Part 61

Leaving the coast, where the low dunes conceal the salt-marshes of the _Sebkha de Sahline_, we steer to the E.S.E. towards the _Pointe de Monastir_, the S. limit of the bay of Hammamet.

The little town of =Monastir= (82 ft.; Hôt. de Paris, Hôt. de France, both primitive; Brit. vice-cons., A. B. Geary; pop. 9000, incl. 600 Europeans) lies superbly on the olive-clad headland. It owes its name to a monastery, which in early Moorish times still existed as the sole relic of the Roman seaport of _Ruspina_.

From the steamer we first sight the white pinnacled town-wall and the numerous shrines outside of it. Then, as we pass between the headland and the three islets off the coast (_Djezira Sidi el-Rhedamsi_ or _Ile Egdemsi_, etc.), appears the dilapidated Moorish _Kasba_ with the tower of _En-Nadour_. To the E. in very clear weather we descry the lighthouse on the distant _Kuriat Islands_.

After a short stay in the _Bay of Monastir_, on the S. side of the town, we steer to the S.E., past the _Dahar Cliffs_ (on the left), and across the bay; then, beyond the _Râs Dimas_, along the coast to =Mehdia= (p. 369), where the steamer seldom stops long enough to admit of our visiting the town.

Next (generally at night) we pass _Râs Kapoudia_ (p. 370), the N. limit of the _Gulf of Gabes_ (the ancient _Syrtis Minor_), where the discrepancy between flow and ebb (6½ ft.) is greater than in any other part of the Mediterranean. Avoiding the silted _Kerkenna Passage_, the vessel steers round the _Kerkenna Islands_ (_Ile Chergui_ and _Ile Gharbi_, the ancient _Cercina_ and _Cercinitis_).

The steamer usually arrives at =Sfax= (by way of the harbour-canal, p. 381) early in the morning. Beyond Sfax the vessel skirts the uninteresting coast as far as _Râs Tina_ (p. 383), and then steers to the S.S.W. across the bay to =Gabes= (p. 389), where it generally allows time for a short visit to the oasis.

Leaving Gabes we may in clear weather descry the _Monts des Ksour_ (p. 390) bounding the horizon. We then steer to the E. to the sandy N. coast of =Djerba= (p. 393), and anchor in the open sea off _Houmt-Souk_ (p. 393). The process of going ashore and returning takes so long that it is hardly ever possible to visit the place.

After losing sight of the lighthouse of _Râs Taguermess_ (or _Turgoeness_), the E. cape of Djerba, we steer for a long time to the E.S.E., at some distance from the sandy coast with its salt-marshes, where the _Râs Adjir_ marks the frontier of Tripolitania.

The monotonous sandy coast, with its numerous oases, with the little port of _Sansur_, and the watch-tower of _Gergârish_ (p. 411), is scarcely visible till we are nearing _Tripoli_. The _Lighthouse_, rising above the abraded terrace on the N.W. side of the town, and the ruinous _Spanish Fort_ (1510) at the end of the headland are the chief landmarks. Numerous reefs make it difficult, and in a N.W. gale sometimes impossible, for vessels to enter the harbour.

* * * * *

=Tripoli.=—ARRIVAL. The steamers anchor in the inner roads, more than ½ M. from the pier, and are at once boarded by the hotel-agents (charges should be asked). Landing or embarking 50 c., but with baggage 1–1½ fr. according to distance and bargain. Dogana at the pier (Pl. B, 1; comp. p. 537). For a prolonged stay a passport visé by a Turkish consul is necessary, but otherwise a ‘permis de voyage’ (1 fr.) from the Contrôle Civil at Tunis, or even a visiting-card, may suffice. The services of the importunate Jewish guides should be declined.

=Hotel.= HÔT. MINERVA (Pl. a, B 2; Maltese landlord; bargain advisable), déj. 2½, pens. 6–8 fr., tolerable.—CAFÉ-RESTAURANT: _Circolo Militare_ (p. 409; Maltese host), near the Bâb el-Khandek. Many small Arab cafés on the quay (Marina), near the clock-tower (Orologio), etc.; small cup of coffee (gâhua) 5 c., very sweet ‘hlu’, slightly sweetened ‘gídgid’; cup of tea (shâi) 10 c.; no gratuities.

