The remains of the grandeur and magnificence of Carthage, the rival of
Rome, and one of the most commercial cities of the ancient world, are
not so striking as might be expected; and, at a little distance, can
scarcely be distinguished from the ground on which they lie. The
vestiges of triumphal arches, of superb specimens of Grecian
architecture, of columns of porphyry or granite, or of curious
entablatures, are no longer discernible: all are vanished; and thus will
it be in future ages with the most renowned cities now on earth!
To discover these ruins requires some method. Leaving Tunis, the
traveler rides along the shore in an east-north-east direction, and
reaches, in about half an hour, the salt-pits, which extend toward the
west, as far as a fragment of wall, very near to the “great reservoirs.”
Passing between these salt-pits and the sea, jetties are seen running
out to a considerable distance under water. The sea and the jetties are
on his right; on his left he perceives a great quantity of ruins, upon
eminences of unequal hight; and below these ruins a basin of a circular
form, and of considerable depth, which formerly communicated with the
sea by means of a canal, traces of which are still to be seen. This
basin appears to have been the “Cothon,” or inner port of Carthage. The
remains of the immense works discernible in the sea, in this case
indicate the site of the outer mole. Some piles of the dam said to have
been constructed by Scipio, for the purpose of blocking up the port, may
be still distinguished. A second inner canal is conjectured to have been
the cut made by the Carthaginians, when they opened a new passage for
their fleet.
The greater part of Carthage was built on three hills. On a spot which
overlooks the eastern shore is the area of a spacious room, with several
smaller ones adjoining: some of them have tesselated pavements; and in
all are found broken pieces of columns of fine marble and porphyry. They
are conjectured to have been summer apartments beneath one of the
palaces, such as the intense heat of the climate must have required. In
rowing along the shore, the common sewers are still visible, and are but
little impaired by time. With the exception of these, the cisterns have
suffered the least. Besides such as belong to private houses, there are
two sets for the public use of the Tunisians. The largest of these was
the grand reservoir, and received the water of the aqueduct. It lay near
the western wall of the city, and consisted of upward of twenty
contiguous cisterns, each about one hundred feet in length, and thirty
in breadth. They form a series of vaults, communicating with each other,
and are bordered throughout their whole length by a corridor. The
smaller reservoir has a greater elevation, and lies near the Cothon or
inner port.
The ruins of the noble aqueduct which conveyed the water into the larger
cisterns, may be traced as far as Zawan and Zungar, at least fifty miles
distant. This must have been a truly magnificent, and at the same time,
a very expensive work. That part of it which extends along the peninsula
was beautifully faced with stone. At Arriana, a village to the north of
Tunis, are several entire arches each seventy feet high, and supported
by piers sixteen feet square. The water-channel is vaulted over, and
plastered with a strong cement. A person of an ordinary hight may walk
upright in it; and at intervals are apertures, left open, as well for
the admission of fresh air, as for the convenience of cleansing it. The
water-mark is nearly three feet high; but it is impossible to determine
the quantity daily conveyed to Carthage by this channel, without knowing
the angle of descent, which, in its present imperfect state, can not be
ascertained.
Temples were erected at Zawan and Zungar, over the fountains by which
this aqueduct was supplied. That at Zungar appears to have been of the
Corinthian order, and terminates very beautifully in a dome with three
niches, probably intended for the statues of the divinity of the spring.