Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/347

 which passes the Algiers-Oran railway, contain only four towns, two of which, Shershell and Tenes, lie on the coast, and a third, Miliana, on a headland overlooking the Shelif Valley. Nor are there many French settlements in a district from which the colonists are repelled by the rugged character of the soil and the deficient supply of water.

Shershell, lying west of the Shenwa heights, is one of the old cities of Algeria. Twice restored, by the Andalusian Moors and again by the French, it appears at the dawn of history under the Punic appellation of Iol. But its fame dates from

the Roman epoch, when Juba the Younger made it the capital of his kingdom, and gave it the name of Cæsarea, which it still retains under the greatly modified form of Shershell. This "most splendid colony of Cæsarea" has left numerous monuments, notably the thermal baths, where was found the beautiful statue known as the "Venus of Shershell," now removed to the museum of Algiers. In 1840, when the modern French town was built on the old ruins, a perfectly preserved hippodrome was discovered, which has since become a mere depression in the ground, the materials having been carried off for building purposes.