Near East

Syria

Amrit

See live entry.

Arvad

See live entry.

Balanaea

Today Baniyas, in Phoenician times an important port.

Carne

Site of the port serving the island of Arwad.

Latakia

Today the principal port in Syria. Like many Seleucid cities, Latakia was named after a member of the ruling dynasty.

Paltus

Today only the ruins remain, near the village of Belde, north-west Syria. Mentioned both byPliny and Ptolemy.

Sumur

See live entry.

Tartus

Today the second major port in Syria.

Israel & Palestine

Achziv

Ancient site on the Mediterranean coast of northern Israel. Originally a Canaanite city going back to the second millennium BC. The first millennium BC Phoenician city is mentioned in the Old Testament and also in Assyrian sources.

Akko / Acre

See live entry.

Caesarea

Today Qesara, northern Israel. The site was first settled in the fourth century BC as a Phoenician colony and trading village known as 'Straton's Tower' after the ruler of Sidon.

Dora

See live entry.

Haifa

Tel Shikmona, an ancient Phoenician mound overlooking the sea near Haifa, Romanised name Sycamine.

In the Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax mentioned as Sykaminon, a city of the Tyrians, along with a river of the same name. Also mentioned both by Pliny and Stephen of Byzantium as Phoenician.

Jaffa

Better known in the Old Testament as Joppa, today Tel-Aviv-Yafo. Excavations at Jaffa indicate that the city was settled as early as the early Bronze Age.

The city is referenced in several ancient Egyptian and Assyrian documents. Biblically, Jaffa is noted as one of the boundaries of the tribe of Dan and as a port through which Lebanese cedar was imported for the construction of the First Temple in Jerusalem. Under Persian rule Jaffa was given to the Phoenicians.

Kabri

Today an archaeological site near Kibbutz Kabri, northern Israel, and containing some of the biggest remains of middle Bronze Age settlements.

Michal

Tel Michal is an archaeological site on Israel's central Mediterranean coast, near the modern city of Herzliya, about 6.5 kilometres north of the River Yarkon estuary and four kilometres to the south of Arsuf-Appolonia.

Excavations have yielded remains from the middle Bronze Age to the early Arab period, and, in the case of Phoenician settlement, around the tenth century BC.

Reshef

Today Arsuf near Tel Aviv, said to have been founded in the sixth century BC. Known to the Greeks as Apollonia, supposedly due to the Greek interpretation of a Canaanite deity, Resheph, the Canaanite Apollo. In the Hellenistic period a port town.

Mentioned by Pliny and Ptolemy under the Greek version of the name and under the same name on the Tabula Peutingeriana as being located between Caesarea and Joppa.

Tell Abu Hawam

The site of a small city which was established in the late Bronze Age (circa 1600 BC) close to modern Haifa, Israel.

The sixth century BC geographer, Pseudo Scylax, described the city as being located 'between the bay and the promontory of Zeus', the latter meaning the north-western extremity of Mount Carmel. It existed as a port city and a fishing village, and was moved to the site south of what is now the neighbourhoods of Bat Galim.

The city eventually expanded into what is now the city of Haifa. During the 1929-1933 British excavations, a black-glazed bowl of the 'fish-plate' type was uncovered, featuring a Phoenician graffito scratched on its underside. The bowl may originate from the fourth or third century BC.

North Africa

Algeria

Hippo Regius

The town was first settled by Phoenicians from Tyre around the twelfth century BC. To distinguish it from Hippo Diarrhytus (the modern Bizerte, in Tunisia), the Romans later referred to it as Hippo Regius ('the Royal Hippo') because it was one of the residences of the Numidian kings.

Iol

Phoenicians established their first major wave of colonies on the coasts between their homeland and the Strait of Gibraltar in the eighth century BC, but Iol was probably established around 600 BC and the oldest remains so far discovered at Cherchell date from the fifth century BC. The town is about seventy-five kilometres from Algiers.

Iomnium

The town was established as a colony on the trade route between Phoenicia and the Strait of Gibraltar.

It formed part of Carthaginian holdings and served as the harbour for the fortress at Rusippisir (present-day Taksebt), about three kilometres to its east.

