Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/56

 Ergenn, whose mean elevation is about the same as that of the plateau. From the head of the passes intersecting them a distant view is commanded of the system of broad ravines, all draining east and north-east towards the Mediterranean. In this rugged district every headland is crowned, like the summits of the hamâda, with the ruins of tombs and of other Roman structures, embellished with columns and carvings. A methodical survey of the whole of this part of Tripolitana is urgently demanded, says Rohlfs, in order to study the interesting inscriptions and recover the more choice bas-reliefs here found in abundance. The establishment of an archæological museum at Tripoli might help to preserve valuable ornaments, which

else threaten soon to become mere heaps of stones, like the allems or landmarks raised here and there by the Arabs in the midst of the sands. North of the Red Hamâda follow several chains or rather risings in the plateau, rimning for the most part in the direction from east to west, parallel at once with the edge of the hamâda, and the sea-coast. These are the' ranges of hills, normally more elevated than the great sandstone tableland, which arrest the clouds borne by the moist winds, and thus divert the moisture from the surface of the vast plateau stretching southwards.

Altogether this upland northern region, known generally as the "Jebel," the Cilius Mons of the ancients, may be regarded as a terrace standing at a higher level than the Hamâda-el-Homra, but far less uniform, and furrowed throughout its whole thickness by deep river gorges. Its mean height may be about 2,000 feet. The Jebel Ghurian, which forms the north-eastern rampart of this hilly tract, and whose blue crests are seen from Tripoli rising above the surrounding