Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/222

 180 NORTH-WEST AFRICA. including, to the north, the hill of Kamart, or Jebel Khawi, at once the quarry and the necropolis of Carthage. The soft limestone of which it is composed is pierced with hundreds of thousands of Punic, Roman, and Christian tombs. At the foot of the hill stretch the Sukhara lagoons, the ancient anchorage of the Punic fleet. Although very badly worked, the saline lakes of Sukhara nevertheless yield more salt than any other in the regency. Although the present capital, Tunis, like the ancient Carthage, lies at the natural issue of the plains and upland valleys of the Mejerda, the basin, properly so called, of this river has no towns whose population can be compared to that of the coastland cities, such as S/akcs and Sum. On the banks of the tributaries of the Wed Meleg, which is the lonf^est river of the basin, nothing occurs except Arab encampments nestling amidst the ruins of vast cities. This region, which at first sight seems to be completely deserted, because the dwellings of the people are almost merged with the ground on which they stand, was in the time of the Romans one of the most jx)pulous countries of civilised Africa. As on the upper affluents of the Wed Gafsa and of the rivers flowing east to Lake Kelbia, the traveller here also meets with imposing ruins covering vast extents of land. One of these ancient towns, situated near the Algerian frontier, some 24 miles north-east of Tebessa, appears to be the Ammfpdai'a of Ptolemy. These ruins, known to the Arabs by the name of Haidra, are about 3 miles in circumference, and include a citadel, a triumphal arch of the time of Scptimius Severus, a theatre, and several Christian basilicas. About 12 miles to the north-east, on the bank of an affluent of the Meleg, stands the still inhabited town of Tlialii, surrounded by the extensive remains of the opulent city t)f the same name, where Juguvtha vainly sought a refuge for his family and treasures. After forty days of repeated assaults the town succumbed, but its defenders withdrew to the royal palace, to which they set fire, and perished with all their effects, thus defying the anger of the Romans and baffling their cupidity. Not far from Thala are the remains of another town, whose thermal waters are still visited by the surrounding tribe of Majer Arabs, who apply the name of El-Ham- mam, or " the Warm Bath," to these remains. El-Kff, the chief town in the Meleg basin imd in Western Tunisia, is likewise a place of great antiquity. It was already famous at the Phoenician epoch, and had a sanctuary dedicated to Astarte, whither i)eople came from all parts to worship this goddess. This worship was continued under the Roman government, pilgrims for centuries still visiting the temple of Venus, whence the name of Sicca Veueria, long preserved under the corrupted forms of SUikka Benaria or Shahhanaria. This was turned by the Arabs into Shok-ben-Nahr, or " Fiery Thorn," which gave rise to the unfounded belief in the existence of volcanoes in this district. At the present time the town is known merely as El-Kcf, or " the Rock." Built in the shape of an amphitheatre on the slope of Jebel Dir, at a mean height of 2,650 feet, El-Kef owes its importance to its strategical and commercial position, at the converging point of nearly all the main routes of Western Tunisia south of the Mejerda. It is extremely rich in springs, a feature of paramount importance in these arid regions. One of the springs issues from a cavern decorated with Roman