Carthage

It takes barely half an hour from central Tunis to reach the seaside suburbs that flounce along the Bay of Tunis. A Roman causeway takes you across a vast lagoon to reach the desirable banlieue nord (northern suburbs): La Goulette, Sidi Bou Said and La Marsa, as well as Carthage. Oddly, this area rather than the medina was the centre of ancient food history, with Carthage as the erstwhile capital of the Mediterranean’s first great trading empire. This dates back to Dido, the legendary Phoenician queen who chose a tragic end: having been abandoned by her lover Aeneas, she plunged into the flames of a pyre on Carthage beach. Seven hundred years later, the town itself was razed to the ground by the Romans.