START FROM ALGIERS ON SECOND EXPEDITION — EARL OF KINGSTON
UNDERTAKES PHOTOGRAPHIC DEPARTMENT — ARRIVAL AT TUNIS — SEBKHA
ES-SEDJOUNI — MOHAMMEDIA — AQUEDUCT OF CARTHAGE — OUDENA
— ZAGHOUAN.
My second expedition in the footsteps of Bruce was made in the spring
of 1876, and on this occasion I confined my explorations to the
Regency of Tunis. I was accompanied by only one companion, the Earl
of Kingston, who undertook to make photographs of all the buildings
which Bruce had figured, so as to enable a careful comparison of each
to be made at leisure, for the drawings themselves were too precious
to be trusted on so hazardous a journey. He succeeded beyond our most
sanguine expectation—there are naturally degrees of excellence
amongst them, but we had not to deplore a single failure. It was
a very anxious subject during the whole course of our journey;
the plates were all dry, so the result could not be known till our
return to Algiers. There were a thousand dangers and difficulties
to be overcome—dangers from clouds of fine penetrating dust,
dangers from the tendency that our baggage always had to slip
off in the middle of a river, too much light on one occasion, not
enough on another. My companion devoted himself to his plates like
a mother to her firstborn child, and the result was, that after
six weeks’ continuous travelling over a country containing almost
every possible element of difficulty and danger (from a photographic
point of view), not a plate was broken, and not a picture appeared
too much or insufficiently exposed. I regret that I cannot publish
as many of them as I could desire, but the aim of my journey was
to illustrate Bruce, and even his drawings are far too numerous
for reproduction. I must gladly acknowledge that Lord Kingston’s
camera ensured the success of the expedition, and certainly his
companionship contributed greatly to the pleasure of it.
We debated anxiously whether we should commence our journey from
the Algerian side of the frontier line or proceed direct to Tunis;
but the difficulty of obtaining horses, mules, and escort, at places
remote from the capital, decided us on adopting the latter course. We
proceeded to Tunis by the _Valery_ steamer, and arrived there on
March 26. Personal allusions in works of travel are generally better
omitted, but I hope my esteemed colleague, Mr. Wood, will pardon me
if I take this opportunity of acknowledging with gratitude the more
than friendly reception we met with from himself and his family, the
readiness and solicitude with which he forwarded our views and helped
us in our preparations, and the warm hearts, as open as their house,
which make the Consulate at Tunis not only the centre of social life,
but a haven of rest to all who are in difficulty or trouble.
To describe Carthage or Tunis would be to tell a thrice-told tale. My
hero passed over both with commendable brevity, and I will do no
more than quote his words regarding them:—
We passed ancient Carthage, of which little remains but the cisterns,
the aqueduct and a magnificent flight of steps up to the Temple of
Æsculapius, and arrived at Tunis. In rowing over the Bay you see a
great number of pillars and buildings yet on foot, so that the sea has
been concerned in the destruction of Carthage. Tunis is twelve miles
distant from this; it is a large and flourishing city. The people
are more civilised than in Algiers,[98] and the government milder,
but the climate is very far from being so good; Tunis is low, hot,
damp and destitute of good water, with which Algiers is supplied
from a thousand springs.
The only drawing which he has left of Carthage is a rough pen-and-ink
sketch of the interior of the great reservoirs.
We determined to make two excursions from Tunis before setting out on
our journey into the remote interior—the first to Zaghouan, where
is one of the springs which supplied ancient Carthage, and the other
to Bizerta; both these can be done in carriages, and this enabled me
for a little while to enjoy the society of a brother, whose health
would not enable him to make a long journey on horseback. It also
happened that His Highness the Bey was absent for a time from his
usual place of residence, and we could not possibly set out on our
journey without presenting our respects to him, and obtaining the
necessary letters of recommendation.
We left Tunis early on the morning of March 29, by the Bab el-Djizira,
or gate of the island, by a road which has been cut through an Arab
cemetery, surrounding the shrine of Sidi Ali ben Ahsan. The heights
above are crowned by two very picturesque forts, which are prominent
objects in the landscape from every point of view round Tunis. The
ground being somewhat undulating, the great salt marsh or lake, called
Sebkha es-Sedjoumi, which extends to five miles to the south-west
of the town, is concealed from sight till we approach its southern
extremity. During the winter months this contains a considerable body
of water, but in summer it becomes little more than a fetid marsh,
with a broad efflorescence of salt around its margin.
