The pales domes of the old French-colonical Roman Catholic cathedral that crows Byrsa Hillis a visible landmark from as far away as the airport and the rooftops of the Tunis medina.The approach road that twists up to the summit of the Byrsa Hilli is clearly signposted from both the La Malga roundabout and Av Habib Bourguiba.
During the centuries of Carthage‘s urban growth during the Punic period,the Byrsa Hillserved variously as a cemetery,a place of metal-smelting and coin-minting,and finally as the site of a citadel and temple to the god Eschmoun,protected by a wall and a warren of houses on its slopes.Augustus levelled and enlarged the hilltop, which was neatly defined by high terraces,to serve as the formal centre of the new Roman City.Herein an elevated square,16 times the size of a normal insula, were planted temples, a forum and a bascilia, which were fortified by the Byzantines in the 6th century.In the spirit of French colonisation,the cathedral of St louis for the ‘Revived Diocese of Africa’ was added in the late 19th century,beside which the White Fathers built a monastery which now houses the National Museum of Carthage.
