Kerkouane

Punic Town of Kerkuane and its Necropolis

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Criteria	Cultural: iii
Reference	332
Inscription	1985 (9th Session)
Extensions	1986

Kerkouane or Kerkuane (Tunisian Arabic: كركوان, Karkwān) is a Punic city in north-eastern Tunisia, near Cape Bon. This Phoenician city was probably abandoned during the First Punic War (c. 250 BC) and, as a result, was not rebuilt by the Romans. It had existed for almost 400 years.

Excavations of the town have revealed ruins and coins from the 4th and 3rd Centuries BC. Around the site where the layout is clearly visible, many houses still show their walls, and the coloured clay on the facades is often still visible. The houses were built to a standard plan, in accordance with a sophisticated notion of town planning.

A sanctuary has some columns preserved, and in a small atrium parts of mosaics are found. Curbstones, doorsteps, thresholds, and floors of simple mosaic layers are found all over the ruins. Still archaeologists work on the Kerkouane site, but it is believed that the best parts have already been discovered.

Kerkouane was one of the most important Punic cities, with Carthage, Hadrumetum (modern Sousse) and Utica.

Sights

UNESCO declared the Punic Town of Kerkouane and its Necropolis a World Heritage Site in 1985, citing among other things that the remains constitute the only example of a Phoenicio-Punic city to have survived.

External links

• Media related to Kerkouane at Wikimedia Commons
• Lexicorient
• Kerkounane Guide