Chapter IV

BONE TO GUELMA — RUINS OF ANNOUNA — HAMMAM MESKOUTIN — ROKNIA
— CAVE OF DJEBEL THAYA— MAHADJIBA — THE SOUMAH.

We left Bone on April 13, for Guelma. It is no part of my plan to take the reader over beaten paths and well-known ground—the guide-books will tell him all he wants to know regarding these—but I cannot resist asking him to accompany me in several excursions we made in parts of the country quite unknown to the English traveller, and of which he will find no trace in ‘Murray.’

Our first resting-place was Guelma, and here I must acknowledge with gratitude the extreme kindness I have ever received from General Chanzy, Governor-General of Algeria, during my numerous wanderings in the colony. His letters of recommendation to the civil and military authorities have always ensured me a most distinguished reception, and have enabled me to visit places, which would have been very difficult of access to the simple traveller. I have described Guelma on a former occasion;[18] the only object of interest, which I had not noticed before and which M. Daly seized upon with delight, was a Roman tombstone in the square facing the hotel. It was that of a young man twenty-five years of age, who too confidently hoped that his wife would have rested beside him. The work is rude in point of art, but extremely beautiful in conception. It is a monolith of rose-coloured marble, square in plan, consisting of a pedestal with cornice, plinth and base, supporting a crowning part rising on the same plan, terminating in an architectural feature which has now disappeared. On the principal façade the top piece bears a circular wreath enclosing two portrait busts, in relief, that of the man only being completed, the features of the woman are not chiselled. The plinth has a garland suspended from the cornice, below which the surface is divided vertically for two inscriptions; that of the man only is filled up.

D_iis_ M_anibus_ S_acrum_.

Fl. Nævilla V_ixit_ A_nnis_ viginti novem d_iebus_ quindecim.

On the left side of the plinth is a folding door just shutting, symbolical of the terrestrial home which is being closed for ever. Above the cornice on the same side is another one opening, representing the life to come. This is confirmed by the opposite side, which bears on the plinth the figure of a winged child with reversed flambeau, while above it is a cock crowing, to represent the opening day. The cock is standing on a figure resembling a loop; it may possibly be intended for a serpent, the emblem of immortality.

At Guelma, the commandant-superior kindly provided us with tents and spahis for our intended explorations; but before commencing these, we visited the hot springs of Hammam Meskoutin, which none of my companions had seen. We also paid a visit to the ruins of Tibilis, which, though easily accessible from Guelma, are rarely visited by the tourist. They are close to the village of Ain Amara, on the highway between Guelma and Constantine.

Just after passing the 87th kilometric stone, a narrow path to the left descends a steep ravine, in which flows the Oued Announa, and mounts to the plateau on which stood the Roman city of Tibilis. The distance in a direct line is not more than three quarters of a mile from Ain Amara—by the road it is about a mile and a half.

The ruins stand on an open platform scarped on all sides except the S.W., where it joins the lower counterforts of Ras el-Akba. The view in the opposite direction looking eastward towards Guelma is extremely fine, and these two considerations, capability of defence, and a picturesque situation, appear here, as everywhere else in Algeria, to have determined the selection of the site. The ruins are worthy of a visit, though by no means in the best style of Roman art. They consist of a triumphal arch of the Corinthian order, with a single opening; on each side are two pilasters, the capital of one only exists; in front of these were disengaged columns, which have entirely disappeared, as also the whole of the entablature.

There are the remains also of what appears to have been another triumphal arch or one of the city gates, with two openings of equal size. The piers, which supported the arches, had a double Corinthian fluted pilaster embracing each angle, or eight pilasters to each pier. There is a Christian basilica, probably of the Byzantine period, and several other buildings of greater or less importance, fragments of the city walls, and frusta of columns lying about in every direction.

