Part 48

The highroad now descends to the N. to the (7 min.) so-called **=Basilica=, the most remarkable early-Christian ruin in Algeria, still in some respects an enigma to archæologists. Built mainly of Roman materials, and itself used for centuries as a quarry, it still forms an immense quadrilateral of about 213 by 88–115 yds., systematically excavated for the first time in 1888–92. The oldest parts of the edifice, perhaps of the late 4th cent., are believed to be the basilica and the memorial chapel; the main street, the court, and the ‘stable’ seem to belong to a second building period, perhaps also prior to the Vandal era. The monastery, with its fortifications, and the additions to the memorial chapel date probably from the Vandal period; the small ‘emergency chapel’ is perhaps a later Byzantine addition. The custodian (fee ½–1 fr.) is to be found at the little house near the E. gate.

The _E. Gate_, the old main entrance, once adorned externally, in the style of a Roman triumphal arch, with Corinthian pilasters and jutting columns, is in fair preservation. Thence ran the paved _Main Street_, 8 yds. wide, without wheel-ruts, past the Basilica on the right and the court and ‘stable’ on the left, to the _W. Gate_, the ancient subsidiary entrance.

From the N. side of the main street, formerly flanked with three colonnades, a flight of fourteen steps, 9½ ft. high in all, ascends to the portico of the BASILICA, which was once preceded by eight columns. Three portals here opened into the Atrium, the square forecourt of the church, with remains of the _Cantharus_, or fountain of purification, in the centre. Near the entrance-wall are two side-rooms whence winding staircases ascended to the upper floor and the church galleries.

The Church, built of solid masonry, consisted of nave and two aisles, 50 by 24 yds. in all; but now nothing remains save the external wall of the left aisle, two arcades of the nave, and the choir-recess. The formation of the arcades, with low pillars and Corinthian columns in front, is peculiar. The site of the choirscreen and of the base of the altar is still traceable. Of the galleries, supposed to have been added on the occasion of a restoration of the church, there still lie fragments of the columns and imposts all around. The mosaic pavement is covered with earth.

From the front part of the right aisle twelve steps descend into an almost square outer building (25½ by 22 yds.), contemporaneous with the church. The middle of this is occupied by the Trichorum, a trefoil-shaped hall, with three rounded apses, probably a MEMORIAL CHAPEL, resembling the early-Christian cemetery-chapels, and dedicated to some martyr or bishop buried under the altar. The four corner-rooms served as _Tomb Chambers_.

Among the later additions of the Vandal period are the _Square Chamber_ on the S. side of the memorial chapel, which also was used as a burial-place, with its small ante-room, and the _Baptistery_, accessible only from the atrium by three steps, containing remains of the old font.

To the same period belong the other additions to the basilica. Extending round the church from the memorial chapel on the E. to the W. side of the atrium are twenty-seven square chambers, partly built of heathen tombstones, commonly supposed to have been the _Monks’ Cells_, though unusually large for that purpose. Between these and the castellated _Monastery Wall_, whose towers do not project externally in the usual Byzantine fashion, probably lay the _Monastery Garden_, which was used down to the Moorish period as a burial-ground.

Lastly we note the small ‘_Emergency Chapel_’ on the N. side of the memorial chapel, a small church, probably hastily built subsequent to the irruption of the Berbers (p. 315), with nave and two aisles, portico, choirscreen, rounded apse, and a square sacristy added on the N. side.

The QUADRANGLE, 60 by 46 yds., on the S. side of the main street, formerly called the forum, was once divided into four sections by two cross-ways bordered by marble balustrades. In spite of the unevenness of the ground these sections are supposed to have been basins (watering-places for cattle and horses?), the water being supplied from the square reservoir still existing at the S.E. corner of the quadrangle. From the cross-ways steps ascended to narrow terraces enclosing the quadrangle on three sides, that on the S. side being a porticus of twenty-two columns.

More enigmatical still is the WEST BUILDING, 53 by 24 yds., a hall with three aisles borne by pillars. This was afterwards converted, by the insertion of two low partitions, into a central chamber of three aisles with eleven two-storied side-rooms on each side of the outer aisles. The curious stone boxes or troughs (mangers?) on the partitions, together with the holes in the walls, of a kind that recur in many Byzantine buildings (perhaps for the rings to which horses were attached), have led to the conjecture that the building was a stable.

The small building behind the _Porticus_ of six columns on the N. side of the main street, opposite the so-called stables, contains similar stone boxes.

The _Kubba Sidi Djaballah_, about 5 min. to the N. of the Basilica, near the Catholic cemetery, is a Roman mausoleum with a Moorish dome.

