Carthage - Excavations

Excavation of the site of Carthage began in 1857 and is still continuing. In 1974 UNESCO initiated a program, backed by substantial resources, for saving a site of such outstanding importance in human history, and since then excavation work has been steadily expanded. Fourteen countries are now involved in the project. So far three main phases in the city's development have been identified: an early settlement of small mud-brick houses, all aligned in the same direction; then a densely populated city with streets laid out at right angles to one another, cisterns and a triple ring of walls; and a final phase, from the city's heyday to its destruction.