Malaka

Today Calama, north-eastern Algeria. Calama was founded by the Phoenicians and called Malaka, similar to their colony of Malake (now Malaga in Spain).

Ruzasus

Established as a colony along the trade route between the Strait of Gibraltar and Phoenicia. It consisted of a small fortress to the south of Cape Corbelin, northern Algeria. It eventually fell under Carthaginian control, probably during the sixth century BC.

Russipisir

Established as a colony on the trade route between Phoenicia and the Strait of Gibraltar. It later fell under Carthaginian and then, after the Punic Wars, under Roman rule. It has been located near the modern town of Taksebt in northern Algeria.

Russucuru

Within the area known as Delles in northern Algeria, which has been inhabited since prehistory.

Archaeological finds in the area include Ibero-Maurusian remains, a Neolithic polished axe, and (at Takdempt) some dolmens and covered alleys. It first entered history as the Phoenician colony of Rusuccru, known to the Greeks as Rhousoukkorrou.

Skikda

The Phoenicians and Carthaginians established a trading post and fort named RŠKD ('Jug Cape') after Skikda's nearby cape in north-eastern Algeria.

Falling under Roman hegemony after the Punic Wars, the name was Latinised as Rusicade.

Libya

Oea

Founded in the seventh century BC by Phoenicians who gave it the Libyco-Berber name of Oyat (Punic letters wy't), suggesting that the city may have been built upon an existing native Berber village.

The Phoenicians were probably attracted to the site by its natural harbour, flanked on the western shore by the small, easily defensible peninsula upon which they established their colony.

The city then passed into the hands of the Greek rulers of Cyrenaica as Oea. Cyrene was a colony on the North African shore, a little to the east of Tambroli and halfway to Egypt. The Carthaginians later wrested it again from the Greeks only for the Romans to take over after the Punic Wars.

Sabratha

Sabratha's port was established, perhaps, about 500 BC, as the Phoenician trading post of Tsabratan. This seems to have been a Berber name, suggesting a pre-existing native settlement. The port served as a Phoenician outlet for the products of the African hinterland.

Tripoli

The regional capital - see Oae.

Morocco

Abyla

Today the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in north-western Morocco, established as an outpost by the Phoenicians and where archaeologists have now found Phoenician remains which date back to that period.

Anfa

Today Casablanca. It was already a Berber settlement by the seventh century BC and was used both by the Phoenicians and the Romans as a port.

Chellah

There is still debate amongst historians regarding whether Chellah was the site of a Phoenician settlement known as Shalat, although evidence has been discovered of Phoenician artefacts. The archaeological site is on the Atlantic coast, not far from Rabat.

Heq she Elisha

Heq she Elisha or Ksar es-Seghir (the Arabic Qasr as-Seghir), also known by numerous other spellings and names. A small town on the Mediterranean coast in the Jebala region of north-western Morocco, between Tangier and Ceuta, and in the Strait of Gibraltar.

In antiquity, it was known by the Greek names Lissa and Exilissa, which has been suggested as being the Greek version of the early Phoenician name, Hiq or Heq-se-Ellisa (Bay of Elissa).

Exilissa was probably established as a Phoenician colony, later annexed by the Carthaginians and then lost to the Romans after the Punic Wars.

Lixus

The Phoenicians first settled in Lixus in the eighth or seventh centuries BC. The city had become part of a chain of Phoenician cities along the Atlantic coast of ancient Morocco, founded before the city of Carthage, with the archaeological site now located about seventy kilometres to the south of Tangier.

Such a far-away place was the subject of myths. The garden of the Hesperides with the golden apples and the palace of Antaeus were said to have been here.

As Pliny reports: 'Here was the royal palace of Antaeus, his fight with Hercules and the gardens of the Hesperides were here. Hercules had to enter to this garden to steal the golden apples. The entrance was guarded by a dragon'.

Rusadir

Established as a Phoenician colony along the trading route between Phoenicia and the Strait of Gibraltar, itself guarded by the colonies of Tinga (Tangier), Abyla (Ceuta), Kart (San Roque), and Gadir (Cadiz). Like other outposts in the west, Rusadir eventually fell under Carthaginian domination. Today it has become Melilla, one of the Spanish enclaves in north-western Morocco.

