Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/170

 that, according to a local tradition, a canal, excavated in the plains of Zian, or Medinet-Zian, an inland town now in ruins, carried down to the port of Zarzis a stream of olive-oil which the natives collected in barrels and exported. But the plundering hordes of the Akkara and Urghamma Beduins have effectually dried up this river of oil by cutting down the olive groves. Statues, Roman inscriptions, and other valuable antiquities have recently been discovered at Zian. According to Barth, the Copts had at one time very numerous colonies on this part of the coast between Tripoli and Jerba Island.

Westwards are the towns of Metamer and Kasr-el-Mudenin, inhabited by tribal groups of the Urghammas, built on fortified mounds in the midst of the plain.

Before the occupation of Tunis by the French, the Kasr or Castle of El-Mudenin sustained a siege against the bey’s army. In these towns may be seen the gradual transition from the cave architecture to that of houses, properly so called. Buildings are erected in such a manner as to resemble cliffs, in which oval apertures made at various heights represent the openings of caves and grottoes. The natives reach these artificial caves, some of which are five or six stories high, by means of ladders or steps roughly hewn in the face of the wall. In the neighbouring mountains, and more especially in the Metmata range, many such dwellings hollowed out in these beds of soft chalk are very similar to those of the Tripolitan troglodytes.