On the way back to the town we call at the _Bureau des Ponts et Chaussées_, on the right, a little off the road, 2 min. before the Arch of Caracalla, to ask M. Coggia, the curator, for the key of the museum.

The so-called *=Temple of Minerva=, the best-preserved Roman temple in Algeria, now used as a museum, dates from the 3rd cent. A.D. The only relic of the old temple-court is the gateway wall, adorned with Corinthian pilasters, now forming the façade of a zaouïa (Mohammedan school) in the main street, close to the Arch of Caracalla. The temple, a pseudo-peripteros of 19¾ by 10 yds., on a substructure 13 ft. high, is in a side-street, adjoining the N. town-wall. A new flight of twelve (once twenty) steps ascends to the portico, with four Corinthian columns in front. The structure of the temple shows many of the peculiarities of African provincial art. Instead of an architrave there is a frieze with bulls’ skulls and eagles grasping serpents; above it is an attica in similar style, overladen with reliefs but without a cornice. Instead of a pediment there was probably a flat terrace on the summit. The present roof and the whole front-wall of the cella are modern.

The =Town Museum= contains antiquities from Tebessa, Morsott, etc. (catalogue for the use of visitors). In the court are relics of antique and early-Christian buildings, inscriptions, altars, Saturn-stelæ and tomb-stelæ, some of them with bowls on the pedestal for the repasts of the deceased. The cella contains bronzes, vessels and sculptures in clay, etc.; a sarcophagus with the Muses; two mosaics from the baths which were removed to make way for the cavalry barracks, one with Nereids and sea monsters, the other with a home-coming ship and numbered figures of a game (bull, ostrich, gazelle, boar, etc.; comp. p. 292).

The =Catholic Church=, at the N.W. angle of the town-wall, is adorned in the interior with a few fragments from the Basilica. Thus, over the high-altar, are remains of an early-Christian sarcophagus with three curious figures in relief (Christian Roma?).

ENVIRONS. The _Roman Aqueduct_, 547 yds. long, restored in turn by the Moors, the Turks, and the French, still conveys water from the spring of _Aïn el-Bled_.—About 1¾ M. from the Porte de Constantine (p. 315) are the extensive late-Roman ruins of _Tebessa Khalia_ (‘Old Tebessa’), the nature of which is still unexplained.

Diligence daily to (11 M.) _Youks-les-Bains_ (2625 ft.), with ‘indifferent’ hot springs (95° Fahr.), 2 M. to the S.W. of the Meskiana and Aïn-Beïda road (p. 273).

To avoid the long return-journey from Tebessa to Souk-Ahras, we may ride or drive to the N.W. viâ (26 M.) _Haidra_ (p. 362) to (40½ M.) _Thala_ (p. 362) or to (37½ M.) rail. stat. _Kalaâ-Djerda_ (p. 362). A mineral-line also runs thence to the Algerian frontier and the phosphate-beds on _Jebel Kouif_ (3871 ft.; leave to travel by it is usually granted by the manager).

A road leads to the S.W., past _Jebel Osmor_ (5052 ft.), noted for its Punic rock-tombs, then across the _Tenoukla Pass_, between _Jebel Tenoukla_ (5118 ft.) on the right and _Jebel Bou Roumane_ (p. 320) on the left, and past _Bou-Chebka_ (caravanserai), to (47 M.) _Feriana_ (p. 371). Diligence viâ Feriana to _Gafsa_ (p. 383) in two days (fare 30 fr.).

