Part 56

The Rue de la Kasba, or from Bâb el-Gharbi the boulevard outside the town, leads to the =Kasba= (Pl. A, B, 4; 131 ft. above the sea), the Moorish-Turkish citadel, built partly on the foundations of a Roman temple, now the barracks of the tirailleurs (adm. on presenting visiting-card; a sergeant acts as guide). The ‘Salle d’Honneur’ contains neo-Punic and Roman antiquities from the Camp Militaire (see below), including valuable mosaics (victorious racehorses, etc.) and early-Christian objects from the catacombs (see below). From the N. terrace of the Kasba, or from the tower (now lighthouse; not always open), there is a splendid *View of the town and harbour, of the Sahel, the whole bay of Hammamet, and of the inland Tunisian hill-country as far as Jebel Zaghouan.

From the Bâb el-Gharbi a road leads to the W. to Kalaâ-Srira (p. 366) through the _Camp Militaire_ (Pl. A, 3, 4), whose huts stand partly on the ancient Punic burial-grounds. About ¾ M. from the gate are remains of a _Roman Burial Ground_; also, on a road diverging to the left a little before, extensive early-Christian _Catacombs_ (adm. 1 fr.), 3 min. to the S. of the highroad.

FROM SUSA TO MEHDIA, 39½ M., railway in 3¼ hrs. (7 fr. 5, 5 fr. 35, 3 fr. 80 c.). The line runs, a little apart from the Sfax road (R. 59), at first to the S.W., through the beautiful hill-country of the _Sahel_, to (6 M.) _M’Saken_ (p. 378). 11 M. _Ouardenine_, where the new line to Sfax (see p. 378) diverges to the S. Our line sweeps round to the E. to (16 M.) _Djemmal_.—22 M. =Moknine= (181 ft.; Café-Restaurant de la Gare; pop. 9000, incl. 700 Jews and 70 Europeans) is noted for its Jewish goldsmiths’ work in an antique style like that of Djerba (p. 394). On the road to Monastir (p. 405), 3¾ M. to the N.W. of Moknine, are the ruins of the very ancient Phœnician-Roman seaport _Leptis Minor_, now _Lamta_ or _Lempta_ (remains of the old quays, cisterns, etc.), near which is the Punic necropolis _Henchir Meskhal_.

The train skirts the _Sebkha de Moknine_. 27½ M. _Teboulba_ (146 ft.; pop. 2900), a small town amidst pretty orange and mandarin gardens, on the S. shore of the _Bay of Monastir_ (p. 405). Farther to the S.E. we come to (30 M.) _Bekalta_ (pop. 3400), a little town with the ruins of the seaport of _Thapsus_, famed for Cæsar’s victory (p. 322; large Roman cisterns, amphitheatre, quay of the Punic-Roman Kothon, Punic rock-tombs).

39½ M. =Mehdia= or _Mahdia_ (66 ft.; Hôt. de France, Grand-Hôtel, both very humble; Brit. cons. agent, G. Violante; pop. 10,000, incl. 600 Europeans), the ancient capital of Ifrikia (p. 322), founded in 916 as _Mahedia_ by the Fatimite Obeïd Allah el-Mahdi, on the site of the Phœnician-Roman _Zella_ (_Africa?_), is now a poor little seaport-town with hardly a trace of its former renown. Being centrally situated on the E. coast of Tunisia, on the narrow and once strongly fortified headland _Râs Mehdia_, the _Cape Africa_ of earlier writers, Mehdia, after the destruction of Kairwan (p. 372), developed into the most prosperous town and important harbour of Tunisia, but suffered severely from the transference of the seat of government to Tunis (p. 332). In war also it was often sorely tried. It was conquered by a Pisan fleet in 1087, occupied by the Normans in 1148–60, and captured by the knights of Malta in 1530, by Kheireddin’s (p. 221) former general Dragut in 1540, and in 1550 by the Spaniards, who on their retreat after the naval battle of Djerba (p. 394) blew up its fortifications.

