Lisbon is the capital and largest city of Portugal. It is the seat of the district of Lisbon.
During the Neolithic the region was inhabited by the same peoples that lived in other regions of Atlantic Europe, and are known as the Iberians. They built religious monuments called megaliths. Dolmens and Menhirs still survive in the countryside around the city. The Celts invaded after first millennium BC and they intermarried with the Iberians, giving birth to the Celtic-speaking local tribes such as the Conii and Cempsi.
Archeological findings prove that a Phoenician trading post existed in the place now occupied by the centre of the city since 1200 B.C.. The magnificent natural harbour provided by the estuary of the river Tagus made it the ideal spot for a settlement to provide foodstuffs to the Phoenician ships travelling to the tin islands (modern Isles of Scilly) and Cornwall. The new city was named Alis Ubbo or "safe harbour" in Phoenician. Besides sailing to the North, the Phoenicians also probably took advantage of the situation of the new colony at the mouth of Iberia's largest river to trade with the inland tribes for valuable metals. Other important local products were salt, salted fish and the then widely famous Lusitanian horses. Recently, Phoenician remains from the eighth century B.C. were found beneath the Middle Age Sé de Lisboa or main Cathedral of the modern city.
The heart of the city is the Baixa or downtown, this area of the city is being considered for UNESCO World Heritage Site status. The Baixa is organized in a grid-system and a network of squares built after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, which scraped a big part of medieval town.