Tour of Our Historical Neighbourhood: Carthage

This morning, we packed our snacks and set off on a tour bus to discover the history of our neighbourhood; Carthage. The tour was set up by the school, ACST, and Dorsaf Kouki was our tour guide. She is Hannah's arabic teacher, as well as a native of Carthage, so she knows everything there is to know about this amazing sea-side town.

View of hillside from Punic Ports

We started off at the Punic Ports, right down the road from where we live. In the Punic era of Carthage, this port acted as a secret military base, invisible to invaders. During the Punic Wars, that lasted almost 200 years, the Carthaginians used this area to surprise-attack the Romans, who would finally win the war and destroy Carthage in the following years. On the central island of the port, we could observe ruins of a forum from the Roman era.

Ruins of old Roman Forum

Among the Roman landmarks, some Punic era ruins have survived to this day. Near the end of the trip, we visited Byrsa hill, which features another impressive Roman forum, but not in ruins. On the hillside, Punic era buildings and houses still remain. The reason for this is the following: when the Romans took over Carthage, they built on top of the existing structures, preserving them extremely well.

Preserved Punic buildings

We also visited a place that us North Americans would call a cemetery. Here, humans were cremated and used as sacrifices, years ago.

Overall, we had a nice morning and it was interesting to find out all the history that lies, literally, in our front yard.

Click here to view more photos from our adventure in Carthage!