Kingston spent several hours yesterday in shooting around this
lake, and reports that snipe, plover, and other wading birds are
most abundant.
As we approached the Mohammedia we observed, lying in the middle
of the road, a very fine cippus of white marble, which had recently
been found at Ain Segal, and was being conveyed to Tunis by order of
General Kheir-ed-din. It was so heavy that the _caratoni_ on which it
was placed broke down. On our return it had disappeared, and as the
inscription is probably unpublished I was glad to have copied it,
though very hurriedly, on the outward journey. Its dimensions were
4 ft. 7 in. long, 23 inches broad, and 25 deep.
. VIIIAI HORTENSIA . . .
. VRDINIAE . ANTONIAE
. . YMAE . FLAM. PERP . .
. . . E VNIVERSAE . EI . .
. OMARI. HSVBAEDIAN .
I SIDVAMEI FREQVEN .
VNIVERSOS CIVES SVO
. IBERALITATEM
I. D. D. D.
At eleven miles from Tunis is the Mohammedia, an immense ruined
palace, or rather a mass of palaces, built by Ahmed Bey, who died
in 1855, at an expense of many millions of piastres, and decorated
with great magnificence, but which since his death has been allowed
to go to ruin. It has served as an inexhaustible mine for materials
with which to build and adorn other palaces; its marble columns have
disappeared, its walls have been stripped of their covering of tiles,
the roofs have nearly all fallen in, and it is impossible to imagine
a more perfect picture of desolation than is presented by this modern
ruin. Probably, when the present Bey dies, his successor will choose
a new residence, and the Kasr Saeed will fall into decay as this
palace has done. The aqueduct from Zaghouan passes through one of the
courts of the palace, but it is here low, and by no means a striking
object. We observed in one of the dependencies a cippus similar to the
one before described, but without any trace of inscription. It was
while excavating the foundations of one of the buildings here that
the two inscriptions now preserved in the Church of the Capuchins
at Tunis were found. These have been frequently reproduced; one
contains the names of three bishops, but without designating their
sees, the other that of a sub-deacon of the African Church.[99]
Shortly after leaving the Mohammedia the ruins of the ancient aqueduct
come in sight, and at a distance of about fourteen miles from Tunis
the road crosses the Oued Melian, the Catada of Ptolemy. Here is seen,
in all its surpassing beauty, one of the greatest works the Romans
ever executed in North Africa, the aqueduct conveying the waters of
Zaghouan and Djougar to Carthage.[100]
During all the time that Carthage remained an independent State the
inhabitants seem to have contented themselves with rain-water caught,
and stored in reservoirs, both from the roofs of houses and from paved
squares and streets. Thirty years after the destruction of this city
by Scipio it was rebuilt by a colony under Caius Gracchus, but it
was not till the reign of the Emperor Hadrian (A.D. 117 to 138) that
the inhabitants, having recovered their ancient wealth, and having
suffered from several consecutive years of drought, represented their
miserable condition to the Emperor, who himself visited the city and
resolved to convey to it the magnificent springs of Zeugitanus Mons,
the modern Zaghouan. This, however, was not sufficient for the supply
of the city, and after the death of Hadrian another fine spring at
Mons Zuccharus, the present Djebel Djougar, was led into the original
aqueduct—probably in the reign of Septimius Severus, as a medal was
found at Carthage with his figure on the reverse, and on the obverse,
Astarte seated on a lion beside a spring issuing from a rock.
It was certainly destroyed by Gilimer, the last of the Vandal kings,
when endeavouring to reconquer Carthage, and again restored by
Belisarius, the lieutenant of Justinian. On the expulsion of the
Byzantines it was once more cut off, and restored by their Arab
conquerors, and finally destroyed by the Spaniards during their
siege of Tunis. It was reserved for the present Bey, Sidi Saduk,
once more to restore this ancient work, and to bring the pure and
abundant springs which formerly supplied Carthage into the modern
city of Tunis.
M. Collin, a French engineer, planned and executed this work. Of
course, the advanced state of hydraulic science at the present day
rendered it unnecessary to make use of the ancient arches. The
aqueduct originally consisted, for a great part of its course,
of a covered masonry channel, running sometimes quite underground,
sometimes on the surface. This was comparatively uninjured by time,
and served, with little repair, for the modern work. Where the old
aqueduct passed high over the surface of the country, iron pipes
and syphons have been substituted.
