Chapter VI: Algeria (10)

134 (or 66½) M. =Souk-Ahras.=—_Railway Restaurant._—HOTELS. _Hôtel
d’Orient_, in the market-place, with good restaurant, R., déj., D., 2½
fr. each, pens. 7½ omn. 1 fr., quite good; _Hôt. de l’Univers_,
similar charges; _Hôt. de France_.—_Café de Marseille_, in the
market-place.

_Souk-Ahras_ (2297 ft.; pop. 9000) lies very prettily in a lofty, undulating plain enclosed by distant hills. It is a rapidly rising place, with quite a European aspect, and is one of the pleasantest provincial towns in Algeria. It dates only from 1852, when it was founded as a convenient centre for roads radiating to Constantine, Bona, and La Calle, and as a mart for the phosphates of Tebessa (p. 315). It stands on the site of _Thagaste_, the birthplace of St. Augustine (p. 310), who mentions it with affection in his Confessions. At the foot of the old castle-hill, an excellent point of view, are placed a few antiquities from Khamissa (see below). Cattle-breeding and vine-culture are the chief industries in the environs.

The EXCURSION TO KHAMISSA, about 23 M. from Souk-Ahras, is best made
by motor-car as far as Ksar Tifech and thence on mule-back. We follow
the Sedrata highroad to the S.W., soon crossing the _Medjerda_ (p.
325). About halfway we enter the _Plaine de Tifech_, watered by the
Oued Tifech and once fertile and populous. We then reach the _Ksar
Tifech_ (3150 ft.), on the slope of _Jebel Tifech_ (3609 ft.), with
the ruins of a Byzantine fortress, the most considerable relic of the
Numidian _Tipasa_. Thence we ride to the N.W., in the direction of the
ancient Roman road, to *=Khamissa= or _Khemissa_ (3084 ft.; no inn),
the interesting site of the Roman _Thubursicum Numidarum_, one of the
oldest and most important towns in Inner Numidia. It lies on a hill
high above the valley of the Medjerda, which rises a little to the
N.W. on the _Râs el-Alia_ (4321 ft.). Among the ruins may be noted the
_S.E. Gate_, a triumphal arch with a single passage, on the Tipasa
road; near it, the underground _Columbarium_ (hypogæum); the
_Thermae_; and also, in the Platea Vetus, the chief square in the E.
quarter of the town, an unfinished _Roman Temple_ besides other
buildings. On the crest of the hill we come upon the foundations of a
_Byzantine Basilica_ and a small _Byzantine Fortress_ (‘Ksar
el-Kebîr’). On the N. hill-side is the _Roman Theatre_, with its
fairly preserved stage-building (comp. p. 293). The _Forum_, on the W.
margin of the hill, and a _Triumphal Arch_ with three passages were
afterwards incorporated with a second _Byzantine Fortress_. All around
are extensive _Burial Grounds_, some of them with rock-tombs.

From Souk-Ahras to _Tebessa_, see R. 50; to _Tunis_, see R. 51.

50. From Souk-Ahras to Tebessa.

79½ M. NARROW GAUGE RAILWAY, in 5½–6½ hrs. (14 fr. 35, 10 fr. 25, 7
fr. 70 c.; 1st cl. return 20 fr. 20 c.). Railway Restaurant at
Clairefontaine only. Morsott is preferable to Tebessa for
night-quarters.

_Souk-Ahras_, see above. We cross the Tunis line (R. 51) by a viaduct, and descend to the S. into the valley of the _Medjerda_ (p. 325), latterly through underwood and Aleppo pines. 5 M. _Les Tuileries_.

We next ascend the narrow and picturesque side-valley of the _Oued Chouk_, through pine and cork-oak woods. Beyond (9 M.) _Oued-Chouk_ (1975 ft.) we skirt the upper course of the stream, now called _Oued el-Hammam_, in a barren hill-country, and at places through limestone gorges, bordered with Aleppo pines.

17½ M. _Dréa_ (2634 ft.), an alfa (esparto grass) station.

