The town was founded by the Phoenicians around the 8C or 7C BC on the narrow Sinis peninsula which encloses the Gulf of Oristano. Tharros became an important port of call between Marseille and Carthage, before being conquered by the Romans in the 3C BC. No-one knows why, in about the year 1000, the town was suddenly deserted by its inhabitants, who settled in Oristano.