Neapolis, The Sunken Roman Port City Off The Tunisian Coast
National Heritage Institute Tunisia/University of SassariMarine archaeologists examining the remains of the ancient port city of Neapolis.
The ancient city of Neapolis was once a major Roman town on the Tunisian coast. It may have originally been established as a trade port by Greeks living in Cyrene, Libya, in the fifth century B.C.E., but Neapolis came under Roman control when the empire conquered North Africa.
Today, the city of Nabeul stands where most of Neapolis once was, but historians knew that a portion of the ancient town had been fully submerged after a massive tsunami in 365 C.E.
In September 2017, a joint Tunisian-Italian archaeological mission explored the sunken city of Neapolis, uncovering Roman street signs and various monuments littered about the ocean floor.
The expedition both confirmed that Neapolis had been hit by the tsunami and that it was once a major manufacturing center for garum, a fermented fish sauce. In fact, this export likely made some Neapolis residents very wealthy.
Before this discovery, little had been known of ancient Neapolis, as records were scarce. This may have been due to resentment over the city’s siding with Carthage in the Third Punic War. However, unveiling the remains of the underwater city revealed new information about life in the Roman Empire.
