Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/345

 The Shiffa, which, after receiving the Wed-el-Kebir of Blida, unites with the Wed Jer to form the Mazafran, has its source towards the south, amid the hills commanded by the town of Medea, Beyond El-Afrun, the Oran railway leaving the plain enters the narrow valley of the Wed Jer, through which it rises to the ridge separating the Muzafran from the Shiffa basin. North of the railway are situated the famous springs of Hammam-Righa (Rirha), the most frequented in Algeria. Even during the Roman period these Aquæ Calidæ were a general resort for invalids and the wealthy classes, as attested by the inscriptions and sculptures discovered in the district. At present a splendid establishment, surrounded by

gardens and plantations, stands in the neighbourhood of the springs, at an altitude of 2,000 feet above sea-level.

North of the Mitija, the Lower Mazafran basin is commanded by the town of Kolea, which during the first period of the conquest possessed great strategical importance as an advanced outpost beyond the Algerian Sahel. The Moors of Kolea, at present far less numerous than the French and other foreign settlers, are of Andalusian origin, having founded this place about the middle of the sixteenth century. On the highest point of the neighbouring hills stands the ancient tomb of Kobr-er-Rumia, or "Tomb of the Christian Lady," a cylindrical mass with a