Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/186

 162 NORTH- WEST AFRICA. until recently by that of the Bey. For some time past the natives of Kerkenna have cultivated tlie vine, and freely drink of its fruit, notwithstanding the precepts of the Koran. While the coastlund route runs north-east wards, skirting the Has Kapudiah, the most easterly promontory of Tunis, the route from Sfakes to Susa — that is, the ancient Roman road— pursues a northerly direction across the territory of the Met&lit tribe. Towards the middle of this route stood the two important towns of Bararus and T/njsdriis, which have now become the heitshir or " farm " of Ruga, and the wretched village of El- Jem. The ruins of Bararus cover a space of about 3 miles in circumference, and comprise the remains of a theatre, a triumphal arch, and other edifices, whilst Thysdrus still possesses one of the finest monuments in the whole of Africa, the best-preserved amphitheatre which has been left us by the ancient world, not even excepting that of Pompeii itself. When this region of Tunis, at present almost uninhabited, supported a numerous population, the central position of Thysdrus rendered it one of the best sites for celebrating public feasts and games. From all parts visitors flocked to its great amphitheatre, which is supposed to have been, if not built, at least founded by Gordian the elder, in return for having been proclaimed emperor in the city of Thysdrus. The amphi- theatre was also the spot where the chiefs and deleg ites of the southern Tunisian tribes met in 1881 and decided on a general rising against the French. Visible for a distance of 6 miles from all points of the compass, this vast pile towers above a broad isolated eminence itself rising 615 feet above the surrounding plain. Looking at a distance like a mountain of stone, on a nearer approach it dis- appears behind the thickets of tall Barbary fig-trees, between which the path winds According to the measurements of M. Pascal Coste, the Coliseum of Thysdrus, one of the vastest of the Roman world, has a total length of 500 feet in its longer axis, and 430 feet in its shorter axis, which is disposed nearly due north and south. It was probably modelled after the Flavian amphitheatre in Rome. The elliptical fa(ade, formerly composed of sixty-eight arcades, supported three stories ornamented with Corinthian columns, and presents in its general design a great unity of style. But it is no longer complete. In 1710, after an Arab insurrection, Mohammed, Bey of Tunis, blew up five arcades on the east side, and since then the breach has been incessantly widened by tHe Metalit tribe of El-Jem, who use the materials of the amphitheatre in the construction of their wretched dwellings, besides selling them to the builders of the surrounding district. Inside, the rows of seats have mostly disappeared, and their remains have fallen in confused heaps on the arena. This havoc has been attributed to the transformation to which it was subjected by the famous Kahina, or " Priestess," who converted it into a stronghold against the Arab invaders in the year 689. The traditions of the neighbouring tribes, which commemorate the glories of the Priestess, although she was hostile to the Arabs, relate that this heroine, probably a Jewess, like so many other Berbers of that period, placed herself at the head of her fellow-countrymen and of their Greek allies. Forced to shut herself up in the amphitheatre, which from her too^ the name of Kasr-el-Kahina, she here sustained a siege of three