Announa was first described by Peyssonnel, who says:—

‘The numerous ruins in cut stone still remaining, show that it must have been a large and beautiful city; four gates similar to those of Paris, though smaller, still remain. They are detached works with pilasters of the order Corinthian-Ionic. Two of these are double, like that of St. Bernard at Paris. Towards the mountain are the ruins of a church, above the door is a cross _pattée_ with an A and a P under the limbs of the cross. There are also great fragments of columns, of which some are four or five feet in diameter, and 30 or 40 feet long, others smaller.’[19] Shaw also mentions Announa by name, but there is no reason to believe that he ever actually visited it.

No important inscription has ever, as far as I am aware, been found here, by which the age of this city may be determined; but, to judge from those hereafter mentioned as existing in the entrance to the cave of Djebel Thaya, the third century was probably the culminating period of its prosperity. Few of the monuments are at all likely to have been built at a period anterior to this date.

There is a little wayside inn at Ste. Cécile, the junction of the Oued Bou-Hamdan and Oued Cherf, near which the road to Hammam Meskoutin branches off. On a previous visit to this place, I witnessed a rather curious experiment in vivisection. Our party had come unexpectedly upon the good people, and found that they had absolutely nothing to give us for supper, not even the usual standing dishes of omelette and sausages. I asked the hostess if, living so close to two rivers, she never had fish; her countenance cleared up at once, and she said that if we cared for the fish of the country, we might have as many as we pleased in ten minutes. She sent her son, with a casting-net, to the river, and he soon returned with a magnificent basketful of barbel, some weighing nearly half a pound. No time was to be lost—we were starving—so our hostess at once emptied the fish into a tub, cut them open, cleaned and brushed out their inside with a little broom made of twigs, and threw them into another tub of clean water. To our astonishment, the fish swam about as if no such liberties had been taken with their interiors, and _so continued to swim about_, until subsequently transferred to the frying-pan! If my story is discredited, I shall have the satisfaction of knowing that Shaw shared the same fate when talking of his lion-eaters, and Bruce’s raw beef was long considered an impudent fiction.

We slept at the hot springs of Hammam Meskoutin on the night of the 14th April, and on the following day made an excursion on horseback to Roknia, a distance of about six miles.

Here, on the west side of Djebel Debagh, is an immense necropolis of megalithic tombs, generally of the same type, rough stones placed in an upright position, enclosing the actual grave, and covered with a large flat slab. We excavated a number, and found them to contain human remains and cups of pottery. Not far off are 300 or 400 caves, some quite natural, others excavated by the hand of man, which have evidently served as residences for the living as well as tombs for the dead. A few fragments of a bronze bracelet were found in one and a bronze ring in another. In the present state of Algerian archæology it is impossible to fix with any precision the age of these dolmens. Notwithstanding the interesting memoirs and researches of General Faidherbe, MM. Bourguignat, Berbrugger, Féraud, Bertherand and Bourjot, we have insufficient data for coming to any definite conclusion; one thing is certain, that if they were commenced in prehistoric times they were continued down to a late period of the Roman occupation. M. Ph. Thomas found in one of the dolmens of Sigus a vase unmistakably of Roman origin, containing a quantity of black mould, amongst which was a coin of Domitian; his bust was crowned and surrounded by a long Latin inscription, recording his titles of Augustus and Germanicus, and his elevation for the fourteenth time to the consular dignity. M. Letourneux is also said to have found in the Aures Mountains megalithic monuments, some of the stones of which were evidently the remains of Roman edifices.

On the 16th April we started for Djebel Thaya, which is about sixteen miles distant. Shortly after leaving the baths, the road crosses the Bou Hamdan, and passes amongst the hills to the left of that river, following a north-westerly direction. Many beautiful views are obtained, especially that from the crest of a spur of Thaya; on the right is a sterile hill called El-Gharar, on the left the lofty and fertile mountain of the Beni Ibrahim, on the top of which is a conspicuous conical rock called _Hadjar eth-Theldj_, or stone of ice. At last, after a short descent, we crossed the Oued El-Khoorshif, and came in sight of the entrance to the cave, high up in the face of a mass of rock rising abruptly to our left.

