It stood on a slope at the foot of a lofty hill, overlooking a small round port, and was fortified by a wall of large squared blocks of stone,[5118] which may be still distinctly traced.

The site has yielded sarcophagi of an unmistakably Phoenician character,[5119] and other objects of a high antiquity which recall the Phoenician manner;[5120] but the chief remains belong to the Greco-Roman times.
The islands in the strait which separates the North African coast from Sicily were also colonised by the Phoenicians.

These were three in number, Cossura (now Pantellaria), Gaulos (now Gozzo), and Melita (now Malta).

Cossura, the most western of the three, lay about midway in the channel, but nearer to the African coast, from which it is distant not more than about thirty-five miles.

It is a mass of igneous rock, which was once a volcano, and which still abounds in hot springs and in jets of steam.[5121] There was no natural harbour of any size, but the importance of the position was such that the Phoenicians felt bound to occupy the island, if only to prevent its occupation by others.