Rusibis

Today El-Jadida, a major port on the Atlantic coast which can trace its origins back to the fifth century BC when it was founded and settled by Phoenicians.

Tinga

Today Tangier, which was founded as a Phoenician colony possibly as early as the tenth century BC and almost certainly by the eighth century BC.

The majority of Berber tombs around Tangier had Punic jewellery by the sixth century BC, which points to abundant trade by that time. The Carthaginians developed it as an important port of their holdings by the fifth century BC.

Tunisia

Carthage

See live entry.

Hadrumetum

Tyrians established Hadrumetum as a trading post and waypoint in the ninth century BC along their trade routes to Italy and the Strait of Gibraltar.

Its establishment preceded that of Carthage but, like other western Phoenician colonies, it became part of later Carthaginian holdings.

Leptis Parva

Established as a Tyrian colony, probably originally as a waypost on the trade route between Phoenicia and the Strait of Gibraltar.

It appears in the periplus of Pseudo-Scylax, written in the middle or latter part of the fourth century BC, as one of the cities in the country of the legendary lotus-eaters. Today it is the town of Lemta, just to the south of Monastir in eastern Tunisia.

Thapsus

Near today's Bekalta in eastern Tunisia. It was founded by Phoenicians to serve as a waypoint on the trade routes between the Strait of Gibraltar and Phoenicia, and as a market for the area's inland products. Diodorus Siculus wrote that Agathocles of Syracuse conquered the city.

Utica

See live entry.

Eastern Mediterranean

Cyprus

Kition (Larnaca)

Kition to the Greeks, Citium to the Romans, from a Phoenician original of KT or KTY, pronounced 'kitiya'.

Greek state on the southern coast of Cyprus (in today's Larnaca), one of the 'Ten City' states of Cyprus. Its most famous and probably only known resident was Zeno of Kition, born circa 334 BC in Kition, founder of the Stoic school of philosophy which he taught in Athens from about 300 BC.

During the late Bronze Age the area was settled by Mycenaean Greeks who exploited the local copper deposits. This settlement was destroyed around 1200 BC but was rebuilt soon afterwards. The new town was constructed on a larger scale. The mudbrick city wall was replaced by a cyclopean wall around 1000 BC, while the city's religious sector was abandoned, although life seems to have continued in other areas as indicated by finds in tombs.

Literary evidence also suggests an early Phoenician presence which was under Tyrian rule at the beginning of the tenth century BC. Some Phoenician merchants who were believed to come from Tyre colonised the area and expanded the political influence of Kition.

After circa 850 BC, the city's sanctuaries were rebuilt and reused by Phoenician settlers. The colony was under Egyptian domination in 570-545 BC, followed by that of Persia which governed from 545 BC. Rulers of the city are referred to by name from 500 BC in Phoenician texts and as inscriptions on coins.

It has been claimed that literary texts and inscriptions suggest that by the Classical period Kition was one of the principal local powers, along with its neighbour, Salamis. In 499 BC Cypriot kingdoms (including Kition) joined Ionia's revolt against Persia but Persian rule of Cyprus only ended in 332 BC.

Ptolemy I of Egypt conquered Cyprus in 312 BC, killed Poumyathon, the Phoenician ruler of Kition, and burned the temples. Shortly afterwards the Cypriot city states were dissolved and the Phoenician ruling dynasty at Kition was abolished.

Following these events the area lost its religious character. However, one of Kition's trading colonies at Piraeus had prospered to the point that, in 233 BC, it requested and received permission for the construction of a temple which was dedicated to Astarte. Cyprus was annexed by Rome in 58 BC.

Recent excavations in and around Larnaca have produced some quite exciting archaeological finds, including the remains of the sanctuaries, the Temple of Astarte, and remains of a Phoenician shipyard. An earlier expedition at the end of the nineteenth century found two important stele with inscriptions in the Phoenician script, now in the British Museum's collection.

