79½ M. Narrow Gauge Railway, in 5½–6½ hrs. (14 fr. 35, 10 fr. 25, 7 fr. 70 c.; 1st cl. return 20 fr. 20 c.). Railway Restaurant at Clairefontaine only. Morsott is preferable to Tebessa for night-quarters.
Souk-Ahras, see above. We cross the Tunis line (R. 51) by a viaduct, and descend to the S. into the valley of the Medjerda (p. [325]), latterly through underwood and Aleppo pines. 5 M. Les Tuileries.
We next ascend the narrow and picturesque side-valley of the Oued Chouk, through pine and cork-oak woods. Beyond (9 M.) Oued-Chouk (1975 ft.) we skirt the upper course of the stream, now called Oued el-Hammam, in a barren hill-country, and at places through limestone gorges, bordered with Aleppo pines.
17½ M. Dréa (2634 ft.), an alfa (esparto grass) station.
From Dréa we may visit the native village of Mdaourouch (3058 ft.), 3 M. to the S.E., on the N.W. slope of Jebel Bou Sessou (3566 ft.). This was the ancient Madaura or Madauros, the birthplace (about 125 A. D.) of the Roman author L. Apuleius. It was once the seat of a famous school of oratory, at which St. Augustine (p. [310]) was educated. On its site, where there are relics of a Roman Mausoleum and the foundations of an early-Christian Basilica, rises the conspicuous Byzantine Castle, dating from the time of Solomon (p. [315]), a building curiously irregular in plan, partly enclosed by later (Berber?) fortifications. Large Thermae also have been recently excavated.
Beyond Dréa we traverse fields and poor pastures to the S.W.
22½ M. Mdaourouch (2809 ft.; no inn), the highest point on the line, the watershed between the Medjerda and the Mellègue (see below). In the vicinity is the village of Montesquieu.
A field-road leads to the E. from the station to (4½ M.) the village of Mdaourouch (see above).
Khamissa (p. [313]) may be visited from Montesquieu (see above) or Mdaourouch if we are fortunate enough to find mules there. We follow the Sedrata highroad to the W. to (9 M.) the caravanserai (Bordj; 2756 ft.) in the Plaine de Tifech (p. [313]), whence we turn to the N. to (13 M.) Ksar Tifech (p. [313]) and thence go on to (16 M.) Khamissa.
Beyond Mdaourouch there are long stretches of bleak steppe-like country. The train descends to (30 M.) Oued-Damous (1982 ft.), in the valley of that name. It then skirts the Oued Kebarit and rounds the E. slope of Jebel Kréréga (3251 ft.), a tableland with scanty woods of pine and arbor vitæ. Far away to the left rises Jebel Ouenza (4229 ft.), with the largest iron-mines in Algeria, owned by the ‘Société d’Etudes de l’Ouenza’. (Mineral-line to Bona or to Nebeur projected; comp. p. [325].)