Carthage

Carthage was an ancient city in northern Africa, located on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. According to legend, it was founded by the Phoenician queen Dido, also known as Elissa or Alyssa, who originally came from Tyre. The story goes that she asked a local tribe for land, and they said she could have as much as an oxhide could cover. She cut the oxhide into thin strips and used them to mark the perimeter of the new city. While her historicity has been questioned, Dido is regarded as the founder. Carthage grew from a Phoenician colony into the capital of a Punic empire that dominated much of the southwestern Mediterranean during the first millennium BC. It was one of the most important trading hubs and one of the wealthiest cities of the classical world. As the city prospered, it sent out colonists and magistrates to rule its colonies.

The ancient city was destroyed after a nearly three-year siege by the Roman Republic in 146 BC, during the Third Punic War. About a century later, it was rebuilt as Roman Carthage and became the major city of the Roman province of Africa. The question of Carthage’s decline and fall has been debated in literature, politics, art, and philosophy ever since. In late antiquity and the medieval period, Carthage remained culturally and economically important under the Byzantines.

It was sacked and destroyed by Umayyad forces in 698 after the Battle of Carthage, to prevent the Byzantines from recapturing it. During the Muslim period, it was used as a fort until the Hafsid period, when Crusaders took it during the Eighth Crusade and massacred the inhabitants. The Hafsids then destroyed its defenses so it could not be used by an enemy again. It also continued as an episcopal see.

Over time, regional power shifted to Kairouan and the Medina of Tunis. In the early 20th century, Carthage began to develop into a coastal suburb of Tunis, and it was incorporated as a municipality in 1919.

The archaeological site was first surveyed in 1830 by Danish consul Christian Tuxen Falbe. Excavations in the second half of the 19th century were carried out by Charles Ernest Beulé and Alfred Louis Delattre. The Carthage National Museum was founded in 1875 by Cardinal Charles Lavigerie. Excavations by French archaeologists in the 1920s drew attention for evidence they claimed showed child sacrifice, though scholars have disagreed about whether this practice actually occurred. From 1975 to 1984, excavations were conducted under UNESCO, and the open-air Carthage Paleo-Christian Museum displays artifacts from those digs. The ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The name Carthage comes from the Punic phrase meaning "new city," implying it was a "new Tyre." It entered English through Middle French and Latin, and the Latin adjective "Punic" is used in terms like the Punic Wars and the Punic language. The modern Arabic form is an adoption of the French name, replacing an older local name that directly continued the Latin one.

Carthage was built on a promontory with sea inlets to the north and south, giving it control over Mediterranean maritime trade, as all ships had to pass between Sicily and the Tunisian coast. The city had two large artificial harbors: one for its navy of 220 warships and another for merchant trade, with a walled tower overlooking both. Massive walls, about 23 miles long, surrounded the city, though most were on the shore and less formidable because Carthage controlled the sea. The 2.5 to 3 miles of wall on the western isthmus were extremely strong and never breached. Carthage was one of the largest cities of the Hellenistic period and among the largest in preindustrial history. According to the historian Herodian, it rivaled Alexandria for second place in the Roman Empire.

The Punic city was divided into four equally sized residential areas. It had religious areas, marketplaces, a council house, towers, a theater, and a large necropolis. In the center stood a high citadel called the Byrsa. The walls were said to rise over 13 meters and be nearly 10 meters thick in places. To the west, three parallel walls were built, and the entire wall circuit ran about 33 kilometers. The Byrsa heights were additionally fortified and were the last area to fall to the Romans in 146 BC.