The chief sights are the picturesque ruins of the _Town Walls_ and the _Grande Mosquée_ of the 10th cent., formerly connected with a college, with its many arcades and a fine gateway-tower, resembling the Bâb Lella Rejana at Kairwan (p. 375). To the S.E. of the headland are remains of the _Kothon_, the Punic-Roman harbour, which in the middle ages was defended by two towers. The new harbour, the centre of the Sicilian allache (kind of sardine) fishery, lies to the S.W. of the headland. Near the town are large _Salt Marshes_. The _Necropolis_, 2 M. to the W., with several well-preserved Punic and neo-Punic rock-tombs, deserves a visit. About 1 M. from the town are extensive early-Christian _Catacombs_ (adm. 1 fr.).—Off Mehdia, in an ancient sunken ship, beautiful works of art, now at the Bardo Museum (see p. 344), have been recently discovered.

A road (carr. 15 fr.) leads to the S.W. from Mehdia viâ (8 M.) _Ksour-Essaf_ to (26 M.) _El-Djem_ (p. 379).

In the olive-clad hill-country to the S. of Mehdia, on the road to Sfax (p. 380), lie the ruins of the ancient seaport of _Sullectum_ (now _Salakta_), of _Acholla_ (p. 398; now _Biar el-Alia_), both with Punic burial-grounds, and of _Uzalis_ (now _El-Alia_). Farther on, beyond the _Râs Kapoudia_ (or _Râs Khadidja_), the ancient _Caput Vada_, where Belisarius (p. 322) landed in 533, lies the small seaport of =Chebba=, noted like El-Alia for its Roman mosaics. Near it are the ruins of _Ruspae_ (now _Henchir Sbia_).

From Susa to _Kairwan_, see R. 58; to the ruins of central Tunisia and to _Metlaoui_, see R. 58; to _El-Djem_ and _Sfax_, see R. 59.

58. From Susa to Kairwan.

36 M. NARROW GAUGE RAILWAY in 2¼–2½ hrs. (6 fr. 50, 4 fr. 95, 3 fr. 50 c.; return 9 fr. 10, 6 fr. 95, 4 fr. 90 c.). Passengers from Tunis (return-fares 30 fr. 25, 22 fr. 95, 16 fr. 25 c.) change at Kalaâ-Srira (Rail. Restaurant).

From Susa to (5 M.) _Kalaâ-Srira_, see p. 366. The line runs, nearly in the same direction as the Susa and Tebessa (p. 315) Roman road, to the S.W., on the right bank of the _Oued Laya_ (p. 366), to the (8 M.) _Réservoir_ of the Susa waterworks.

At (10 M.) _Oued-Laya_, a small oasis of fruit-trees and vegetables, the olive-zone of the Sahel ends. 17½ M. _Kroussiah-Sahali_. 23 M. _Sidi el-Hani_, not far from the ruins of _Vicus Augusti_ (_?_).

To the left, farther on, we obtain a glimpse at the _Sebkha Sidi el-Hani_, 25 by 12½ M., the largest salt-lake of central Tunisia. To the right, a little farther on, beyond a chain of flat hills, is revealed a striking view of the vast _Plain of Kairwan_, enclosed by distant mountains, with the town of _Kairwan_ in the background. The low ground, through which the _Oued Hathob_ (p. 320), _Oued Merguellil_, and many smaller streams descend from the Sahara Atlas and its plateaux to the _Lac de Kelbia_ (p. 320; not visible from the train), is often flooded after the winter rains. It is inhabited almost exclusively by the Arab-like nomadic tribes of the _Djlass_ or _Zlass_. The train runs through plantations of Indian figs.

30½ M. _Aïn-Ghrasesia._

FROM AÏN-GHRASESIA TO METLAOUI, 182 M., railway in 13 hrs. (fares 32 fr. 85, 24 fr. 95, 17 fr. 55 c.; from Susa 38 fr. 35, 29 fr. 10, 20 fr. 50 c.). This new railway, diverging here to the S.W., affords the easiest access to the ruins of Sbeïtla, Kasserine, Thelepte, and Feriana in central Tunisia. It runs over a low saddle between the Sebkha Sidi el-Hani (see p. 370) and the marshy plain of the _Oued Hathob_, and across the bleak plain of Kairwan, to the S.W. borders of the Sahara Atlas, which it reaches at the foot of _Jebel Touila_, with its zinc and lead mines.

