On 17 February 2012, the Tunisian government proposed that the whole Zaghouan-Carthage Roman hydraulic complex, of which they are a part, should be classed as a world heritage site.

They were not the only largest cisterns of Carthage, but existed alongside others: the "basins of Hamilcar" and those located on the hill of Bordj Djedid.

From the Middle Ages, the cisterns were used as makeshift houses, stables, barns or cellars by the local populations; a practice which continued until the twentieth century.

However, it is probable that the cisterns were actually surmounted by another level of tanks - in the same manner as Gallo-Roman two-story reservoirs.

[5] In the immediate neighbourhood of the cisterns are other important sites: the cemetery of the officials [fr], the villa of Scorpianus and some mausoleums, one of which has been re-constructed in a special room of the Bardo National Museum.