Tanit, the Goddess Who's Keeping the Island

A hundred and fifty metres above the sea, near Sant Vicent de sa Cala, lies the cave of Es Culleram: the largest sanctuary dedicated to Tanit in the Mediterranean. It has three spaces, an outer courtyard for sacrifices, a central chamber, and a deep interior reserved for ashes. Phoenicians used the site from the fifth century BC, later joined by Carthaginians. In 1907, some six hundred terracotta figurines and more than a thousand votive heads were discovered there. The oldest known bust of the goddess is now kept at the Archaeological Museum of Ibiza.

She reigned over sky, earth and the underworld. A goddess of fertility, the moon and war, and a virgin mother at once. The sign of Tanit, a trapezoid crowned by a circle with open arms, is one of the oldest symbols of the western Mediterranean.

Ibiza rarely welcomes anyone by accident.