59. From Susa to Sfax.
Till the opening of the new railway (81½ M.) in 1911, which diverges from the line to Mehdia at Ouardenine (p. [369]), this excursion must be made by Road (79½ M.). Motor-omnibus or the Bône-Guélma Co., starting from the station, in 6½ hrs. (in the reverse direction 7 hrs.), fare 7 fr. 50 c.; at El-Djem, halfway (fare 3 fr. 75 c.), the ½ hr. allowed for visiting the amphitheatre barely suffices. Seats should be secured beforehand; outside (impériale) preferable in fine weather. Diligence at night, in 14 hrs., fare 12 fr. 90 c. (to El-Djem in 6½ hrs., 6 fr.), uncomfortable.—Steamers to Sfax, comp. R. 64.
Susa, see p. [366]. The road leads round the town on the side next the sea. It then ascends through the new industrial and villa quarters, and past the Jewish and the Christian Cemeteries (on the left), to the hill-country of the Sahel (p. [366]).
A little to the left lie the thriving villages of Zaouïet-Sousse and Ksiba, and to the right Messadine. The soil is extremely fertile; the road is bordered with huge olive-trees and tall cactus-hedges.
To the right, also off the road, lies (7½ M.) M’Saken (154 ft.; Hôt. de France; pop. 10,000), a station on the Mehdia line (p. [369]), whence a road leads to Kairwan (p. [372]).
The country beyond M’Saken, one of the most fertile parts of central Tunisia in ancient times, has become a mere desert since the Arab irruptions. In the midst of the dreary steppe, scantily overgrown with alfa, appear a few corn-fields and olive-plantations, the first signs of renewed colonization. Here and there are seen Arabs with their camels, belonging to the Souassi tribe, now partly settled on the land, descendants of the Hilalides (p. [323]).
In the distance to the right, beyond Bourdjine, the only village before El-Djem, appears the Sebkha Sidi el-Hani (p. [370]). 23 M. Col de Koudiat el-Goulal (525 ft.), the highest point on the road.
We are now in sight of the amphitheatre of El-Djem, whose enormous pile dominates the landscape for miles around.
40 M. El-Djem (361 ft.; Hôt. de l’Amphithéâtre, R. 2–3, B. ¾, déj. 3, D. 3¼ fr., humble, charges should be ascertained), a poor Arab village with a few olive and cactus plantations, is the site of Thysdrus, which in the late-Roman age was one of the most thriving towns near the E. coast and the junction of seven roads.
About ¼ M. from the inn and the post-office (halting-place of the motor-omnibus) is the **Amphitheatre, the grandest Roman structure in Barbary (first half of the 3rd cent.), noted in history also as a fortress. Here in 689, after the defeat of the united Byzantines and Berbers by Zoheir ibn Kaïs (p. [322]), the prophetess (kahina) Damia, the legendary leader of the Berbers, is said to have still defied her enemies. In 1685 the building, still almost intact, where many a rebel had sought refuge, was blown up on the W. side by order of Mohammed Murad Bey (p. [335]). Since then it has served the villagers of El-Djem as a quarry. The topmost story, consisting of an attica with Corinthian pilasters, the tiers of seats, and the stone steps have gradually disappeared. The ascent (not without the Arab keeper; ½ fr.) is very toilsome.
The remaining three stories are 108 ft. high; the groundfloor is now buried 10 ft. below the surface. The arches (once 60) of the lower and upper stories are adorned with Corinthian mural columns; the central story has composite capitals. The axes are 164 and 136 yds. respectively; the arena where the gladiators and wild beasts fought, unearthed in 1909, with its huge substructures (comp. p. [348]), measures 71 by 57 yds. (This is the fifth in size of Roman amphitheatres: Colosseum 205 by 170, the Capuan 186 by 153, that of Italica near Seville 170 by 147, and that of Verona 167 by 134 yds.).
Recent excavations outside the village, whose dirty streets flank the amphitheatre on two sides, have revealed vestiges of Thermae (about 10 min. to the N.W.), of Cisterns, a Circus, and a small older Amphitheatre. In the forecourt of a kubba, 6 min. to the S.W., are placed several large Roman capitals.
Road from El-Djem to Mehdia, see p. [370].
We again traverse a very monotonous region, without a single village. On the left is the Sebkha m’taa el-Djem, a salt-lake. Beyond it lies the hill-country of the Arab Metellit tribe, belonging to the Terres Sialines (see below).
Beyond (61½ M.) Ste. Juliette we enter the olive-zone of Sfax. 71½ M. Kubba Sidi-Salah, on the Oued Sidi Salah, which flows largely underground and now partly supplies Sfax with water. Lastly the road leads between garden-walls built of mud and fringed with Indian figs and through the suburb of Moulinville to—
79½ M. Sfax.—The Railway Station (Pl. C, D, 2), for Metlaoui (R. 60) and for the new line to Susa (see p. [378]), is close to the sea, ¼ M. from the hotels or from the quay. Here at present the motor-omnibus from Susa stops.
