page_title: Cisterns of La Malga
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Cisterns of La Malga / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Cisterns at Carthage. Español: Cisternas en Cartago.
context_page_description: The Cisterns of La Malga or Cisterns of La Mâalga are a group of cisterns, which are among the most visible features of the archaeological site of Carthage near Tunis, Tunisia. They are some of the best preserved Roman cisterns.
  The cisterns, with a capacity of 50,000–60,000 m³, received water from a branch of the Zaghouan Aqueduct. They were designed to provide the water supply for Carthage, the most important city of Africa Proconsulare during the High Empire, and especially to supply the Baths of Antoninus.
  As part of the site of Carthage, the cisterns are classified as a World Heritage site by UNESCO. On 17 February 2012, the Tunisian government proposed that the whole Zaghouan-Carthage Roman hydraulic complex, of which they are a part, should be classed as a world heritage site.
context_section_description: The large, relatively well-preserved cisterns are located on the north side of the ancient Roman city. They were not the only largest cisterns of Carthage, but existed alongside others: the "basins of Hamilcar" and those located on the hill of Bordj Djedid.
  From the Middle Ages, the cisterns were used as makeshift houses, stables, barns or cellars by the local populations; a practice which continued until the twentieth century. For a long time this prevented archaeological investigation of the complex.
  According to Al Idrisi, there were at least 24 cisterns in a single line, each with a length of 130 pace and a width of 26 pace - though Henri Saladin considered this width too high. According to Christian Tuxen Falbe, there were fifteen cisterns which were 430 ft (130 m) in width and four ruined cisterns a little to the west and each of these nineteen cisterns had a length of 300 ft (91 m).
  There is an active project to conserve and restore the site, and to develop a museum space devoted to it.
caption: Old photograph of a repurposed cistern
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