Idalion (Dali)

Today's Dali near Nicosia in central Cyprus was an ancient city which had been founded by a native population whose language was non-Hellenic. It was principally involved in the copper trade through the local mines some time in the third millennium BC, and remained independent until takeover by the Phoenician city of Kition circa 450 BC.

Lapathus / Lapethos

Greek Lapathos or Lapethos was an ancient Cypriot, Phoenician, and Greek city whch was located near today's Lampousa and Karavas in northern Cyprus. This was another of the 'Ten City' states.

Evidence has been found of Phoenician remains - including coins - but there seems to be a difference of opinion between ancient authors in regard to its origins.

According to Stephen of Byzantium, the city's foundation was due to Phoenician Kitians, while Strabo claims it became a Spartan colony under Praxander who is said to have founded the city of Kyrenia in northern Cyprus.

Salamis

Today near the city of Famagusta in eastern Cyprus. Another of the 'Ten City' states, it was founded some time in the middle Bronze Age. Wealth was provided through the copper mines. Evidence has been established of a Phoenician presence, possibly a trading post in connection with the copper but not a Phoenician city as such.

Tamassos

Another of the 'Ten City' states, today an archaeological site in the village of Politiko, about twenty-two kilometres to the south-west of Nicosia.

Like others, it flourished through the copper trade but, unlike others, it lacked a port. Little is known about its founding, although archaeological evidence shows settlement going back to the Chalcolithic, and other villages which have revealed evidence of early Bronze Age settlement. As with Idalion it was taken over by Phoenicians of Kition.

Greece

Delos

The cult island as it was called, close to the island of Mykonos, the smallest in the Aegean but full of archaeological treasures. According to Greek mythology this was the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis.

Between 900 BC-AD 100 it became a major cult centre thanks to that mythology and, at one point during the fifth century BC, the centre for the Delian League.

A Phoenician colony is claimed but, given the island's size and the paucity of resources - everything had to be imported - hardly credible, although there may have been a small settlement to service Phoenician ships which were trading in the Aegean.

Paxos

A small island in the Ionian sea, near Corfu. According to tradition Phoenicians were the first settlers on Paxos, giving the island its name.

Rhodos

By the time Rome controlled the region, Rhodes had become one of the leading commercial and trading centres in the Aegean, much of that being due to Alexander the Great taking control of the grain supply. It even had its own navy.

For the Phoenicians it was their gateway into the Aegean, becoming an important stopover for Phoenician merchants and, while not an actual colony, a number of Phoenician settlements were set up.

Callista

Today Santorini, one of the southern Aegean islands to be settled by Dorians around the ninth century BC. Before that, according to Herodotus, Phoenicians had already set up a colony based at Thera, today an archaeological site, and had named the island Callista.

The colony survived for eight generations of its inhabitants. It was founded circa 1100 BC following the Bronze Age collapse, possibly a case of Dorians taking over when they arrived, but a strong trading connection remaining in place.

Malta

Cospicua / Bormla

One the three cities of the grand harbour, opposite Valetta. As 'Maleth' from the Phoenician MLT, it served as the principal port of Phoenician Malta and may have provided the island with its modern name, through Melita to Malta.

Mdina

Central Malta. It was here that Phoenicians set up a colony circa 700 BC, calling it Ann.

Tas-Silġ

A rounded hill top on the island's south-east coast, overlooking Marsaloxx Bay and close the town of Zetjun. A multi-sanctuary site with archaeological remains covering a span of four thousand years, from the Neolithic to the ninth century AD, including Phoenician.

After the Phoenicians took over Malta around 700 BC, they built a Punic temple to Astarte which incorporated standing remains of the earlier temple, with an extension being added circa 300 BC. Many Phoenician remains have been found here, principally pottery and coins.

Anatolia

Phoenix / Phoinix

Finike, the Turkish name for the ancient Phoenix or Phoinix, also formerly Phineka, Latinised as Phoenicus, today a municipality and district of Antalya province in south-western Turkey on the Mediterranean coast.

Phoenix was said to have been founded by Phoenicians in the fifth century BC, and was therefore named after its founders, although the rulers then were Persians and was in fact one of their port cities.

