JOURNEY TO NOSTOS

The Pillars of Heracles - The Coastal Hellenic World

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Modular One-Week Road Tours

Slow. Deliberate. Coastal.
Each week stands alone. Each week can also lead into the next.

Week 19 — Annaba (Hippo Regius)

Where Greek coastline becomes African ground

Route
Tunis / Carthage → Tabarka → Annaba (Hippo Regius)

Endpoint: Annaba
(Establishes the Algerian coast as the next long western arc.)

7 days • 1 base • hinge week • coastal settlement logic

At a glance

Bases
Annaba (6) • optional Tabarka pause (1)

Hellenic anchors

Hippo Regius (Greek foundation) • Phoenician continuity • Roman expansion

How to use this week

Enter here from Tunisia, or use this week alone to understand how Greek settlement thins, adapts, and survives on African ground before Rome consolidates the coast.

Prologue — When the Shore Changes Its Weight

The Mediterranean does not end at Carthage.
It changes density.

At Annaba—ancient Hippo Regius—the Hellenic world persists, but differently. The shoreline broadens, the hinterland presses harder, and the city becomes less a node in a chain and more a place of endurance.

This week slows everything down on purpose.
If Carthage was rivalry, Annaba is continuity.

Route logic

Single base • repetition over movement • one site at a time • depth over distance

Day by day

Day 1 — Tunis / Carthage → Tabarka (pause) → Annaba

Overnight: Annaba

Focus
Crossing the hinge.

Hellenic layer
Tabarka marks the thinning of Phoenician density; beyond it, Greek foundations reassert quietly.

Do one thing properly
Arrive Annaba with daylight.
Short harbour orientation only.

Day 2 — Annaba: Harbour and Old City

Overnight: Annaba

Focus
Orientation, not excavation.

Hellenic layer
Hippo Regius as a working port before it was monumental.

Do one thing properly
Harbour loop at two different hours.

Day 3 — Hippo Regius archaeological zone

Overnight: Annaba

Focus
The Greek city beneath later layers.

Hellenic layer
Greek foundation logic: street grid, shoreline access, trade-facing orientation.

Do one thing properly
One slow circuit only.
Leave while the place still holds you.

Day 4 — Annaba (no driving)

Overnight: Annaba

Focus
Stillness as method.

Hellenic layer
Coastal cities endure by waiting as much as moving.

Do one thing properly
Repeat a walk from Day 2 at a different hour.

Day 5 — Basilica of St Augustine and upper city

Overnight: Annaba

Focus
Later layers without losing the ground beneath.

Hellenic layer
Christian monuments sit on Greek ground, not instead of it.

Do one thing properly
One climb.
One long sit overlooking the coast.

Day 6 — Annaba coast day

Overnight: Annaba

Focus
The Mediterranean as working edge.

Hellenic layer
Fishing, repair, and daily movement as cultural continuity.

Do one thing properly
Sea-edge walk.
No sites.

Day 7 — Annaba (closing day)

Overnight: Annaba

Focus
Preparing to move west.

Hellenic layer
Hippo as bridge city—Greek memory carried forward into a Roman world.

Do one thing properly
Final harbour walk.
Pack calmly.

Navigation

← Previous Week — Tripoli to Carthage
Next Week → Annaba to Algiers
Back to North Africa — Weeks 15–19

Optional: the long-form read

In the manuscript, Annaba becomes a meditation on how Greek cities survive when they are no longer dominant—by rhythm, adaptation, and coastal intelligence rather than scale. (Paid)