The contract price was 7,800,000fr., but the work certainly cost the
Bey nearly 13,000,000fr.; and, useful as it certainly is, there is
no doubt that it was the commencement of his financial difficulties.
[Illustration: _Plate X._
J. LEITCH &. Co. Sc.
AQUEDUCT OF CARTHAGE
FAC SIMILE OF FINISHED DRAWING IN INDIAN INK BY BRUCE (AND BALUGANI?)
HENRY S. KING Co. LONDON.]
The original aqueduct started from two springs, those of Zaghouan
and Djougar; and to within sixteen miles of the present city of
Tunis—namely, to the south side of the plain of the Catada—it
simply followed the general slope of the ground without being raised
on arches. From this point, right across that plain—a distance
of three Roman, or two-and-a-half English miles—with slight
intermissions, owing to the rise in the ground, and so on to the
terminal reservoir at the modern village of Mäalika, it was carried
over a superb series of arches—sometimes, indeed, over a double
tier. The total length of the aqueduct was sixty-one Roman miles,
or 98,897 yards, including the branch from Mons Zuccharus, which
measured twenty-two miles, or 36,803 yards; and it was estimated
to have conveyed 32,000,000 litres (upwards of 7,000,000 gallons)
of water a day, or eighty-one gallons per second, for the supply of
Carthage and the intermediate country.
The greatest difference is perceptible in the style of construction,
owing to the frequent restorations which have taken place. The oldest
and most beautiful portions are of finely-cut stone, each course
having a height of twenty inches; the stones are bossed, with a
squared channel worked at the joints, and the voussoirs are single
stones reaching quite to the bottom of the specus, in which there
exist, at intervals all along its course, circular manholes, both
to admit air and to permit the repair and cleansing of the channel.
Here and there on the faces of the piers may be seen stones projecting
from the surface, which it was the custom of the Romans to leave,
in order to support the scaffolding used in reparation. The impost
of each arch is a course of masonry of the same height as the other
courses, but rounded to a semicircular profile, and projecting half
its diameter from the face of the pier; it is, in other words, a
bead roll. The voussoirs are stepped on the extrados. The cut-stone
masonry never extends higher than two courses above the voussoirs,
the remaining height being of rubble masonry or concrete.
A great part of the aqueduct, however, is built in a far less solid
manner—of concrete blocks or of small irregular stones. The arches
were still of cut masonry, but much inferior in execution, and there
was a considerable space between the top of the extrados and the
bottom of the specus. The mere fact of masonry of this character
being used, _pisé_ in fact, by no means proves it to be of modern
origin, as Pliny informs us that this description of masonry was
much in use amongst the ancient Carthaginians.[101] In some places a
threatened danger had been guarded against by the erection of rough
and massive counterforts. Along the plain of the Oued Melian, in a
length of nearly two miles, we counted 344 arches still entire.
The aqueduct passed the river on a double series of arches. These were
all destroyed in order to make use of their foundations for the modern
bridge which now carries the water across, and serves at the same time
as a viaduct. One cannot but deplore that such a miserable economy
was effected at so great a price. We dare hardly vent our feelings
of indignation at the wholesale destruction of antiquities daily
carried on by the Arabs, after such an act of needless Vandalism.
From this point to Carthage, along the plains of the Mohammedia,
the Manouba and Ariana,[102] the ancient aqueduct is completely
ruined. It is not clear when Bruce visited this locality, probably
during the ‘some weeks excursion of no moment’ which followed
his first return from the south. He thus describes the aqueduct:—
There is a magnificent aqueduct, still in a great many places
entire. The beginning of this ruin is at Arriana, a village about
six miles from Tunis. It is built of a particular species of stone,
nearly of the colour of chalk, but of an exceeding hard quality,
which seems to have been brought from the neighbourhood of that city,
where there are whole mountains of it, probably the cause why it was
called _Λευκὸν Τύνετα_. Fifteen of its arches only are standing; the
rest are entirely ruined, and scarcely a vestige of them to be seen
as you approach nearer Carthage.
