Tyre is consistently listed among the cities damaged during the 551 CE earthquake that devastated the Phoenician littoral. According to contemporaneous source Johannes Malalas, a “severe and tremendous earthquake” affected a vast region including Phoenicia, and “Tyre, Sidon, Berytus, Tripolis, Byblus, Botrys” were among the cities where “large numbers of people were trapped” in collapsed structures. A similar list appears in the Fragmenta Historica Tusculana, which describes a “great and terrible earthquake” in which many cities of the Phoenician littoral, including Tyre, collapsed.

Later chroniclers further emphasize the widespread destruction attributed to the earthquake. Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell-Mahre states that “numerous cities collapsed,” explicitly including Tyre among the devastated settlements of Phoenicia. Similarly, Theophanes lists Tyre among the affected cities and records imperial assistance for their reconstruction, while also describing a dramatic withdrawal and return of the sea along the coast, interpreted as a tsunami.

In contrast to these accounts, The Life of Symeon of the Wondrous Mountain presents a divergent tradition. It states that the region stretching south from Tyre toward Jerusalem was “preserved,” a claim interpreted as fulfillment of a prophetic vision (likely ex eventu prophecy) attributed to Symeon. This account stands apart from the broader historiographical tradition, which overwhelmingly depicts Tyre as one of the coastal cities damaged in the earthquake.

Taken together, the sources indicate that Tyre was widely regarded in late antique and medieval traditions as having suffered damage during the 551 CE event.