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Uthina

Zaghouan, Tunisia
Uthina 
 
The ancient city of Uthina is located about thirty kilometers south of the capital, at the place called Oudhna, at the top of an eminence that dominates the main access routes to Carthage from the south and the west of the country. Its foundation seems to date back to the Libyan (or Berber) era, as attested by its toponymy. At the mercy of the fluctuations of history, it was punicized then Romanized, before the two brief tutels Vandal and Byzantine - nearly a century each prelude to a definitive decline after the Arab conquest in the seventh century.
 
The site saved extends over a hundred hectares. It is "capitoné" imposing buildings dating back to Roman times and currently being cleared and consolidated. These are: the capitol, the largest in Africa, built on three levels; two groups of tanks with very high capacity; large public baths and small private baths; the remains of patrician houses, an amphitheater partly embedded in the ground and an initial capacity of more than 10.000 spectators.
The excavation campaigns undertaken in this site since the end of the 19th century have yielded many pieces dating back to the Punic, Roman and Arab eras. In particular, Uthina delivered to the Bardo Museum a collection of unmatched mosaic pavements.
 
After its erection into an archaeological park, the Oudhna site is being developed to be equipped with appropriate infrastructures and equipment and to make it a real tourist center: a marked circuit, a suitable signage, a site museum, a reception area and a commercial wing.

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