50. From Souk-Ahras to Tebessa.
79½ M. Narrow Gauge Railway, in 5½–6½ hrs. (14 fr. 35, 10 fr. 25, 7 fr. 70 c.; 1st cl. return 20 fr. 20 c.). Railway Restaurant at Clairefontaine only. Morsott is preferable to Tebessa for night-quarters.
Souk-Ahras, see above. We cross the Tunis line (R. 51) by a viaduct, and descend to the S. into the valley of the Medjerda (p. [325]), latterly through underwood and Aleppo pines. 5 M. Les Tuileries.
We next ascend the narrow and picturesque side-valley of the Oued Chouk, through pine and cork-oak woods. Beyond (9 M.) Oued-Chouk (1975 ft.) we skirt the upper course of the stream, now called Oued el-Hammam, in a barren hill-country, and at places through limestone gorges, bordered with Aleppo pines.
17½ M. Dréa (2634 ft.), an alfa (esparto grass) station.
From Dréa we may visit the native village of Mdaourouch (3058 ft.), 3 M. to the S.E., on the N.W. slope of Jebel Bou Sessou (3566 ft.). This was the ancient Madaura or Madauros, the birthplace (about 125 A. D.) of the Roman author L. Apuleius. It was once the seat of a famous school of oratory, at which St. Augustine (p. [310]) was educated. On its site, where there are relics of a Roman Mausoleum and the foundations of an early-Christian Basilica, rises the conspicuous Byzantine Castle, dating from the time of Solomon (p. [315]), a building curiously irregular in plan, partly enclosed by later (Berber?) fortifications. Large Thermae also have been recently excavated.
Beyond Dréa we traverse fields and poor pastures to the S.W.
22½ M. Mdaourouch (2809 ft.; no inn), the highest point on the line, the watershed between the Medjerda and the Mellègue (see below). In the vicinity is the village of Montesquieu.
A field-road leads to the E. from the station to (4½ M.) the village of Mdaourouch (see above).
Khamissa (p. [313]) may be visited from Montesquieu (see above) or Mdaourouch if we are fortunate enough to find mules there. We follow the Sedrata highroad to the W. to (9 M.) the caravanserai (Bordj; 2756 ft.) in the Plaine de Tifech (p. [313]), whence we turn to the N. to (13 M.) Ksar Tifech (p. [313]) and thence go on to (16 M.) Khamissa.
Beyond Mdaourouch there are long stretches of bleak steppe-like country. The train descends to (30 M.) Oued-Damous (1982 ft.), in the valley of that name. It then skirts the Oued Kebarit and rounds the E. slope of Jebel Kréréga (3251 ft.), a tableland with scanty woods of pine and arbor vitæ. Far away to the left rises Jebel Ouenza (4229 ft.), with the largest iron-mines in Algeria, owned by the ‘Société d’Etudes de l’Ouenza’. (Mineral-line to Bona or to Nebeur projected; comp. p. [325].)
We now ascend the valley of the Oued Mellègue. To the right appear the bare Kef Bou Djabeur (2504 ft.) and Kef Raghma (2700 ft.), similar in type to the hills fringing the Sahara.
38 M. Clairefontaine (2146 ft.; Buffet, D. 3 fr., very fair), an important alfa station, with artesian wells. Sunday market.
Passing between Jebel Mestoula (3488 ft.) on the right and Jebel el-Dzeroua (3432 ft.) on the left, we enter, to the S.E., the valley of the Oued Chabrou. To the S., above the steppe, which is overgrown with alfa and enlivened by browsing camels, rise the ranges of Jebel Metloug (4111 ft.) and Jebel Mzouzia (4514 ft.).
60 M. Morsott (2559 ft.; Hôt. de Lyon or Sivignon, good cuisine), below Jebel Hout es-Srir (3445 ft.), a thriving European settlement, with its Monday market and alfa trade, is the starting-point of the mineral-line to (9½ M.) Jebel Bou Kadra (4734 ft.) and the iron-mines of the Mokta el-Hadid Company (p. [303]).