VII. TUNISIA.

Route Page Geographical and Historical Sketch. Preliminary Notes 319 51. From (Constantine, Bona) Souk-Ahras to Tunis 325 Thuburnica, 325.—Simitthu. From Souk el-Arba, through the Kroumirie, to Tabarca, 326.—From Pont-de-Trajan to Béja. From Béja to Tabarca. Chaouach, 328. 52. Tunis 329 a. The New Town, 333.—b. The Old Town (Djamâa ez-Zitouna, Souks, Dâr el-Bey, Kasba, Mosque of Sidi Mahrez), 334.—c. Environs (Jardin du Belvédère, the Manoubia Hill, the Bardo, etc.), 338. 53. Carthage 343 Jebel Khaoui, 351. 54. From Tunis to Bizerta 351 Ferryville. Barrage des Pêcheries, 352.—From Tunis to Bizerta by road (Utica, Porto-Farina), 353. 55. From Tunis to Dougga (Le Kef) 354 Henchir Maâtria (Numluli), 355.—From Medjez el-Bab to Le Kef, 357. 56. From Tunis to Le Kef and Kalaâ-Djerda 358 From Bir-Kassa to La Laverie, 358.—From Smindja to Zaghouan. From Tunis to Zaghouan by road. Jebel Zaghouan, 359.—Maktar, 360.—Kalaât es-Senam. Haidra. From Kalaâ-Djerda to Kasserine viâ Thala, 362. 57. From Tunis to Susa 363 Jebel Bou-Kornin, 363.—From Fondouk Djedid to Menzel Bou-Zelfa. From Soliman to Korbous. From Bir Bou-Rekba to Nabeul, 364.—Takrouna. Hergla, 365.—From Susa to Mehdia viâ Moknine, 369.—Chebba, 370. 58. From Susa to Kairwan 370 From Aïn-Ghrasesia to Metlaoui (Sbeïtla, Kasserine, Thelepte, Feriana), 370. 59. From Susa to Sfax 378 60. From Sfax to Metlaoui viâ Gafsa 383 From Gafsa to El-Guettar, 385.—Gorges du Seldja, 386. 61. From Metlaoui to the Djerid 386 The Djerid, 386.—Kebilli. El-Hamma, 388. 62. From (Sfax) Graïba to Djerba viâ Gabes and Médenine 388 The Monts des Ksour, 390.—Tatahouine, 391.—The Island of Djerba, 393.

_Tunisia_, the eastmost part of the _Maghreb_ (p. 93), a territory of about 50,000 sq. M., has a population of ca. 1½–2 millions, the great majority being Mohammedans (Berbers, Arabs, Moors, Kuluglis, and negroes). Of the remainder about 60,000 are Jews (Arabic _Ihûdi_, pl. _Ihûd_), either natives or settlers (from Spain and the so-called Livornese), 105,680 Italians, 40,850 French, 12,200 Maltese (p. 397), and 4800 other Europeans. The coast, about 620 M. long, extends from _Cape Roux_ (p. 131) to _Râs Adjir_ (p. 406).

The abrupt coast of the _Tell Atlas_ (p. 169), which stretches from the _Fedja Grandpré_ (3783 ft.) on the Algerian frontier to _Cape Blanc_ (p. 129), and comprises the wooded hill-country of the _Kroumirie_, the _Nefza_ and _Mogod Mts._, and several ranges of lower heights, is broken by the small coast-plain of _Tabarca_ alone. The dunes to the E. of Bizerta, rising to 1033 ft., the greatest range of sand-hills on the Mediterranean, separate the _Lake of Bizerta_ from the _Gulf of Tunis_ (p. xxx), into which fall the _Medjerda_ and the _Oued Miliane_, the two chief rivers of the country, forming a number of lagoons and tongues of land at their mouths.

The Algerian _Sahara Atlas_ (p. 170) extends to the N.E. from _Jebel Bou Roumane_ (5250 ft.) and _Jebel Zebissa_ (4167 ft.) near Tebessa (p. 315) to _Cape Bon_ (p. 153), broken by stony plateaux (_Hammada_, _Kalaâ_, _Dyr_), and finally descends abruptly to the sea. Its most important peaks in Tunisia are _Jebel Chambi_ (5217 ft.), _Jebel Bireno_ (4655 ft.), _Jebel Rekaba_ (or _Râs Ali Bou-Mouzine_, 4987 ft.), _Jebel Serd_ (4511 ft.), and, beyond the deep depression of _Jebel Faroua_ (2362 ft.), _Jebel Zaghouan_ (4249 ft.), which last is the most striking landmark for mariners in all Tunisia. The S. slope of the Sahara Atlas is remarkable for its terraced formation due to the action of water. The whole country consists mainly of great basins with floors of clay or sand of recent origin, separated from each other by elliptically shaped hills of more solid rock, chiefly of chalk formation. The _Oued Hathob_ (pp. 362, 370) flows through no fewer than six basins of the kind.

From the _Gulf of Hammamet_, on the S. margin of the peninsula of Cape Bon, to the _Lesser Syrtis_, now the _Gulf of Gabes_, extends an alluvial plain of marine formation. This steppe-like tract, with its large fresh-water lake (_Lac de Kelbia_, p. 370) and many salt-marshes (_Sebkha_, comp. p. 169), is thinly peopled by nomads only, except on the strip of coast, with its lagoons, flanking the _Sahel_. To the W. of the Gulf of Gabes lies the region, 250 M. long, of the _Shotts_ (_Chotts el-Fedjedj_, _Djerid_, and _Rharsa_), belonging to the great _Bassin du Melrir_ (p. 170); it forms the N. fringe of the desert, lying largely below the sea-level, and contains the finest palm-oases in Barbary. The transition from the shotts to the highlands of Tripoli is formed by _Jebel Tebaga_ (1608 ft.), and by the _Monts des Ksour_ (2460 ft.), famed ever since the time of Herodotus for their troglodytes or cave-dwellers, and bounded on the S.W. by the _Erg Oriental_ (p. 285).

