The Ruins of Carthage

[@Gaheku]

When I was there say 20 years ago, I saw a tourist couple literally pulling out whole blocks our of buildings and stuffing it in their duffle bags. The looting of the stone hasn't stopped in the modern age.

[@dftp]

Still happens all the time. Recently a Belgian couple stole unassuming stone artifacts with old engravings from a beach in Turkey because "they looked nice" and they wanted to decorate their fish tank with it.. Thankfully the government was able to retrieve the artifacts and is gonna try to sue them for theft .

[@canchero724]

Why would it? Humans haven't changed at all and will keep doing human things

[@TylerD288]

It's okay because they were Roman.

[@hrh4961]

I, too, was there about 20 years ago. And what I remember is a group of about six people with little brushes carefully exposing a mosaic. I stayed and watched them for quite a while. Oh, the patience!

[@kaloarepo288]

How could you possibly fit whole stone blocks in duffle bags and then carry them around ? It would be impossible!

[@avigilR]

Thank you so much for being there in person! You are fulfilling dreams of those who could never go.

[@FrankeNamensKarim]

Tunisia isn't expensive though, I was there nearly every year when I was younger and I plan to visit again in august after 3 years of not visiting

[@alaingadbois2276]

Walking on the beach in front of Carthage, you could find hundreds of bits of mosaics, eroded by the sea. That was is the early ‘70s when I lived in Tunisia for 3 years. A bit further away, it was bullets left over from WWII.

[@cracklingsoda]

How are you doing now Sir?

[@inthenebula92]

Thank you for letting us live vicariously through you! I've never seen these ruins before.

[@FrankeNamensKarim]

Why don't you visit them then? Honest interest

[@Peter-MH]

Amazing that the imprint of this harbour remains - makes me think of the one in Ephesus!

[@thepharaohnerd7235]

just bought your new book because of how much I love your work, and it's really delivered! it's enjoying to read, I've learned so many little bits of information I had never learnt before.

[@67icebowl]

Title & author?

[@richardglady3009]

Wonderful video…again. Thanks! Thank you for traveling around the Mediterranean filming these ruins and posting your results.

[@karimjerbi7084]

The Antonin baths site also has a collection of undergroud room-graves, tourists always miss them,also a good portion of the site is closed for political/administrative reasons

[@arnian6544]

Thank you for going to Carthage. Its history is still a mystery (at least from their perspective) and not as wildly appreciated 👏

[@scrollop]

Fascinating! You're to all the places we'd like to explore! Except you know what to look for and the meaning. Thanks!

[@Lorfarius]

These are really great videos, don't know why the channel isn't more popular!

[@bobloblaw10001]

This is sort of a rougher, more experimental channel than his main channel. The algorithm forces people to set it up this way. Because to get recommended by the algorithm each new video needs to be a blockbuster. So putting less exciting stuff on the main channel would threaten the financial viability of that channel.

[@drscopeify]

Amazing how many layers of history are present there. Rome really did a number on the remains of Carthage but after such costs in manpower and resources I guess they really set out to permanently pacify the region.

[@kidmohair8151]

this is excellent. there is so much that we have turned a blind eye to (Horatio), and hopefully the Punic and other ancient civilizations will finally be more deeply explored.

[@scoon2117]

I hope to hear more about Carthage!!!

[@bobfrog4836]

I was hoping you would have a little bit about the cisterns. I was at Carthage a few years back and saw the cisterns but didn't pay them much attention. They were in such good shape for their size and I did not realize they were almost 2000 years old!

[@alaingadbois2276]

There’s so much around Carthage to make more than one video.

[@scenicroutestothepast]

Stay tuned for my video on the Zaghouan Aqueduct

[@MKfanmomo]

Welcome to my beautiful country Tunisia. As a fellow history buff, am happy to see that you are spreading the glory of Carthage to your audience. If you find yourself in the city of Bizerte(Hippo Zaratus in latin) i'll be happy to help you.

[@PaulBateman-lb7wt]

I'm here now id love to see more

[@t.vanoosterhout233]

Now looking forward to your exploration of the ruins of Sparta!

[@Mr.56Goldtop]

I have seen renderings of the harbor and it was truly magnificent!

[@johnsongibbs6567]

Great work. Thanks.

[@larsrons7937]

Thanks for an interesting tour. Ancient Carthage must have been impressive.

[@jackmcnair3722]

Thanks for the tour I was there last October and walked all the sites by myself. Now I know more about what I was looking at . I had no clue at the time and have been studying about it since

[@Charliemmag]

Fascinating!

[@CarthagoMike]

Great video as always!

[@karlnapp2740]

Was there last year. Our guide told us that the reason the Arabs instead build Tunis a couple of km inland was that they had no sea power...