Dr. Shaw states that this is the most entire part, as well as the
most magnificent, which is not true, for in the plains under Uthina
there is a continuation of the aqueduct over a very large valley
. . . .[103] of whose arches are still standing, superior in height,
solidity, and ornament to those at Arriana, of a brownish stone,
brought from the neighbouring quarries at Uthina. The river Miliana
runs below it, and notwithstanding the great pains taken to secure
it [the river] has at length undermined the foundation, and brought
down two of the largest and most beautiful rows of arches, which
were built across it.
Bruce’s illustrations of this work are:
1. A perspective view of five bays of the aqueduct, probably from
the plain of Ariana, where it has been entirely destroyed to supply
building material for the modern city of Tunis (Pl. X.)
2. A drawing in Indian ink to scale, of elevation of an arch and a
half of the above. Also a section and an enlarged drawing of four
of the stones.
The dimensions marked on this are:
Ft. in. lines.
Total height 69 11 2
Height to top of impost 45 11 6
Height of arch 7 8 5½
Height above arch 16 2 6½
Breadth of pier 11 8 5
Thickness of pier at base 16 4 1
Space between piers 15 5 3
Leaving the Oued Melian the road follows the line of aqueduct, but
our object being to visit the ruins of Oudena before proceeding to
Zaghouan, we kept rather to the east of the usual track and arrived
there after a drive which occupied us about three hours and a half.
The ancient city of Uthina is mentioned by Ptolemy[104] and
Pliny;[105] and in the tables of Peutinger it is indicated, evidently
by a typographical error, as Uthica. In Morcelli’s ‘Africa
Christiana,’[106] a city of Utina, or Uthina, is mentioned as
situated on the Bagradas, which in spite of this error is no doubt
the same, celebrated, he says, not only in the records of the
Church, but in the works of profane writers. Its bishop, Felix,
attended the Council of Carthage in A.D. 258; another, Lampadius,
went to the Council of Arles in A.D. 314; Isaac assisted at Carthage
in 411; and Felicissimus was its bishop during the Vandal invasion,
when the place was probably destroyed by Genseric.
The present condition of the ruins proves it to have been a place of
very considerable importance; they cover an area of several miles,
and it must certainly have contained a very large population.
Pelissier[107] imagines this to have been the Tricamaron where
Belisarius overcame Gilimer, and where all the hoarded treasure
of the Vandals and the piratical spoil of Genseric fell into the
hands of the Byzantines. The position of that city has never been
satisfactorily determined; all that we know of it is, that it was 140
stadia from Carthage, and on the banks of a river which never dried,
but so small that the natives attached no name to it. They must have
had very different customs then to what prevail at the present day,
as there is hardly a stream in the country that does not bear at least
three names, in different parts of its course. In fact, in a country
like this, where most of the rivers are dry during a portion of the
year, it is not so much the water itself as its bed to which a name
is attached, and that varies with the locality in which it occurs;
thus a stream passing Sbeitla and Sbiba is called in part of its
course the _River of Sbeitla_, and further down the _River of Sbiba_.
The central and highest point in the city was crowned by a citadel
covering an area of about sixty-six yards long and thirty-three
wide. The entrance-gate was on the north-west front, facing the
amphitheatre. The walls were of great thickness and constructed of
large blocks of cut stone.
The upper terrace was surrounded by a parapet; below were several
chambers with strong vaulted roofs, still nearly entire. The largest
of these measures sixty-six feet long by thirty-three wide. The
vaults are supported on square piers, with a very bold and massive
cornice, each stone being twenty-four inches in breadth, thirty in
height, and three feet in depth. On the northern side is a large
arch twenty-three feet in diameter, loosely filled up with squared
stones. From the centre of this a passage about three feet in width
runs perpendicular to it, and after a distance of about sixteen feet
the passage bifurcates to the right and left, and descends at an
angle of 45° till it reaches a vast subterranean apartment, which
encircles the whole building, and was no doubt intended to serve as a
reservoir. The descent is very difficult, owing to the accumulation
of _débris_; but the chamber appears to have been about fifteen
or twenty feet high, and nearly the same width, occupying three
sides of a square, of which the passages before-mentioned formed the
fourth side. We found some human bones and fragments of old pottery,
but time did not permit of our making a thorough exploration of it.
