تونس
A Living History
Three thousand years of Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs, Berbers and more, written into the land, the monuments, and the very genome of its people. Every fact here aims to be anchored to a cited source.
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Three thousand years of Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs, Berbers and more, written into the land, the monuments, and the very genome of its people. Every fact here aims to be anchored to a cited source.
Many peoples reached these shores; some left a measurable trace in the DNA, others mainly a cultural one. See who came, then scroll on for what the genome shows.
Tunisians are one of the Mediterranean's great genetic crossroads, a mosaic woven from ancient North African ("Maghrebi") roots, the Near East, Europe and sub‑Saharan Africa. Select a moment in deep time to see what the DNA reveals. Every panel cites the peer‑reviewed study behind it. One caveat up front: only the ancient Taforalt panel carries proportions, from a fitted model since reinterpreted; for living Tunisians the studies give different percentages, and the order varies between communities, so those bars are illustrative.
Walk through four great monuments at real scale, rebuilt from excavation reports and ancient sources, in light path-traced from the sun and sky. Each opens full screen: drag to look, walk with the keys or your thumbs.
Walk in nowThe cold hall of the Antonine BathsMorning light through the great doors, 29 m of vaults over granite columns: walk it at real scale.Enter the baths →
Twelve eras, each as long in the ribbon as it lasted. Open any chapter for the full story, its key dates, what remains to see and the sources.
Genomics from peer‑reviewed journals; chronology from encyclopaedic and academic references. Click any to read the original.
A free guide to three thousand years of Tunisian history, built to be checked rather than taken on trust.
Each claim is meant to link to its source. The genome section relies only on peer-reviewed studies, in journals such as Science, PNAS and PLoS Genetics. The chronology draws on Encyclopædia Britannica and Wikipedia; the 3D scenes add UNESCO World Heritage listings and archaeological sources.
Only the ancient Taforalt genomes come with ancestry proportions, from a fitted model whose reading was revised in 2025, and they are shown as such. For living Tunisians the studies give different percentages, and the order varies between communities, so those bars are labelled illustrative. Ancestry components are statistical, not ethnic identities. A 2020 study of southern Tunisia that was later retracted is deliberately not used.
The 3D scenes are schematic reconstructions based on excavation reports and ancient descriptions, such as Appian’s account of Carthage and the excavations of the Punic quarter on Byrsa hill. Proportions are indicative, and each scene lists its sources.
Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons, credited with author and licence; the illustrations are original. Facts were last cross-checked in October 2026.
