Tunisia

Originally founded as a Phoenician colony, the ancient city of Carthage in modern day Tunis quickly grew in prominence to become the capital of the Carthaginian people. Great seafarers, the Phoenicians originally occupied a series of city-states from modern day south-east Turkey to Israel, establishing settlements throughout the Mediterranean during the first millennium BC. According to legend, the Phoenician Queen Elissa (better known today as Dido, in Virgil’s epic poem Aeneid) founded the city in 813 BC. Initially established as a trading post, under its most famous general Hannibal, Carthage developed from a small Phoenician coastal colony into the most powerful city in the Mediterranean and home to a population of half a million who spoke Punic, a form of the Phoenician language. A major centre of maritime and commercial trade and influence in the Mediterranean, Carthage was one of the most affluent cities of the ancient world.

However, its success led to its demise following years of conflict with the other Mediterranean superpower, Rome. Whilst the resulting Punic Wars ended in the complete destruction of Carthage at the hands of the Romans, just a century later the city was resettled and once again flourished to become the capital of the Roman province of Africa with magnificent public buildings, second only to those in Rome itself.

The city changed hands a few more times until destruction came in AD 698 at the Battle of Carthage under the Muslim Conquest, after which the seat of power shifted to Tunis. Today, Carthage is a wealthy coastal suburb of Tunis with a large number of UNESCO World Heritage Listed archaeological sites scattered across the neighbourhood.