Tunisia, unlike its neighbour Algeria, which is shut in all round by high mountains, covered with snow in winter, opens due E. upon the Mediterranean and enjoys a mild winter climate, but in summer and autumn is directly exposed to the sirocco (Arabic _samûm_), the burning wind from inland Africa, which is hotter and drier here than in Algeria. The mean temperature of January is at Tunis 51° Fahr. (minimum 28½°), at Aïn-Draham 42½° (min. 9½°), at Le Kef 45° (min. 23°), at Kairwan and Tozeur 50° (min. 25°), at Djerba 54½° (min. 35½°). The mean temperature of August at Tunis is 81° (maximum 122°), at Kairwan 85° (max. 120°), at Djerba 81° (max. 115°), and at Tozeur reaches 91° (max. 120°). The greatest rainfall in N. Africa is in the region of the Kroumirie (65 inches per annum at Aïn-Draham); to the S. of the Medjerda it decreases to 20–24 inches (at Le Kef 21½ in.); it is still lower at Tunis (17¾ in.), on the E. coast (Susa 16½, Sfax 9¾ in.), and particularly in the district of the shotts (at Tozeur 5 in.). The rain falls in short, torrential showers; owing to the destruction of the forests and the paucity of reservoirs the water rushes down unhindered to the salt-lakes and the sea, inundating the plains on its way. A few hours after each shower the thirsty soil is as dry as before, but the devastation caused by erosion is aggravated.

The fauna and flora are almost identical with those of Algeria (p. 171). The chief products of Tunisia are the tanner’s bark and cork of the Kroumirie, early vegetables from the environs of Tunis, cereals from the Medjerda valley and from the dales of the Sahara Atlas (here horse and cattle breeding also thrive), alfa or esparto grass (p. 171), olive-oil from the Sahel and from Sfax, and dates from the oases of the Sahara. Fish abound on the coast and the sponge fishery also is productive, while the coral-fishing has sunk into complete insignificance. The principal ores worked here are zinc, lead, iron, and copper. At Kalaât es-Senam, Kalaâ-Djerda, Metlaoui, Redeyef, and Aïn-Moularès there are immense deposits of phosphate, the yield of which has rapidly increased the traffic of _Tunis_ and _Sfax_, and is expected greatly to augment that of _Susa_ after the completion of its harbour.

Tunisia owes its ancient culture, the earliest in Barbary, to its numerous Phœnician colonies, such as Utica, Kambe, Hadrumetum (Susa), Leptis Minor, and Carthage. The Carthaginians wisely introduced the irrigation system of Mesopotamia into N. Africa and promoted the corn and vine culture, but the agricultural prosperity of the country was confined chiefly to the littoral, inhabited by Libyan-Phœnicians, a mixed Berber and Phœnician race, and to the valley of the Medjerda. The contiguous region of _Numidia_ was first opened up to Punic culture by _Masinissa_ (B.C. 201–149), the most distinguished of the ancient Berber kings.

The Roman republican period was unfavourable for the development of the new province of _Africa_. The chief events were the war with Jugurtha (111–106), the grandson of Masinissa, and the battles between Pompey, whose adherents were aided by Juba I., and Cæsar, which, after the battle of Thapsus (p. 369), led to the annexation of Numidia as the province of _Africa Nova_. The marvellous progress of the country during the first centuries of the Roman empire is evidenced by the colonization of the central Tunisian and S. Algerian steppe, a triumph of Roman enterprise. A great network of roads was constructed, chiefly from the reign of Hadrian onwards, to connect Carthage, the new capital, and other towns with Tebessa, Hippo Regius (p. 309), Tripolitania, and even the distant Mauretania Tingitana (p. 95), and numerous towns were founded in the interior of Tunisia and Numidia. But soon (about 238) a period of decline set in. Its causes were manifold. The Berbers were constantly rebelling, the Roman soldiers quarrelled, advancing Christianity and expiring paganism were struggling fiercely for the mastery, and the Christians, at length victorious, persecuted with the greatest ferocity. To add to these troubles, the terrible peasant-war of the so-called Circumcelliones broke out in the 4th cent., followed in the 4th and 5th cent. by the religious wars between Catholics and Donatists.

