"''A transnational field emerged with the circulation of information, and, to a lesser extent, of people, between the Palestinians still residing in Al Buss and those of Europe.''"
In the late 1980s, "''clandestine excavations''" took place in the Al-Bass cemetery which "''flooded the antiquities market''". In 1990, a necropolis from the Iron Age was discovered in El Buss "''by chance''".


= Post-Civil War (since 1991)

= Following the end of the war in March 1991 based on the Taif Agreement, units of the Lebanese Army deployed along the coastal highway and around the Palestinian refugee camps of Tyre, including El-Buss. The patterns of emigration changed through the 1990s, as European border regimes further tightened:
"''The geographical extension of the migratory field widened and touched countries such as the United Kingdom and Belgium. The three principal host countries (Germany, Sweden, and Denmark) continued to play a central role in this migratory system, but increasingly as transit countries.''"
At the end of the decade, UNRWA estimated the population to be 9,498. In 1997, Spanish-led archaeological excavations started at El-Buss. They were conducted for eleven years and exposed an area of some 500 square meter of cremation graves. In 2005 the Lebanese government abolished long-standing limitations for residents of El Buss to add a storey to their house. After the lifting of such spatial restrictions the camp witnessed a Urban density, densification in its buildings. During Israel's invasion in the 2006 Lebanon War, July 2006 Lebanon War, El Buss was apparently less affected than other parts of Tyre, especially compared to the badly hit Burj El Shemali. However, at least one building close to the necropolis was hit by Israeli bombardments which also caused damage to a part of the frescoes of a Roman funerary cave. This may have been the area of the Maronite Saint Paul's church on the Eastern edge of the camp since a commemorative plaque there notes that the religious building was damaged by Israeli air strikes on 12 July and later rebuilt with funding from the Emir of Qatar. When the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared, Nahr El Bared in northwestern Lebanon was largely destroyed in 2007 because of heavy fighting between the Lebanese Army and the militant Sunni Islamist group Fatah al-Islam, some of its residents fled to El Buss. In 2007/8, fresh water, wastewater, and stormwater systems were rehabilitated, apparently by UNRWA. Until then, the sewage networks in el Buss were above the ground. While the quality of life was improved by those measures, it may be argued that they were also
"''affirming these structures’ permanence within a broader context of suspended time.''"
In September 2010, three people were reportedly wounded after a dispute between clerics loyal to either Fatah or Hamas resulted in armed clashes. A study by the German Left-wing politics, leftwing Rosa Luxemburg Foundation found that while Fatah is the leading faction in the camp and thus dominates the ruling Popular Committee, a host of other parties have supporters there as well, both secular and religious ones. Apart from Hamas they are the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Palestinian People's Party, the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF), the Arab Liberation Front (ALF), the Palestinian Liberation Front (Abu Nidal Ashqar wing), al-Nidal Front, the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, Islamic Jihad Movement, the Shabiha-militia, Ansar Allah (Palestine), Ansar Allah and the al-Tahrir party. According to UN estimates, more than 500 refugees who fled from the Syrian civil war settled in El Buss. Low-cost housing made El Buss a prime choice for them. Most were Palestinians who arrived soon after the beginning of the armed conflict in 2012, adding
"''another dimension of precarity to life in the camp''".
As of June 2018, there were 12,281 registered refugees in the El Buss camp, though this does not necessarily represent the actual number as many have left over the years, Northern Europe, and UNRWA does not track them. In fact,
"''the camp is not very lively; most of its people live abroad''".


Economy

According to a 2016 study by UN HABITAT, residents of El-Buss mainly work in construction and other technical jobs, particularly in the metal workshops along its Northern side, though many of them are apparently owned by Lebanese. In addition, many men work as Day labor, day labourers in seasonal agriculture, mainly in the citrus plantations of the Greater Tyre plains area. However, levels of unemployment are high.
"''Emigration and a desire to escape the confines of the camp pervade life in El-Buss. It is a topic that occupies most conversations and is the ultimate goal of the youth that live in the camp''."
The French anthropologist Sylvain Perdigon – who lived in the El Buss camp in 2006/2007 and has been a lecturer at the American University of Beirut (AUB) since 2013 – found through his fieldwork that these precarious labor conditions make emigration the only "''thinkable, desirable route''" away from a dead-end future for many residents. According to his findings, the preferred destination for them is Germany.


Education

UNRWA’s ''Al Chajra'' middle school in El-Bass camp provides education for up to 900 students. There are three other schools as well and about five kindergartens. While some children attend educational institutions outside of the camp, others who live outside the camp commute to el Buss to go to school there. In August 2019, the 17-year-old Ismail Ajjawi – a Palestinian graduate of the UNRWA Deir Yassin High School in El Buss – made global headlines when he scored top-results to earn a scholarship to study at Harvard University, Harvard, but was Deportation, deported upon arrival in Boston despite valid visa. He was readmitted ten days later to start his studies in time.


Health care

El Buss is considered unique among the twelve Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon in that there is a Lebanese public hospital within its boundaries. Located at its Eastern edge, it was reportedly constructed before 1948 and has been used mostly by Lebanese patients, especially members of the military forces. There is also a clinic operated by UNRWA, and medical laboratory for essential tests, including an X-ray generator, X-Ray machine. Some Non-governmental organization, non-governmental organisations, both local and international ones, offer health services, for instance helping children with Disability, disabilities.