47½ M. _Hadjeb el-Aïoun_, the ancient _Masclianae_, on the _Oued Zourzour_, is the chief market (Tues.) for the _Oulad Sendassen_, a branch of the Djlass tribe (p. 370), and, like the following stations, possesses an alfa-depot. Branch-line to _Sbiba_, the ancient _Sufes_, projected.

Farther on we pass the foot of _Jebel Hadjeb el-Aïoun_ to (58½ M.) _Djilma_ (1152 ft.), the Roman _Cilma_, on a tributary of the Hathob, here called _Oued Djilma_, We now enter, to the W., the valley of the _Oued Menasseur_, at the foot of _Jebel Mrilah_ (4508 ft.) and _Jebel Sbeïtla_, inhabited by the _Madjeur_ tribe (p. 362).

76 M. =Sbeïtla= (1762 ft.; hotel), near the extensive ruins of _Sufetula_, on a plateau on the right bank of the _Oued Sbeïtla_, as the Oued Menasseur is named here. It was a poor castellum in the time of Augustus, but after the 2nd cent, became one of the most important junctions of different routes, and in the 5–7th cent. attained its prime under the Vandals and the Byzantines. In 645 it became the residence of Gregory, the governor, who had rebelled against Byzantium; it was soon after attacked by the Arabs under Abdallah ibn Saâd (p. 322), and in 648 it was entirely destroyed. The chief boast of Sbeïtla is the *_Capitol_ (comp. p. 288), rising in the midst of the ruins. The temple-court, once used by the Byzantines as a fortress and now destroyed save a few fragments of the limestone pavement, was entered by a three-arched propylæum, bearing an inscription in honour of Antoninus Pius (138–61). The chief temple was pseudo-peripteral, with composite columns; there are still traces of the steps up to it and of the portico. The three cellæ are well preserved, especially at the back, and have a transverse wall, instead of a semicircular apse, adjoining the Corinthian smaller temples. We may note also a fine _Triumphal Arch_ of the time of Constantine, the remains of a _Byzantine Church_ incorporated with a temple, to the N. of the capitol, a _Chapel_ built into a smaller temple, to the E., and the _Aqueduct_ across the Oued Sbeïtla. Higher up is the spring of the new water-conduit, 103 M. long, which supplies the town of Sfax.

Passing many other ruins we come to the _Plaine du Foussana_ (about 2650 ft.), one of the upper districts of the Oued Hathob, here called _Foussana_, at the S. foot of _Jebel Semmama_ (4307 ft.; with the zinc-mines of _Aïn-Khamouda_ on its N. side). Then a descent to (95 M.) =Kasserine= (2382 ft.), the ancient _Cillium_, a flourishing town from the 2nd cent. A.D. under the name of _Colonia Cillitana_, now a poor village with a caravanserai on the Thala and Feriana road (see p. 362 and below), not far from the chalky limestone masses of _Jebel Chambi_ (5217 ft.; p. 320). We may here visit the ruins of the Roman _Arch_ and of the _Tomb of the Petronii_, and above all the interesting _Mausoleum of T. Flavius Secundus_, of the time of Trajan. This is a kind of tower in three stories, in the Phœnician fashion, terminating in a pyramid; the 110 bombastic lines of the inscription correspond with the number of years attained by the deceased. A little to the S., on the _Oued Derb_, are remains of a Roman _Barrage_,—The landscape farther on, where Roman ruins still abound, assumes more and more the Sahara character.

116 M. =Thelepte= (hotel) is the station for the ruins of the ancient town of that name, now called _Medinet el-Khedima_ (‘the old town’), which in the 2nd–4th cent. A.D. was the chief place on the road between Tebessa (p. 315) and Gafsa (p. 383). Large thermæ, ruins of early-Christian basilicas, and a Byzantine fortress with many towers are to be seen here. The extensive Roman _Quarries_ are interesting.

