An ELECTRIC TRAMWAY starts from Tunis Terminus, Ave. Jules-Ferry (Pl.
E, 4), near the Casino, for Carthage and (¾ hr.) Marsa-Plage. The
chief stations on this line are _La Goulette_, for the little town of
Goletta; _Carthage_, for the castle-hill (St. Louis de Carthage), for
the plateau of the Odéon, and for the cisterns at the Bordj el-Djedid;
_Ste. Monique_, for Damous el-Karita; and _Sidi Bou-Saïd_, for the
lighthouse. The terminus, _Marsa-Plage_, close to the shore, is
connected by a branch-line (½ M.) with _Marsa-Ville_, which is the
terminus of another electric tramway running from the Ave. de Paris
(Pl. E, 3) at Tunis viâ El-Aouina.—Uniform fares from Tunis to
Goletta, Carthage, Marsa-Plage, or Marsa-Ville single 1 fr. 20 or 65
c., return 1 fr. 75 c. or 1 fr.
A DRIVE (carr. 15 fr.) from Tunis to Sidi-Daoud, La Malga
(amphitheatre and cisterns), La Marsa, Sidi Bou-Saïd, Carthage
(cisterns at Bordj el-Djedid, theatre, and museum), Goletta,
Maxula-Rades (p. 363), and back to Tunis is recommended. Luncheon
(brought from Tunis) may be taken beside the lighthouse at Sidi
Bou-Saïd or at Carthage. Good carriages are to be had also at Goletta
and the stations of Carthage and Marsa-Ville (2 fr. per hr.; but the
fare should be fixed beforehand).—In cool weather, especially in the
forenoon, the WALK from La Marsa viâ Sidi Bou-Saïd to Carthage is very
enjoyable.
HOTELS at Carthage: _Hôt. St. Louis de Carthage_, on the castle-hill,
tolerable, déj. or D. 3–3½ fr., wine dear; _Pavillon Beau-Séjour_, R.
3, B. 1¼, déj. 2½, D. 3 fr.; _Hôt. des Citernes Romaines_, near the
cisterns of Bordj el-Djedid (p. 350), plain but good.
For a short visit to the ruins the following description will suffice.
For further study the traveller is referred to the Carte archéologique
et topographique des Ruines de Carthage (Paris, 1907; three sheets,
scale 1 : 5000) and to ‘Carthage autrefois, Carthage aujourd’hui’ (2½
fr.; to be had at the Musée Lavigerie), a full description, but partly
out of date. Comp. also the chapters on Carthage in _Cagnat’s_ book
mentioned at p. 289.—The guides and beggars are very importunate.
Native vendors offer spurious antiquities (cameos, coins, etc.), ‘just
dug up’. It should be noted that the ruins abound in awkward cavities
and fissures, and that, in summer especially, scorpions lurk under the
loose stones.
The ELECTRIC TRAMWAY (see above) to Carthage and Marsa-Plage runs to the
_Harbour_ (p. 333), crosses its N. entrance by an embankment, and
follows the N. bank of the ship-canal across Lake Bahira (comp. p. 129),
skirting the passing-place of the steamers. On the left is the islet of
_Chikly_ (p. 129).
6¼ M. _Arrêt du Bac_, station for the Goletta steam-ferry mentioned at
p. 363.—7 M. _La Goulette_, on the W. side of the little town of—
=Goletta=, or _La Goulette_ (Hôt. de la Gare, unpretending; pop. 5000,
chiefly Sicilian and Maltese fisher-folk), the former little harbour of
Tunis, deserted since the opening of the ship-canal. It was strongly
fortified by Kheireddin (p. 221) in 1534 and transformed into a great
naval station, but was soon captured by the Spaniards and formed the
base whence they kept Tunis in check (1535–74).
On the island between the ship-canal and the two narrow inlets to the
harbour are the _Dâr el-Bey_, an old palace of the beys, and the disused
_Marine Arsenal_ founded by Ahmed Bey (1837–55). On the shore, beyond
the old harbour-mouth, which is only 6½ ft. deep, rises the _Kasba_, now
barracks.