Karatepe

Now an archaeological site near Kadirli in southern Turkey in, the Taurus mountains and part of the Karateppe-Aslantas National Park. Remains including a late Hittite fortress to provide a guard for the Anatolia-Syria route. Again not a colony but amongst those remains on the site are Phoenician artefacts.

Myriandus

A Phoenician port on the Mediterranean Sea's Gulf of Alexandretta, between Turkey and the Levant. Its ruins are located near the modern city of İskenderun in southern Turkey.

Rhosus

 Today part of the municipality of Arzus in southern Turkey, close to the city of Iskenderun and mentioned by Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, and Stephen of Byzantium.

By the Roman period it was an important seaport, said to have been founded by Phoenicians, at least according to the Eastern Roman historian, John Malalas (circa AD 491-548). The founder was supposedly a son of Atenor, a Phoenician king. The colony is also mentioned by Herodotus, and Phoenician remains have been found in the archaeology.

Sam'al

Once part of the Hittite empire and later part of the Roman province of Cilicia in southern Turkey. This was a fortress which protected the trade route to Anatolia, with human settlement going back to the early Bronze Age and a thriving commercial centre existing for over a millennium.

Today it is an archaeological site close to the Turkish town of Zincirli Höyük. Not a colony as such but probably a trading centre, given the many Phoenician remains found on the site.

Western Mediterranean

Italy (including Sardinia and Sicily)

Bithia

As Bithia or Bitan this was a Phoenician, Carthaginian, and Roman town which was located near Chia in the extreme south of Sardinia.

Most of the ruins have been submerged underwater, but archaeologists have persevered nevertheless. It was founded by the Phoenicians in the eighth century BC, with the name Bitan deriving from the Phoenician BTY'N, afterwards being taken over by Carthaginians and, following the end of the Punic Wars, Romans.

Karaly

Now Cagliari, from the Punic KRLY, established around the eighth or seventh century BC as one of a string of Phoenician colonies in Sardinia, including Tharros.

The name's etymology is unknown. It almost certainly does not come from the Phoenician language, but it has some similarities with other Sardinian or Asia Minor toponyms. Its founding is linked to its position along communication routes with Africa as well as to its excellent port. The Phoenician settlement was located in the Stagno di Santa Gilla, to the west of the present centre of Cagliari.

Lampas

Lampas or Lampedusa has virtually no information about it. Held to be located on the island of Lampedusa, closer to Tunisia than Italy (Sicily), and now administered from Sicily. Mentioned both by Strabo and Ptolemy.

Historically, Lampedusa is considered to have been one of the Phoenician maritime bases, distance between the island and Tunisia about two hundred and forty kilometres, distance from Sicily about three hundred and seventy-five kilometres.

Lilybaeum

The Greek form of the name, today the city of Marsala. A Carthaginian army was sent to conquer Selinunte in 409 BC, one of the leading Greek colonies in Sicily. The army camped near the site of the later Lilybaeum.

When the Phoenician colony of Motya on the south-western coast of Sicily was invaded and destroyed in 397 BC by the Syracusan tyrant, Dionysius I, the survivors founded a town on the nearby mainland, the site of today's Marsala, to which they gave a Punic name which was recorded by Greeks in a probably-mutilated fashion and in Latin as Lilybaeum.

Over the following two centuries it became a trading centre for manufactured goods, serving as a strategic port between Carthage and Carthaginian territories in Sardinia.

Motya

A powerful city on San Pantaleo Island, off the west coast of Sicily, in the Stagnone lagoon between Drepanum (modern Trapani) and Lilybaeum (modern Marsala). It lies within the present-day Italian commune of Marsala.

Many of the city's ancient monuments have been excavated and are visible today, along with remains from former settlers, including a statue which is known as the Motya Charioteer. Much debate exists about the Phoenician time period but scholarly consensus seems to prefer a time prior to Carthaginians moving into Sicily.

Settlement foundation dates from around 800 BC, about a century after the foundation of Carthage. Like Carthage it was originally a Phoenician colony, founded on a very familiar site type, and probably originally merely a commercial station or emporium, but one which gradually rose to become a flourishing and important town.

The Phoenicians transformed the inhospitable island into one of the most affluent cities of its time, one which was naturally defended by the lagoon.

