Nora was founded by the Phoenicians and was later also inhabited by the Punians and Romans. It is believed that the Vandals, who occupied Sardinia from around 455/60 to 534, contributed to the city's downfall. In the early Middle Ages the city was abandoned due to pirate attacks. Its ruins lie on a narrow boot-shaped peninsula, the southernmost protrusion of which the locals call “Sa punta 'e su Coloru” (Snake Cape). In imperial times, Nora was a municipium.
The Nora stele is of Phoenician origin, but most of the relics date from the Roman period, which conquered Sardinia in 238 BC. Conquered BC. The abstract steles of the Tophet of Nora show a similarity to those of Tharros. Clear remnants from the Phoenician-Punic period are the temple district on the cape Punta 'e su Coloru and the residential area behind the Roman theater, whose house floor plans, bathtub cisterns and masonry techniques show Punic features. The neighborhood is also known as the Kasbah of Nora because of the chaotic arrangement of the houses.
The as yet unexplored Acropolis with long walls and towers is located on the southeast cape, around the Saracen tower Torre del Coltellazzo from the 17th century. Parts of the old settlement, particularly its three harbors, have sunk into the sea. In 1889 their remains were uncovered during a spring tide. The excavations of Roman-era Nora yielded mosaics, columns, baths and a small, well-preserved theater from the 2nd to 4th centuries with large clay pithoi in the hyposkenion, the stage, which date from a later phase when the building was no longer a theater was used, and therefore did not serve as acoustic resonators (as was previously thought).