Nora was founded by the Phoenicians, at the end of the 8th or 7th century BC, on the enchanting promontory of Capo di Pula , between the sea and ponds. Currently in the ancient Phoenician, Punic and then Roman commercial center, we can observe the Phoenician necropolis, the housing complex and the Punic tophet.

Among the ancient streets paved in andesite, one can still admire one of the best preserved buildings in Nora, the beautiful theater, built at the beginning of the 1st century BC. Impressive are the thermal structures, often decorated with magnificent mosaics dating back to between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD Various religious structures such as the Temple of Tanit of the Punic period, located on the hill of the same name, the temple n. 6 or the sanctuary of Aesculapius of the II-III century AD

There are also numerous works of private housing, often equipped with water cisterns, built with walls in opus caementicium and africanum , sometimes particularly prestigious, such as the house of the tetrastyle atrium, with the suggestive mosaics of the III-IV century AD. to the sea there is the forum, of regular shape, which preserves bases of honorary statues of famous people.

After a long period that began in the 5th century AD, the city was definitively abandoned in the 8th century AD, following frequent pirate and vandal attacks. From the end of the nineteenth century the city was rediscovered, thanks to the investigations of Nissardi and Vivanet and then following the excavations undertaken starting in 1952. From the site of Nora, one of the most important in southern Sardinia, comes one of the most important testimonies of Sardinian archeology, the famous Stele di Nora (late 9th-early 8th century BC), in which the oldest attestation of the name Sardinia appears.