118½ M. =Feriana= (2628 ft.; Hôt. Hostelier; Restaurant Bernard; pop. 1200), an oasis of corn, fruit, and vegetables on the _Oued Feriana_, in the midst of a sandy plain, has a new and pretty mosque.—Thence we cross the _Plateau de Msila_ (2930 ft.), overgrown with alfa, and descend to (134 M.) _Maâjen Bel-Abbès_, with the ruins of a Roman town, 28 M. to the N.W. of Gafsa. 141 M. _Sidi Bou-Beker_.

153½ M. _Henchir Souatir_ (about 1640 ft.). A short branch-line diverges hence to _Aïn-Moularès_ (1806 ft.), a caravanserai near the great beds of phosphate on the Algerian frontier.

166 M. _Tabeditt_ is connected by railway with (9½ M.) _Redeyef_, which has rich phosphate deposits.—Beyond Tabeditt the train runs through the valley of the _Oued Seldja_ (p. 386), here inhabited by the _Oulad Sidi-Abid_ nomads, to (183 M.) _Metlaoui_ (p. 386).

The KAIRWAN LINE runs to the W. over the bleak steppe, often passing the tents and the browsing camels and cattle of the Djlass (p. 370). We cross the Oued Hathob, here called _Zeroud_.

To the right, especially in the afternoon, we have a delightful *View of the white houses of Kairwan, with its countless domes and towering minarets. Nearing the station we see extensive fields of cactus and large alfa-stacks.

36 M. =Kairwan.=—HOTELS (comp. p. 324). _Splendid Hotel_ (Pl. a; C, 5), R. 3, B. 1, déj. or D. 3, omn. ½ fr.; _Hôt. de France_ (Pl. b; C, 5), R. 2½–4, B. ¾, déj. or D. 3, pens. 7½ fr.; both in the Place Carnot, tolerable.—_Café de France_, Rue Massicault.—POST & TELEGRAPH OFFICE (Pl. C, D, 4), Rue de la Poste.—PHYSICIAN. _Dr. Santschi_ (a Swiss), Grande Rue, near the Bâb Djelladin.

In HALF-A-DAY, if pressed for time, we may visit the _Grande Rue_, the _Souks_, the _Sidi Okba Mosque_, and the _Mosquée du Barbier_. Tickets for the mosques are obtained at the office of the Contrôle Civil (p. 373) or at the hotels. The overseers of the mosques mostly speak Arabic only. The guides, who are quite unnecessary, are very importunate.

Travellers in haste should endeavour to secure a cab (as yet only one), drive to the Contrôle Civil, the Barber’s Mosque, and back to the Porte de Tunis (p. 377), and there begin their inspection of the town.

_Kairwan_ or _Kairouan_ (243 ft.; pop. 22,000, incl. about 800 Europeans), the oldest capital of Ifrikia, is a town of purely Arabian type, the most curious in Tunisia. The old town is an irregular rectangle, enclosed by a wall 33 ft. high and 2 M. in length; the large W. suburb, also purely Oriental, is the _Faubourg des Djlass_, called after the nomadic tribe of that name (p. 370); to the S. is a new suburb near the station. The numerous mosques and zaouïas date mostly from the Turkish period. The town holds market for the extensive plain of Kairwan, and the souks are still important, though manufactures have declined. The climate (p. 321) is extremely hot in summer.

Kairwan was founded by Sidi Okba ben-Nâfi (p. 322) in 671, and was appointed by the caliphs to be the seat of the governors of Ifrikia. As the capital of the great Aglabide empire (p. 323) and the seat of the oldest high school in N. Africa, it was hardly less important than Cordova (p. 68), and the sumptuous mosque of Sidi Okba rapidly became the favourite goal of pilgrims from E. Barbary. After the Hilalides (p. 323) had destroyed the greater part of the town in 1048 it was for centuries almost deserted, notwithstanding the favour shown to it by Abd el-Mûmen (p. 95), the Hafsides, and the Merinides (p. 95). In the early 16th cent. several quarters still lay in ruins. It was not till the Turkish period that the sacred town, ‘one of the four gates of Paradise’, which neither Christian nor Jew durst enter, again became the religious centre of the land. To spend one’s last days within its walls, and to be buried in hallowed earth outside its gates, seemed to believers the height of bliss. Its sacred character, which however did not prevent the beys of Tunis from bombarding and partly destroying the rebellious town, was finally lost when the mosques were desecrated by the entry of the French troops in 1881.

