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Sour
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Sour
Town in southwest Lebanon, about 80 km/50 mi south of Beirut, formerly a port until its harbour silted up; population (1991 est) 70,000. It stands on the site of the ancient city of the same name, a seaport of Phoenicia.
History
Built on the mainland and two small islands, the city was a commercial centre, its key product being a purple dye. Besieged and captured by Alexander the Great in 333–332 BC, it came under Roman rule in 64 BC and was taken by Arab forces in AD 638. The Crusaders captured it in 1124, and it never recovered from the destruction it suffered when retaken by the Arabs in 1291. In the 1970s it became a Palestinian guerrilla stronghold and was shelled by Israel in 1979.
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