Eastward of Mourzouk, and situated in a district of remarkable fertility, is the town of Zuéela, in which the remnants of antient buildings, the number and size of the cisterns, and the construction of the vaulted caves, intended perhaps as repositories for corn, exhibit such vestiges of antient splendour, as will probably attract, and may highly reward the attention of the future Traveller.
To the South of Zuéela, and nearly at the same distance from the capital, is the town of Jermah, which, like Zuéela, is distinguished by the numerous herds, especially of sheep and goats, that are seen around it; by the various and abundant produce of its adjacent fields; and by numerous and majestic ruins, that exhibit to the ignorant inhabitants of its clay-built cottages inscriptions of which they know not the meaning, and vestiges of greatness to which they are perfectly indifferent.
Tessouwa, a considerable town, is also situated to the Eastward of the capital; but seems to have no claim to particular attention. Near this town, a river which the Shereef describes as overwhelmed in the moving sands, but which he remembers a deep and rapid stream, had formerly its course.
More remote from Mourzouk, being distant from it in a N.E. direction, about 120 miles, is the large town of Temmissa. Here the caravan of Pilgrims from Bornou and Nigritia, which takes its departure from Mourzouk, and travels by the way of Cairo to Mecca, usually provides the stores of corn and dates, and dried meat, that are requisite for its dreary passage.
S.E. from the capital, and distant from it about sixty miles, is the small town of Kattrón, which seems to be remarkable for nothing but the quantity which it breeds of the common fowl, and for the abundant crops of Indian corn which the neighbouring lands afford.
Very differently distinguished is the town, or rather the province, of Mendrah, for though much of its land is a continued level of hard and barren soil, the quantity of Trona, a species of fossil alkali that floats on the surface, or settles on the banks of its numerous smoaking lakes, has given it a higher importance than that of the most fertile districts.
Of this valuable produce great quantities are annually brought by the Merchants of Fezzan to Tripoli, from whence it is shipped for Turkey and Tunis, and the dominions of the Emperor of Morocco. The people of the latter employ it as an ingredient in the red dye of the leather, for which they are famous, and in that of the woollen caps that are worn by the Arabs and the Moors as the basis of their turbans.
The situation of Mendrah is nearly South from the capital, and is distant from it about sixty miles.
To the account which has been given of the principal towns of Fezzan, that of Tegérhy alone remains to be added. It is but a small town, is situated S.W. of the capital, about eighty miles, and collects from its lands but little other produce than dates and Indian corn. The territory of Fezzan, to the Westward of the capital, appears to extend but a little way; for on that side, the sullen barrenness of the Desart, more effectually than the strongest human power, prescribes a limit to the pursuits of Avarice and to the efforts of Ambition.
Of the smaller towns of Fezzan, and of its scattered villages, the number of which, including that of the towns, is said to be little less than one hundred, the Shereef has given no particular description.