Here, partly seen from the train, are relics of the Roman Vasampus: a Gateway of solid masonry, perhaps that of a temple-court; Thermae, with unusually small chambers; and two Mausolea. There are also remains of the foundations of an early-Christian Basilica, curiously planned, 40½ by 16¾ yds. (three portals to the nave, apse with four side-recesses, baptistery behind the choir-recess).
69½ M. Youks les Bains-Boulhaf le Dyr, station for the baths of Youks-les-Bains (p. [318]), 7 M. to the S.W., and junction of the mineral-line to the phosphate-beds of Jebel Dyr (4977 ft.). On the right rises the ‘Chapeau de Gendarme’ (4393 ft.; Arabic Jebel bel-Khifeh), whose characteristic form we do not see until near Tebessa. A line of rails to the left leads to the phosphate-deposits of Aïn-Kissa.
In the foreground appear the hills of Tebessa, to the S. Jebel Tenoukla and Jebel Osmor (p. [318]), and S.W. the Jebel Doukkan range (5528 ft.). Tents of the nomads are often seen on the steppe. We cross the Oued el-Kébir, as the Oued Chabrou is called here.
79½ M. Tebessa.—The Station lies to the W. of the town, outside the Porte de Constantine, 8 min. from the Place d’Armes. Omn. twice daily.
Hôtels. Hôtel d’Orient & de la Métropole, Rue Caracalla, 2 min. from the Arch of Caracalla, R. 3–3½, B. ¾, déj. 2, D. 3, pens. 8–9½, omn. 1 fr.; Hôt. du Cours, Place d’Armes, unpretending, but very fair.
A hasty visit to the sights, in the following order, takes 2–3 hrs.—For the description of Tebessa comp. also Cagnat’s book mentioned at p. [289].
Tebessa (2717 ft.; pop. 5700, mostly Mohammedans), a poor town, now unimportant except as the centre of the E. Algerian phosphate trade, was the ancient Theveste, one of the most prosperous towns in Inner Numidia from the Punic period (about B.C. 250–200) onwards. It was the first headquarters of the Third Legion (p. [286]); in 123 A. D. it was connected with Carthage by a Roman military road; and after its destruction by the Berbers it was re-founded in 535 by Solomon, the general of Justinian (p. [541]). Its ruins of the late-Roman and Vandal periods are among the finest in Barbary, but as they lie off the beaten track they are almost forgotten.
The town is still enclosed by the Byzantine Walls built by Solomon, forming a rectangle of 350 by 306 yds., with fourteen towers, two gates, and a sally-port on the S. side. The old upper gallery and the battlements were removed in 1852 when the walls were restored.
The modern W. Gate, the Porte de Constantine, leads first to the pleasant Place d’Armes, the centre of traffic. Two minutes’ walk to the E. of this is the so-called Porte de Solomon, the most interesting part of the fortifications, with a round-arched passage and two square towers 56 ft. high. Outside of it the natives hold market on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
The N. Gate, where the walls project a little on both sides, is formed by the *Arch of Caracalla, dating from 214 A. D., once in the middle of the far more populous Roman town, but now at the end of the main street coming from the Place d’Armes.
This arch, resembling the Janus Quadrifrons at Rome, is the most imposing Roman monument of the kind in Algeria, rivalling those of Tripoli (p. [408]) and Leptis Magna (p. [412]). It forms a square of about 12 yds. each way, with four round-arched passages, 27 ft. high and 15 ft. wide. Each pillar is adorned on its two outer sides with two Corinthian pilasters and two projecting Corinthian columns, all on a common base. Of the sculptures on the keystones of the archways, under the lavishly decorated architrave, there are preserved, on the E. side, a medallion in high relief of Minerva and a Medusa, and on the W. side a Fortuna (goddess of the town) and an eagle holding a bundle of thunderbolts. On three sides, in the middle of the attica, which is 4 ft. high, there are Latin inscriptions referring to Caracalla and his parents, Septimius Severus and Julia Domna. On the N. side, when the arch was restored, there was added an inscription in honour of Solomon. On the S. side is still preserved an ædicula, one of the four destined for statues adjoining the central dome. On the inner side of two of the pillars are long inscriptions from the testament of C. Cornelius Egrilianus, the builder of the triumphal arch.