We found that three tents had been pitched for our accommodation, and that the Sheikh of the district, Tahar ben el-Fitisi, with a number of Arabs, was waiting to receive us. It was too late to do anything that night, so we contented ourselves with examining the entrance and walking about the neighbourhood, which was most picturesque. The cold was intense, and, though we piled all available garments upon our beds, we seemed to get no warmer. It did not occur to us till afterwards that, as we used canteen beds, which consist only of a single sheet of canvas, stretched on poles, we should have put some of our wraps below us; one side of our bodies was protected by a thick layer of covering, the other had no protection whatever, save the canvas.

Early next morning we commenced our exploration; our party consisted of three ladies and two gentlemen. I dare not venture to describe the costume adopted by the former; it was thoroughly well adapted for the purpose, but, to say the least, it was unusual. M. Daly and I put on some old rags, which we intended to throw away afterwards. All of us had Spanish rope _espadrillas_ instead of shoes, and miners’ lamps in our hands. We had a large number of Arab guides to attend us, each of whom carried a lighted candle in his hand, and an abundant reserve in case of need.

The opening of the cave is on the north-west side of the mountain, which is composed of a compact limestone. The entrance-passage is spacious, being in no place less than ten feet in height; the exterior portion opens out like a hall, well lighted, dry, and adorned with beautiful tufts of ivy-leaved and other ferns. On the sides are carved numerous Roman inscriptions, so much effaced by time as to be hardly legible. M. Bourguignat, who was one of the first to explore this cave, has published an elaborate, but rather fanciful description of it.[20] He counted fifty-three inscriptions on the left, eight on the right, and three on the roof. Nearly all begin with the letters B.A.S.; one, better preserved than the others, has the words BACICI. AVG. SAC., from which it is inferred that this cavern is dedicated to the god Bacax; it is further gathered from the inscriptions, that every year the magistrates of _Tibilis_ (Announa) came, with much ceremony, on a pilgrimage to Thaya, to offer a sacrifice to the god of the cavern. The inscriptions contain the names of consuls who were elected under the Emperors Caracalla and Geta, A.D. 211, and from this date they are mentioned up to A.D. 268. The following is one of them:—

BACCACI . AVG. SAC.

GENTIANO . ET . BASS

O. COS. VII. I_d._ MAIA_s_

C. IVLIVS . FRONTO

NIANVS . ET . M_odes_

_tin_VS . PR_vd_ES

MA_gg_. THIB.

which may thus be rendered: ‘In the year of the Consuls Gentianus and Bassus (A.D. 211), the 7th of the Ides of May, Caius Julius Frontinianus and Modestinus, Magistrates of Thibilis, offered sacrifice to the august Bacax.’ One is commemorative of two brothers, who strayed into the cavern and were lost there, an accident which might very easily happen at the present day, and which probably would happen to anyone entering without experienced Arab guides. The god Bacax is unknown to history; probably he was one of the local deities adopted by the Romans.

On leaving the passage containing the inscriptions, the cave descends at an angle of not less than 45 degrees; the ground is covered with a thick layer of loose stones, which roll down with alarming velocity at almost every step made in advance. Great care should be taken to keep well to the right hand, as on the left there is an abyss which has never been explored, but which must be of great depth, and nearly vertical. This is the most alarming part of the whole descent, and one lady of the party found herself unable to face it, and returned. The two others were made of sterner stuff, and proved themselves the best acrobats of the party.

From the foot of this ramp the cave extends, with many accidents of level, to nearly three quarters of a mile in length and a thousand feet in vertical depth. The descent is difficult, and even dangerous throughout, as deep holes occur at numerous places, in which an unwary explorer might easily be engulfed. Sometimes we had to drop down steep precipices, by the aid of projecting stalagmites, at others to slide down muddy gradients, now to creep through small holes and narrow passages, and again to wade through pools of liquid mud. We traversed vast halls, intricate labyrinths, passages, and chambers of every size and form. Groves of stalactites and stalagmites adorn the sides, while the lofty vaults are hung with the most exquisite fret-work, like the roof of a Gothic cathedral. The finest of all is the great domed chamber, at the bottom, which gives to the cave its Arab name, _Ghar el-Djamäa_ (Cave of the Mosque); it is an immense, nearly circular, cavity, with domed roof; from the ground rise magnificent stalagmites, like the trunks of palm trees, and in the centre is a huge block of stone, which M. Bourguignat imagines to have been an altar to Bacax. It may have been so; we certainly observed marks of fire and fragments of blackened Roman pottery upon it, but it must have been a matter of no small difficulty to convey animals for sacrifice to it.

