Page:The Burton Holmes lectures; (IA burtonholmeslect04holm).pdf/142

 TINTED TERRACES OF HAMMAM MESKOUTINE

THE PETRIFIED PRIEST

heaps, stand here and there awaiting, forever, the conclusion of the ceremony. Near by we find Roman baths cut in the natural rock. This reminds us that Rome once held this region as firmly does France to-day. Nay, more firmly; for whereas France possesses great cities on the coast, Rome built her cities in the far interior. Three of those cities we visited, and found none in better state of preservation and more carefully excavated than Thamugas, known to-day as Timgad. It merits well the title, "The Pompeii of Africa," although the sands of time, not the ashes of Vesuvius