Qualla: Kerkouane https://qualla.com/kerkouane en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/x/f/kerkouane-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Kerkouane https://qualla.com/kerkouane Kerkouane: Introduction https://qualla.com/kerkouane/ Photo credit Sami Mlouhi, CC BY-SA 4.0. Nobody knows what the people of Kerkouane called their city. The name used today was assigned by archaeologists; the ancient name appears in no surviving document from any civilization. This small Punic settlement on the Cape Bon peninsula of Tunisia existed for roughly 400 years before being abandoned during the First Punic War, and because the Romans never rebuilt on top of it, the ruins present something unique in the entire Mediterranean: an unaltered Phoenicio-Punic city, the only one to survive. UNESCO recognized this in 1985, inscribing Kerkouane and its necropolis as a World Heritage Site.

Read more: Kerkouane on Qualla

Image: Sami Mlouhi | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/x/f/kerkouane-wp/snxf-kerkouane-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Kerkouane: A City of Purple and Salt https://qualla.com/kerkouane/ Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Udimu assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0. Kerkouane was never large. Archaeologists estimate its population at no more than 1,200 people, most of them fishermen and craftsmen. But the site's excavations reveal a community punching above its weight. Heaps of murex shells indicate that the town produced Tyrian purple dye, ...

Read more: Kerkouane on Qualla

Image: No machine-readable author provided. Udimu assumed (based on copyright claims). | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/x/f/kerkouane-wp/snxf-kerkouane-a-city-of-purple-and-salt.mp3 0:06 2 full Kerkouane: Gods of the Punic World https://qualla.com/kerkouane/ Photo credit Jeanhousen, CC BY-SA 4.0. At the heart of the city stood a temple complex with an area for ritual banquets and a sacrificial altar. Archaeologists remain uncertain which deities were worshipped there, but the evidence points toward Melqart, Sid, and Tanit -- the major figures of the Punic religious panthe...

Read more: Kerkouane on Qualla

Image: Jeanhousen | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/x/f/kerkouane-wp/snxf-kerkouane-gods-of-the-punic-world.mp3 0:06 3 full Kerkouane: Frozen in Time https://qualla.com/kerkouane/ Photo credit Hamdikhouloud, CC BY-SA 4.0. What makes Kerkouane invaluable to historians is an accident of war. The city was probably destroyed or abandoned during the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage, which raged from 264 to 241 BC. Unlike Carthage, Utica, and other Punic cities that Rome conquered and rebuilt a...

Read more: Kerkouane on Qualla

Image: Hamdikhouloud | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/x/f/kerkouane-wp/snxf-kerkouane-frozen-in-time.mp3 0:06 4 full Kerkouane: A Name from the Land https://qualla.com/kerkouane/ Photo credit Jeanhousen, CC BY-SA 4.0. If the ancient name is lost, the modern one at least has roots. Kerkouane is a Libyco-Berber toponym derived from the Berber word kkerker, meaning "to wall up" -- an apt description for a fortified settlement. The same linguistic root appears in place names across Algeria and the...

Read more: Kerkouane on Qualla

Image: Jeanhousen | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/x/f/kerkouane-wp/snxf-kerkouane-a-name-from-the-land.mp3 0:06 5 full