[@EllieMaes-Grandad]

Yet the Romans fought pirates from Arabia . . .

[@user-kt8hf9tx6h]

Sounds plausible. It took a bit of time for Arabs to gain considerable naval strength, even after their vast initial conquests.

[@jeffreywilliams3421]

Its odd that generally the third punic war as taught in schools stops at Zama, and ignores the years long, brutal siege of the actual city, I knew the city was destroyed but the preamble to the siege and the siege itself are some of the most interesting thinks about the punic wars.

[@marcobelli6856]

Zama is the second Punic war. The third was basically one sided destruction of Carthage. After the second they didn’t destroy the city completely

[@frugalvanner7488]

Some countries have the means to save and preserve the remains of ancient history - many don't. But an effort must be made - for the wealth of knowledge we can glean from mankind before us. History can and does give us invaluable information - so we might learn from it.

[@terryhughes7349]

nice tour.

[@Redeka9]

Hi -a very nice video -thank you. A couple of corrections, if I may: 1) the Punic naval port was built between the 2nd and 3rd Punic wars, so would not have - as you suggest - been where the Carthaginian army set off from in the 1st Punic war. 2) It is not certain or proven - as you suggest - that the infant cemetery, so-called the Tophet, was in fact related to sacrifice: this has been in dispute among scholars, especially since 1987; and despite efforts on both sides of the debate, neither position has been scientifically ‘proven.’ It is possible that many, if not all the children, had died of natural causes, including pre and peri as well as post-natal. Feel free to get in touch with me if you would like me to provide references and/or any other information.

[@scenicroutestothepast]

Thank you for these corrections. Much of the information in my video came from the old Blue Guide to Tunisia, which is - I think - even more outdated than its publication date would suggest.

[@lucius_cursor]

I actually came here to say the same thing. Nice video for sure though!

[@johnmrke2786]

@@scenicroutestothepast "Ancient Carthaginians really did sacrifice their children" article on Oxford University press mentions a scholarly article which backs up the child sacrifice claims with fairly compelling evidence.

[@johnmrke2786]

Prayer inscriptions at tophets along with sacrificed animals contradict the claim that this is a cemetery rather than a place of offering.

[@lucius_cursor]

@@johnmrke2786and Dexter Hoyos presents compelling claims that it wasn’t, hence the fact that it is disputed. And sacrifice can be made after the child has died of natural causes, as was extremely common until just a couple of centuries ago. We do not know either way, and there is effectively no first hand literary evidence prior to Carthage’s destruction (to be fair most of anything Carthaginian hasn’t survived). Either way the point is that it is in fact disputed and not a known fact. EDIT: poor child mortality rates are what I was referring to as extremely common.

[@munbruk]

I know the area. Unfortunately in teh past the tunisian government allowed people to build nearby. Many houses are built on Carthage ruins.

[@nunyabiznes33]

They didn't cared about it.

[@munbruk]

@@nunyabiznes33 Yes

[@mikehenryse]

Are there any remnants left from the Vandal kingdom?

[@TylerD288]

Good question.

[@khodotany]

I really enjoyed your videos! Highly recommended you visit Lebanon for some amazing Roman ruins.

[@phoule76]

I'm there now, and it's good to know it will rain again someday. Not a stone left, indeed. Imagine what could be left underneath the modern villas and gov't builldings in Carthange and even La Goulette. We need to find more Punic inscriptions or texts.

[@pggemmiti9385]

If you know of an archeologist computer software specialist, maybe a computer generated image reconstruction can be made. I enjoy those I see about various European Roman locations.

[@hannibalb8276]

Home sweet home, I hope I can still remember where I left the spare key

[@RevisitingHistoryChannel]

So interesting

[@markloewen2677]

I have always dreamed of traveling to Tunisia. Particularly to visits the ancient ruins. How safe is it to travel there ? And also , which islands are visible as you panned the camera out across the bay

[@macrinus-mauri]

Since the second half of the first century BC and as a result of increasing communities of Roman citizens living in the North African centers, Rome started to create colonies in North Africa. The main reason was to control the area with Roman citizens, who had been legionaries in many cases, and when Italy was hit by the black death and starvation and the Germanian invasion many Romans ran to North Africa, so many modern North Africans and mostly in Tunisia and Northern Algeria have Roman ancestours and they find important Italian origins in their DNA, more than many modern Northern Italians,

[@gaius_enceladus]

"Carthago delenda est, by Jupiter!"

[@thomasxxxxxx2345]

Question: is there anything left (foundations etc..) of the round building on the island that was supposed to house the military ships ? Second , how about size? I understand size has probably changed quite a bit since in the past 2500 years or so. But still.... having 200 ships in that "lake" there seems "difficult"... How would they maneuver?