One of the most exquisite spots in the cave was a long, narrow passage, which, our guides assured us, they had never observed before. It was not convenient to enter, as we had to creep on our hands and knees in water, and could in no place sit upright, but the effect was very beautiful; the walls were of dazzling whiteness, and the floor a series of cells, like a honeycomb, filled with beautifully pure water. We christened this hall ‘Salle Cobden,’ after our companions. I inscribed the name with the smoke of my lamp, on the roof, and I record the fact in order that future generations may know the meaning of the inscription, and not puzzle themselves as much over it as we did over Bacax.

We had an abundant supply of blue lights and red fire, and one of the grandest effects was produced by sending Arabs with these to illuminate distant caves and galleries, while we remained in the darkness of some central hall.

A comparatively small portion of the cave has been explored. The Arabs say that there is _no end_ to it. We spent more than five hours there, and I am sure that we did not see half its beauties. When we did emerge into the light of day, I leave the reader to imagine our condition; I certainly shall not venture to describe it. Luckily there was abundance of hot water awaiting us, and gradually we returned to our normal condition.

In visiting this cave a few precautions are absolutely necessary.

1. The traveller should provide himself with a tent.

2. He should never attempt to penetrate without Arab guides.

3. He should have an abundant supply of candles, matches, and blue lights, or magnesium wire.

4. He should have canvas shoes with hempen soles to prevent himself from slipping, and he should only wear such clothes as he is content to abandon afterwards.

We made up our mind to proceed to Constantine on horseback, by an unfrequented path; so we sent back our tents from Djebel Thaya, and determined to content ourselves with such accommodation as we could find on the way.

We started on the morning of April 18. The road passed through a great variety of scenery—cork forests, fertile valleys, wide stretches of pasture land, everywhere well watered. Some of the streams are as beautiful as if they had been transported from a Highland glen.

At about 10 miles from Thaya, we passed an Arab market, _Souk el-Arbäa_, where a fair is held every Wednesday. There are a few buildings, generally unoccupied save on market day.

At Tarafana, some distance further on, is a remarkable isolated mass of rock, fifty or sixty feet high, on the right of the road; on the west side of it are the remains of a building of large cut stones, either of Roman construction or more probably erected by the Byzantines out of older material. Its position in the centre of this fertile valley clearly enough indicates that it must have been a military post. On a rising ground to the left of the road, opposite to it, are a few large dolmens, which, unfortunately, our time would not allow us to excavate.

Shortly after this we entered a long plain and saw, far off in the distance, the village of El-Aria, which we hoped to reach that night. We felt very tired, not having yet got habituated to marching, and longed to know exactly how many weary miles we still had to travel. Two human beings alone appeared in sight, and they were mere specks in the distance, and might be Arabs, who had no idea whatever of distance or time; as they approached they assumed the very pleasant forms of a well-to-do farmer, out for an evening ride accompanied by his young daughter. He counselled us not to attempt to go any farther that night, but to accompany him to his farm of El-Khanaba, which was close at hand. We needed no second invitation, and I am sure that none of us will ever think of M. and Mme. A——— and their fair young daughter without the most pleasant reminiscence of the night we spent under their hospitable roof.

He took us all over his farm and showed us some interesting ruins, which proved that it must have been an important agricultural establishment in the time of the Romans. The foundations of a handsome villa still exist, mill-stones and immense amphoræ have been dug up, and a perfect mine of cut stones, which have been utilised in constructing the modern farm buildings.