From Goletta to Maxula-Rades, see p. 363.
Between old Goletta and the ancient harbour of Carthage stretches a
tongue of land, the ancient _Taenia_ or _Ligula_, between Lake Bahira
and the open sea, where bathing-places abound: 7¼ M. _La Goulette
Neuve_, with a long row of humble lodging-houses, chiefly patronized by
the poorer Jewish families from Tunis; 8 M. _Khéreddine_, where the old
palace of Khéreddine, once the all-powerful minister of Bey Mohammed
es-Saddok (1859–82), is now a casino; 9 M. _Le Kram_, another favourite
Jewish resort, on the small _Baie du Kram_.
The next station is (9¾ M.) _Salambo_, a new colony of villas named
after Flaubert’s novel; near it is the ‘_Lazaret_‘, an old palace of the
beys’ harem, on the shore, between the two ancient harbours of Carthage
(p. 345), used as a cholera hospital in 1884 (now barracks). 10 M.
_Douar ech-Chott_, on the E. side of this picturesque native village
(comp. p. 345).
10¼ M. _Dermèche_, station for _El-Kheraïb_ (‘the ruins’), supposed to
have been once the market-place of Carthage (p. 345), on the S. side of
the Kothon, and also for the _Palais de Dermèche_, once the palace of
the minister Mustapha ben-Ismaïl, and now the property of the bey.
10½ M. =Carthage= (hotels, see p. 343), station for the road to the
castle-hill and abbey-hill of Carthage (pp. 346, 349). 11¼ M. _Ste.
Monique_, between the convent of that name on the right and Damous
el-Karita (p. 349) on the left.
Passing _Briqueterie_, we ascend to (13 M.) _Sidi Bou-Saïd_ (p. 351).
13¾ M. _Arrêt de l’Archevêché_, for the archiepiscopal palace; _Arrêt de
la Corniche_, the last halt. We then descend to the N.W. to (14½ M.) _La
Marsa-Plage_ (p. 351).
* * * * *
=Carthage=, once the proud queen of the seas, lay 10 M. to the E. of
Tunis on a low range of hills culminating in _Cape Carthage_ (p. 351).
The cape was originally an island, but was probably united with the
mainland by the deposits of the Medjerda before the foundation of the
city (comp. p. 129). The neck of land between Lake Bahira on the S. and
the _Sebkha er-Riana_ on the N., where the army of Regulus was
annihilated in 255 and where Scipio encamped in 146, was, according to
Polybius, only 3000 paces (ca. 1½ M.) wide, but is now 3 M. at the
narrowest part. In the middle ages Douar ech-Chott (p. 344; ‘village on
the salt-lake’) lay on Lake Bahira. Carthage possessed two harbours. The
outer or commercial harbour lay between the Baie du Kram (p. 344) and
Bordj el-Djedid (p. 350), where considerable remains of its quays are
preserved for a distance of nearly a mile. The inner or naval harbour
(Kothon) was an artificial inland basin, probably on the same site as
the two modern lagoons, with a rectangular entrance-basin and a circular
main harbour. On an islet in the latter lay the naval arsenal.
Between the two harbours ran the triple town-wall, which on one side
extended from the Bordj el-Djedid to the plateau between the Odeon and
Damous el-Karita (p. 349), and on the other side enclosed the
castle-hill (see below) on the S. and W. sides. The market-place (p.
344), on the N. side of the naval harbour, was connected with the
castle-hill by three narrow streets, the chief scene of contest during
the storming by Scipio. To the N.W. of the city-wall, as early as the
Punic period, lay the villa-suburb of _Megara_ or _Magalia_ (now La
Malga).
HISTORY. Carthage was founded about 880 B. C. by Phœnicians from Tyre,
under the leadership, according to tradition, of Dido, adjacent to
_Kambe_, a colony from Sidon. Under the name of _Kart-hadasht_ (‘new
town’) it extended gradually from the dale on the N.E. side of the
Bordj el-Djedid up to the castle-hill. Thanks to its most advantageous
site near the Sicilian straits and on the sea-route between Egypt and
Spain, and to its proximity to the valleys of the Medjerda and the
Oued Miliane (p. 363), the richest in the land, it soon surpassed
Utica (p. 353) and the smaller Phœnician seaports in wealth and power.
