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Concept
Lixus (ancient city)
Summary
Lixus is an ancient city founded by Phoenicians (8th-7th century BCE) before the city of Carthage. Its distinguishing feature is that it was continuously occupied from antiquity to the Islamic Era, and has ruins dating to the Phoenician (8th–6th centuries BCE), Punic (5th–3rd centuries BCE), Mauretanian (2nd century BCE–CE 50), Roman (CE 50–6th century CE) and Islamic (12th–15th centuries CE) periods.
Lixus was submitted to the UNESCO World Heritage on July 1, 1995, by the Ministry of Culture of Morocco, on the basis of three cultural selection criteria. In a 2019 press release, the Ministry of Culture stated that it was implementing a cultural and economic development strategy, with the intent on working towards Lixus being officially listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The archaeological site of Lixus is located in Morocco northeast of Larache city ( south of Tangier) on the right bank of the Loukkos river, from the coast. Lixus was built on a hill of above sea level, and covers , it dominates the Atlantic shore and the valley formed by the Loukkos. It is surrounded by marshy plains to the south and southwest, in which salt factories have been created. It was added to the UNESCO World Heritage tentative list on July 1, 1995, in the cultural category.
The official language was Punic, used on the city's autonomous currency issues from the 2nd century BCE, the name of the site appears on coins in Punic as the triliteral LKS, and in Latin as LIX and LIXS (The Lixus / Lixos form is consecrated by the Greco-Latin tradition).
Such a far-away place was subject of myths, the garden of the Hesperides with the golden apples of and the palace of Antaeus were said to have been here. By its vestiges the archaeological site reminds us of a long phase of the ancient history of the country, it also reminds us of thousands years old legends about Okeanus the Roman ocean god, Hercules and the three golden apples, the legendary fight of Hercules and Antaeus, Theseus slaying the Minotaur, and about Hercules separating Africa from Europe.
Official source
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