Phoenician and Carthaginian
Tavira
Today: Portugal
- Years
- 800 BCE–501 BCE
In the 8th century BCE it was one of the first Phoenician settlements of the Iberian west: a colonial urban centre with massive walls, at least one sanctuary, two harbours and a regular street plan, which lasted until the end of the 6th century BCE, when it was abandoned as the delta advanced. It revived afterwards, larger still, in its Tartessian phase, and emptied again by the end of the 4th. What is Phoenician are urban excavations under today's town, with nothing signposted to visit.