Kerkouane

The Punic Town of Kerkouane, located at the tip of Cape Bon on a cliff that dominates the sea, bears exceptional witness to Phoenician-Punic town planning.  Contrary to what took place in Carthage, Tyre or Byblos, no Roman city was built on this Phoenician city, and its port, ramparts, residential districts, shops, workshops, streets, squares, temples and necropolis clearly remain as they were in the 3rd century BC.  The site of the Punic Town of Kerkouane was discovered in 1952. Excavations were carried out by the National Institute of Archaeology and Art.  The earliest known testimonies at the site would date back to the 6th century BC; whereas the ruins, today visible at the site, date back to the end of the 4th, first half of the 3rd century BC and bear witness to sophisticated town planning.

The Necropolis of Arg el Ghazouani, located on a rocky hill less than one kilometer from the town, bears invaluable witness to Punic funerary architecture of this period; it concerns the most well preserved portion of the great necropolis of Kerkouane, the tombs of which are scattered throughout the coastal hills at the tip of Cap Bon.