Phoenician-Punic Karaly was built on the site of modern Cagliari, in the center of the Gulf of the Angels and at the S end of the Campidano plain.
The topography of the Phoenician and Punic settlement of KRL or KRLY (Karaly) is poorly defined due to the superposition of the modern city on the ancient one, but it is believed that the first settlement was on the east bank of the Santa Gilla pond, and that over the centuries, with the transfer of the port, the city moved to E.
The antiquity of the settlement is assumed mainly thanks to the findings of the urban hinterland (Settimo San Pietro, Monastir and San Sperate) that testify to the intensity of relations and the crucial role of the city since the 8th century BC.
Phoenician finds concern a modest part of the town, in the area of the Santa Gilla lagoon. The excavations of Via Brenta have revealed materials that date back to the 8th century and levels of the Punic and Republican ages.
The late-Punic settlement is also known for an agglomeration of houses on the slopes of the Sant'Avendrace hill, with walls made with the traditional oriental “frame” technique, and floor figurations where, among other things, the sign of the Punic deity Tanit appears. The acropolis was located on the Castello hill, where you can see some plans for the installation of the Punic fortifications at the base of the tower of San Pancrazio.
As far as religious structures are concerned, it is known but no longer visible, under Via Malta, near Piazza del Carmine, a sanctuary dating back to between the third and second centuries BC, probably built shortly after the Roman conquest of Sardinia. The sacred area was surrounded by a wall in large square blocks; inside there was a sacellum preceded by a pronaos with four columns and accessible through a staircase. Another religious building was discovered near Largo Carlo Felice.
It is assumed that there is a temple dedicated to the Phoenician deity Astarte on Sant'Elia hill, in a suburban area. In the past, the area returned an inscription containing the dedication of a bronze altar to “Astarte di Erice”, also readable as “Astarte Madre”, dated to the third century BC. As
for the necropolises, the oldest is the one on the hill of Tuvixeddu, near Sant'Avendrace, used from the end of the 6th to the 3rd century BC. The tombs, dug in limestone, are mainly of the well type, with a depth varying between 8 and 3 m. The bodies of the dead were buried with the rite of inumum action.
Of great interest, because they constitute one of the rare examples in the Punic world, are the traditional North African wall paintings in numerous Tuvixeddu tombs. In the paintings, dated between the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, decorative floral elements are represented, such as lotus flower friezes and palmettes, but also urean snakes, gorgons, geometric patterns. Of particular importance is the tomb “of the god Sid”, where the Sardinian-Punic deity worshiped in the temple of Antas was recognized in a male figure, and the tomb of the “Ureo”, which takes its name from the main figure of the painted frieze, a winged cobra snake with a solar globe on its forehead.
The eastern necropolis, on the hill of Bonaria, dates back to a later age, not before the 4th century BC, when by now the urban center gravitated more to E, but the types of tombs repeat those used in the Tuvixeddu necropolis.
The tofet was located between the Tuvixeddu hill and the Santa Gilla pond, in the São Paulo area. At the time of its discovery, during the Second World War, it was not recognized as such and was classified as a cremated necropolis from the 5th-4th century. The urns contained the cremated remains of children who died at an early age and were accompanied by stone steles in a very fragmented state.

History of studies
After the research carried out by Giovanni Spano in the Bonaria necropolis (1870), the first systematic excavations were carried out in 1908 by Antonio Taramelli in the Tuvixeddu necropolis. Other excavation campaigns were carried out in 1942 (tofet), 1943, 1947, 1949 and 1984-85 (late Punic temple in Via Malta, housing complexes in Via Brenta).

Bibliography
A. Taramelli, "La necropoli punica di Predio Ibba S. Avendrace, Cagliari (Scavi del 1908)", in Monumenti Antichi dell'Accademia dei Lincei, 21, 1912, coll. 45-224;
C. Tronchetti, Cagliari fenicia e punica, collana "Sardò", Sassari, Chiarella, 1990;
"Lo scavo di via Brenta a Cagliari. I livelli fenicio-punici e romani", in Quaderni della Soprintendenza archeologica per le province di Cagliari e Oristano, 9, suppl., 1993;
P. Bartoloni, "La necropoli di Tuvixeddu: tipologia e cronologia della ceramica", in Rivista di studi fenici, 28, 2000, pp. 85-96;
A. M. Colavitti - C. Tronchetti, Guida archeologica di Cagliari. Sassari, C. Delfino, 2003 (Sardegna archeologica. Guide e itinerari; 31).

How to get There
Only the Necropolis of Tuvixeddu remains in sight of the Phoenician and Punic city. To reach it, you start from Piazza Jenne, follow Corso Vittorio Emanuele and Viale Trento, until you take Via Vittorio Veneto. Continue along Via Falzarego and follow the road that, after a few hundred meters, leads to the archaeological area. A visit requires special permission from the Superintendency.