From the 6th cent. onwards Carthaginian fleets contended with the
Greeks and with the Etruscans, from whom they wrested Corsica and
Sardinia, for the mastery of the W. Mediterranean, and in 480 their
army of mercenaries, in alliance with Xerxes, even attacked the Greeks
of Sicily. After a great struggle of more than two centuries for the
possession of Sicily, during which Agathocles (p. 163) carried the war
into his enemies’ country (310–307), the intervention of Rome led to
the three Punic wars (264–241, 218–201, and 149–146), to the
occupation of Spain by the Carthaginians, and to the capture and
destruction of Carthage, after a heroic resistance, by Scipio in 146
B. C. On its ruins, in 122, C. Gracchus attempted to found a Roman
colony, but it was not till the year 44 that the far-seeing policy of
Cæsar led to the firm establishment of the _Colonia Julia Carthago_.
The despatch by Augustus of a colony of veterans and the erection of
the city into the capital of the province in place of Utica (29 B. C.)
paved the way for the renewed glory of Carthage, which soon became the
greatest Mediterranean seaport next to Alexandria and the
third-greatest city in the Roman empire. Far and wide its schools of
rhetoric and philosophy were famous. Passionate champions of
Christianity, like Tertullian (160 to about 245), founder of the sect
called after him, and Cyprian (d. 258), who protested against the
claim of Rome to precedence in the church, were residents in Carthage,
the chief bishopric in N. Africa. In numerous councils (from 393
onwards) the dogmas of the Catholic church were here discussed and
settled, and at the synod of the Gargilian Thermæ in 411 St. Augustine
with fiery eloquence combated the doctrines of the Donatists (p. 322)
and the Tertullianists.
Genseric (p. 322) converted the old palace of the proconsuls into his
royal residence and made Carthage the capital of the Vandal empire,
and a little later the city became the residence of the Byzantine
governors. After Hassan ibn en-Nôman (p. 322) had destroyed the city
in 698, almost as completely as Scipio had done, and after he had even
caused the harbours to be filled up, the ruins were used for centuries
as a quarry for the building of Kairwan (p. 372), Tunis, Goletta, and
the small towns around, while many of the Roman and Byzantine columns
were carried off by the Moors to Cordova and by the Italians to
Palermo, Amalfi, Pisa, and Genoa. The attempts of the Hafsides (p.
323) to resuscitate Carthage met with little success. To that dynasty
belonged El-Mostanser-Billah, against whom Louis IX., the Saint,
directed his last crusade. It was on the castle-hill of Carthage that
Louis died of the plague in 1270, and it was from Carthage that Emp.
Charles V. led his expedition against Tunis in 1535. Modern builders
have again been busy, at the cost of the ancient ruins, since the time
of Card. Lavigerie (1825–92), who made the Missions d’Afrique (see
below) the centre of the catholic missions in N. Africa and succeeded
in 1884 in obtaining the restoration of the old archbishopric.
After all this endless havoc, and owing to constant alterations in the
earth’s surface, it is now very difficult to trace the plan either of
the Punic or of the Roman Carthage, which seems to have been laid out
in chessboard fashion. Yet the beauty of the scenery and the wealth of
historical memories amply compensates for the deplorable state of the
ruins. The valuable yield of recent excavations is now preserved in
the Musée Lavigerie (see below), in the Bardo Museum (p. 340), and in
the Louvre.
The =Byrsa= (194 ft.), the ancient castle-hill of Carthage, 660 yds.
from the sea, was the site in the Punic period of a temple of Eshmun,
and in the Roman period of a temple of Æsculapius and of the palace of
the proconsul. It is now called the _Colline de St. Louis de Carthage_
and is occupied by the chapel of St. Louis, the seminary, and the
archiepiscopal cathedral. The terrace on the side next the sea,
adjoining the Hôtel St. Louis de Carthage (p. 343), commands a
delightful *View of the gulf of Tunis and the site of ancient Carthage.