=Moorish Baths= (comp. p. 175), tolerable; the best is the _Hammôm_ (_bagno árabo_) in Strada del Bagno (Pl. B, 2); Europeans pay 3 fr. or more according to their rank.

=Post Offices.= _Italian_, at the Ital. consulate (Pl. 7; B, 2), Strada del Consolato Italiano; _French_, at the French consulate (Pl. 4; B, 1), Strada del Consolato Francese; _Turkish_, on the quay (Marina). Poste Restante letters should bear the name of the office where they are to be found.—=Telegraph Office.= _Eastern Telegraph Co._ (Pl. 10; B, 2), on the quay; payment must be made in gold or in Turkish money.

=Consulates.= BRITISH (Pl. 5; B, 1): consul-general, _J. C. W. Alvarez_; vice-consul, _A. Dickson_.—UNITED STATES (Pl. 9; B, 4): consul, _J. L. Wood_; vice-consul, _A. E. Saunders_.

=Steamboat Offices= (comp. p. 404, and RR. 65, 66): _Società Nazionale_, Labi, Strada del Bagno; _Comp. de Navigation Mixte_, Fratelli Farrugia, Strada del Consolato Italiano; _German Levant Line_, Sûk el-Harrâra (Pl. B, 2; near Sûk et-Turk).

=Banks.= _Banco di Roma_ (Pl. 2; B, 2), in the Piazza (p. 409); _Ottoman Bank_ (Pl. 1; B, 2), on the quay; _Labi_, see above. Government offices accept Turkish money only, but Tunisian silver and copper, and in the town even Italian copper, besides 10 and 20 fr. gold pieces, are in general circulation.

=Carriages= (stand on the S.E. side of the Serâi, p. 409) 1½–2½ fr. per hour according to the quality of the vehicle; drive round the oasis 3–5 fr.; as few of the drivers speak Italian it is best to get a resident to make the bargain and specify the route.—DONKEYS (at the Sûk el-Khobsa, p. 410), ½ day 1–2, day 2–3 fr.—ROWING AND SAILING BOATS at the pier; about 2 fr. per hour.

The LANGUAGE of the natives is an Arabic dialect, interlarded with Berber and Italian words; many of the officials, however, speak Turkish only. In the European colony Italian predominates. This is largely due to the fact that the Italian state supports several schools, which are attended by Jewish and Maltese children as well as Italian. There are three French schools also.

[Illustration: TRIPOLI]

ONE DAY should be devoted to a walk of 2–3 hrs. through the town and to an excursion to the oasis (p. 410). One must be very careful not to enter mosques, saints’ tombs, or Moslem cemeteries (comp. p. xxv). It should be observed also that the military authorities, dreading spies, are jealous of visitors near the fortifications (comp. p. 175). Otherwise the public safety is well provided for in the town and environs. For excursions in the interior the leave of the Sublime Porte must be obtained.

_Tripoli in Barbary_ (Ital. _Tripoli di Barbería_, Fr. _Tripoli de Barbarie_ or _d’Afrique_, Arabic _Tarabulus el-Gharb_, _i.e._ ‘Tripoli of the West’, to distinguish it from the Syrian Tripoli), the ancient _Oëa_, is the capital of the Turkish vilayet of _Tripolitania_, presided over by the Vali or governor-general. The town lies in 32° 54′ N. lat. and 13° 10′ E. long., on a triangular peninsula, which consists of quaternary dune-sandstone resting on tertiary limestone rock. A series of rocky islets and reefs, 1¼ M. long, running out from the peninsula, form a roomy but much silted harbour. The mixture of nationalities converging at Tripoli, as one of the chief portals to inland Africa, is unparallelled except in Egypt. Of the 46,000 inhab. two-thirds are Berbers (p. 94), Arabs, Moors (p. 171), and Turks; there are 10,000 Jews, 2000 Maltese, 800 Italians, 150 Greeks (besides many Greek sponge-fishers in summer), 200 other Europeans, and lastly some 2000 negroes, descendants of slaves from the Sudan. Negroes are to be found also among the very numerous officers of the garrison of 6000 men.

