Carthage, with its naval and merchant fleet, was above all a maritime power. The remains of the ports of Carthage, Kelibia (ancient Clupea), Hadrumete, Thapsus, Mahdia, Gyghtis…, still show the importance of past maritime activity, which ceased with the Vandal invasions.

The Carthage Punic Ports were the old ports of the city of Carthage that were in operation during ancient times. Carthage was first and foremost a thalassocracy,[1] that is, a power that was referred to as an Empire of the Seas, whose primary force was based on the scale of its trade. The Carthaginians, however, were not the only ones to follow that policy of control over the seas, since several of the people in those times “lived by and for the sea”.