The archaeological site of Monte Sirai is located on the S.S. 126 (just 3 km from the town of Carbonia) on a 191-meter-high hill. This position was strategic for the chance to control the three main access routes of the entire sub-region of the Sulcis: the sea and the islands, the Campidano plain, the ancient metal mines of the Iglesiente. The excavations, begun more than fifty years ago, reveal a superimposition of various civilizations.
The first settlements date back to the Neolithic (as the Domus de Janas testify) and then nuragic period. But it is only with the Phoenicians, who occupied it from 750 BC, and especially with the Carthaginians (from 520 BC) that the city has taken on the definitive look
From 238 BC, after various vicissitudes, the Carthaginians had to surrender to the Romans the dominion of Sardinia but the place of Monte Sirai continued to be inhabited by the Punic people, together with a group of Berber settlers and old inhabitants of Nuragic origin. The area was abandoned abruptly around 110 BC, probably following a deportation by the Romans.
The archaeological site of Monte Sirai is divided into three main parts: the acropolis, the Phoenician and Punic necropolis and the tophet
The only recognizable public building is at the entrance to the Acropolis: a fortified structure built on a pre-existing nuraghe that in recent centuries was transformed into the Temple of Astarte; but neighborhoods, squares and houses can still be distinguished in the village: the Fantar House (by the name of its digger), with a corridor entrance and without windows; or the House of the Skylight of Talc (so defined for the finding of a slab of talc that served as a skylight), consisting of four rooms.
Outside the village there are both the Phoenician necropolis (with the ancient graves for cremation) and the Punic one ( with the beautiful underground rooms of hypogeum-tombs). Beyond these, there is the tophet which included a consecrated area where the burned remains of infant burials were deposited In a pot, next to a small stele representing the child.
Hours: 10 am - 7 pm (April to September), 10 am - 5 pm (October to March)
Closed on Mondays
Ticket: € 5,00
Phone: 0781 62665 - 0781 63512