Tunis — The 7th international congress will be held in Hammamet, Tunisia form November 10 to 14, 2009 under the motto "life, religion and death in the Phoenician and Punic world".

The congress in organized jointly by the National Heritage Institute (INP) and the National Agency for Revival of Heritage and Cultural Development as well as the Research Unity: Punic Carthage and culture dissemination.

250 researchers and historians including epigraphists and archeologist from different Arab and foreign countries will take part in this event.

The program involves architectural constructions, the funeral Neo-Punic lexicon and deities and the Phoenician sanctuaries.

The event will be an occasion to reveal new heritages discovered by archeologists in the Punic site in the Sahel region of Kerkouane and statues of pottery were discovered in EL Djem dates back to the Punic era.

During the 4-day event, participants will tour this period of history, through customs and funeral rites among the Phoenicians and neighboring peoples, the Phoenician and Punic literature and artistic heritage, architectural and urbanistic Phoenician-Punic.

Participants will focus on "The Route of the Phoenicians" which is part of the of the European Cultural Route's program.

In 2005, Lisbon hosted the 6th International Congress of Phoenician and Punic.

On the sidelines of the congress, historians and archaeologists will identify the spread of the Phoenician colony between 1200 and 814 BC, when Phoenician sailors emigrated (the Canaanites) to various parts of the Mediterranean.

In this period, the Phoenicians have migrated to the eastern Mediterranean and settled in North Tunisia.

In that era, the Phoenicians were amongst the greatest traders of their time and owed a great deal of their prosperity to trade also have several religious practices and rituals and still some of the effects of these activities exist in several cities in Tunisia such as the city, "Utica" and the city of Carthage and Sousse, which was dubbed "Hadhramaut."

According to Roman legend, Carthage was founded in 814 BC by Phoenician colonists under the leadership of Elissa (Queen Dido) and then came to be called the "shining city," ruling 300 other cities around the western Mediterranean and leading the Phoenician (or Punic) world.