Cultural life

El Buss is also considered to be unique among the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon that it hosts the Maronite Church, Maronite church of Saint Paul, which is attended both by Palestinian and Lebanese Christians. This fact, along with the Lebanese public hospital, has been said to contribute to a higher degree of integration between Lebanese and Palestinians. The number of houses inhabited by Palestinian Christians, which reportedly used to be around 40 percent of the population in El Buss during earlier years, was apparently down to about 15 by 2011 though. There is apparently still a tiny number of Armenians living in the camp as well. The most common mural in El Buss though is the Flag of Palestine, Palestinian flag, in contrast to the flags of Amal and Hezbollah which dominate the visual-spatial landscape in Tyre. Also omnipresent in the public sphere of the camp are images of the late PLO leader Arafat and of Palestinian fighters killed in the armed resistance against the occupation as martyrs, usually combined with pictures of the Dome of the Rock in JerusalemOther common themes dealing with Palestinian identity are spray-painted images depicting narratives about the traumatic displacement events of the Nakba and life in the diaspora. Some feature ''Handala'', the Cultural icon, iconic symbol of Palestinian defiance created by cartoonist Naji al-Ali, who worked as a drawing instructor at Tyre's Jafariya School during the 1960s. Perdigon has researched another kind of a cultural phenomenon that he describes as "''fairly ordinary''" amongst many Palestinians in Lebanon, especially in El Buss and Rashidieh, which happens to be an ancient burial site as well. This phenomenon - which is known as ''Al Qreene'' - haunts people in their dreams through different forms, interrupts their lives and is especially feared for causing miscarriages. Perdigon lays out one exemplary case from El Buss:
"''Lamis, my 45-year-old neighbor and landlady when I was living in al-Bass, had an especially long and painful engagement with al-Qreene [..]. Lamis’s mother '''had her''' (i.e., al-Qreene) when she gave birth to her. Were it not for her vigilance at the time, Lamis '''would not have lived''' (''gheyro ma be’ish''), although the price to pay was that she '''carried''' al-Qreene from her mother (''ijat menha iley . . . hemelet al-Qreene''). Lamis started to directly confront al-Qreene herself at the onset of her first pregnancy. She lost four unborn children over the years to the frightful entity, who burst in on the scene of her dreams alternatively as an ugly old woman''' and a mob of militiamen. Three of those losses coincided with brutal episodes of forced displacement the household suffered during the War of Lebanon (1975–90). In the very last instance in the early 1990s, al-Qreene came (''ijat'') in the shape of Lamis’s very own husband, who had died a few weeks before at the age of 37 from Neurasthenia, nervous exhaustion (an account confirmed by the neighborhood consensus) upon repeatedly finding himself unable to sustain his family in the context of laws and decrees excluding Palestinians from legal employment. In this uncannily familiar appearance, al-Qreene snatched away from her one of the twins (the male) she was carrying in her womb.''"


Galleries


El Buss archaeological site


The Roman-Byzantine necropolis


= Sarcophagi

= File:Al-Bass Arch Site P1010056.JPG File:Tyre-AlBass-Necropolis-SarcophagusRelief-RomanDeckert20112019.jpg File:Tyre-109955.jpg File:Tyre-109957.jpg File:Tyre ancient town 2018 - 15.jpg File:Tyre ancient town 2018 - 14.jpg File:TyreAlBass SarcophagusGreekInscription RomanDeckert20112019.jpg File:SarcophagusWithFaceRelief RomanNecropolis-AlBass-Tyre-Lebanon RomanDeckert20112019.jpg File:TyreAlBassRomanNecropolis SarcophagusBase RomanDeckert20112019.jpg File:TyreAlBassRomanNecropolis Sarcophagus RomanDeckert25102019.jpg File:TyreAlBassNEcropolisByzantineSarcophagus RomanDeckert25102019.jpg File:TyreAlBass ByzantineNecropolis Sarcophagus 20112019.jpg File:TyreAlBass Necropolis BrokenSarcophagusRelief RomanDeckert21112019.jpg File:TyreAlBass RomanNecropolisSarcophagusLid RomanDeckert25102019.jpg File:TyreAlBassNecropolis PsycheReliefSarcophagusLid RomanDeckert21112019.jpg File:TyreAlBassRomanByzantineNecropolis SarcophagusBoatRelief RomanDeckert19112019.jpg


= Church mosaics

= File:Tyre-AlBass ByzantineChurch-SunMosaic RomanDeckert20112019.jpg File:TyreAlBass ByzantineChurchMosaic RomanDeckert20112019.jpg File:Tyre-AlBass ByzantineChurchMosaic RomanDeckert20112019.jpg File:Tyre-AlBass ByzantineFuneraryChurchMosaic RomanDeckert21112019.jpg File:TyreAlBass ByzantineFuneraryChurchMosaic RomanDeckert21112019.jpg File:TyreAlBass ByzantineMosaicGreekInscription RomanDeckert20112019.jpg File:Tyre-AlBass ByzantineMosaicGreekInscription RomanDeckert20112019.jpg


The Triumphal Arch

File:Al-Bass Arch Site P1010062.JPG File:Via Romana (4145038796).jpg File:Tyre-109953.jpg File:Tyre ancient town 2018 - 17.jpg File:Tyre Triumphal Arch.jpg File:Roman Triumphal Arch Tyre Lebanon.jpg


The Hippodrome

File:Tyre ancient town 2018 - 19.jpg File:Tyre 04.jpg File:Tyre ancient town 2018 - 20.jpg File:Tyre hippodrome 02.jpg File:Roman Hippodrome Arch - Tyre Lebanon.JPG File:Tyre ancient town 2018 - 02.jpg File:Tyre Roman Circus 04.jpg File:Tyre Roman Circus 01.jpg


See also

*Armenians in Lebanon *Palestinians in Lebanon


References

{{Palestinian refugee camps Populated places in Tyre District Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon Populated places established in 1935