From Dréa we may visit the native village of _Mdaourouch_ (3058 ft.),
3 M. to the S.E., on the N.W. slope of _Jebel Bou Sessou_ (3566 ft.).
This was the ancient =Madaura= or _Madauros_, the birthplace (about
125 A. D.) of the Roman author _L. Apuleius_. It was once the seat of
a famous school of oratory, at which St. Augustine (p. 310) was
educated. On its site, where there are relics of a Roman _Mausoleum_
and the foundations of an early-Christian _Basilica_, rises the
conspicuous _Byzantine Castle_, dating from the time of Solomon (p.
315), a building curiously irregular in plan, partly enclosed by later
(Berber?) fortifications. Large _Thermae_ also have been recently
excavated.

Beyond Dréa we traverse fields and poor pastures to the S.W.

22½ M. _Mdaourouch_ (2809 ft.; no inn), the highest point on the line, the watershed between the Medjerda and the Mellègue (see below). In the vicinity is the village of _Montesquieu_.

A field-road leads to the E. from the station to (4½ M.) the village
of _Mdaourouch_ (see above).

_Khamissa_ (p. 313) may be visited from Montesquieu (see above) or
Mdaourouch if we are fortunate enough to find mules there. We follow
the Sedrata highroad to the W. to (9 M.) the caravanserai (Bordj; 2756
ft.) in the Plaine de Tifech (p. 313), whence we turn to the N. to (13
M.) _Ksar Tifech_ (p. 313) and thence go on to (16 M.) _Khamissa_.

Beyond Mdaourouch there are long stretches of bleak steppe-like country. The train descends to (30 M.) _Oued-Damous_ (1982 ft.), in the valley of that name. It then skirts the _Oued Kebarit_ and rounds the E. slope of _Jebel Kréréga_ (3251 ft.), a tableland with scanty woods of pine and arbor vitæ. Far away to the left rises _Jebel Ouenza_ (4229 ft.), with the largest iron-mines in Algeria, owned by the ‘Société d’Etudes de l’Ouenza’. (Mineral-line to Bona or to Nebeur projected; comp. p. 325.)

We now ascend the valley of the _Oued Mellègue_. To the right appear the bare _Kef Bou Djabeur_ (2504 ft.) and _Kef Raghma_ (2700 ft.), similar in type to the hills fringing the Sahara.

38 M. =Clairefontaine= (2146 ft.; Buffet, D. 3 fr., very fair), an important alfa station, with artesian wells. Sunday market.

Passing between _Jebel Mestoula_ (3488 ft.) on the right and _Jebel el-Dzeroua_ (3432 ft.) on the left, we enter, to the S.E., the valley of the _Oued Chabrou_. To the S., above the steppe, which is overgrown with alfa and enlivened by browsing camels, rise the ranges of _Jebel Metloug_ (4111 ft.) and _Jebel Mzouzia_ (4514 ft.).

60 M. =Morsott= (2559 ft.; Hôt. de Lyon or Sivignon, good cuisine), below _Jebel Hout es-Srir_ (3445 ft.), a thriving European settlement, with its Monday market and alfa trade, is the starting-point of the mineral-line to (9½ M.) _Jebel Bou Kadra_ (4734 ft.) and the iron-mines of the Mokta el-Hadid Company (p. 303).

Here, partly seen from the train, are relics of the Roman _Vasampus_:
a _Gateway_ of solid masonry, perhaps that of a temple-court;
_Thermae_, with unusually small chambers; and two _Mausolea_. There
are also remains of the foundations of an early-Christian _Basilica_,
curiously planned, 40½ by 16¾ yds. (three portals to the nave, apse
with four side-recesses, baptistery behind the choir-recess).

69½ M. _Youks les Bains-Boulhaf le Dyr_, station for the baths of _Youks-les-Bains_ (p. 318), 7 M. to the S.W., and junction of the mineral-line to the phosphate-beds of _Jebel Dyr_ (4977 ft.). On the right rises the ‘_Chapeau de Gendarme_’ (4393 ft.; Arabic _Jebel bel-Khifeh_), whose characteristic form we do not see until near Tebessa. A line of rails to the left leads to the phosphate-deposits of _Aïn-Kissa_.