Next morning, April 19, our host and his daughter insisted on accompanying us some distance on our way; poor girl, it was such a boon to her to meet a party of English ladies, that she could not contemplate bidding them adieu without a little moistening of the eyes. She had no neighbour within many miles, and, but for the fact of her being a good horsewoman, must have felt it very lonely, living so far from other Europeans.

They advised us strongly to visit some interesting Roman remains at no great distance, which but for them we should have missed, Mahadjiba, or Kasr-el-Mahdjouba, the _Castle of the Female Recluse_ and the Seniore of the Itinerary of Antoninus.

The position of this city or stronghold was admirably chosen from a strategic point of view, being built on an isolated hill, the top of which is a rough triangle rising abruptly from the plain and sloping backwards towards its base in a series of terraces.

In front of it is an extensive stretch of rich corn and pasture land, reaching as far as Constantine, while behind it on the South is a narrow pass in the Fedj-bou-Ghareb, a remarkable scarped hill of compact limestone, giving access to the plain of the Amer Cheraga and Oued Zenati, in which are situated 83,000 out of the 100,000 hectares of land so lavishly granted to the Société Generale Algérienne by the late Emperor.

Thus this position completely commanded the ancient highway between Cirta and Kalama, as it now commands the Arab road between Constantine and Guelma.

The whole hill is covered with the remains of buildings constructed of huge blocks of cut stone; some of the walls are entire to above the level of the first-floor, the holes for the reception of the joists being distinctly visible. The principal and best-preserved edifice is the tower, from which the ruins derive their Arab name, an elegant and massive building, which perhaps formed the citadel of the place. It consists of a rectangular inner keep about 30 ft. by 18, and 40 high, complete as far as the cornice. It was divided in ground plan into two portions, communicating with a door which was about half the whole interior width; there were probably also two or more stories. This was surrounded on three sides by an outer wall four feet thick, forming a spacious enclosure, the whole being a part of the general system of defence. The fourth side of the tower, towards the body of the place, was not thus surrounded; a simple prolongation of its face completed the enceinte. The walls of the tower are pierced with narrow apertures, like modern loop-holes for musketry, while the outer wall has larger ones, resembling embrasures for artillery.

Two different styles of masonry are observable in the outer walls of this building, the stones in both being identical. The lower courses are accurately and closely joined, the upper ones much more loosely put together. This would indicate that, like many other Roman strongholds, Seniore was more or less destroyed by the Vandals, or suffered to fall into decay during their occupation, and restored by Belisarius or his successor Solomon. Every building in the place seems to have been built with a view to defence. All have the same loopholes, and many of them have what appears to have been a species of portcullis.

This was formed by two immense upright blocks of stone, _a_, _a_, having an exterior and interior groove. In the former large flat stones were dovetailed, _c_, and it is probable that some of these were habitually left out, and only put into position during an actual siege; the lowest one generally exists at present in its proper place. In times of peace, bars of wood, _b_, one above the other, let into the inner grooves, formed a more temporary barrier.

At the base of the hill below the citadel is an arch of cut stone, giving access to a subterranean passage, whence flowed a stream of water. This is now choked up, and the water has forced itself a passage through the _débris_ about a hundred yards further down, where it has created a little oasis of trees, the only ones as far as the eye can reach. Here, again, the destruction of forests has been taking place. Shaw, alluding to it, says, ‘There is a large tower at this place, besides a fountain of excellent water, and good pasturage, but the forests all about it are so frequented with wild beasts that the _Girfah_ will rarely sit down in the neighbourhood of it.’[21]

M. Renier gives ten inscriptions found here, but none of them of any great importance,[22] and illustrations of the ruins have been made both by Ravoisier and De la Marre.[23]

On the hill to the left are several dolmens and cromlechs mixed up with the remains of Roman tombs and modern Arab graves.

On the opposite side of the valley is seen El-Aria, or, more correctly, El-Haria, the goal of our journey yesterday, twenty-five miles from the cave, and nineteen from Constantine. A caravanserail was built there when the road between Guelma and Constantine passed by it; now the direction is changed, and the building had been abandoned. At the time of our journey a village was in process of construction; it is intended to contain sixteen homesteads, to be occupied by colonists having means sufficient to build their own houses. Each family has received a gratuitous concession of ninety acres of land, but they complained loudly that their allotments were generally in three different positions remote from each other. The Mairie, schools, and other public offices, were to be in the old caravanserail.