The _Grand Séminaire de Carthage_, founded in 1875 by Card. Lavigerie as
a mission-house and seminary for the Pères Missionnaires d’Afrique
(commonly called Pères Blancs from their white semi-Arab garb), contains
the *=Musée Lavigerie=, dating from 1875, where the yield of the
excavations made by Père Delattre, the learned principal of the
seminary, is preserved. Adm. on Mon., Thurs., Frid., and Sat., 2 to
5.30; on Sun. and holidays 2–3 and 4 to 5.30; probably also before 11,
and on other afternoons, on application (closed in Holy Week after
Wed.). Visitors make a donation to the offertory-box. No catalogue.
In the SEMINARY GARDEN, below the small _Chapelle de St. Louis_, built
in 1845 to the memory of King Louis the Saint (see above), are
preserved eight barrel-vaults, with semicircular niches, relics of
some ancient edifice of unknown character. On the terrace in front of
the chapel is a large Roman sarcophagus in marble. Around it are
placed numerous Punic cinerary urns. In the grounds lie fragments of
ancient buildings. Along the garden-walls are ranged Roman mosaics,
inscriptions, and fragments of sculpture.
The COLONNADE of the seminary is adorned with three colossal figures
of Victory in high-relief, of the time of the proconsul Q. Aurelius
Symmachus (373–5), one of the last champions of expiring paganism.—The
VESTIBULE contains two sadly mutilated early-Christian reliefs, the
Annunciation to the Shepherds and the Adoration of the Magi, from
Damous el-Karita (p. 349).—To the left, in the SALLE DE LA CROISADE,
are Punic, Roman, and early-Christian inscriptions.—On the right is
the—
PUNIC ROOM, containing the most valuable collection, almost
exclusively from Punic rock-tombs (8th–2nd cent. B.C.), unrivalled
except in the museum of Iviza. In the 1st Case in the middle of the
room are Egyptian scarabs and amulets, trinkets (some Egyptian), and
weights. 2nd Case: lamps and vases in clay, gold trinkets, beautiful
Greek ivory carving (swan bearing a goddess), an Etruscan inscription
(the only one yet found in Africa), Egyptian signet-rings, etc. 3rd
Case: necklaces composed of amulets, glass amulets with faces of
iridescent glass, gold signet-rings with engraved figures, fragments
of painted ostrich-eggs, toilet articles in lead, Cupid in terracotta
resembling the Tanagra figurines, a Greek work. 4th Case: bronze
mirrors and ‘little axes’ or razors, probably amulets.—In the
wall-presses, on the left of the entrance, Punic vases and terracotta
masks, iron and bronze weapons. By the left side-wall are statuettes
in clay in the Egyptian and Cyprian style, Corinthian and Attic vases,
an Etruscan vase (toilet scene), two bronze jugs with fine figures as
handles. By the back-wall are terracottas.—At the end of the right
side-wall, in the window-niche, cinerary urn of the priest Baalchelek,
also that of another priest with a beautiful relief of the deceased.
By the last window but one, on the right side, are five cinerary urns;
in front of them stands a sarcophagus with two skeletons. Then, at the
end of the room, are four anthropoid *Sarcophagi in the Greek style
(end of 4th cent. B.C.); two bearded priests in the attitude of prayer
(one of them a cast); a priestess, with remarkably well-preserved
painting, holding a dove and a situla.
Lastly we enter the ROMAN-CHRISTIAN ROOM from the garden. By the
end-wall on the left are early-Christian mosaics and lamps. By the
back-wall, Roman mosaics (incl. Autumn and Winter); marble sculptures
(Ceres, bust of Apollo, etc.). By the right end-wall are Roman
terracottas, *Lamps with figure-compositions, and three reliefs in
stucco from the tomb of a lady of rank. By the entrance-wall, Roman
and Byzantine weights.—The 1st Case in the middle of the room contains
early-Christian relics from the abbey-hill (p. 349), mostly of the
Vandal period. 2nd Case: a bronze lamp and the clay statuette of an
organ-player (upper part broken off). 3rd Case: Roman bronzes and
glasses; rolls of lead inscribed with curses, from the burial-ground
of the Officiales (p. 348); Byzantine and mediæval coins. 4th Case:
coins of the Phœnician down to the Byzantine periods.
