Ancient Lost Cities of North Africa

The history of the southern and western shores of the Mediterranean can be told from many perspectives. To an ancient historian, it is the story of early Phoenician expansion westward, followed by Roman conquests, and ending with the Punic Wars and the destruction of Carthage in the 2nd century BC. For a medievalist, the story begins with the stunningly rapid spread of Islam across North Africa and onto the Iberian Peninsula in the 6th-8th centuries and ends with the Spanish reconquest of Granada in 1492. From a contemporary perspective, we might choose to focus on the French colonization of Tunisia and Algeria, the rise of nationalism and radical Islam, and the "Arab Spring" of the 2010s.

During this voyage, you will touch on chapters of each of these stories as we call in ports in Spain and all along the coast of North Africa. Begin in southern Iberia, where Arab influences are found everywhere, but especially in cosmopolitan Seville, where you can trace the legacies of Moorish and Catholic Spain as they mingle in the monuments of this great city. Crossing to North Africa, where the Islamic heritage is very much alive and well, visit the ancient medinas and markets of Tangier, Tetouan, and Oran. Further to the east, the ancient world is spectacularly represented in the tomb of King Juba II in Tipasa and by the UNESCO-designated Roman ruins at Djemila. And in Tunis, find yourself at the site of the ruins of Carthage—and also at the starting point of the Arab Spring.