To the north-west of this building is a very perfect amphitheatre,
with an elliptical arena; the major axis is about seventy-seven yards
in length, and the minor one fifty-five. Four principal entrances led
into it, and these, together with many of the upper arches, are still
in a very perfect condition. No doubt, in the construction of this,
advantage was taken of a natural depression on the top of a mamelon
in which it is sunk.
Behind this monument, towards the north, may be seen a small bridge
of three arches, spanning the bed of a watercourse.
To the south-west of the citadel are the remains of a theatre,
and to the south-east of it two very magnificent reservoirs, the
northern one intended to contain rain-water, but that to the south
was supplied from a well at some little distance, between which and
the reservoir are the remains of a solidly constructed aqueduct.
Perhaps the most remarkable of the ruins is one due east of the
citadel; it must have been a building of immense size, but it is
impossible from its present appearance to form any conjecture as
to its original destination. The walls, which were built of rubble
masonry, of great thickness, have been rent asunder into huge masses,
too large to have been moved by any mere mechanical power likely
to have been employed, and yet they lie scattered about, without
any apparent order, in every direction. In the midst of these huge
masses, confusedly hurled together, we observed a small opening,
through which it was just possible to crawl, giving entrance to
a series of reservoirs of immense height and size, separated by
partitions, yet connected together by arched passages. The cistern
by which we entered was about thirteen feet square, beyond it were
two larger ones, 79 feet long by 13 broad. There were at least six
others, deserving of a much closer examination than we had time to
give to them. Semicircular recesses were made in the walls here
and there to enable the water to be drawn easily from above. The
masonry throughout was quite perfect, not a trace visible of any
great convulsion of nature, which alone, one would think, could have
effected the ruin of the superincumbent building.
Twenty minutes more brought us from Oudena to the southern end of
the plain spanned by the aqueduct, where is a domed building, from
which the syphon of the modern aqueduct starts; this is sixteen
miles from Tunis, and twenty-and-a-half from Zaghouan.
From this spot we continued our journey through an undulating country
overgrown with brushwood, and after a few miles arrived at the ruins
of a Roman post, called by the Arabs Bab Khalid, the ancient name
of which is unknown.[108] The gate, or small triumphal arch, which
gives its name to the place, and which was entire when Guérin visited
it in 1860, has now fallen; one half however remains upright. There
are numerous cisterns and foundations of buildings scattered about,
but nothing of much interest. At thirty-three miles from Tunis
is the spot called Magaran, where the two sources from Zaghouan
and Djougar unite, and are conveyed in a single stream to Tunis,
as they formerly were to Carthage.
The former source will be described hereafter; the latter,
Ain Djougar, is situated twenty-three miles further to the west,
close to the village of Bent Saida, which occupies the site of the
ancient Zucchara Civitas. Like the other, this one also issued from
a monumental fountain, now in a very bad state of preservation,
but when visited by Shaw the frieze of the building still existed,
and bore the following inscription—[109]
. . . . . RORISII TOTIVSQVE DIVINAE DOMVS
EIVS CIVITAS ZVCCHARA FECIT ET DEDICAVIT.
At Magaran there is a very neat house, surrounded by a garden,
occupied by the French employé in charge of the waterworks, and
close to it an establishment, also belonging to a Frenchman, for the
collection of alpha grass, which grows abundantly on Djebel Zaghouan.
Continuing our route from this spot, which is thirty-three miles
from Tunis, and four from the village of Zaghouan, we reached the
latter place in about an hour, having travelled thirty-seven miles
in eight hours, or at the rate of 4⅝ miles per hour.
Here we were hospitably received by the Khalifa, Si Hamoud Wuled
Fadhel, who lodged us in the Dar el-Bey, and very kindly attended
to all our wants. We had taken the precaution to obtain an _amra_,
or recommendation, from the Bey of Tunis, without which it is quite
impossible to travel in this country.
The Dar el-Bey is a large and by no means handsome building, used
for the reception of guests, but it affords what alone travellers
require—a complete shelter, and a few rude beds on which they can
pass the night. We found it perfectly free from vermin of all sorts.
After the first destruction of Zaghouan it was rebuilt by a colony of
Andalusian Moors from Spain; but, notwithstanding its exceptionally
favourable position and the abundance of its water supply, it appears
to be falling into decay, half the houses are ruined, and there is no
appearance of any modern construction going on. Yet the land in the
wide plain below it appears everywhere capable of being cultivated;
when cleared it seems to yield satisfactory results, but a large
proportion is still covered with lentisk scrub. The olive woods
around are very extensive, and ought to be a source of great riches;
but the trees are all old, and there is no evidence of the formation
of new plantations.
