The One Remaining Punic City!

After the Punic Wars, Rome pretty much erased the Punic culture – but they missed a spot. Today’s visit was to Kerkouane, the only surviving Punic city left anywhere…and that was really accidental. Turns out, it was apparently abandoned after the Second Punic War, and never re-inhabited after that, so no one even knew of its existence! Time covered the site, next to the Mediterranean, with a jungle of briars, gorse and tamarisk, and it wasn’t re-discovered until the 1920’s! Its actual excavation did not begin until the early 1950’s, and it was very fortunate that the land hadn’t by then been turned over to developers. At this time, only about 30% of this magnificent site has been excavated. Although it took some doing to get there, to us, the place was absolute magic.

I could write an entire blog about driving in Tunisia … it’s an incredible experience. Between cars, trucks, taxis, motorbikes, and the mule and horsedrawn carts, you’ve got pedestrians crossing every which way (even the peage!), louages (small mini-vans taking people various places, and stopping randomly – like along the peage…) you’ve got the animals – dogs, cats, chickens, goats, sheep, individual horses without carts, and cows … and those are just the ones we saw today, to deal with. Getting through cities, towns and villages can be a real experience … and then there are the speed bumps! Big ones, like several feet across and high up in the air, or sometimes, just tiny ones, but very sharp – or, in a few places, the pavement itself was just taken up, so that vehicles went into a culvert to get across. And the potholes were tremendous – and everywhere! Just have to say, an amazing experience!

Tunis suburbs on our way out of town

Scenery from the car

Lots of agriculture!

And ... lots of traffic!

Of all sorts!

Today’s drive to Kerkouane was about 2½ hours there, and just a little less (different route) getting back to the hotel. The site is located on Cap Bon, which is on a peninsula sticking out into the Tunisian Sea to the east of Tunis. We left the hotel this morning about 8:15 am, and made it to the site about 10:45. We decided to tackle the site first, and then the museum, as it was such a beautiful day outside (about 75 degrees, with a beautiful breeze off the Sea) and it seemed a shame to be indoors!

There was one other small mini-van group of tourists already there, but they left after we’d been there about 15 minutes, leaving the site all for us!

Built originally in the 6^th C. BC, like most other Punic and Roman towns, there were specific areas for craftsmen and larger houses for more affluent families. It has been estimated that at capacity, the city held about a thousand people, making their living from the sea and farming. It is thought that Kerkouane may have been a center for murex production, a deep purple dye obtained from snails that was in great demand for purple robing and considered a luxury item. Having its own port, and only 90 miles from Sicily, it would be fairly easy to trade items throughout the Mediterranean world and beyond.

Site map at the entrance

Beautiful day! Lots of sunshine!

Road following the coast.

Punic half-bath with pumbing in foreground

Several interesting places within the town have been identified, including a temple believed to be dedicated to the two principal Punic gods, Tanit and her partner, Ba’al Hammon. In fact, at one particular house, the stylized figure of Tanit – a triangle with a line across the top and circle (moon) on top of that, was found; really fascinating to see it imbedded in the Punic version of their “concrete” floor! They also were, apparently, very clean, as, in addition to a public bath house, individual houses also contained what we would call “hip baths” for individual bathing at home! Nice to have to sea next door!

Still some ancient mosaic tiles left

House of the Pillars

It's a very large site!

Steps indicating there had been a second story

The pink is the composite half-bath

Loved their floor! White chips embedded in cement

More plastered walls.

And another tub...

Part of the temple to Tanit and Ba'al

Door lintel still standing!

Tanit house!

We had a truly delightful time wandering the extensive grounds and enjoying the sunshine. I’m just SO glad that there is this one Punic site left that the Romans didn’t build over – but again, only because they didn’t know it was there!

From the site itself, it was just a few steps into their small but lovely museum, which contained the artifacts that had been discovered therein. Some lovely things, mostly related to household items, such as amulets, and jewelry, as well as plates and cups and lamps, but the most amazing was the Lady of Kerkouane! This is a wooden sarcophagus lid carved with the image of the goddess Astarte, protector of the dead. The robed goddess is almost complete, with only her feet missing. The artifact, discovered in a tomb at Kerkouane, is unique – no other example of Punic woodcarving has survived. In fact, when it was discovered, the authorities had to call in Swiss wood conservation experts from Zurich to assist in getting it back to Switzerland for appropriate treatment before it could be returned to Tunisia for display.

Museum entrance portico

Beautiful, decorated terra cota box

Sheep vessel

Animal-headed two-sided jug

The Lady of Kerkouane wooden lid

I do love lions...

After that, we decided it would be time to head back to the hotel – arriving about 3 pm. A long day, definitely, but definitely worth the trip. Again, having the site and the museum to ourselves really are wonderful experiences!

So, more later after dinner!

xxx

Another excellent dinner downstairs! Some repeats, so we only took pictures of the new stuff … started with six rather than three appetizers, compliments of the house … our waiter, Ratif, likes us, because I over-tip. (Something that I am very prone to do, especially in 3^rd world countries, where tips can make such a difference in very many ways.)

After the appetizers, some of which were really excellent, we both had their red lentil soup, which was yummy. Being an old stick-in-the-mud, I had a repeat of their penne alla bolognaise, which was fabulous. I was rather cold this afternoon, and wanted to warm up – that certainly did it! Tonight, R had their Merguez and Tastira! Turns out it was a plate of really tastiful beef sausages (which even R couldn’t finish, there were so many!) along with Tastira – a combination of fried egg broken up among red and green peppers with spices. He also got French fries. We were both so full, that we decided against dessert – but out it came anyway!! A lovely glass full of ice cream in three flavors – vanilla, pistachio and strawberry, as well as a tarte with caramel sauce over it. And, even though we were already full – we somehow managed to finish the lot! Wow!