The town with its white houses, its slender minarets of the Turkish type, its green gardens and groups of palms, the reddish-yellow dunes of drift-sand from the Sahara, and the deep-blue sea, all bathed in dazzling sunshine, present a most fascinating picture.

HISTORY. The three Phœnician seaports between the Syrtis Minor and Major, _Leptis Magna_ (p. 412), _Oëa_, and _Sabratha_, together called _Tripolis_ by the Sicilian Greeks, were even in the Punic age connected by caravan routes with inland Africa and by a coast-road, 512 M. long, with Carthage. After their annexation to the Roman province of _Africa_ on the fall of Jugurtha (p. 321) the ‘three cities’ flourished anew. To them, as also to Tacape (Gabes), the Garamantes, or Libyan (Berber) inhabitants of Phazania (now Fezzan), brought from the Sudan ostrich-feathers, gold-dust, ivory, ebony, elephants, and black slaves, to be exported thence to Carthage, Rome, and the chief seaports of S. Europe. This region yielded also large supplies of corn, while the productive olive-trees were deemed the most abundant on the Mediterranean. To the Roman emperors _Septimius Severus_ (193–211) and _Alexander Severus_ (222–35), natives of this district, the three towns owed much improvement and embellishment. The Punic language and the Greek, which was that of the educated classes, were then still so prevalent that Alexander Severus, for example, was unacquainted with Latin till his arrival in Rome. Sept. Severus made Oëa the capital of his _Provincia Tripolitana_, and when the artificial harbours of the two sister towns fell into decay Oëa succeeded to their trade and their joint name.

After the Vandal period (p. 322) and after the domination of the Byzantines, who succeeded only in 567 in Christianizing the Garamantes, the repeated irruptions of the Arabs (p. 322) brought ruin and misery to the whole country. From 670 onwards, apart from the short periods of occupation by the Normans (1140–59), the Spaniards (1510–30), and the Maltese Knights (1530–51), Tripolitania remained for centuries under Arab or Berber sway, sharing the fortunes of Tunisia (comp. p. 322), while from 1216 onwards the Genoese had a monopoly of the coast-trade of Tripolitania and Barca. In 1551 the corsair Dragut (p. 370), driven out of Mehdia, founded a new Turkish tributary state at Tripoli. From that time down to 1816 the inhabitants took an active part in the depredations of the ‘Algerian pirates’, bringing down upon them the sanguinary reprisals of an English fleet in 1663 and of French fleets in 1685 and 1728, which caused the almost entire destruction of the town. In 1804 Tripoli and in 1805 Derna (p. 414) were stormed by the Americans. The native dynasty of the _Karamanli_, founded in 1714, was overthrown by the Turks in 1835, after which Tripoli became a usual place of exile for Turkish civil and military offenders and again lapsed into decay. At length, in 1899, the partition of the inland regions between Great Britain and France stimulated the Turks to renewed activity and defensive measures. In spite, however, of these, and of the very favourable situation of the town, the caravan trade with the interior is on the decline and the local industries are inconsiderable.

The OLD TOWN, a pentagon, is still enclosed on four sides by the mouldering Spanish _Town Wall_, 40 ft. high at places, built of sandstone from Gergârish (p. 411), and consists of three different quarters. Near the harbour, and behind the _Marina_ (Pl. B, 1, 2) skirting it from the Dogana or Custom House (Pl. B, 1) onwards, lies the quarter of that name, inhabited chiefly by the Christians, and therefore the least Oriental in appearance. To the W. is the _Hárra_ (_Kebîr_, the great, and _Serîr_, the little), the Jewish quarter, with its crooked and dirty streets. The purely Mohammedan _S.E. Quarter_ contains the main business streets, which lead to the outer markets and the new town (p. 409). The principal streets are paved and are lighted at night with petroleum lamps, but many others, especially in the Jewish quarter, being unpaved in Oriental fashion, are almost impassable after rain and pitch-dark at night.

