Maha al-Khalil Chalabi – Arabic: مهى الخليل الشلبي, also transliterated Shalabi – is Secretary-General of the International Association to Save Tyre and has been a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador as "a strong advocate for heritage". Oscillating between the high-societies of Beirut and Paris, the heiress of a feudal dynasty in Southern Lebanon has been hailed by the yellow press as the "Princess of Tyre".

Tyre is a city in Lebanon, one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, though in medieval times for some centuries by just a small population. It was one of the earliest Phoenician metropolises and the legendary birthplace of Europa, her brothers Cadmus and Phoenix, as well as Carthage's founder Dido (Elissa). The city has many ancient sites, including the Tyre Hippodrome, and was added as a whole to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1984. The historian Ernest Renan noted that "One can call Tyre a city of ruins, built out of ruins".