Perhaps because of its remote and inhospitable location, Kerkouane never achieved the size or grandeur of other Phoenician capitols like Carthage or Tyre. Instead it remained a city on a human scale, in some ways simple and modest. At its height it was home to about 1,200 people. Walking through the streets of the city, it is not difficult to imagine the peaceful daily life of the Punicians as they fished and made purple dye from murex shells. Like most Punic towns, Kerkouane was very much an ethnic mixing ground, bringing together Greeks, Etruscans, Berbers and Phoenicians.
Various rooms cluster around the courtyard.
Occasional remains of a staircase indicate that originally the houses had a second floor no longer extant. If their homes are anything to judge by, the Punicians must have been very clean. Each house has a lovely little bathtub and a drain that leads from the courtyard out into the street. The bathtubs have a small seat at the back and a place for the bather's feet. The bathtubs are too small for the body to be totally immersed, so it may be more accurate to call them hipbaths.