The Light Railway to Dellys (19½ M.; p. [252]) descends to the N. from Camp-du-Maréchal (p. [253]) through the broad Sebaou Valley, past unimportant stations; then, near the mouth of the stream, it turns to the N.E., away from the highroad, and skirts the coast, which is at first flat and sandy and afterwards bold, and abrupt. To the left rises the lighthouse, famed for its view, on Cape Bengut (207 ft.), a spur of Jebel Ouamri (1227 ft.), composed partly of basalt and other eruptive rocks.
We now proceed to the E., at first through orchards and then on an embankment 26 ft. high, on the brink of a grand abraded terrace, 1 M. long, flanked with narrow perpendicular ledges of sandstone. We then pass through a short tunnel under the ‘dagger-pointed’ Cape Dellys.
19½ M. Dellys (203 ft.; Hôt. de la Colonie; pop. 3000, of whom 2000 are Mohammedans, mostly Berbers of the Arab type), a quiet little seaport, the W. sea-gate of Great Kabylia, probably on the site of the Roman Cissi, rises in terraces with luxuriant gardens on the E. slope of Cape Dellys, at the end of which is a small lighthouse. The deserted harbour is fairly protected against N. and N.W. winds only; the unfinished works at the end of the headland have been destroyed by the waves. Dellys offers little attraction beyond the strikingly beautiful view, stretching as far as Cape Tedlès (p. [256]). A few relics of Roman Cisterns and Thermae also may be visited. The Native Quarter is very picturesque. The Ecole Nationale d’Apprentissage des Arts et Métiers, numbering many Kabyle pupils, was transferred hither from Fort-National (p. [257]) in 1871.
The *Coast Road to Tigzirt (16 M.; diligence, see p. [252]) leads to the E. from Dellys, up and down hill, in many windings, past small headlands and bays and the estuaries of torrents. At first we observe isolated European settlements, but farther on we pass through underwood and the fields and fig-groves of the Kabyle hill-folk. The latter half of the route leads through remains of the Forêt de Mizrana.
16 M. Tigzirt (66 ft.; Hôt. des Ruines-Romaines, plain; pop. barely 200), a poor little agricultural village founded in 1888, with a lively Wednesday market, occupies part of the site of the ancient Rusuccuru. This, as the name indicates, was originally a Berber settlement; it afterwards became a Phœnician seaport. In the late-Roman period it vied with Saldæ (p. [263]) as one of the most populous places on this part of the coast, and under the Byzantines it was still fairly prosperous.
The village lies on a low coast-terrace behind Cape Tigzirt, a small headland, running out to a storm-beaten rocky island, with which in the Roman period it was connected by a quay. The Roman Town Wall extended from one shore to the other, as did also the shorter Byzantine Wall, which was nearer the promontory. The new buildings erected by the Byzantines, now a mass of ruins overgrown by bushes, superseded most of the Roman edifices on the promontory. The sole relic of the latter is a small *Temple (14¾ by 7 yds.) of the time of Septimius Severus, of unusually heavy and massive form, which, according to the inscription, was dedicated to the genius of the municipium of Rusuccuru. The lofty front-wall of the cella, borne by two columns, immediately adjoins the small court of the temple without an intervening vestibule.
The Roman ruins between the two town-walls, on the inland side, have been mostly either destroyed or built over by the modern villagers.
The most important of the old buildings at Rusuccuru is the *Bishop’s Church, situated close to the Roman town-wall in the E. part of the village. Originally a columnar basilica, 44 by 23 yds., probably of the 5th cent., it is now a picturesque chaos of ruins, with remains of the old mosaic pavement.
The entrances were through the chief portal in the narrow W. vestibule and by three smaller doorways in the wall of the façade, leading into an inner vestibule built into the nave. There are still traces of the two arcades of the nave, borne by clustered columns, all brought from ancient buildings, which rested without bases on stone pedestals. The rich plastic decoration of the imposts, with a touch of the Punic style, is noteworthy. The galleries over the aisles, accessible by outside stairs on the N.E. side only, were ruined by fire at an early period.