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Visiting Cartago (or Carthage in French) is a quite experience. Carthage
is located 15km north of Tunis, Tunisia’s capital. From Tunis Marine station,
one can take TGM (local train). This is a very slow train which stops at
each station. There are several stations in Carthage, including Carthage
Salammbo, Carthage Byrsa, Carthage Hannibal, and Carthage Presidential.
The name Carthage is deformation of “Kart Hadasht (the new town)” – the
name used by the Phoenicians in the 9th century B.C. Carthage was founded by the legendary Princess Elissa-Dido.
For a thousand years, Phoenicians were masters of the Mediterranean and
over 200 war ships and innumerable merchant vessels were sheltered in the
near by port of Salammbo. Today, it is difficult to imagine Carthage’s glory of the past. When I
arrived at the Cathedral St.Louis on the top of Acropole de Byrsa, what
I saw was the entire town of Carthage in tranquility as if the time has
stopped forever in this town. Between ruins, which are left on the ground
casually, wildflowers were blooming. Now, Carthageis a high-class residential
area. President’s residence and embassies are located in this area. All
one can see is a peaceful residential area when walking down the main street
of Avenue de L’Amphitheatre toward the ocean. From Thermes d’Antonin (Antoine
Thermal baths), which was constructed by Romans who returned and created
new Carthage, all I see is the ocean and mountain in far distance. It seemed
as if I was in some island in southern Italy.
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