The principal industry of Zaghouan for many generations has been the
dyeing of the red caps worn in all Mohammedan countries throughout
the basin of the Mediterranean, and here called _chachias_. In Turkey
such a cap is called _fez_, and in Egypt _tarboosh_. This is the only
place in the Regency where the operation has ever been performed, and
the secret is carefully preserved, and descends from father to son.
Many fragments of Roman masonry still remain about the town, and
frusta of columns are built into the angles of houses, but its
vicinity to Tunis has made it a sort of happy hunting-ground for
antiquaries and tourists, and most of the inscriptions have been
carried away as soon as they have been published by a traveller.
The _Zeugitana regio_ gave its name to the province of Africa proper,
or Zeugitana, and formed the boundary between it and the more southern
one of Byzacium. A town of Zeugis is mentioned by Aethicus,[110]
and Mons Zeugitanus by Solinus. The modern town of Zaghouan, no
doubt, occupies the same site as the ancient one, the crest of a
spur proceeding from the north-east side of the mountain bearing
the same name.
The only ruin of any importance is the entrance-gate, called Bab
el-Goos,[111] which, no doubt, served the same purpose to the
ancient city.
Bruce has made two illustrations of this.
1. A rough pencil perspective sketch, on which the measurements
are marked.
2. A finished Indian-ink drawing to scale, with ground plan,
details of mouldings of impost and base, and of the keystone. The
dimensions on this drawing are—
Ft. in. lines.
Height of moulding on base of pier 0 11 0
From top of moulding to bottom of impost 13 3 0
Thickness of impost 0 11 6
Thickness of stones—from 19 to 20 inches.
Width of gate 13 8 0
Thickness of pier 6 9 0
This monument is in a very ruined condition; the attic, if it
ever existed, and the entablature had disappeared before Bruce’s
visit. The arch is simple, without archivolt; the impost, which was
bold and salient, probably encircled the building. Round-headed
niches were sunk in the piers below the impost; only that on the
left hand on entering now remains. No order decorated its façade.
On the keystone of the arch is the sculptured representation of a
ram’s head, with an immense pair of horns, above which is a wreath
inclosing the word
AVXI
LIO
surmounted by a figure resembling a mason’s level, the angle being
a right one.
Shaw is of opinion that the ram’s head indicates that the city was
under the immediate protection and influence of Jupiter Ammon.[112]
Tortis cornibus Ammon.
_Lucan_, l. ix. p. 519.
At some period after Bruce’s visit, as he does not indicate it,
the Arabs have filled up the doorway with a smaller ogival arch,
which has contributed to strengthen the ancient one and ensure its
preservation. Perhaps it was intended for this purpose; if so,
they were more careful in those days than they are now, as not
the slightest care is taken to preserve any of the Roman remains
throughout the Regency.
The great interest of the place to the traveller is its vicinity to
the springs from which the aqueduct is supplied; the distance is about
a mile and a half, and there are two paths, one of which the traveller
would do well to take in going and the other in returning. The first
passes to the south of the delicious valley which runs east and west
behind the town, and close to the spring _Ain Ayat_, which is the
cause of its fertility; the other follows its northern border between
it and the hill on which the shrine of Sidi Hashlaf is built. This
valley is richly cultivated, and produces great quantities of fruit
trees; the waters of Ain Ayat are also used to turn a few flour-mills.
The great source however, which flows into the aqueduct, issues
from a spot a little further on, where are situated the remains of a
charming Roman temple, known to the natives by the name of El-Kasbah,
or the fortress.
Bruce, in his notes, dismisses this very unjustly with the following
remark:—
We found a temple immediately over the fountain, which carried the
water in the aqueduct to Carthage; it was very simple, and conveyed
little pleasure or instruction.
He did not even make a finished sketch of it; there is a rough
pencil outline on one sheet, and on another an equally rough plan
with measurements, and a number of architectural details, but neither
are capable of reproduction as illustrations.
The building is, in fact, extremely elegant, and in its original
condition must have been one of the most charming retreats which it
is possible to imagine. It is situated at the gorge of a narrow and
precipitous ravine descending from Djebel Zaghouan, but at a very
considerable elevation above the plain at its foot.