[Illustration: KAIROUAN]

In the centre of the S. suburb, almost exclusively inhabited by Europeans, is the PLACE CARNOT (Pl. C, 5), with its small _Jardin Public_. On its W. side the Rue du Contrôle, with the building of the _Contrôle Civil_ (Pl. C, 5; see p. 372), leads to the N. to the Place Mérabet (Pl. C, 4) and the S. gate of the town-walls, which were largely rebuilt after the bombardment of 1740.

On emerging from the Rue du Contrôle we see immediately to the left the _Zaouïa Sidi ben-Aïssa_ (Pl. C, 5), where the hideous castigations of the Aïssaoua sect, originally Moroccan, are held on Friday afternoons. A little to the N.E., in the Rue de la Poste, is the _M’sala Darb et-Tamar_ (Pl. D, 4; no admittance), a large open place of prayer for great Mohammedan festivals, with an underground cistern for rain-water.

The main street of the old town, between the _Bâb Djelladin_ (Pl. C, 4; ‘Porte des Peaussiers’), or S. gate, now partly demolished, and the N. gate, the Porte de Tunis (p. 377), is the GRANDE RUE (Pl. C, B, 4, 3), officially called Rue du Général-Saussier, enlivened by a picturesque crowd and numerous small shops.

In the Rue Sidi el-Guerian, the second side-street on the right, is the zaouïa of =Sidi Abid el-Guerian= (Pl. C, 4), an elegant building of the Turkish period (16th cent.?). The handsome portal, with the black and white striped decoration so often recurring in the other buildings, leads into a vestibule with tiled walls and stucco decoration, beyond which are a fine colonnaded court in two stories (with the sumptuous tomb of the saint on the left) and a small mosque. Adjacent on the left is the court of the Medersa (p. 228), where the capitals of the columns are remarkable for their richness and variety.

Farther on in the Grande Rue are several mosques of little architectural interest. The gateway on the right, halfway between the two town-gates, leads to the =Souks= (Pl. C, 3, 4). The vaulted main street here, the _Souk des Selliers_ and _Souk des Cordonniers_, is intersected by two vaulted side-streets, the _Souk des Parfums_ and _Souk des Tapis_. The latter, for the sale of carpets, woollen rugs (margums), etc., has declined since the vegetable dyes have been superseded by the aniline. The farther part of the main street is the _Souk des Gandourahs_, ending at the quiet Place Finot (Pl. C, 3).

To the S.E. from the Place Finot the short Rue Moulei-Taïeb leads to the—

=Djamâa Tleta Biban= (Pl. C, D, 3; Mosquée des Trois-Portes), in the Rue Hassin Lalenni. It dates from the time of Obeïd Allah el-Mahdi (p. 369), being the only early-Moorish building in Kairwan besides the Sidi Okba mosque, but was much altered in 1440 and 1509. The peculiar façade in three sections, with blind arcades (possessing Byzantine capitals) on the lower story, is composed above of older slabs with geometrical ornamentation. The interior is uninteresting.

We follow the Rue de la Mosquée des Trois-Portes to the N.E., then the Rue Zoughar to the right, and at the end of it a street to the left to the town-wall. To the left, in 2 min. more, we reach the Place de Sousse, with the _Bâb el-Khoukha_ (Pl. D, 2, 3), the E. town-gate, an interesting double gateway, with two fine Byzantine capitals on the inner archway. From the N. end of the Place de Sousse the broad Rue de la Grande-Mosquée leads to the—