In the foreground appear the hills of Tebessa, to the S. _Jebel Tenoukla_ and _Jebel Osmor_ (p. 318), and S.W. the _Jebel Doukkan_ range (5528 ft.). Tents of the nomads are often seen on the steppe. We cross the _Oued el-Kébir_, as the Oued Chabrou is called here.

79½ M. =Tebessa.=—The STATION lies to the W. of the town, outside the
Porte de Constantine, 8 min. from the Place d’Armes. Omn. twice daily.

HÔTELS. _Hôtel d’Orient & de la Métropole_, Rue Caracalla, 2 min. from
the Arch of Caracalla, R. 3–3½, B. ¾, déj. 2, D. 3, pens. 8–9½, omn. 1
fr.; _Hôt. du Cours_, Place d’Armes, unpretending, but very fair.

A hasty visit to the sights, in the following order, takes 2–3
hrs.—For the description of Tebessa comp. also _Cagnat’s_ book
mentioned at p. 289.

_Tebessa_ (2717 ft.; pop. 5700, mostly Mohammedans), a poor town, now unimportant except as the centre of the E. Algerian phosphate trade, was the ancient _Theveste_, one of the most prosperous towns in Inner Numidia from the Punic period (about B.C. 250–200) onwards. It was the first headquarters of the Third Legion (p. 286); in 123 A. D. it was connected with Carthage by a Roman military road; and after its destruction by the Berbers it was re-founded in 535 by Solomon, the general of Justinian (p. 541). Its ruins of the late-Roman and Vandal periods are among the finest in Barbary, but as they lie off the beaten track they are almost forgotten.

The town is still enclosed by the =Byzantine Walls= built by Solomon, forming a rectangle of 350 by 306 yds., with fourteen towers, two gates, and a sally-port on the S. side. The old upper gallery and the battlements were removed in 1852 when the walls were restored.

The modern W. Gate, the Porte de Constantine, leads first to the pleasant PLACE D’ARMES, the centre of traffic. Two minutes’ walk to the E. of this is the so-called _Porte de Solomon_, the most interesting part of the fortifications, with a round-arched passage and two square towers 56 ft. high. Outside of it the natives hold market on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

The N. Gate, where the walls project a little on both sides, is formed by the *=Arch of Caracalla=, dating from 214 A. D., once in the middle of the far more populous Roman town, but now at the end of the main street coming from the Place d’Armes.

This arch, resembling the Janus Quadrifrons at Rome, is the most
imposing Roman monument of the kind in Algeria, rivalling those of
Tripoli (p. 408) and Leptis Magna (p. 412). It forms a square of about
12 yds. each way, with four round-arched passages, 27 ft. high and 15
ft. wide. Each pillar is adorned on its two outer sides with two
Corinthian pilasters and two projecting Corinthian columns, all on a
common base. Of the sculptures on the keystones of the archways, under
the lavishly decorated architrave, there are preserved, on the E.
side, a medallion in high relief of Minerva and a Medusa, and on the
W. side a Fortuna (goddess of the town) and an eagle holding a bundle
of thunderbolts. On three sides, in the middle of the attica, which is
4 ft. high, there are Latin inscriptions referring to Caracalla and
his parents, Septimius Severus and Julia Domna. On the N. side, when
the arch was restored, there was added an inscription in honour of
Solomon. On the S. side is still preserved an ædicula, one of the four
destined for statues adjoining the central dome. On the inner side of
two of the pillars are long inscriptions from the testament of C.
Cornelius Egrilianus, the builder of the triumphal arch.

