The ancient settlement of Tharros is located at the S end of the Sinis Peninsula. It unfolds in the Gulf of Oristano on a sort of natural amphitheater delimited N by the hill of Su Muru Mannu, W by that of the tower of San Giovanni and S by the isthmus that connects the latter to the promontory of Capo San Marco.
The visit to the Roman remains of Tharros can start with the channeling into 'opus mixtum', part of the city's water supply system, behind the church of San Giovanni. Then take the Roman road, with its typical basalt pavement, flanked by the remains of buildings.
After following the road, turn south for the “cardo maximus”. In N, on the hill of Su Muru Mannu, there is a temple, perhaps dedicated to Demeter. Founded in the Punic era, it was transformed in Roman times into a tripartite structure with secondary rooms.
We arrive at the “amphitheater”, a late-Roman circular structure surrounded by a cavea (m 32 x 30), and to the tofet with the emerging remains of the Nuragic village. Then you reach the N fortifications, which show a Punic phase and a Roman republican phase.
We walk backwards along the 'Cardo Maximus' reaching the 'Castellum Aquae', the city's main water tank. This is rectangular (13.8 x 11.5 m) and is built in “opus mixtum”; the interior, divided into three naves with 8 pillars, 4 of which are central, has a cocciopesto floor.
Moving along the road to the sea, you can see a residential district; on the other hand, you can see a mixed-work building that, due to the richness of the plastering, the presence of a well, the planimetric layout, is recognizable as a thermal complex: it consists of a rectangular environment on which two rooms open up that lead into apsidic environments.
Behind the baths, continuing and turning upwards after the “temple of the Egyptian gorges”, you can see another thermal building from the 2nd century AD; the dressing room, the “tepidarium”, the “calidarium”, and two rooms on which a tank was set up remain. In N there is the “ecclesia sancti Marci”, the center of an area with various building testimonies from the late antique era.
Going back along the paved road to S, you can admire the remains of the “monumental temple”, equipped with a powerful fence wall in isodome work on the N/O and N/E sides, and carved into the sandstone on the other sides (m 34 x 16). The first phase of the sanctuary dates back to the 4th/3rd century BC. A stepped ramp led to the rectangular altar; the rise was decorated with Doric half-columns. Next to the building, on the S side, a ritual tank opened.
Even further S we reach the “temple with a Semitic plan”, with one of the four sides cut into the rock bench; it has a polychrome floor mosaic from the second century AD.
Then we reach the “area of the two columns”, one of which is dominated by a Corinthian-Italic capital. The area is full of remains that are difficult to identify, except for a small temple of late republican style, with two pillars in the front and an access ramp of five steps.
In S, the troubled stretch of coast is what remains of the port area. In the same direction, the “baths of the old convent” represent the richest thermal complex in the city, dating back to the end of the second century A.D. It is built of “opus mixtum” and brick and is arranged on three levels: from the “apodyterium” with a masonry counter and triangular housings, we move on to the “frigidarium” with two originally mosaic tanks; then to the three “calidaria” that highlight the “suspensurae” in bessals on which the floor rested.
Towards the N you reach the forum, a triangular square paved with basalt, with adjacent living areas. The houses had an access compartment that the rooms faced. Sometimes there was an upper floor. The shops occupied a single environment.
At S/O, there are quadrilateral basement structures (residual h m 3.50). An imperial Roman necropolis is located to the north of the Tofet beyond the Roman fortifications.

History of excavations
The investigations of the site began in 1838 by the Marquis Scotti and the Jesuit Perotti. In 1842, an excavation commissioned by the King of Sardinia Carlo Alberto enriched the royal collections of Turin with gold coins, jewels and scarabs. Thanks to the king, the prohibition of clandestine excavations aimed at illegal enrichment was obtained. In 1851, Lord Vernon, an Englishman who was on the 'Grand Tour' of Italy, dug 14 tombs in the underground chamber and, among other things, found many jewels, which he took with him to England. The discoveries aroused the interest of the inhabitants of nearby Cabras, who violated about 500 tombs. In 1860, the then director of the Cagliari museum, Gaetano Cara, discovered some Punic tombs containing rich items, which he stole and offered to the main museums in Europe, eventually selling them to the British Museum in London. From 1956 to 1964, Gennaro Pesce brought to light part of the town to the E of the tower of San Giovanni and, to the north, the area of the tofet. Ferruccio Barreca, in 1958, identified the small temple at the end of Capo San Marco and, from 1969 to 1973, he continued the excavations of the town, the fortifications and the tophet. This last area was investigated in collaboration with Enrico Acquaro.

Bibliography
G. Pesce, “Tharros”, in Encyclopedia of Ancient, Classical and Oriental Art, VI, Rome, 1966, pp. 800-806;
E. Acquaro - C. Finzi, Tharros. Sassari, C. Delfino, 1986 (Archaeological Sardinia. Guides and itineraries; 5);
R.D. Barnett-C. Mendleson, Tharros. A Catalogue of Material in the British Museum from Phoenician and Other Tombs at Tharros, Sardinia, London, British Museum, 1987;
M. Falchi, “Analysis of the urban configuration of Tharros”, in Tharros, edited by P. Desogus, Nuoro, 1991, pp. 23-37;
R. Zucca, Tharros, Oristano, G. Corrias, 1993; C. Del Vais, The Third Life of Tharros, the Plundered City, “Darwin. Notebooks”, n. 1 (July-August 2006), pp. 76-85.

How to get
There From the hamlet of San Giovanni di Sinis, continue towards S for about 1 km on SP 6.