By 650 BC the settlement had grown into a busy port city with maritime trade extending to the central and western Mediterranean. This prosperity caused rivalry with powerful Carthage on the nearby North African coast, despite their ancient common ancestry. This led Carthage to defeat and demolish Motya in the mid-sixth century BC.

The city recovered and the population quickly rebuilt the city on a monumental scale. After two centuries without them, they also built the first defensive walls, some of the earliest in the central Mediterranean.

Motya is first mentioned by Hecataeus of Miletus, and Thucydides notes it amongst the chief Phoenician colonies in Sicily at the time of the Athenian expedition in 415 BC. A few years later (409 BC) when the Carthaginian army under Hannibal Mago landed at the promontory of Lilybaeum, he laid up his fleet for security in the gulf around Motya while he advanced with his land forces along the coast to attack Selinus in south-western Sicily.

After the fall of the latter city we are told that Hermocrates, the Syracusan exile who had established himself on its ruins, laid waste the territories of Motya and Panormus (Palermo). During the second Carthaginian expedition under Hamilcar (407 BC), these two harbours became the permanent stations of the Carthaginian fleet.

Nora

Nuras in mediaeval Sardinian, this pre-Roman and Roman town is situated on a peninsula near Pula, close to Cagliari in Sardinia.

According to Pausanias in the second century, the city was founded by Iberians under their leader, Norax, but the reality is somewhat different as it was a Phoenician city.

The Nora Stone, a Phoenician inscription which was found at Nora in AD 1773, has been palaeographically dated between the late ninth century BC and early eighth, and has been interpreted as referring to a Phoenician military victory and conquest of the area. Nora was later taken over by Carthaginians.

Olbia

Northern Sardinia. Its founding is still being debated amongst historians in connection with the question of whether it was founded by Phoenicians or the indigenous population. Archaeological findings are inconclusive on that score, although the same findings show ample evidence of actual Phoenician settlement. The city was involved both in the First Punic War and the Second Punic War. Under Roman controls it became not only a leading commercial centre but an important military naval base.

Sis

Now Palermo. In the eighth century BC Phoenicians built a small settlement on Palermo's natural harbour, which became known as Sis one of the three main Phoenician colonies of Sicily along with Motya and Soluntum which they later expanded.

For a while the city enjoyed a long period of peace until the various Sicilian wars in 580-285 BC, between Carthaginians and Greeks who were settled in Sicily for control of the island. The Greeks named the city Panormos or 'wide haven', with their control only coming to an end in 265 BC during the First Punic War. Following the Second Punic War it fell under Roman control just like the rest of Sicily.

Soluntum

Today the site is known as Solunto, near Porticello in northen Sicily. According to Thucydides this city was founded in the eighth or seventh century BC by Phoenicians, having already established trading centres in the west of Sicily including at Motya and Panormus (Palermo)/

The location of this ancient city has long been uncertain. No archaic remains have been found in excavations at Soluntum, so it is clear that it was not located on the same site as the later city.

Recent excavations revealed a Punic necropolis at Capo Solanto to the south of the city - Capo St Vicente Lo Capo - with remains from the sixth and fifth centuries BC, and this is now believed to have been the location of this ancient city.

Sulcis

Named after the ancient Phoenician (and then Punic and Roman) city of Sulci (Solki), near today's municipality of Sant'Antioco in south-western Sardinia. According to Italian historians, Phoenician merchants arrived in the first half of the first millennium BC and settled in the small peninsulas and islands along the Sardinian coast where they founded various settlements.

The Phoenician port at Sulki/Solki acquired great importance in trade between the east and the west, becoming one of the most important trading centres of the time.

Archaeologists have made many important discoveries which relate to the Phoenicians, including the large statues of the two lions which were discovered in the 1980s in the area of the tophet, a sacred area which was dedicated to their deities and which is now exhibited in the Ferruccio Barreca municipal archaeological museum in Sant'Antioco.

Part of its history relates to the First Punic War, the Battle of Sulci in 285 BC, as reported by Polybius, a naval battle which was fought near Sulcis, with the Romans proving victorious.