The =Cathedral= (_Primatiale de St. Cyprien et de St. Louis_), a
basilica with nave and two aisles, built in 1884–90 by _Abbé Pougnet_,
in the Byzantine-Moorish style, contains (in the choir) the
archiepiscopal throne and the tomb of Card. Lavigerie (p. 346). Over the
high-altar is the valuable reliquary of St. Louis, executed by Armand
Caillat, a goldsmith of Lyons. Adm. from 5 to 11.15 and 12.30 to 5.30
(in summer 6.45).
The limestone blocks on the S.W. side of the cathedral, near the small
eucalyptus grove, are remains of the stylobate of a _Roman Temple_. From
the brow of the hill we obtain a good survey of the site of the ancient
naval harbour (p. 345) and of the Roman circus (see below). The view of
Lake Bahira is charming at sunset.
Between the brow of the hill and the road descending to Douar ech-Chott
(p. 344) Père Delattre’s excavations have brought to light a number of
buildings a thousand years apart in date. Above, on the margin of the
hill, is an interesting _Punic Necropolis_ with rock-tombs; lower down
are remains of the _Town Walls_, hastily restored under Theodosius II.
(p. 541) in 424, and traces of the _Roman Road_ leading to the harbour;
then Punic tombs again, and below them the foundations of a _Byzantine
Dwelling House_ (a room here contains early-Moorish tombs).
Below the S. angle of the castle-hill we come upon ancient
fortifications. Farther down is a wall or buttress composed of
thousands of early-Roman earthenware amphoræ; also a rock-hewn
_Chapel_ (key at the Seminary) with remains of wall-paintings (saint
bestowing a blessing) in the style of the catacomb frescoes.
Time permitting, we follow the Sidi-Daoud road to the N.W. from the
castle-hill, cross the Goletta and La Marsa highroad, and reach (¼ hr.)
the Roman =Amphitheatre=, which has been broken up only since the 16th
cent., and which Edrisi, the geographer (1154), has described as one of
almost matchless splendour. All that is left of it consists of a few
remains of substructures deeply imbedded in rubbish, several underground
passages, and in the centre of the arena (where a chapel with a cross
recalls the martyrs Perpetua and Felicitas, p. 350) three underground
chambers, probably for the machinery used in theatrical performances.
To the S., not far from Douar ech-Chott (p. 344), are a few vestiges
of the Roman _Circus_. It measured 770 by 110 yds.; the Spina, or
partition round which the racing chariots passed, was 380 yds. long.
Scarcely a hundred paces to the N.W. of the amphitheatre, near a
farm-building, is a _Burial Ground of the Officiales_ (1st–2nd cent.),
the imperial freedmen and slaves employed in the proconsul’s office
(tabularium).—Beyond the amphitheatre the road passes a second _Burial
Ground_ of the same kind on the right and the foundations of the _Villa
of Scorpianus_ (identified by the inscription ‘Scorpianus in adamatu’)
on the left.
To the W. of the highroad, 12 min. from the castle-hill, lies the dirty
village of =La Malga= (82 ft.), which swarms with begging children. On
the N.E. side of the village are scanty ruins of Roman _Thermae_. The
CISTERNS in the middle of the village, 15 (originally 24) barrel-vaults
now in a very ruinous condition and partly used by the natives as
dwellings or stables, once formed the chief reservoir fed by the _Roman
Aqueduct_ (pp. 329, 353, 358), begun under Hadrian in 117, but not
completed till 163. The whole city was supplied thence by means of
leaden pipes.
A _Roman Road_ leads almost in a straight line from La Malga, to the
N.E., close past Damous el-Karita (p. 349) and past the Basilica
Maiorum (p. 350), to the Arrêt de la Briqueterie (p. 344).