*=Sidi Okba Mosque= (_Grande Mosquée_; Pl. D, 1, 2), one of the oldest in the world, and, next to the Kairwin mosque at Fez, the most important in Barbary. After the mosques of Mecca and Medina and the Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem (p. 477), this has ever been deemed the greatest sanctuary of Islam. The poverty of the oldest building, founded by Sidi Okba ben-Nâfi in 671, is evidenced by the mud-built walls of the old mihrâb (p. 377). A new building was first erected in 703 by Hassan ibn en-Nôman (p. 322), the conqueror of Carthage. The plan seems to have been suggested by that of the oldest Egyptian mosques (such as the mosque of Amru, p. 460), combined with that of the Damous el-Karita (p. 349), while the ruins of Carthage, Susa, and Sbeïtla (p. 371) supplied the building-materials. Of a second new building by the governor Bichr ibn Safuan, in 724, the fortress-like lower story of the minaret still exists. A further extension was made in 821 by the Aglabide Sijadet Allah I. The central story of the minaret, the arcades of the quadrangle, the Bâb el-Behou (p. 376), and the last enlargement of the sanctuary itself are due to the Aglabide Ibrahim ibn-Ahmed (d. 875), who erected also the fine dome of the mihrâb, caused the mihrâb-wall to be decorated by Bagdad artists, and presented the superb Friday pulpit. The present maksûra (seat of the caliph) dates from the time of the Zirite Abû Teminn el-Muizz (p. 443). The decay of the mosque after the irruption of the Hilalides seems to have been first arrested by Abd el-Mûmen and the Hafside El-Mostanser Billah (p. 332). The latter, in 1284, caused most of the outer gateways to be rebuilt. At a later period we hear of restorations by Mohammed Murad Bey (p. 335) and Hussein Ali ben-Turki (p. 323). In 1828–42 the insecure state of the mosque necessitated the rebuilding of the external walls on the N.W. and N.E. sides and the restoration of the minaret, the Bâb el-Behou, and the arcades of the court. In 1872 the nave and its two adjoining aisles also were restored, but with little taste, and since 1895 the French government has bestowed its attention on the transept and the side-portals.

The immense edifice, an irregular quadrilateral of 136 by about 78–82 yds., covers an area of over 2¼ acres. The fortress-like OUTER WALL, with its huge buttresses, has four doors on both its longer sides. These have lost their bronze mountings and some of them their cupolas. Above the S.E. wall rises the dome of the mihrâb chapel and above the N.W. wall the minaret.

We first walk round the whole enclosure. From the Rue de la Grande-Mosquée a short street leads to the right, past the new _Court of Ablution_ (comp. p. 63), to a large open space adjoining the S.E. end of the mosque, where there are numerous underground silos or granaries. From the walls here project the buildings of the mihrâb chapel and the maksûra, with the Bâb el-Imâm (p. 377).

A few paces farther, at the beginning of the ‘Boulevard Ali Bey’, a poor street on the N.E. side of the precincts, is the massive square gateway tower of *_Bâb Lella Rejana_, adjoined by the insignificant domed tomb of that saint. The front half of the gateway, restored in 1828, is painted like the minaret with ‘giant-spiders’ to ward off snakes and scorpions, and is adorned below the battlements with blind horseshoe arcades. The perforated stucco decoration of the arch-recesses of the side-portals is one of the earliest examples of such work. The long inscription over the door extols caliph El-Mostanser-Billah (p. 374), the builder.

Passing the next three gates we come to the N. angle of the precincts, where their fortress-like character is most apparent. Beside the embrasures of the minaret (p. 376) are seen cannon-ball marks made during the bombardments of the 18th century.

The S.W. wall of the mosque, in the Rue de la Grande-Mosquée, which we now regain, is most in conformity with the original plan. Most noteworthy here are the first gateway-tower, near the N.W. angle, and the _Bâb es-Sultân_, the last gate, through which led the shortest way from the caliph’s palace to the maksûra (comp. p. 377). The domes, now adorned with the Turkish crescent, still possess their girdle of battlements and have their old cornice of bricks placed crosswise.

The present ENTRANCE GATEWAY (visitors knock) is one of the small middle gates beside the Bâb es-Sultân. We descend a few steps to the court (now below the level of the street), where the irregular plan of the building is most distinctly seen.