Tharros

An ancient city on the west coast of Sardinia, mentioned by Ptolemy and the Antonine Itinerary, with archaeological evidence confirming settlement by Phoenicians around the eighth century BC.

Portugal

Faro

The Ria Formosa lagoon has long attracted humans, from the Palaeolithic right through to the start of recorded history. The first settlements date from the fourth century BC, during the later phase of Phoenician colonisation of the western Mediterranean.

At the time the area was known as Ossonoba, the most important urban centre in southern Portugal and the commercial port for agricultural products, fish, and minerals.

Lisbon

Archaeological finds have discovered that Phoenicians were already trading in the Lisbon area as early as 1200 BC, and plenty of evidence exists to corroborate a Phoenician presence. This includes under the medieval cathedral, in a settlement area of what is now the city centre, on the southern side of what is now called Castle Hill.

In Praça de D Luis remains of an anchorage date to the first century BC and fifth century AD, where ships would be anchored in order to unload and repair cargo and also to transport passengers and cargo.

Some historians still take the view that Lisbon was neither a Phoenician colony nor city. What needs to be borne in mind is that not only was Lisbon a trading centre, it was also a stopover for those who were embarking on an even more dangerous journey since it would involve sailing the Atlantic and the notorious Golfo de Viscaya (Bay of Biscay) on the journey to Britain to pick up valuable minerals such as tin and copper. The date of 1200 BC would have been in the middle of the Atlantic Bronze Age. What the findings suggest is that there was indeed some kind of Phoenician settlement, operating both as trading centre and stopover for anyone who was intending to travel north.

Tavira

On the Algarve coast to the east of Faro. Tavira's origins date back to the late Bronze Age (1000-800 BC). In the eighth century BC it became one of the first Phoenician settlements in the Iberian west.

Phoenicians created a colonial urban centre here with massive walls, at least two temples, two harbours, and a regulated urban structure which lasted until the end of sixth century BC when it was destroyed by conflict.

Its original name is thought to be Baal Saphon, named after the Phoenician thunder and sea god. The Romans later called it Balsa.

After laying abandoned for a century, it was revived and became an even larger settlement during the peak of Tartessian activity, before again being abandoned by the end of the fourth century BC.

Another urban centre emerged at nearby Cerro do Cavaco, a fortified hill which was occupied until the time of Emperor Augustus.

Spain

Abdera

Today's Adra in the province of Almeria in south-eastern Spain. Founded in the eighth century BC as a Phoenician colony.

It later became a Carthaginian trading station and, after a period of decline, became one of the more important towns in the Roman province of Hispania Baetica. Tiberius made Abdera a Roman colony, with the original settlement being located on the Cerro de Montecristo, above present-day Adra.

To this day that name is still used to refer to its inhabitants, their gentilic being 'Abderitanos' and 'Abderitanas'. Amongst archaeological findings are ancient coins, some showing the head of Melkart, one of the major Phoenician deities, particularly of the city of Tyre, with the Punic inscription of ABDR'T.

Baria-Villaricos

Baria-Villaricos – today simply Villaricos in the province of Almeria in south-eastern Spain.

In Villaricos are the archaeological sites of Baria, one of the oldest towns in the south of the Iberian peninsula, whose settlement seems to have begun in the seventh century BC.

For this reason it is considered the easternmost town in Andalusia to be of Phoenician foundation. Thanks to archaeological finds in the necropolis and also to various coin finds, it can be attested that some Phoenician cultural patterns such as funeral rites and the Phoenician language were maintained in the second century BC and Baria, as with other Phoenician settlements, was still involved in the manufacture of garum.

Gadir (Cadiz)

See live entry.

Ibossim (Ibiza)

See live entry.

La Fonteta

Now Guardamar del Segura, an ancient Phoenician port city near Alicante in Spain. The port was located on the right bank of the mouth of the River Segura, in use between the eighth and sixth centuries BC.

Excavations have exposed the remains of a settlement whose dimensions suggest an urban area of perhaps eight hectares, making it one of the largest and best preserved Phoenician cities in the western Mediterranean.

From its founding, the port city of La Fonteta had access to an environment which included a sanctuary at Guardamar, which likely attracted a cult of Astarte, protector goddess of sailors, at a point of land on the coast which would have been crucial to marine navigation.