Once more, however, the ancient glory of Tunisia revived, though for but a brief period (439–77), under _Genseric_, the Arian king of the Vandals. After he had completed his victorious expedition from S. Spain to Carthage (429–39) he proceeded, in alliance with the Donatist Berbers and with the still Punic speaking inhabitants of the coast, to attack the effete western empire. With his newly formed fleet he conquered Sicily (440), Rome (455), Tripolitania, Malta (456), and Sardinia (458), and in 476, after the overthrow of the W. Roman empire, was recognized by Zeno, the E. Roman emperor, as lord of the whole western Mediterranean. But the incompetence and intolerance of his successors soon shattered this new empire, and in 533 king _Gelimer_ was defeated by Justinian’s able general _Belisarius_. Even in Justinian’s time, however, the new rulers were incessantly attacked by the Berbers of the mountains, while the Byzantine governors (534–698) persecuted Donatists and Arians alike, with the result, according to Procopius’s estimate, that five millions of the inhabitants of N. Africa perished. The fate of the country was thus sealed and its conquest by Islam greatly facilitated.

After eight successive campaigns (647–98) the first Arabian governors (representing the caliphs), _Abdallah ibn Saâd_, _Moauya ibn Hodeij_, _Sidi Okba ben-Nâfi_ (founder of Kairwan, p. 372), _Zoheir ibn Kaïs_, and _Hassan ibn en-Nôman_ (destroyer of Carthage, p. 346), drove the Byzantines out of ‘Ifrikia’ and overcame the desperate resistance of the Berber mountaineers, thus sweeping Christianity from African soil and destroying the last vestiges of Punic and Roman culture. Ere long, however, their ineradicable love of independence led the Berbers, who after the conquest of Andalusia (p. 50) had formed the sect of the _Kharijites_ and later that of the _Shiites_, to unite in opposing the orthodox Arabs and to found (about 740) several small states of their own, such as that of the _Ibadites_ in Tiaret (p. 208) and that of the _Sofrites_ in Sijilmassa (Tafilet, p. 96). In Tunisia the _Aglabides_ (800–909), a Berber dynasty, who were originally governors under Hârûn er-Rashid, declared themselves independent, and in 827 they proceeded to conquer Sicily. Under the _Fatimites_, who also were Berbers, the seat of government was transferred in 916 from Kairwan to Mehdia (p. 369), and in 973, after the conquest of Egypt, it was removed to Cairo (comp. p. 443). The revolt of the _Zirites_, a new dynasty of Tunisian governors, named after _Bologgîn ez-Ziri_, led in 1045 to the fateful irruption of the _Beni Hilal_ (_Hilalides_) and _Beni Soleïm_, two marauding tribes of nomadic Arabs. At the instigation of the Fatimites they overran Barbary like a swarm of locusts, defeated the allied Zirites and Hammadites (p. 270), destroyed Kairwan and many other towns, demolished most of the forests and the irrigation-works, and drove the Berbers back to their mountains. After a time the Zirites partly succeeded in subduing these hordes, but in 1148 the whole of the Sahel with its capital Mehdia was wrested from them by the Normans of Sicily (p. 148). In 1160 the Normans were expelled by _Abd el-Mûmen_ (p. 95), and Tunisia was incorporated with the great empire of the Almohades. At length, under the _Hafsides_ (1206–1573), Tunisia regained independence, with Tunis as the capital. Towards the end of this period troubles began anew. After interminable wars with the Merinides (p. 95) Tunis was captured by Kheireddin (p. 221) in 1534, and was attacked, though without permanent success, by the crusading Maltese knights (p. 398), by Emp. Charles V. (in 1535), by Juan de Vega (1551), and by Don John of Austria (1573). From 1574 to 1650 Tunisia was governed by Turkish officials (_pashas_, _deys_, _beys_), after which the dynasty of the _Husseinites_ was founded by _Hussein Ali ben-Turki_. From 1705 onwards Tunisia, often only a nominal dependency of Turkey, degenerated into a mere pirate-state, which down to 1830 took an active part in the marauding expeditions of its barbaresque Algerian neighbours.

Since 1881 the French protectorate has paved the way for a new period of prosperity and opened up the greatly impoverished and thinly peopled country to European trade and culture. The present bey is _Sidi Mohammed en-Nasr_ (born in 1855). The minister for foreign affairs is the French resident-general, and the minister of war is the commandant of the French garrison. Finance, postal arrangements, public works, and education are all superintended by French officials, with whom are associated a Mohammedan prime minister and a secretary of state. Europeans and their dependents are under the jurisdiction of the French law-courts; the natives are dealt with by the courts of the Ouzara and the ‘Shaâra’. The bey is allowed a body-guard of 600 men of the infantry, cavalry, and artillery, uniformed like the Zouaves.