The Mediterranean Sea witnessed the birth of most civilizations. Mare Nostrum "Our Sea" was the term used by the Ancient Romans. In the “Mappa Mundi” of 1280, it was represented as the Center of the World. Many cities have developed around it under different invasions and civilizations and took part in making the place. These cities had different lives throughout all these eras and carried physical traces of this accumulated past. Some kept their important positioning, some disappeared into bigger cities and others became open-air ruins with an attached tourism. But all are living witnesses in their stratums of this undeniable memory of greatness, violence and prosperity. This abstract wants to tackle the similitudes and differences of the below cities through their palimpsest.

Beirut: "Bayrut", "Beyrut", and "Biruta" is the capital and largest city of Lebanon with a population of 2.2 million (2014). The third-largest city in the Levant region, situated on Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast. It has been inhabited for more than 5,000 years, and was one of Phoenicia's most prominent city states, making it one of the oldest cities in the world.

Marseilles is the second-largest city in France with a metropolitan population of 3,100,329 (2019). Founded by Greek settlers from Phocaea, Marseille is the oldest city of France, and one of Europe's oldest continuously inhabited settlements. It has been a trading port since ancient times and had a considerable commercial boom during the colonial period and the 19th century. In the 1990s, the Euroméditerranée project for economic development and urban renewal was launched bringing it to the 21st century.

Alexandria is the third-largest city in Egypt and the largest city on the Mediterranean. It was founded by Alexander the Great and rapidly became a major centre of Hellenic civilisation, it retained this status for almost a millennium, through the period of Roman and Byzantine rule until the Muslim conquest of Egypt. One time the largest city in the ancient world before being overtaken by Rome. During the Arab conquest of Egypt, the city was plundered and lost its significance before re-emerging in the late 18th century as a major centre of the international trading and shipping industry.

Syracuse is a historic city of 2,700-year-old city in Sicily. It was founded by Ancient Greek Corinthians and Teneans and became a very powerful city-state. During the Magna Graecia, it was the most important city equaling Athens in size during the fifth century BC. It became part of the Roman Republic and served as the capital of the Byzantine Empire. The city is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site with a population of around 125,000 people.

Tunis / Carthage was the capital city of the ancient Carthaginian civilization, on what is now Tunisia. It was destroyed by the Roman Republic and then re-developed as Roman Carthage, major city in the province of Africa. The city was sacked and destroyed by Umayyad forces and used as a fort by the Muslims until the Hafsid period when it was taken by the Crusaders. In the early 20th century, it develop into a coastal suburb of Tunis. The archaeological site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

These cities were very important poles around the Mediterranean. It is important to look at this shared history analyzing their past, present and future.

Keywords: Palimpsest, civilizations, wars, Rome, Greece, memory, places, contemporary world.

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