The train now runs to the N.E. to (5 M.) Bir-Kassa.
Branch Line to La Laverie (17½ M. from Tunis, in ca. 1¾ hr.; 2 fr. 80, 2 fr. 10, 1 fr. 40 c.; many stops). Beyond (6 M. from Tunis) Bordj-Gourbel the Oued Miliane (p. [363]) is crossed. On the right bank is the fertile, olive-clad Plaine du Mornag. 13 M. Haut-Mornag-Crétéville, at the S. base of Jebel Bou-Kornin (p. [363]). Crétéville lies on the road from Tunis to Grombalia (p. [364]), near the grand Khanguet el-Hadjadj (‘pilgrim-pass’), a deep ravine between Jebel Bou-Kornin and Jebel Ressas (see below), through which formerly passed the traffic between the interior and the harbours on the E. seaboard. In this defile, now clothed with vineyards, lay the little town of Neferis, which was destroyed by the Romans at the same time as Carthage. 17½ M. (from Tunis) La Laverie (377 ft.) is a village of Italian miners, at the W. foot of Jebel Ressas (2608 ft.; ‘lead-mountain’), where lead-mines were already worked in Roman times.
Beyond (8 M.) Nassen we cross the Miliane. 12½ M. Khledia.
15 M. Oudna. In the hill-country, ½ hr. to the S.E., is the large Ferme Ducroquet, situated among the ruins of Uthina, one of the wealthiest towns of N. Tunisia in the Roman age. Of the public buildings nothing remains but the Cisterns and scanty traces of the Theatre and Amphitheatre. Among the ruins of private houses is the Palace of the Laberii (end of 3rd cent. A.D.), a fine specimen of a sumptuous African-Roman dwelling, with a large peristyle as its centre (comp. p. [290]) and numerous mosaics (now mostly in the Bardo Museum). The adjoining Balineum (baths) was long used, from the 5th cent. onwards, as a potter’s workshop. Fine view from the highest hill (407 ft.); on a lower hill is a Byzantine Fortress.
Beyond Oudna the line intersects the Roman *Aqueduct of Carthage (p. [359]), in a landscape bright with flowers in spring.
17½ M. Bou er-Rébia, on the Tunis and Zaghouan road (p. [359]).
22½ M. Djebel-Oust lies at the N. base of Jebel Oust (1800 ft.), on which are noteworthy remains of two large piscinæ, Roman irrigation-works, and marble quarries, worked since ancient times.
30½ M. Smindja or Depienne (450 ft.), a village of ‘colonists’ in the Plaine de Smindja, a dale, containing numerous ruins, at the foot of the Zaghouan hills.
Branch Line to Zaghouan (8 M., in ½ hr.; fares 1 fr. 45, 1 fr. 10 c., 75 c.; return-ticket from Tunis 9 fr. 75, 7 fr. 35, 5 fr. 20 c.). At Moghrane (525 ft.), the only intermediate station, the two Roman aqueducts and the modern conduits (p. [339]) from Jebel Zaghouan and Jebel Djouggar unite.
The Road from Tunis to Zaghouan (34½ M.) leads past the Abattoirs (beyond Pl. E, 7) and the Sebkha es-Sedjoumi (p. [332]) to (8 M.) La Mohamédia, a poor village, with the decayed residence of Ahmed Bey (p. [344]). It crosses the Oued Miliane near the arches of the Roman aqueduct, here 66 ft. high, and beyond Bou er-Rébia (p. [358]) leads along the E. slope of Jebel Oust to (34½ M.) Zaghouan. A branch of the road from La Mohamédia, passing Oudna (p. [358]), also leads to Zaghouan.