In the narrow Strada della Marina (Arabic Bâb Bahr, sea-gate), leading from the Dogana and the fish-market to the S.W. to the Jews’ quarter, rises on the right the _Roman Triumphal Arch_ (Pl. B, 1), built by the consul C. Orfitus in the reign of Antoninus Pius (138–161) but in 163 rededicated to that emperor’s successors, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus.

The arch, 41 ft. broad and 33 ft. deep, has four fronts (‘quadrifrons’; comp. pp. 315, 316), showing that it stood over cross-streets. Among the sadly mutilated sculptures are still seen statues of Victory, figures of animals, and trophies. The back, with the inscription, is half covered, and the fourth side is almost entirely built over. The lower half is buried in the ground. The interior is used as a shop. The vaulting of the passages is lacunar. The central space is covered with a flat dome, rising from an octagonal cornice.

We next come to the _Gurji Mosque_ (Pl. B, 1), with an octagonal minaret, and to the main street of the _Hárra Kebîr_ (see above), with its numerous workshops, where curious gold and silver trinkets are sold by weight.

From the _British Consulate_ (Pl. 5; B, 1) we follow the Church Street to the S.E. to the Italian Gothic church of _Santa Maria degli Angeli_ (Pl. B, 2), completed in 1846, belonging to an Italian Franciscan monastery. By leave of the superior we may ascend the tower, whose gallery (141 ft.) is a fine point of view.

From the Piazza (Pl. B, 2; Arabic Mussâiya) near the church the Strada del Consolato Italiano leads to the S. to the Sûk el-Harrâra (Pl. B, A, 2, 3), the chief thoroughfare between the Marina (p. 408) and the W. gate, _Bâb el-Jedîd_ (Pl. A, 3; ‘new gate’), opened in 1860. This sûk contains the shops of the cloth and silk weavers and several curious antiquated _Bakeries_, with millstones turned by camels.

A road from the W. gate leads to the W., past several wells (p. 410), to the (8 min.) extensive _Jewish Cemetery_; another, to the N., to the ancient _Necropolis_ (Pl. A, 2), on the abrupt coast (82 ft.), not far from the town-wall, containing many rock-tombs and cisterns.—The _Greek_ and the _Catholic Cemeteries_ (Pl. A, B, 1) lie between the Lazaretto and the lighthouse.

The busiest streets in the S.E. quarter are the Zanga Sûk et-Turk (Pl. B, 2, 3) and, diverging from it at the Piazza dell’Orologio, the Sûk el-Khadra or Sûk Urba (Pl. B, C, 3). The tasteless three-storied _Torre dell’ Orologio_, Arabic _Sâa_ (Pl. B, 3), which tells Turkish time, was built in 1870. In front of the Arab cafés here auctions are held on Friday forenoons.

The SÛKS (p. 335) consist here in part only of vaulted passages; many have wooden roofs with vine-trellises. The wares are mostly Tunisian or European, and therefore seldom worth buying here. A side-entrance adjoins the _Jâma el-Bâsha_ (Pl. C, 3), the chief mosque.

The massive pile of buildings by the sea, a few paces to the E. of the clock-tower, is the _Serai_ (Pl. C, 2, 3; Arabic Kasba), originally the Spanish citadel. It now contains barracks, many courts, several prisons (habbês), partly underground, and the government offices. The terrace next the sea affords a fine view of the harbour and towards the oasis.

Outside the S. gates, Bâb el-Khandek and Bâb el-Menshia or el-Mnshîa (Pl. C, 3; oasis gate), rises the _Fontana Maggiore_, an elegant well-house in the Turkish rococo style. Near it is the _Circolo Militare_ (Pl. C, 3; p. 406), a fashionable resort, especially when the military band plays (Sun. and Frid., 5 or 8 p.m.). The pretty little garden, whence we survey the Moslem cemetery (p. 411), contains four fine antique statues in marble, all of them torsos from Leptis Magna (p. 412).

