A few blocks away from our home is a cemetery where thousands of remains of children have been found. The Children's Cemetery is also referred to as the Tophet of Salammbo. Salammbo is the area here. We stopped here after visiting the Punic Ports.
"Tophet is the name given to places of child sacrifice in the Middle East. Here in Carthage it is the area in which many archaeologists believe child sacrifices took place. These sacrifices may not have been as common as the number of gravestones in the area lead you to believe, however. Many families sacrificed small animals like goats in place of the child and this has been supported by a number of bones from such animals being discovered in the ruins. It was less common for the child to be the source of the sacrifice. Urns containing the ashes of children have also been discovered here. Others disagree and say that this is just a spot where children were buried on their deaths. The principal gods to which they were offered were the sun god Baal-Ammon and the moon goddess Tanit. Usually the sacrifice was of (or on behalf of) the first born child, especially if it was a son. The remains of the victims were placed in urns and buried in the ground with an unscripted stele. It has been estimated that as many as 7,000 victims were buried in this way." (info from cheekymariehon VirtualTourist)
Our guide Fawzi mentioned that there is research stating that the child sacrifices were actually few and far between. It seems as though people tried to discredit the Romans at this time with barbaric stories to shed them in an favorable light. Regardless, the place is intriguing and a bit eery. I would not want to walk through here on a dark night!
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| Hundreds of carved headstones. |
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| The symbol of the Tanit. |
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| This tree has grown right over the headstone. |
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| Who is going first??? |
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| Do you see anything lurking in the back? |
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| There are not earthquakes here very often. |
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