Arrival by Sea (comp. R. 64). The steamers of the Comp. Gén. Transatlantique (office, Boul. de France 13), the Società Nazionale (office near Douane), and the Navigation Mixte (office, Rue Emile Loubet) moor at the quay. Harbour-dues 4 or 3 fr.; cabs, see below.
Hotels (comp. p. [324]). Hôt. de France (Pl. a; B, 3), Rue Victor-Hugo 4, R. 3–6, B. 1, déj. or D. 3, pens. 9–10 fr., plain; Hôt. Moderne (Pl. b; B, 3), same street, No. 6, R. 3–5, B. 1, D. 8, pens. 7½–10 fr.—Cafés. Cristal and Glacier, Boul. de France.
Post & Telegraph Office (Pl. 6; C, 3), Avenue de Paris.
Banks (comp. p. [174]). Banque de l’Algérie, Rue Michaud; Comp. Algérienne (No. 32) and Comptoir d’Escompte de Paris (No. 15), Ave. de Paris.—Booksellers. Chabert, Rue de la République 51; Revol, same street, No. 17.
British Vice-Consul, S. Leonardi.—Lloyd’s Agent, E. Carleton.—English Physician, Dr. P. Buckwell.
Cabs (stands near the Marché aux Céréales, p. [381], and in the Rue de Thina, Pl. B, C, 3). Drive within a radius of 2 kilomètres (1¼ M.) from Bâb Diwân, ½ fr.; with two horses, ¾ or 1 fr.; per hr. (one horse) 1 fr. 30, (two horses) 1 fr. 50 or 1 fr. 70 c.; half-day (6 hrs.) 5½, 7, or 9 fr.; day (12 hrs.) 9, 12, or 15 fr.
Diligence Office (p. [173]) in the theatre (Pl. C, 3).—Motor Cars, for excursions, at Garage Pasquier, Rue Lamoricière (100–150 fr. per day); Central Garage, Rue Charles-Quint.
The Sights may be visited in 2–3 hrs.
Sfax, Arabic Sfakês (pop. 70,000, incl. 6400 Europeans, of whom 3100 are Italians and 1300 Maltese), the second-largest town in Tunisia, is also its chief seaport next to Tunis. It lies on the shallow N. shore of the Gulf of Gabes, adjacent to the Kerkenna Banks and opposite the Kerkenna Islands (p. [405]). Many of the natives live in small houses outside the town, amidst the beautiful orchards which girdle Sfax for nearly 10 M. around. Beyond the gardens lies the olive-zone, like them artificially irrigated, covering some 500 acres, and numbering three million trees. It lies chiefly in the Terres Sialines, a region named after the Siala family, but now owned by the state. After the Arab incursions it became a mere desert, but modern cultivation has restored its ancient prosperity. Sfax owes its rapid rise to the export of olive-oil, almonds, figs, and vegetables from the interior, dates from the Djerid (p. [386]), alfa from the steppes, of which cables are made in the Kerkenna Islands, and above all to its trade in the phosphates of Metlaoui (p. [386]) and Redeyef (p. [372]). It is important also as a fish-market and as a mart for the sponges of the bay, especially from the Kerkenna banks. In the sponge-fishery Greeks, Maltese, and Sicilians vie with the Kerkenna islanders.
Sfax, the ancient Taparura, which was one of the smallest seaports on the bay of Gabes, is of little historical note. In the first half of the 12th cent. it fell, along with Mehdia (p. [369]), into the hands of the Normans (p. [323]), and in 1539 it was occupied for a time by the Spaniards, who possessed also the Kerkenna Islands. Its harbour was much benefited by the French occupation of Algeria, as the caravans from the Sudan thereafter went to Sfax, Gabes, and Tripoli (p. [406]). It was not till 1832 that Christian merchants were allowed to settle outside the Bâb Diwân, the sea-gate. When the French arrived in 1881 Sfax, like Kairwan, was a camp of the warlike nomads of central and S. Tunisia, owing to whose resistance the town had to suffer a bombardment and to pay a war-indemnity of 15 million francs. For that disaster and for the decline of its trade with inland Africa the colonization of the environs and the improvement of the harbour (1895–7) have since made amends.
From the open roads at the end of the Kerkenna inlet, where larger vessels formerly had to anchor, a Harbour Canal, 2952 yds. in length and 44 in breadth, now leads into the Bassin (Pl. D, E, 4) of 25 acres, adjoining which is the Bassin des Torpilleurs (Pl. C, D, 4). On the quay bordering the town, 492 yds. long, are the Douane and two large warehouses. On the N.E. quay are the stores of the phosphate railway, whence ships are loaded by means of a long shoot. The Chenal pour petits Bateaux connects the main harbour with the small Darse (Pl. B, 4), the harbour for fishing-boats.