Outside the S. gates lies the featureless NEW TOWN (_Città Nuova_), in which among other buildings are situated the _Town Hall_ (Beledîa; Pl. C, 3), the _Azizia_ (Pl. C, D, 3, 4), erected under Abdul Aziz as a residence for the commandant, the new _Vali’s Residence_ (Pl. C, 4), and the _Technical School_ (Pl. D, 4). The _Sûk el-Khobsa_ or bread-market (Pl. C, 3), with its fondouks (inns), is worth seeing in the early morning.

The sandy beach, nearly ¾ M. long, is the scene, early on Tuesday mornings, of a great *WEEKLY MARKET (_Sûk et-Tlett_; Pl. D, E, 3, 4), attended also by camel caravans from the interior. Among the many products of the country offered for sale here are fruit and cereals from the oases (see below), olive-oil (Arabic zeit), henna (see below), alfa or esparto, reed-mats, pottery, leather goods (such as the girbas, water-skins in goat-leather for journeys in the desert, made at Ghadâmes). It is a market also for pack-camels (Arabic jemél), donkeys (hmâr), sheep, and goats.

Beyond the market are a barracks quarter (_Kishla_) and the suburb of _Dahra_, inhabited by Turks, Arabs, and Maltese, with a strange-looking mosque and a Catholic nunnery-orphanage. A little to the S., on the road to Másri (p. 411), is a _Negro Village_ with conical reed-huts.—To the E. of the market, close to the sea, lies the _Giardino Pubblico_ (Pl. E, 3, 4; bands on Frid. and Sun.).

The =Menshia= or _Mnshîa_ (pop. about 14,000, mostly Berbers), the coast-oasis of Tripoli, once far more extensive, stretches 7½ M., with a breadth of 1–2½ M., as far as the dunes bordering the _Jefâra Steppe_. In spring it is one sea of blossom. To the S. of the steppe rise the limestone hills fringing the _Sahara_ (Shára, desert), commonly called the _Jebél_ (mountain; 1300–1650 ft. high). The deep ravines, filled with considerable streams during the winter rains (14 in. per annum at Tripoli, but considerably more in the Jebél), continue to send down a supply of water underground even during the dry season. This water is obtained from countless draw-wells (sânia), bordered with white walls, and generally shaded by tamarisks (Arabic âtel). Day and night oxen or donkeys toil at the drawing of the water, which is then collected in reservoirs and conducted thence to the fields.

In spite of this imperfect mode of irrigation and the primitive wooden agricultural implements used by the natives the excellent soil is wonderfully productive. Beneath the fruit-trees of every variety, olive-trees, mulberry-trees, and alcanna-shrubs (henna, Lawsonia inermis; p. 108), which thrive under the tall overshadowing date-palms, the soil still gives sustenance to barley (Arabic shaîr), wheat (gammah), maize, lupins, tobacco (dokhàn), madder, rose-geraniums, red pepper (filfil ahmar), onions, tomatoes, spinach, beans, melons, etc. The excellent early potatoes are sent to Europe under the name of ‘Malta potatoes’. The fields and gardens are enclosed by mud-walls 3–7 ft. high, overgrown with Indian figs (prickly pears; Opuntia Ficus indica; Arabic ‘hind’), which prevents them from collapsing in wet weather. It is harvest all the year round. From April to June almonds, apricots, and corn are gathered in, then in July and August peaches (khûkh), from July to September figs and luscious grapes, from October to December dates and olives, from November to April excellent oranges, and at almost any season lemons. In autumn the nomadic Arabs of the steppe pitch their dark goats’-hair tents (beit shâar, house of hair) in the vacant fields in order to gather the fresh yellow dates. The dates of the coast are, however, inferior in flavour to those of the Sahara oases and unsuitable for exportation.

