Utica, Tunisia

Utica
أُتِيكْ
The ruins of Utica
Utica, Tunisia is located in Tunisia
Utica, Tunisia
Shown within Tunisia
LocationZana, Bizerte Governorate
 Tunisia
Coordinates37°3′25″N 10°3′43″E / 37.05694°N 10.06194°E / 37.05694; 10.06194
TypeSettlement
History
BuilderPhoenician colonists
Founded1101 BC
AbandonedApproximately 700 AD
PeriodsEarly Iron Age to Byzantine Empire

Utica (/ˌjtɪkə/) was an ancient Phoenician and Carthaginian city located near the outflow of the Medjerda River into the Mediterranean, between Carthage in the south and Hippo Diarrhytus (present-day Bizerte) in the north. It is traditionally considered to be the first colony to have been founded by the Phoenicians in North Africa.[1] After Carthage's loss to Rome in the Punic Wars, Utica was an important Roman colony for seven centuries.

Utica no longer exists, and its remains are located in Bizerte Governorate in Tunisia – not on the coast where it once lay, but further inland because of deforestation and agriculture upriver as the Medjerda River silted over its original mouth.[2]

  1. ^ Moscati, Sabatino. The World of the Phoenicians. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Publishers, 1968.
  2. ^ "Utica (Utique) Tunisia". The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. Stillwell, Richard, Macdonald, William L. and McAllister, Marian Holland. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976. 5 May 2007.