The highroad now descends to the N. to the (7 min.) so-called **=Basilica=, the most remarkable early-Christian ruin in Algeria, still in some respects an enigma to archæologists. Built mainly of Roman materials, and itself used for centuries as a quarry, it still forms an immense quadrilateral of about 213 by 88–115 yds., systematically excavated for the first time in 1888–92. The oldest parts of the edifice, perhaps of the late 4th cent., are believed to be the basilica and the memorial chapel; the main street, the court, and the ‘stable’ seem to belong to a second building period, perhaps also prior to the Vandal era. The monastery, with its fortifications, and the additions to the memorial chapel date probably from the Vandal period; the small ‘emergency chapel’ is perhaps a later Byzantine addition. The custodian (fee ½–1 fr.) is to be found at the little house near the E. gate.

The _E. Gate_, the old main entrance, once adorned externally, in the style of a Roman triumphal arch, with Corinthian pilasters and jutting columns, is in fair preservation. Thence ran the paved _Main Street_, 8 yds. wide, without wheel-ruts, past the Basilica on the right and the court and ‘stable’ on the left, to the _W. Gate_, the ancient subsidiary entrance.

From the N. side of the main street, formerly flanked with three colonnades, a flight of fourteen steps, 9½ ft. high in all, ascends to the portico of the BASILICA, which was once preceded by eight columns. Three portals here opened into the Atrium, the square forecourt of the church, with remains of the _Cantharus_, or fountain of purification, in the centre. Near the entrance-wall are two side-rooms whence winding staircases ascended to the upper floor and the church galleries.

The Church, built of solid masonry, consisted of nave and two aisles, 50 by 24 yds. in all; but now nothing remains save the external wall of the left aisle, two arcades of the nave, and the choir-recess. The formation of the arcades, with low pillars and Corinthian columns in front, is peculiar. The site of the choirscreen and of the base of the altar is still traceable. Of the galleries, supposed to have been added on the occasion of a restoration of the church, there still lie fragments of the columns and imposts all around. The mosaic pavement is covered with earth.

From the front part of the right aisle twelve steps descend into an almost square outer building (25½ by 22 yds.), contemporaneous with the church. The middle of this is occupied by the Trichorum, a trefoil-shaped hall, with three rounded apses, probably a MEMORIAL CHAPEL, resembling the early-Christian cemetery-chapels, and dedicated to some martyr or bishop buried under the altar. The four corner-rooms served as _Tomb Chambers_.

Among the later additions of the Vandal period are the _Square
Chamber_ on the S. side of the memorial chapel, which also was used as
a burial-place, with its small ante-room, and the _Baptistery_,
accessible only from the atrium by three steps, containing remains of
the old font.

To the same period belong the other additions to the basilica.
Extending round the church from the memorial chapel on the E. to the
W. side of the atrium are twenty-seven square chambers, partly built
of heathen tombstones, commonly supposed to have been the _Monks’
Cells_, though unusually large for that purpose. Between these and the
castellated _Monastery Wall_, whose towers do not project externally
in the usual Byzantine fashion, probably lay the _Monastery Garden_,
which was used down to the Moorish period as a burial-ground.

Lastly we note the small ‘_Emergency Chapel_’ on the N. side of the
memorial chapel, a small church, probably hastily built subsequent to
the irruption of the Berbers (p. 315), with nave and two aisles,
portico, choirscreen, rounded apse, and a square sacristy added on the
N. side.

The QUADRANGLE, 60 by 46 yds., on the S. side of the main street, formerly called the forum, was once divided into four sections by two cross-ways bordered by marble balustrades. In spite of the unevenness of the ground these sections are supposed to have been basins (watering-places for cattle and horses?), the water being supplied from the square reservoir still existing at the S.E. corner of the quadrangle. From the cross-ways steps ascended to narrow terraces enclosing the quadrangle on three sides, that on the S. side being a porticus of twenty-two columns.

More enigmatical still is the WEST BUILDING, 53 by 24 yds., a hall with three aisles borne by pillars. This was afterwards converted, by the insertion of two low partitions, into a central chamber of three aisles with eleven two-storied side-rooms on each side of the outer aisles. The curious stone boxes or troughs (mangers?) on the partitions, together with the holes in the walls, of a kind that recur in many Byzantine buildings (perhaps for the rings to which horses were attached), have led to the conjecture that the building was a stable.

