Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/81

 TEIPOLI. 68 Tripoli. The present capital of Trij)olitanu has lon<> ceased to rival the ancient Leptiw Magna in population or wealth. Triix)li is little more nowadays than a third-rate city amongst those even of the Mediterranean seaboard, although of late years it has been much improved and enlarged. Like Leptis, it is of PhcDnician origin. Under the name of Uayaf, Latinised to Oea, it was dedicated to the god Melkart, greatest of Tyrian divinities, and during Carthaginian times rose to considerable power. Of the three cities of Leptis, Sabratha and Oea, the last having been chosen for the capital, ultimately took the general designation of the whole country. Under the form of Tarabo/os, the Turks have preserved the Greek name of Tripoli, distinguishing it however from its Syrian namesake by the epithet of El-Gharb, that is, the " western " Tripoli. A few ruins of Oea still exist, including deep cisterns and the foundations of ramparts dating from the Phoenician times. There is even one fine building perfectly preserved, besides a triumphal arch dedicated to Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Aurelius Verus. This monument might be easily cleared of the sands in which it at present lies half buried, and of the wretched structures encumbering its pillars, which are formed of huge blocks of marble. Seen from the sea, the town of Tripoli presents a charming sight. A chain of partly emerged reefs projects in the blue waters nearly two miles from the beach, bearing at its landward extremity a massive tower and fortifications. Westwards from this point the city sweeps round in a crescent form, separated from the shore by a line of ramparts, which are overlooked by a row of white terraced houses, and limited at the eastern extremity of the harbour by the solid buildings, gardens, and palm groves of the governor's palace. Above the mosques and surrounding houses are visible minarets as slim as those of Turkey, and the flagstaffs and banners of the various European Consulates. Above and beyond all are seen the citadel and the " French Lighthouse," completed in 1880. Leo Africanus, who wrote about the beginning of the sixteenth century, relates a tradition according to which Trijjoli formerly occupied a more northerly site, and in his time the foundations of the vanished city were said to be still visible beneath the devouring waves. But this supposed subsidence of the ground can be little more than a simple phenomenon of local erosion, for the present ramparts rest partly on the foundations of the old walls of Oea itself. The modern town, which is surrounded by broken ramparts dating from the time of Charles V., presents specimens of the most varied styles of architec- ture. In the inner labyrinth of narrow tortuous streets, most of the houses, here and there connected above the roadway by vaulted passages, have preserved their Arab physiognomy with their bare white walls and courts enclosed by arcades. Nearly all the structures erected by the Government — barracks, hospitals, prisons, magazines — recall the vast Turkish establisliments of like order in Constantinople ; the Maltese quarter in its turn resembles the suburbs of some small Italian town ; while the Marina is lined by sumptuous mansions like similar thoroughfares in the