The highroad now descends to the N. to the (7 min.) so-called **Basilica, the most remarkable early-Christian ruin in Algeria, still in some respects an enigma to archæologists. Built mainly of Roman materials, and itself used for centuries as a quarry, it still forms an immense quadrilateral of about 213 by 88–115 yds., systematically excavated for the first time in 1888–92. The oldest parts of the edifice, perhaps of the late 4th cent., are believed to be the basilica and the memorial chapel; the main street, the court, and the ‘stable’ seem to belong to a second building period, perhaps also prior to the Vandal era. The monastery, with its fortifications, and the additions to the memorial chapel date probably from the Vandal period; the small ‘emergency chapel’ is perhaps a later Byzantine addition. The custodian (fee ½–1 fr.) is to be found at the little house near the E. gate.
The E. Gate, the old main entrance, once adorned externally, in the style of a Roman triumphal arch, with Corinthian pilasters and jutting columns, is in fair preservation. Thence ran the paved Main Street, 8 yds. wide, without wheel-ruts, past the Basilica on the right and the court and ‘stable’ on the left, to the W. Gate, the ancient subsidiary entrance.
From the N. side of the main street, formerly flanked with three colonnades, a flight of fourteen steps, 9½ ft. high in all, ascends to the portico of the Basilica, which was once preceded by eight columns. Three portals here opened into the Atrium, the square forecourt of the church, with remains of the Cantharus, or fountain of purification, in the centre. Near the entrance-wall are two side-rooms whence winding staircases ascended to the upper floor and the church galleries.
The Church, built of solid masonry, consisted of nave and two aisles, 50 by 24 yds. in all; but now nothing remains save the external wall of the left aisle, two arcades of the nave, and the choir-recess. The formation of the arcades, with low pillars and Corinthian columns in front, is peculiar. The site of the choirscreen and of the base of the altar is still traceable. Of the galleries, supposed to have been added on the occasion of a restoration of the church, there still lie fragments of the columns and imposts all around. The mosaic pavement is covered with earth.
From the front part of the right aisle twelve steps descend into an almost square outer building (25½ by 22 yds.), contemporaneous with the church. The middle of this is occupied by the Trichorum, a trefoil-shaped hall, with three rounded apses, probably a Memorial Chapel, resembling the early-Christian cemetery-chapels, and dedicated to some martyr or bishop buried under the altar. The four corner-rooms served as Tomb Chambers.
Among the later additions of the Vandal period are the Square Chamber on the S. side of the memorial chapel, which also was used as a burial-place, with its small ante-room, and the Baptistery, accessible only from the atrium by three steps, containing remains of the old font.
To the same period belong the other additions to the basilica. Extending round the church from the memorial chapel on the E. to the W. side of the atrium are twenty-seven square chambers, partly built of heathen tombstones, commonly supposed to have been the Monks’ Cells, though unusually large for that purpose. Between these and the castellated Monastery Wall, whose towers do not project externally in the usual Byzantine fashion, probably lay the Monastery Garden, which was used down to the Moorish period as a burial-ground.
Lastly we note the small ‘Emergency Chapel’ on the N. side of the memorial chapel, a small church, probably hastily built subsequent to the irruption of the Berbers (p. [315]), with nave and two aisles, portico, choirscreen, rounded apse, and a square sacristy added on the N. side.
The Quadrangle, 60 by 46 yds., on the S. side of the main street, formerly called the forum, was once divided into four sections by two cross-ways bordered by marble balustrades. In spite of the unevenness of the ground these sections are supposed to have been basins (watering-places for cattle and horses?), the water being supplied from the square reservoir still existing at the S.E. corner of the quadrangle. From the cross-ways steps ascended to narrow terraces enclosing the quadrangle on three sides, that on the S. side being a porticus of twenty-two columns.
