Wender·Vista
Tyre
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileLebanon
on the southern Lebanese coast, an hour below Sidon

Tyre

— — a stone city the sea keeps half.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand
— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines
— Beside the kettle, a 12-inch propped
— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall
— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround
— a note from the studio

“Tyre is older than almost anywhere still lived in. The Phoenicians made purple dye here from sea snails and sent it across the Mediterranean. Roman roads still run under modern streets. The harbour is small now, the fishing boats painted blue and white. Cats sleep on column drums by the water. The light off the sea is the same light Hiram of Tyre worked under.

from the studio
Tyre
— bring it home

Tyre, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
— size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
— weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
— surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
— from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about Tyre

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
— the place

Tyre sits on the Mediterranean coast of southern Lebanon, about 80 km south of Beirut and 20 km north of the Israeli border. The old city was founded on an island that Alexander the Great joined to the mainland by causeway in 332 BC; the silt that gathered against his work made the peninsula the modern town occupies. UNESCO listed Tyre as a World Heritage site in 1984 for its Phoenician, Roman, and Crusader layers. The Roman hippodrome at Al-Bass is one of the largest surviving anywhere.

— the stone

The ruins at Al-Bass spread across a former necropolis and include the second-century Roman hippodrome, a monumental archway, and a paved road lined with marble sarcophagi. The hippodrome held about 20,000 spectators and ran chariot races on a 480 metre track. A second site by the harbour preserves Phoenician foundations, Roman baths, and a Crusader cathedral begun in 1124 after the city fell to the kings of Jerusalem. Earthquakes and the rising sea have taken much of the original island. What remains stands in salt air and quiet.

— informed by UNESCO, Wikipedia
— the water

The colour Tyre gave the world was a deep red-violet called Tyrian purple, drawn from the gland of the Murex sea snail and worth more than gold by weight in the Roman period. Pliny the Elder wrote in the first century that the best dye took ten thousand snails to make a single garment. The shell middens behind the modern town are still visible. The fishing harbour today is small and working; mackerel, sardine, and sea bream come in before dawn, and the water by the breakwater stays clear.

— informed by Wikipedia: Tyrian purple
— where
Lebanon · Tyre District, South Governorate
— elevation
10 m · 33 ft
— position
33.2704° N · 35.2038° E
— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
40 km N
Sidon
Phoenician port city
80 km N
Beirut
Lebanese capital
30 km E
Beaufort Castle
Crusader fortress
N
Tyre
Sidon
Beirut
Beaufort Castle
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Tyre — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

Tyre is on the Mediterranean coast of southern Lebanon, about 80 km south of Beirut. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site known for Phoenician origins, Roman ruins, and the ancient purple dye trade.

Tyre was settled by at least the third millennium BC and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Herodotus dated its founding temple to about 2750 BC.

Tyrian purple was a red-violet dye made from the Murex sea snail. It was the most expensive colour in the ancient Mediterranean and reserved by Roman law for emperors and senators.

Two main archaeological sites: Al-Bass, with the Roman hippodrome, triumphal arch, and necropolis road; and the city site by the harbour, with Phoenician foundations, Roman baths, and a twelfth-century Crusader cathedral.

Tyre is in southern Lebanon, a region whose access depends on current conditions along the border. Check your government travel advisory before going. The town itself is welcoming and active.

In Arabic the city is called Sour or Sur, meaning rock. The Phoenician name was Sor, with the same meaning. Tyre is the Greek and Latin form still used in English.

— about the piece in your home

It has been for many of our customers. Tyre carries weight for the Lebanese diaspora. A Small or Medium with a handwritten note from the studio gives the place a presence far from the coast.

The Mediterranean blues and aged-stone tones sit well in coastal-modern, Jewel-tone Maximalist, and old-world rooms with travertine or limewashed walls. It carries warm wood and brass without competing.

Yes. The old-world Mediterranean look (terracotta, travertine, painted ceiling beams, deep blues) has been growing for several years. A piece tied to a real Phoenician city gives the look an actual centre.

A single Large reads from across the room and balances most sofas. A 4-tile Mural carries a long console or a wider wall. A 9-tile Mural becomes the wall itself.

Yes. Order the Dura Satin or Matte finish for any humid or splash-prone wall. Both are scratch-resistant and read soft in raking light. The Glossy finish is for dry framed wall art.

A soft microfibre cloth and warm water. Nothing abrasive, no ammonia cleaners. The colour lives in the ceramic surface beneath the finish, so wear from cleaning is not a real concern.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is original to our studio in Knoxville, Tennessee. We do not licence outside artwork and the visual language is the same eye across the whole atlas of places.

— if this one stayed with you

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Hand-picked by the eye that found Sorapis. Same air, same kind of quiet.