After leaving Mahadjiba we went in a south-westerly direction towards El-Khroub, for the purpose of visiting another remarkable ruin, which is only two miles from it, and nine-and-a-half from Constantine, but which is hardly ever visited by English travellers. It is called by the Arabs Es-Soumah, the minaret, a term which they habitually employ to designate any ancient mausoleum or tower-like monument.

This beautiful edifice, the history of which is quite unknown, is in the purest Doric style, and probably dates from the first century. It is built on a mound near the eastern boundary of the territory of Cirta, as has been proved by the discovery of a stone bearing the inscription A.P.C. (_ager publicus Cirtensium_),[24] and close to the high road between that city and Kalama on the one hand, and Lambessa on the other. Its object was either to serve as the mausoleum of some distinguished person or to commemorate a great victory.

The building as it now exists is composed of three principal parts, a square base, of nearly 10 feet high, surmounted by three gradients, each 20 inches in height. Above these gradients rises a plinth of 3 ft. 7 in., crowned by a splendid cornice, of a bold and firm, yet refined, character, measuring 26 inches in height. At this level a course of stones, 20 inches high, retired from the cornice by 12 inches on all sides, extends like a pavement over the upper surface of the monument, and serves as a footing to four square pillars that occupy each angle, leaving a distance outside of nearly a yard on the two exterior faces. The courses of stone in the pillars are 2 ft. high, and 5 ft. 8 in. on each side. Prominent round bucklers decorate the outward faces of each of these pillars.

Unfortunately, at this point the monument has been thrown to the ground, and it is amongst the ruins that a search must be made for the completion and restoration of the buildings. No doubt, earthquakes contributed greatly to its destruction, but there is abundant evidence that the hand of man was not foreign to the work. Part of the material is scattered in every direction, but it is principally on the north side that it lies heaped up to the level of the floor. We found beautiful capitals of the Doric order, frusta of columns without fluting of any description, soffits decorated with geometric forms, small entablatures, evidently belonging to the interior of the ruined part of the building, and fragments of the superior cornice. No doubt, the square pillars supported columns crowned with a pediment of some sort, and leaving between them an open vista to expose to view and protect some notable object, such as a statue or a sarcophagus.

The whole building is formed of beautifully cut stone, joined with great perfection. No trace of mortar can be perceived.

The ground around it has risen in the course of ages nearly to the level of the base, but in 1861 the south and part of the east side were cleared of _débris_,[25] and a vain attempt made to penetrate to the interior. The problem of its origin still remains unsolved; but a careful search amongst the accumulated ruins on the north side would, doubtless, be richly rewarded.

No detailed description, so far as I am aware, has been published of this monument, but excellent illustrations, and a proposed restoration of it, are given by M. Ravoisier.[26]

From the Soumah we continued our ride to Constantine, where we arrived just as it was getting dark, and here, for the first time, we found ourselves on the track of Bruce.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 18: _Murray’s Hand-book_, p. 193.]

[Footnote 19: Peyssonnel, ap. D. de la Malle, i. p. 285.]

[Footnote 20: _Histoire du Djebel Thaya_; Paris, 1870.]

[Footnote 21: Shaw, p. 123.]

[Footnote 22: L. Renier, Nos. 2,565 to 2,574.]

[Footnote 23: Ravoisier, _Expl. Sc. de l’Algérie, Beaux Arts_, i. pl. 65-66, and De la Marre, l.c. _Archéologie_, pl. 161.]

[Footnote 24: _Ann. Arch. Const._ vol. v. p. 143.]

[Footnote 25: _Ann. Arch. Const._ vol. vi. p. 68.]

[Footnote 26: Ravoisier, _Expl. Scien. de l’Alg., Beaux Arts_, vol. i. p. 75, pl. 61-64.]