From La Malga we follow the road to the S.E., past the _Croix de St.
Cyprien_, a memorial of the famous bishop (pp. 345, 346), along the
course of the old ‘Conduit Souterrain’, to the =Abbey Hill= (171 ft.),
often groundlessly called _Colline de Junon_, rising to the N.E. of the
castle-hill. Here are situated the _Monastère du Carmel_, a Carmelite
nunnery, and the _Petit Séminaire_, the original mission-house of the
White Fathers, now an orphanage presided over by the Sœurs Missionnaires
d’Afrique, a sisterhood also instituted by Card. Lavigerie. On the
roadside, between these buildings, remains of _Roman Houses_ and
_Cisterns_ have been excavated.
On the slope of the =Odeon Plateau= (181 ft.), the N.E. continuation of
the abbey-hill, near the bridge of the electric tramway, and 3 min. to
the left of the upper Carthage and Sidi Bou-Saïd road (p. 350), are
relics of the _Roman Theatre_, including several rows of the seats of
the cavea (p. 293) and parts of the stage-building. After the partial
restoration of the theatre a grand performance took place here in 1908
and similar representations will be occasionally repeated.—A few paces
to the S.W. of the stage we come to the foundations of a small Roman
_Temple Circulaire_. To the N.E. of the theatre, on the S.E. slope of
the plateau, are the more considerable remains of _Roman Houses_, but
these have recently been threatened with demolition.
On the plateau itself, about a hundred paces above the theatre, in the
midst of a _Punic Necropolis_ (3rd cent. B.C.), are relics of pavement
and several underground passages marking the site of the _Odeon_, a
roofed theatre (theatrum tectum) for concerts, built under the proconsul
Vigellius Saturninus (about 212 A.D.). Both the theatre and the odeon
are said to have been destroyed by the Vandals in 439.
Outside the old town-wall (p. 345), about 135 yds. to the N. of the
Odeon, and 3 min. to the W. of station Ste. Monique (p. 344), lies an
extensive early-Christian cemetery, in the centre of which lie the ruins
of =Damous el-Karita= (domus caritatis?), a great basilica. This church,
71 by 49 yds., was built at different periods. The oldest basilica with
its ten aisles (4th cent.) was orientated to the S.E., and the second,
with eight aisles, probably of the Vandal period, was turned towards the
S.W. A third building, again with ten aisles, evidenced by its reduced
size the decline of Carthage in the Byzantine period, as it consisted
only of the old transept converted into a nave and of the four N.W.
aisles of the second basilica. Within the oldest nave, in the axis of
the first choir-recess, a new apse was erected. The =⟙=-shaped building
thus resulting, with its very short and many-aisled body, seems to have
been the model on which Hassan ibn en-Nôman built the Kairwan mosque, as
well as the source of much of its material (comp. pp. 374, 376).
Adjoining the basilica on the N.E. is a vast semicircular _Atrium_ (see
p. 316), belonging to one of the two earlier churches, with remains of
the fountain of purification and of a trefoil-shaped memorial-chapel
(comp. p. 317) built into the colonnade. On the S.W. side of the
basilica lie the foundations of a _Baptistery_ with an octagonal font.
On the outskirts of a small olive-grove, reached either across the
fields from Damous el-Karita (in 8 min.) or to the W. from the Arrêt
de la Briqueterie (2 min.; p. 344), is the =Basilica Maiorum=,
excavated in 1907. In the Vandal period this was the church of the
Arian bishop. In the Confessio (10½ by 10¼ ft.), according to an
inscription, the martyrs Perpetua and Felicitas (d. 203; see also
below and p. 348) were buried. In the contiguous early-Christian
cemetery bishops’ tombs and a cistern have been discovered.
We conclude our visit with a glance at the ruins in the PLAIN by the
sea.
On the slope of the Odeon plateau, between the two roads to Sidi
Bou-Saïd, extends a large =Punic Necropolis= (_Nécropole de Douïmès_),
containing many rock-tombs of the 7–5th centuries. Near it are remains
of _Punic Pottery Kilns_ and the foundations of the _Basilica of
Dermèche_, a Byzantine church with double aisles and traces of a
baptistery with its octagonal font. A few paces to the N. we come to a
_Roman Cistern_, 85 ft. deep, and vestiges of an _Early Christian
Monastery_ (St. Stephen’s?).
