The city of Salakta (the ancient Sullecthum) is laying on the southern coast of the legendry town of Mahdia the cradle of Underwater Archaeology (The shipwreck of Mahdia 1st c. BC). It has a strong link with the sea. Its small museum was built in the eighties and it was intended to be a site’s museum holding the artifacts collected at the ancient site of Sullecthum and several other coastal settlements around.
This port-city spread around the promontory of Cape Salakta from the Punic times and probably earlier, as there is archaeological evidence of a prehistoric presence already in the hinterland (around El Alia).
The deep harbor of Sullecthum allowed the city to receive huge vessels and to develop an important trade network very early. Today, there is a variety of archeological sites in Sullecthum covering several chronological periods. The visitor can discover Punic graves with stairs, Roman baths, basins of Salsamenta and Garum, the submerged structures of the harbor and the Christian Hypogea of Ghar Thabaa. Testimonials of such a rich heritage can be admired in the museum of the city. One of its four rooms is dedicated to mosaics and specially the one showing a Lion. It is coming from an excavation of a merchantman’s house in Salakta. The second famous mosaic is an excellent replica of the one representing the city of Sullecthum as a prevailing harbor in the Piazza dei Corporazione di Ostia Square of the Corporations), the most important Roman harbor in the Second century AD. A second room is dedicated to a large series of amphorae from the pre-roman Era to the Byzantine times. The most relevant details are the stamps and painted inscriptions on those artifacts demonstrating the name of the vessels or navicularii (Merchantmen) or even the name of the kiln’s owner involved in the trade of the city. In another room we can admire a series of artifacts in pottery coming from funeral archaeological context associated to an ancient wooden coffin well conserved and preserved. Some tombstones and votive stelae are visible in the vestibule of the museum coming from around the city. It is possible to continue the visit of the museum of Salakta outside as it is flanked by a late-ancient maritime necropolis.