It consists of a paved area of a semicircular form, but with the
two exterior limbs produced in straight lines as tangents. Round the
perimeter was a raised colonnade, and at the end, in the middle of the
circular portion, was a rectangular cella, which is still tolerably
entire. The walls of this latter building are of rubble masonry, but
at the extremity there is a niche lined with cut stone, surmounting
what may either have been the base of a statue of an emperor or an
altar to a divinity. I am inclined to the former hypothesis, as the
mutilated trunk of such a statue, in white marble and of colossal
size, is actually lying on the ground outside. Above the door are the
remains of a beautiful architrave, which doubtless was surmounted by a
pediment. To the right and left of this proceeded a lateral gallery,
13 ft. 9 in. broad. The posterior wall was of finely-cut stone, with
thirteen square pilasters on each side, between every alternate pair
of which a round-headed niche for statuary was sunk in the thickness
of the wall. Towards the interior, a Corinthian column corresponded
to each of the pilasters, but these have long since been removed,
and now decorate the Djamäa el-Kebir, or principal mosque of
Zaghouan. Fragments of richly sculptured entablature lie scattered
around, and attest the original magnificence of the structure.
Each end of this colonnade was terminated by a handsome monumental
gateway, crowned by an entablature, one side of which is still in
very perfect condition; both appear to have been so at the time of
Bruce’s visit. These gateways were intended for architectural effect
and not as exits, as they abutted on the perpendicular face of the
wall below them. From the lower surface of the area on either side,
a flight of fifteen steps conducted to a basin or nymphæum, shaped
like a heart in cards, but with a rounded instead of a pointed apex;
in this the spring rose, and was conducted into the aqueduct. The
spring is no longer visible, being led into the modern aqueduct
before it emerges from the ground.
The colonnade was roofed by one general half-cylindrical vault
in the direction of the length of the building, intersected by
twelve other transversely directed cylindrical vaults rising from
the pilasters in the walls, and the columns in front. A cornice
of a bold outline ran all round, serving as impost to the vaults
and ornamental doorways, and as capitals to the pilasters. A great
portion of the vaults supported by the walls still remain, to show
the nature of the construction.
The rear of the wall was strengthened exteriorly by a coating of
immense blocks of cut stone to protect it from any rush of water
which might flow from the ravine above after heavy rain. There is
also a communication from the colonnade to the exterior by means of
a small square-headed door in the posterior wall.
A magnificent view is obtained by mounting the hill immediately
south of the town, crossing the valley watered by the Ain Ayat. The
contrast between the past and present, even of the most modern times,
is very striking. Almost every alternate house is in ruins, and the
population, which M. Guérin states to have been 2,900 in 1860, has
now diminished to little more than 700. We particularly noticed the
urbanity and good humour of the people of Zaghouan. Wherever we went,
alone or in company with Arabs, everyone we met had a pleasant word
and smile for us, and even the little urchins seemed pleased to leave
their favourite game of _okkaf_, the same as our English hockey,
and accompany us in our strolls, without being in the slightest
degree obtrusive, or seeming to expect a donation of _kharoubs_.
We returned to Tunis on March 31, the drive occupying seven hours
and a quarter, including an hour for breakfast at the Mohammedia.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 98: This was written in 1765!]
[Footnote 99: Guérin, ii. p. 277.]
[Footnote 100: See _Notice sur l’ancien Aqueduc de Carthage_,
par Ph. Caillat.]
[Footnote 101: Pliny, lib. xxxv. c. xlviii.]
[Footnote 102: Marmol derives the word _Ariana_ from Abd-er-Rana.]
[Footnote 103: Blank in original MS.]
[Footnote 104: Ptol. iv. 3, s. 4.]
[Footnote 105: Plin. v. 4, s. 4.]
[Footnote 106: Morc. vol. i. p. 364.]
[Footnote 107: Pel. p. 238.]
[Footnote 108: Perhaps ‘Oppidum Abutucense’ of Pliny, and the
‘Aptucensis’ of Morcelli, _Afr. Christ._ i. p. 77.]
[Footnote 109: Shaw, p. 153.]
[Footnote 110: _Cosmogr._ p. 63.]
[Footnote 111: باب القوس]
[Footnote 112: Shaw, p. 185.]