From the level of the ground was constructed a walled, paved, and inclined passage; this was covered in, and terminated at the spring, from which were built upright walls to the surface of the earth, forming the well. Thus the water can either be drawn from the top or carried up the steps.
During the next couple of hours we met only a few riders and pedestrians.
A mountain plateau of no great height now showed before us, but a little to our left. Towards the north it lost itself in the plain in a level slope, over which wound the track.
On the hill the soil was washed or blown away, leaving the barren flat rocks naked, and the horses had difficulty in keeping their footing amongst the large rough stones. In one place the path wound on either side of a small pile of stones. This heap was the length of a man, and lay east and west. Hamed informed me that it covered the remains of one who had been murdered on this spot many years ago.
After a time we reached the highest point of our day’s journey, and came upon a magnificent view.
The foreground was composed of a level, stony slope of dull-yellow soil. Where it ended we saw a long, narrow, grey strip with a tufted border; this is part of the palm grove of El Hamma oasis. Beyond it, to the left—therefore to the south-west—ran a mountain ridge, and farther on the right was a shining level plain, somewhat white in appearance. This is the “shott” of El Fejej. It resembled the sea when dead calm, and seemed as though it had flowed thence to lose itself far away in the western horizon.
North of the “shott” the mountains tower up in successive tiers, the foremost, of a deep blue tint, contrasting sharply with the white flat surface of the “shott.”
Beyond are paler blue peaks, and beyond them again the vague outlines of far-distant mountains.
Shott Fejej is the most easterly of the “shotts” that extend in a long line from the Sahara south of Biskra to the Mediterranean, thus covering a track of between two and three hundred miles.
It is only separated from the Mediterranean by Le Seuil de Gabés, a small strip of land about eleven miles wide.