Taros

About

In the eighth century BC, Phoenicians found Tharros beside a village that had already stood since Nuragic times. Set on the Sinis peninsula's Cape San Marco, in Cabras in the province of Oristano, the city grows under Carthaginian rule into a fortified, prosperous port trading with North Africa, Iberia, and Massalia. After Rome conquers it in 238 BC, a major urban plan follows, bringing basalt roads, public buildings, and bathing complexes to the site. Today's ruins layer several eras on top of one another: an open-air tophet, a temple ringed by Doric half-columns, Roman baths and an aqueduct, residential quarters and workshops, and an early Christian baptistery. Vandal, Byzantine, and Saracen incursions eventually empty the city around the eleventh century, and its people resettle in Oristano, carrying stones from Tharros along with them. Excavated finds — Phoenician gold jewelry and Attic pottery among them — are now held across Cagliari, Cabras, and as far afield as the British Museum. The site today functions as an open-air museum covering roughly 50,000 square meters, managed by Sardinia's cultural heritage authority, with excavation still ongoing.