Phoenician and Carthaginian
Gadir
Today: Cádiz, Spain
- Years
- 900 BCE–206 BCE
- Role
- The greatest Phoenician colony of the West
Founded by seafarers from Tyre on a small archipelago, to reach the tin and silver of the Atlantic and the Tartessian market. Classical tradition places it eighty years after the Trojan War, about 1100 BCE by Livy's and Velleius's reckoning, but no excavation confirms it: the houses and streets dug out under calle San Miguel are of the 9th century BCE. It held out against Rome to the last and surrendered to Scipio in 206 BCE.
What to see today
- Yacimiento Gadir (Gadir): Archaeological site, 9th to 6th century BCE
- Yacimiento arqueológico de Doña Blanca (Doña Blanca): Archaeological site, 8th to 3rd century BCE
- Museo de Cádiz (Sarcófagos antropoides de Gadir): Archaeological site, 5th century BCE