With preservation being improved by sand dunes at Guardamar del Segura which buried city, the archaeological record indicates that La Fonteta was one of the most important Phoenician cities of the eighth and seventh centuries BC.

Bronze, ivory, and glass objects which have been found in strata which date to the Atlantic Bronze Age at Peña Negra in the nearby Serra de Crevillent reveal Phoenician trade in the area beginning as early as the ninth century BC, increasing in the eighth.

The Atlantic-style metallurgical production at Peña Negra, which is also close to the mouth of the River Segura, likely attracted peoples from the eastern Mediterranean who would benefit from this enterprise.

An archaeological expedition in 1983 which was led by Alfredo González Prats identified Peña Negra as the Herna mentioned in the Ora Maritima, a flourishing mercantile centre at which point several trade routes converged.

Lepriptza (Lebrija)

Now in the south-western Spanish province of Sevilla. There has been human presence in the area since the Bronze Age, although the founding of Lebrija possibly did not take place until Phoenicians arrival. They named the settlement Lepriptza, then to be renamed Nebrissa during the Tartessian period.

It was originally a port on the shores of the Lacus Ligustinus, a large inner lake which is surrounded by the River Guadalquivir and its tributaries and coastal sand bars to the south.

The lake later filled with sediment and gradually gave way to the current Guadalviquir marshy lowlands or, in Spanish, Las Marismas.

Amongst archaeological remains are six gold thymiatheriums, called candeleros or Lebrija Candelabras, which were found in the town and which date to the seventh century BC. Currently preserved in the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid.

Malake (Malaga)

Malaga's history spans about two thousand eight hundred years, making it one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in Western Europe.

According to most scholars it was founded about 770 BC by Phoenicians from Tyre, as Malake. From the sixth century BC onwards the city was under the hegemony of Carthage.

From 218 BC, it was under Roman rule, economically prospering owing to garum production, with the name said to derive from the Phoenician MLK, meaning 'dried fish'.

The first colonial settlements date to 800 BC and 500 BC, located around the mouth of the River Guadalhorce on an island in its estuary, and in an enclave which is known as Cerro del Villar.

In the place at which the city is located was a Bastulo settlement, based upon which Phoenicians founded the colony of Malake, being attracted by the good conditions for docking in its natural port and the large number of existing silver and copper deposits.

Onuba (Huelva)

See live entry.

San Roque

San Roque, near Gibraltar where still live the descendants of the locals who fled there in 1704, setting up their own version as Cuidad de Gibraltar. The official motto is 'Very Noble and Very Loyal city of San Roque, where Gibraltar lives on'.

The area around San Roque has been inhabited since prehistoric times. The oldest known settlement within the municipality is the ruined town of Carteia which was founded by the Phoenicians.

It became a Phoenician trading post, later evolving into a Carthaginian town by 228 BC. Its major trade was in local wine and garum, the latter being very typical of many Phoenician settlements.

Sexi

Now Almuñécar in the province of Granada in south-western Spain, this began as a Phoenician colony named Sexi. Even today some of its inhabitants still call themselves Sexitanos.

Although the Phoenician and Roman history of the district was known from Greek and Roman sources, it was not until the 1950s that significant archaeological evidence was discovered. That comes chiefly from Phoenician cemeteries, the earlier Laurita necropolis on the hillside at Cerro San Cristobal, and the later necropolis at Punte de Noy.

An extensive collection of Phoenician grave goods and other artefacts is on display in the town museum which is located at the Castle of San Miguel and in the 'Cueva de Siete Palacios'.

The earliest phases of the Phoenician settlement are uncertain, but it was located to the south-west of the Solorius Mons (the modern Sierra Nevada mountain range).

From the third and second centuries BC it issued a sizable corpus of coinage, with many coins depicting the god Melqart on the obverse and one or two fish on the reverse, possibly alluding to the abundance of the sea and also a principal product of the area, garum, the fish sauce without which no Roman could live.

Trayamar

Trayamar was in Malaga, not a settlement as much as the site of one the biggest Phoenician burial sites in all of Spain.