Close by are the *=Cisterns of Bordj el-Djedid=, on a side-branch of the
lower road, the largest in the ancient city after those of La Malga,
whence they were supplied. They were restored in 1887 and utilized for
the new waterworks of Tunis (p. 339). The building, once dreaded by the
natives as the ‘devil’s cavern’ (Douames ech-Chiatinn), forms a
rectangle of 147 by 44 yds., with seventeen parallel barrel-vaults of 33
by 8 yds., two filtering basins, and broad side-passages (keeper ½ fr.).
Close to the sea, a little to the S.E., perhaps on the site of the
harbour of Kambe (p. 345), lie the shapeless ruins of the =Thermes
d’Antonin=, or _Baths of Dermèche_, re-erected under Antoninus Pius
about 145, once perhaps the largest at Carthage.
Between the baths and the ruinous Turkish fort _Bordj el-Djedid_ (49
ft.) lie the foundations of the superb _Roman Stairs_ (Escalier
Monumental) which once ascended from the quay to the Platea Nova, one of
the largest squares in Roman Carthage. Their marble blocks were used in
the building of the cathedral in 1884.
An underground Roman building, with a flight of twenty-five steps, to
the N.E. of the Bordj el-Djedid, formerly called Fanum Cereris, but
now termed _Carcer Castrensis_, is said to have been the prison of the
martyrs Perpetua and Felicitas (see above).—Near it is a _Roman Tower_
resembling a bastion, half in the sea.
On the new road from Bordj el-Djedid to station Ste. Monique (p. 344)
is the ‘_Kubba Bent el-Re_‘, a number of underground chambers of
unknown object, formerly called ‘Baths of Dido’.
A picturesque rock-path skirting the abrupt coast, besides the two roads
named on p. 350, leads from Carthage to =Sidi Bou-Saïd=, about 2¼ M.
from the Byrsa. This wealthy and highly picturesque village, almost
entirely Mohammedan, with the bey’s summer residence, a fine beach for
bathing, and the shrine of the local saint (much frequented on Fridays),
lies at the E. end of _Cape Carthage_ or _Cartagena_ (423 ft.; Arabic
_Râs Sluguia_), which has kept its Punic name throughout the ages. From
the entrance to the village (station and cab-stand) we ascend straight
to a small square with several Arab cafés, then by a path in steps to
the left, again to the left, and lastly to the right, to the round
lighthouse (_Phare_; ½–1 fr.). From the top we enjoy an exquisite *View,
which is finest by morning light, of the site of Carthage, the whole of
the bay stretching to Cape Farina (p. 129), and Lake Bahira with its
mountain background.
From the lighthouse a beautiful path leads past the _Poste Optique_ and
behind the vineyards of the _Archiepiscopal Palace_, to the Arrêt de la
Corniche (p. 344) and (½ hr.) =La Marsa= (Hôt. de la Régence), a village
in the fertile plain between Cape Carthage and Jebel Khaoui (see below),
with many country-houses and a bathing beach (dangerous currents). About
halfway between the two stations (p. 343) is the _Palais du Bey_, where
the present prince (p. 323) usually resides. (Adm. to the stables only,
containing the state-carriages; fee 1 fr.)
To the N.W. of La Marsa extends =Jebel Khaoui= or _Kraoui_ (345 ft.;
ascent from La Marsa and back viâ Kamart ca. 2½ hrs.). On the top and
the N. slope are many rock-tombs, remains of the _Jewish Necropolis_
of Roman Carthage. Fine view, to the S. to Tunis, and to the N.W. over
the _Sebkha er-Riana_ to the Medjerda delta as far as Utica (p. 353).
On the N. side of the hill, on the reddish _Cape Kamart_, lies the
picturesque, palm-girt village of _Kamart_, with the ruined _Bordj
Ben-Aïed_.