[@georgehunter2813]

There is much debate about the purpose and function of the pyramids in Ancient Egypt. Some say they were tombs, and other thought is that they were some kind of power generation structures. One recent thought that came to mind is that pyramids could be symbolic representations of harvested piles of grain. Grand ceremonial piles of grain that reflect the power of the Pharaoh and the work of his people in annual productivity during a given pharaoh's reign. Greater the Pharaoh, the greater the size of the symbolic harvest pile. A marker of power and success. That success being the represented by the size of the pyramid a pharaoh can commision. Once built, the pyramid becomes a focus of annual harvest ceremony. The array of built pyramids become the kingdom's collective evidence of it's success. The built structures are built not as a rising cone, but triangular because a literal massive cone is hard to build, and be a stable being constructed of stone blocks. Not only the under base blocks, but the stone casing cover would be very complicated to execute. So, the simpler four sided triangular structure was chosen because a pyramid is easier to build than a cone. The pyramid is easier to build, and a more stable structure than a conical one. The earliest Bent Pyramid and the stepped pyramids show the evolution of the symbolic representation of the collected harvest..

[@elcoreano11]

Carthage depended too much on mercenaries. Hannibal was also hampered by not getting the resources he needed.

[@Psychol-Snooper]

0:02 Is that a young walnut tree in the bottom right of the image?

[@gaemlinsidoharthi]

Not often we see the Romans as the new kids on the block.

[@lukesmith1818]

"Carthago delenda est". I have a character in a story I'm writing quote this. It must be awe inspiring to witness in person

[@vikingodin1986]

Damn good im enjoying your channels

[@nunyabiznes33]

The channel name changed?

[@nycgweed]

Great episode definitely like to see more Roman stone outside rome❤

[@budwyzer77]

2:10 have they found any evidence of a brothel near the children's graveyard?

[@michaeldriskell2038]

I so envy you being able to go and see these sites in person!!! Thank you for sharing this though ,as at least I can remotely enjoy them with you.😊

[@lebaguette5393]

ℭ𝔞𝔯𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔤𝔬 𝔡𝔢𝔩𝔢𝔫𝔡𝔞 𝔢𝔰𝔱.

[@armorer94]

Carthago delenda est.

[@solokalnesaltam3015]

Yes! Carthage!!

[@martinfernandez882]

This bro is such a good presenter.

[@BORN-to-Run]

I often wonder about Carthage; why no modern-day people can be identified, like Italians who descend from the Romans, and Iranians from the Persians, who call themselves Persians to this day, on occasion. Where are the Carthaginians? They couldn't have all died-off! They're reminiscent of the Canaanites...who just seemed to drop-off the face of the earth.

[@codyzwick2753]

Lebanon and Tunis

[@BORN-to-Run]

@@codyzwick2753 No. Modern-day Tunisians descend from the Arab invaders from 1500 years ago who brought in Islam. And Lebanon, they are a watered-down mix of ancient Syrians.

[@JAdams-jx5ek]

Carthago dalenda est!!! CARTHAGO DALENDA EST!!!!

[@dftp]

Are you ok?

[@JAdams-jx5ek]

@@dftp (takes fresh figs from toga) "These figs came from Carthage, a mere 5 days ago!" (hands fresh figs to nearby senators) "CARTHAGO DALENDA EST!!!!"

[@PauloPereira-jj4jv]

DELENDA...!

[@PauloPereira-jj4jv]

​@@JAdams-jx5ek... DELENDA.

[@JAdams-jx5ek]

@@PauloPereira-jj4jv Google translate from Latin.

[@paulkoza8652]

To me, this looks like a big pile of rocks. Having been to many (not all) ancient sites in the Mediterranean basin, the best preserved are in Egypt and the near east and perhaps in Provence.

[@lookoutforchris]

All the Semitic cultures sacrificed children surprisingly late in history. Some groups still do, even in the US.

[@pinchevulpes]

Really which groups 🙄

[@BC-kc6em]

I think central and southern Semitic cultures didn't do this practice as far as I know.

[@EllieMaes-Grandad]

@@BC-kc6em Judaism didn't, since the days of Abraham.

[@EllieMaes-Grandad]

Meanwhile, across the world, hundreds of thousands of infants in the womb are being deliberately killed each year . . .

[@BC-kc6em]

@@EllieMaes-Grandad Abraham is not a jew

[@TylerD288]

BOO Carthage! How *DARE* they make inroads into Sicily! This can never be forgiven. I still tell my kids "Hannibal ad portās!" when they're being naughty.

[@squireboone7616]

Moloch

[@blue-vu1ek]

There is so little left of the Carthaginian sites to explore, but searching for the surviving bits remaining around the Mediterranean are worth hunting. There is nothing so thrilling as standing where Hannibal might have travelled as he planned then executed his assault on Rome.