The mud-banks between the new harbour and the old quay (now Boul. de France) have been artificially raised and converted into an area of 50 acres for building. The projected new quarter, with its straight and shadeless streets, has made little progress as yet. Between it and the older suburb, built since 1832, are the Avenue de Paris and the palm-avenue of the Boulevard de France (Pl. B, C, 3), where most of the public buildings are situated.
In the Ave. de Paris are the Contrôle Civil (Pl. 1; C, 3), the Post Office (Pl. 6; C, 3), and the Hôtel de Ville (Pl. C, 3). The last has a small museum (open daily except Sun.) containing Roman antiquities, mostly from Thænæ (p. [383]). Among the mosaics are fishing scenes, Arion on the dolphin, and Pugilists.
Beyond the E. end of the Boul. de France and the Place Carnot (Pl. C, 2) lies the Jewish Quarter. The Boul. de France leads to the W., past the Rue de la République, the chief business street of the new quarters, to the Marché aux Céréales (Pl. B, 3), which may be reached also by the Rue Victor-Hugo. Near this, adjoining the harbour of the fishing-boats, is the Marché (Pl. B, 3, 4) for pottery, where the large ‘jarres d’huile’, made chiefly by the Metellits (p. [380]), resemble the ancient amphoræ.
The picturesque but not over-clean old town is still enclosed by its battlemented *Town Walls, with their numerous towers and bastions. The fortifications next the sea, the Kasba (Pl. A, 3; barracks, no admittance) and the Bordj en-Nar (Pl. C, 2), were the chief objects of attack by the French ships and troops in 1881.
The old town is entered by the Bâb Djedid (Pl. A, 3), the Bâb Diwân (Pl. B, 2), at the end of the Rue de la République, and the new Porte Delcassé (Pl. B, 2; 1903). Its main streets are the Rue de la Grande-Mosquée, the shortest way to the Souks (see below), and the Rue du Bey (Pl. B, 2, 1).
In the Rue des Aïssaouas (No. 12), a few paces to the right of the Rue du Bey, is the Zaouïa Sidi ben-Aïssa (p. [373]), with its fine portal. The castigations practised by the sect may be seen here on Fridays, from 2.30 to 5 p.m.
In the Rue de la Driba, the third street to the right off the Rue du Bey, No. 4, on the left, is the Driba (Pl. 2; B, 2), a fine type of an aristocratic mansion, with a picturesque colonnaded court on the first floor (fee ½ fr.). Opposite, at No. 5 Rue Régulus, one of the Portals has the geometric ornamentation so common in every part of the town.
At the end of the Rue de la Grande-Mosquée rises the venerable Chief Mosque (Pl. B, 2), with its square whitewashed minaret, whose upper half is of the 13th century. The main façade recalls Syrian types (Kalat Simân), and the ten arcades of the interior are like those of the Sidi Okba mosque (p. [374]).
Just beyond the mosque are the Souks, or markets. Their centre is the vaulted Souk des Etoffes (Pl. B, 2), with a large assortment of ‘gadrouns’, the chief garment of the people of Sfax, blankets from Gafsa, etc. Its continuation, the Rue des Teinturiers, leads to the Bâb Djebli (Pl. A, 1), the picturesque N.W. gate.
To the right the town-wall is skirted by the Rue des Forgerons (Pl. B, 1), with its balconies. To the left, Rue Abd el-Kader 62, is the law-court of the Ouzara (Pl. A, 1; sits Wednesday and Saturday forenoons), with a pretty court.
Outside Bâb Djebli is the bustling cattle-market, enclosed by fondouks or caravanserais, where we have a pretty view of several saints’ tombs and palm-shaded gardens.
A pleasant glimpse of the country and its inhabitants is afforded by a drive to the Toual el-Chridi (tariff, see p. [380]; but bargain advisable). Beyond the Bâb Djebli we pass the large Feskias, or rain-water reservoirs, and then numerous Nasrias or small cisterns. The *Orchard Zone extends about 5 M. inland. Passing through olive-groves and flanked with straight rows of trees the road ascends to the (13½ M.) Toual el-Chridi (433 ft.), a hill with a geometric signal, a kind of pyramid in steps, where we have an extensive view stretching to the sea.
On the road to Gabes (p. [389]), beyond the S.W. suburb of Picville and the Rond-Point, is the Jardin Public, watered by large basins, with the Jardin d’Essai, or botanic garden.
In the sea, nearly 1 M. outside the harbour, is a Biological Station for the promotion of the sponge-culture (comp. p. [381]).
From Sfax to Gafsa and Metlaoui, see R. 60; to Djerba, see R. 62; to Tunis by sea, see R. 64; to Tripoli and Malta, see R. 64.