Carthage

Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the <a href="/facts/Lake_of_Tunis/8aYbRefN">Lake of Tunis</a> in what is now <a href="/facts/Tunisia/4uC8Po6k">Tunisia</a>. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the <a href="/facts/Classical_world/JBq8vEX9">classical world</a>. It became the capital city of the civilization of <a href="/facts/Ancient_Carthage/5BFU7yB5">Ancient Carthage</a> and later <a href="/facts/Roman_Carthage/2cM0hqnV">Roman Carthage</a>.
The city developed from a <a href="/facts/Phoenicia/6GXLneNU">Phoenician</a> colony into the capital of a <a href="/facts/Punic_people/FLAl3pXD">Punic</a> empire which dominated large parts of the Southwest Mediterranean during the first millennium BC. The legendary Queen Elissa, Alyssa or <a href="/facts/Dido/syo8Iupp">Dido</a>, originally from <a href="/facts/Tyre%2c_Lebanon/RYMPTlJR">Tyre</a>, is regarded as the founder of the city, though her historicity has been questioned. In the myth, Dido asked for land from a local tribe, which told her that she could get as much land as an oxhide could cover. She cut the oxhide into strips and laid out the perimeter of the new city. As Carthage prospered at home, the polity sent colonists abroad as well as magistrates to rule the colonies.
The ancient city was destroyed in the nearly three year <a href="/facts/Siege_of_Carthage_(Third_Punic_War)/uAtQzw6b">siege of Carthage</a> by the <a href="/facts/Roman_Republic/Han0FRLT">Roman Republic</a> during the <a href="/facts/Third_Punic_War/LuGzPHTX">Third Punic War</a> in 146 BC. It was re-developed a century later as <a href="/facts/Roman_Carthage/2cM0hqnV">Roman Carthage</a>, which became the major city of the <a href="/facts/Roman_Empire/l4E1aUuV">Roman Empire</a> in the province of <a href="/facts/Africa_(Roman_province)/MIYYrhIF">Africa</a>. The question of Carthaginian decline and demise has remained a subject of literary, political, artistic, and philosophical debates in both ancient and modern histories.
<a href="/facts/Late_antiquity/sPTl0dyD">Late antique</a> and <a href="/facts/Middle_Ages/RqzEKB9v">medieval</a> Carthage continued to play an important cultural and economic role in the <a href="/facts/Byzantine_period/njEELXWF">Byzantine period</a>. The city was sacked and destroyed by <a href="/facts/Umayyad_Caliphate/gdW8JwoK">Umayyad</a> forces after the <a href="/facts/Battle_of_Carthage_(698)/GLdaUNR6">Battle of Carthage</a> in 698 to prevent it from being reconquered by the <a href="/facts/Byzantine_Empire/njEELXWF">Byzantine Empire</a>. It remained occupied during the Muslim period and was used as a fort by the Muslims until the <a href="/facts/Hafsid/5sqnwFPU">Hafsid</a> period when it was taken by the <a href="/facts/Crusaders/mblv9nwI">Crusaders</a> with its inhabitants massacred during the <a href="/facts/Eighth_Crusade/a89XATSB">Eighth Crusade</a>. The Hafsids decided to destroy its defenses so it could not be used as a base by a hostile power again. It also continued to function as <a href="/facts/Episcopal_see_of_Carthage/4qyeuFv8">an episcopal see</a>.
The regional power shifted to <a href="/facts/Kairouan/1oAk8Q5d">Kairouan</a> and the <a href="/facts/Medina_of_Tunis/evnB2NNQ">Medina of Tunis</a> in the <a href="/facts/History_of_medieval_Tunisia/u3AIbTVX">medieval period</a>, until the early 20th century, when it began to develop into a coastal suburb of <a href="/facts/Tunis/nmKNnW85">Tunis</a>, incorporated as <a href="/facts/Carthage_(municipality)/jPu9sfVk">Carthage municipality</a> in 1919. The archaeological site was first surveyed in 1830, by Danish consul <a href="/facts/Christian_Tuxen_Falbe/293HTcTE">Christian Tuxen Falbe</a>. Excavations were performed in the second half of the 19th century by <a href="/facts/Charles_Ernest_Beul%25C3%25A9/wEM47xe7">Charles Ernest Beulé</a> and by <a href="/facts/Alfred_Louis_Delattre/TSIFLaRJ">Alfred Louis Delattre</a>. The <a href="/facts/Carthage_National_Museum/zKEQwlYW">Carthage National Museum</a> was founded in 1875 by <a href="/facts/Cardinal_(Catholicism)/Acxx5Hd4">Cardinal</a> <a href="/facts/Charles_Lavigerie/ToWyEVHF">Charles Lavigerie</a>. Excavations performed by French archaeologists in the 1920s first attracted attention because of the evidence they produced for <a href="/facts/Tophet/U5m1j7uY">child sacrifice</a>. There has been considerable disagreement among scholars concerning whether child sacrifice was practiced by ancient Carthage. The open-air <a href="/facts/Carthage_Paleo-Christian_Museum/Lbdvjvn8">Carthage Paleo-Christian Museum</a> has exhibits excavated under the auspices of <a href="/facts/UNESCO/QSbkRv3o">UNESCO</a> from 1975 to 1984. The site of the ruins is a <a href="/facts/UNESCO_World_Heritage_Site/6AbWWKV4">UNESCO World Heritage Site</a>.

Carthage open-in-new

Carthage