North-East Pavilion. Inscriptions; several objects of Punic origin. In the centre, 68. Bust of Augustus; 49B. Muse.—Leaving this room by a door in the N. wall we enter a—
Court containing sarcophagi and numerous architectural fragments.
Leaving the Museum we cross the Place Romaine to its W. side, where we follow the third side-street (from the N.) to the W. and soon reach on the right, nearly opposite a little mosque, the *Thermes de l’Ouest (W. Baths), dating from the 2nd or 3rd cent., the grandest Roman ruins in the town, with walls still rising to a height of 10–13 ft. (concrete faced with brick) and bits of old mosaic pavement. Most of the antiques in the museum were found in these baths, in which they seem to have been collected in the early-Christian period.
The ancient Portico, on the E. side of the baths, once with granite columns 26 ft. high, is now embedded in the building of the Manutention, and on the S. side are several chambers hidden under the Prison Civile.
From the present entrance on the S. E. side we first come to a suite of five important chambers. The central hall, 26 by 16 yds., was probably the Frigidarium, which was flanked on three sides with smaller basins (piscinæ). The two narrow passages behind the S. and the N. basins show traces of the stairs that once ascended to the upper story.
On the W. side of the frigidarium is a room supposed to have been the Tepidarium, which, like its side-rooms, is accessible only by climbing over the walls. The hall behind the tepidarium, with its semicircular niche, was apparently the Caldarium.
The Baths command a delightful view of the sea and of the coast to the W., as far as Cape Ténès (p. [209]).
Proceeding from the Thermes de l’Ouest we take the side-street at the mosque mentioned at p. [245] to the S. and reach the Rue de Ténès, the principal street of the town which leads to the W. (right) to the Porte de Ténès (see below). We, however, turn to the E. (left) and then follow the Rue du Centre, the first S. side-street. In the first side-street of the last, on the right, is the entrance to the famous old Chief Mosque ‘of the hundred columns’, completed in 1573, now the Military Hospital. Into the original ‘house of prayer’ a corridor and four hospital dormitories have been built; the antique columns, which are said to have been brought from the W. Baths, have been disfigured by a coating of paint.
At the S. end of the Rue du Centre, on the right, is a brick wall, the sole relic of the Roman Thermes du Centre.
A few paces to the left, on the hill-side above the Rue du Caire, are the remains of the Roman Theatre, unearthed in 1905. The E. side-entrance (parodos), between the stage and the auditorium, still exists, but the 27 tiers of seats were used for building the neighbouring barracks in 1845.