Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/100

 sand five hundred, and by Rohlfs even at a still higher figure. Standing at an altitude variously estimated at from 1,520 to 1,600 feet, Murzuk covers an area of over a square mile, within an earthen wall, strengthened by bastions and flanked by towers. Round the enclosure stretches a zone of sand, and salt marshes, beyond which are the gardens and scattered palm groves. The streets within the walls, mostly at right angles, are intersected by a broad lendal, or boulevard, running from north-west to south-east, and dividing the town into halves. At its north-west end stands the citadel, a massive gloomy building over 80 feet high, and in the middle of the town regular porticoes give access to the bazaar, where are heard all the languages in North Africa. The mean annual value of the exchanges in this mart is estimated at £20,000.

On the route to Rhât, west of the capital, the oasis of Otba or Tessawa, an ancient settlement of Negroes from Haussa, is the only district containing any groups of population. Beyond this point nothing is met except a few wells, such as that of Sharaba, near which Miss Tinné, the "King's daughter," as she was called by the natives, was assassinated in 1869. In the Hofra

district east of Murzuk lies the decayed town of Traghen, in the oasis of like name. For centuries this place was the capital of Fezzan, and residence of a Negro dynasty, whose sepulchral mounds are still shown near the town. But as the population decreased, the magnificent palm groves of Traghen developed into a vast forest, the produce of which is now little used except for the fabrication of lakbi, and a liquor prepared from the fermented juice of the sap. The most copious spring in all Fezzan wells up near the crumbling walls of Traghen; but this source of Ganderma became obstructed during a civil war, and now oozes into a marshy depression.

Zuila and Temissa, the former occupied by Shorfa, or reputed descendants of Mohammed, the latter by Berbers who still speak the national idiom, are both situated in the "Eastern" oasis. Like Traghen, Zuila was also at one time capital of Fezzan, and the whole region is still known to the Tibbus by this name. In another oasis near the southern frontier lies the "holy" city of Gatron, held by learned Marabuts, who monopolise the trade with the Tibesti uplands, and who claim to have come from Marocco three or four centuries ago. But their mixed descent is sufficiently betrayed by their Negroid features, and even now they seek their wives