The small building behind the _Porticus_ of six columns on the N. side of the main street, opposite the so-called stables, contains similar stone boxes.

The _Kubba Sidi Djaballah_, about 5 min. to the N. of the Basilica,
near the Catholic cemetery, is a Roman mausoleum with a Moorish dome.

On the way back to the town we call at the _Bureau des Ponts et Chaussées_, on the right, a little off the road, 2 min. before the Arch of Caracalla, to ask M. Coggia, the curator, for the key of the museum.

The so-called *=Temple of Minerva=, the best-preserved Roman temple in Algeria, now used as a museum, dates from the 3rd cent. A.D. The only relic of the old temple-court is the gateway wall, adorned with Corinthian pilasters, now forming the façade of a zaouïa (Mohammedan school) in the main street, close to the Arch of Caracalla. The temple, a pseudo-peripteros of 19¾ by 10 yds., on a substructure 13 ft. high, is in a side-street, adjoining the N. town-wall. A new flight of twelve (once twenty) steps ascends to the portico, with four Corinthian columns in front. The structure of the temple shows many of the peculiarities of African provincial art. Instead of an architrave there is a frieze with bulls’ skulls and eagles grasping serpents; above it is an attica in similar style, overladen with reliefs but without a cornice. Instead of a pediment there was probably a flat terrace on the summit. The present roof and the whole front-wall of the cella are modern.

The =Town Museum= contains antiquities from Tebessa, Morsott, etc.
(catalogue for the use of visitors). In the court are relics of
antique and early-Christian buildings, inscriptions, altars,
Saturn-stelæ and tomb-stelæ, some of them with bowls on the pedestal
for the repasts of the deceased. The cella contains bronzes, vessels
and sculptures in clay, etc.; a sarcophagus with the Muses; two
mosaics from the baths which were removed to make way for the cavalry
barracks, one with Nereids and sea monsters, the other with a
home-coming ship and numbered figures of a game (bull, ostrich,
gazelle, boar, etc.; comp. p. 292).

The =Catholic Church=, at the N.W. angle of the town-wall, is adorned in the interior with a few fragments from the Basilica. Thus, over the high-altar, are remains of an early-Christian sarcophagus with three curious figures in relief (Christian Roma?).

ENVIRONS. The _Roman Aqueduct_, 547 yds. long, restored in turn by the
Moors, the Turks, and the French, still conveys water from the spring
of _Aïn el-Bled_.—About 1¾ M. from the Porte de Constantine (p. 315)
are the extensive late-Roman ruins of _Tebessa Khalia_ (‘Old
Tebessa’), the nature of which is still unexplained.

Diligence daily to (11 M.) _Youks-les-Bains_ (2625 ft.), with
‘indifferent’ hot springs (95° Fahr.), 2 M. to the S.W. of the
Meskiana and Aïn-Beïda road (p. 273).

To avoid the long return-journey from Tebessa to Souk-Ahras, we may
ride or drive to the N.W. viâ (26 M.) _Haidra_ (p. 362) to (40½ M.)
_Thala_ (p. 362) or to (37½ M.) rail. stat. _Kalaâ-Djerda_ (p. 362). A
mineral-line also runs thence to the Algerian frontier and the
phosphate-beds on _Jebel Kouif_ (3871 ft.; leave to travel by it is
usually granted by the manager).

A road leads to the S.W., past _Jebel Osmor_ (5052 ft.), noted for its
Punic rock-tombs, then across the _Tenoukla Pass_, between _Jebel
Tenoukla_ (5118 ft.) on the right and _Jebel Bou Roumane_ (p. 320) on
the left, and past _Bou-Chebka_ (caravanserai), to (47 M.) _Feriana_
(p. 371). Diligence viâ Feriana to _Gafsa_ (p. 383) in two days (fare
30 fr.).