The following EXCURSION takes about 2 hrs. (best to drive or ride; see p. 406). From the Sûk el-Khobsa (p. 410) the road leads to the S.W., cutting through a Moslem cemetery destroyed by an inundation in 1904, to (1¼ M.) _Bumeliâna_, where a pumping-station supplies several public fountains in the town. It then runs to the E. to (1 M.) _Másri_, with its large artillery and cavalry barracks, where the dunes command a fine view of the steppe, visible in clear weather as far as the distant Jebél. Turning to the S.E., and passing the mud-built fort, _Gasr el-Hâni_, we come to (2½ M.) the road leading to the N. to the (¾ M.) official house of the Sheikh of the Menshia (_Hôsh esh-Skiûkh_; fine view towards the sea from the balcony). About 1¼ M. to the N.E. are the _Sûk el-Jêma_ (Friday market) and the extremely dirty village of _Amrûs_, inhabited by about 600 Jews, mostly smiths. Thence back to Tripoli 3 M.

On the _Sherrashhet_, the road leading from Dahra (p. 410) near the coast, are several country-houses and (about 2 M.) the largest _Mohammedan Cemetery_, containing two dilapidated domed tombs (of the Karamanli dynasty, p. 408), visible from Tripoli. Near it, close to the sea, is the _Protestant Cemetery_, where we have a charming view of Tripoli. About 7½ M. farther, on the caravan-route to Lebida (p. 412), are the village of _Mélaha_ and the oasis of _Tajûra_, with its colonnaded mosque.

The W. end of the Menshia is 1½ M. from the town. We may thence cross the undulating steppe, past several mud-built forts, to the small oasis of (4½ M.) _Gergârish_, with its old sandstone quarries and ruined watch-tower (Gasr Jehalî, tower of the ignorant), originally Roman.

* * * * *

From Tripoli the steamer proceeds to the N.N.E. to =Malta= (p. 399). Off the abrupt S. coast of the island, with its numerous caves, lies the uninhabited rocky islet of _Filfola_, which forms a target for the artillery practice of the British Mediterranean fleet (p. 399). Farther on we obtain a striking view of the barren E. coast, with the bay of _Marsa Scirocco_, bounded by _Benhisa Point_ and _Delimara Point_. On a height rises the old _Fort St. Lucian_.

Beyond _St. Thomas’s Bay_, with the old castle of _St. Thomas_ and the bay of _Marsa Scala_, the steamer rounds the _Ponta tal Zonkor_, the N.E. point of the island, and soon reaches the entrance to the _Grand Harbour_ of _Valletta_ (comp. p. 399).

The VOYAGE TO SYRACUSE is performed at night. We steer to the N.N.E. towards _Cape Passero_ (the ancient _Promontorium Pachynum_), the fissured headland at the S.E. point of _Sicily_, with its lighthouse and two small harbours (_Porto d’Ulisse_ and _Porto Palo_).

Next, on the E. coast of Sicily, stands forth the _Penisola della Maddalena_ (177 ft.), once a coast-island but now joined to the main island by the deposits of the _Ciani_ and _Anapo_. It ends in the _Capo Murro di Porco_, with a lighthouse on the top.

Entrance to the harbour of _Syracuse_, see p. 162.

65. From Tripoli to Alexandria viâ Benghazi and Derna.

STEAMBOATS (agents at Tripoli, see p. 406; at Alexandria, see p. 432). =1.= _German Levant Line_ (cargo-boats), three times monthly (80 marks).—=2.= Steamers of the _Banco di Roma_ (p. 406) fortnightly viâ Malta, Benghazi, Derna, and Solum.—Between Tripoli, Lebida (occasionally), Mesurata, Benghazi, and Derna there plies a fortnightly steamer of the Società Nazionale (comp. R. 66).

_Tripoli_, see p. 406. Skirting the flat, sandy coast, with its numerous oases, including that of _Tajûra_ (p. 411), we pass the small _Râs Sotara_, _Râs el-Hamra_ (‘red cape’), and _Râs Ligata_.

In the fertile undulating plain to the E. of the small port of _Ligata_ (lighthouse; sailing-boat from Tripoli in about 7 hrs. if the wind is favourable) lies _Lebida_, _Lebda_, or _Khoms_ (pop. 3500; Brit. vice-cons.), in its oasis, a poor little seaport (for alfa) with open roads, relics of old fortifications, and an Italian school.