More enigmatical still is the West Building, 53 by 24 yds., a hall with three aisles borne by pillars. This was afterwards converted, by the insertion of two low partitions, into a central chamber of three aisles with eleven two-storied side-rooms on each side of the outer aisles. The curious stone boxes or troughs (mangers?) on the partitions, together with the holes in the walls, of a kind that recur in many Byzantine buildings (perhaps for the rings to which horses were attached), have led to the conjecture that the building was a stable.
The small building behind the Porticus of six columns on the N. side of the main street, opposite the so-called stables, contains similar stone boxes.
The Kubba Sidi Djaballah, about 5 min. to the N. of the Basilica, near the Catholic cemetery, is a Roman mausoleum with a Moorish dome.
On the way back to the town we call at the Bureau des Ponts et Chaussées, on the right, a little off the road, 2 min. before the Arch of Caracalla, to ask M. Coggia, the curator, for the key of the museum.
The so-called *Temple of Minerva, the best-preserved Roman temple in Algeria, now used as a museum, dates from the 3rd cent. A.D. The only relic of the old temple-court is the gateway wall, adorned with Corinthian pilasters, now forming the façade of a zaouïa (Mohammedan school) in the main street, close to the Arch of Caracalla. The temple, a pseudo-peripteros of 19¾ by 10 yds., on a substructure 13 ft. high, is in a side-street, adjoining the N. town-wall. A new flight of twelve (once twenty) steps ascends to the portico, with four Corinthian columns in front. The structure of the temple shows many of the peculiarities of African provincial art. Instead of an architrave there is a frieze with bulls’ skulls and eagles grasping serpents; above it is an attica in similar style, overladen with reliefs but without a cornice. Instead of a pediment there was probably a flat terrace on the summit. The present roof and the whole front-wall of the cella are modern.
The Town Museum contains antiquities from Tebessa, Morsott, etc. (catalogue for the use of visitors). In the court are relics of antique and early-Christian buildings, inscriptions, altars, Saturn-stelæ and tomb-stelæ, some of them with bowls on the pedestal for the repasts of the deceased. The cella contains bronzes, vessels and sculptures in clay, etc.; a sarcophagus with the Muses; two mosaics from the baths which were removed to make way for the cavalry barracks, one with Nereids and sea monsters, the other with a home-coming ship and numbered figures of a game (bull, ostrich, gazelle, boar, etc.; comp. p. [292]).
The Catholic Church, at the N.W. angle of the town-wall, is adorned in the interior with a few fragments from the Basilica. Thus, over the high-altar, are remains of an early-Christian sarcophagus with three curious figures in relief (Christian Roma?).
Environs. The Roman Aqueduct, 547 yds. long, restored in turn by the Moors, the Turks, and the French, still conveys water from the spring of Aïn el-Bled.—About 1¾ M. from the Porte de Constantine (p. [315]) are the extensive late-Roman ruins of Tebessa Khalia (‘Old Tebessa’), the nature of which is still unexplained.
Diligence daily to (11 M.) Youks-les-Bains (2625 ft.), with ‘indifferent’ hot springs (95° Fahr.), 2 M. to the S.W. of the Meskiana and Aïn-Beïda road (p. [273]).
To avoid the long return-journey from Tebessa to Souk-Ahras, we may ride or drive to the N.W. viâ (26 M.) Haidra (p. [362]) to (40½ M.) Thala (p. [362]) or to (37½ M.) rail. stat. Kalaâ-Djerda (p. [362]). A mineral-line also runs thence to the Algerian frontier and the phosphate-beds on Jebel Kouif (3871 ft.; leave to travel by it is usually granted by the manager).
A road leads to the S.W., past Jebel Osmor (5052 ft.), noted for its Punic rock-tombs, then across the Tenoukla Pass, between Jebel Tenoukla (5118 ft.) on the right and Jebel Bou Roumane (p. [320]) on the left, and past Bou-Chebka (caravanserai), to (47 M.) Feriana (p. [371]). Diligence viâ Feriana to Gafsa (p. [383]) in two days (fare 30 fr.).
