Zaghouan (821 ft.; Hôt. de France, déj. 3 fr., plain but quite good, orders should be given in advance; pop. 1200, incl. 530 Europeans, mostly Ital.), Arab. Zaghwân, a charming place, specially in spring, lies amidst olives, oranges, and cypresses on a terrace at the foot of Jebel Zaghouan (see below), ¼ hr. above the station. The Roman Triumphal Arch, at the entrance to the village, is the sole relic of the small town of Onellana (?); the columns of the nymphæum now adorn the Chief Mosque.
We may thence walk in ½ hr. to the Prise d’Eau (902 ft.), the reservoir of the new conduit which supplies both Zaghouan and Tunis with water from the Aïn Ayed. The direct route leads from the station past the barracks of the tirailleurs; or we may follow a rough but romantic path from the little town, through a secluded valley, where numerous nightingales nest among the oleander-bushes by the bed of the stream. From the Prise d’Eau a rocky path leads to the S.W. to the (12 min.) *Nymphæum (Temple des Eaux; Arabic Henchir Aïn-Kasba, ‘ruined castle of the fountain’), the well-house of the Carthage aqueduct (p. [348]), shaded by groups of splendid old trees. Near the basin are two flights of steps leading to the semicircle of the fountain-shrine, with its colonnade, twenty-four empty niches for statues, and a domed central chamber, the ante-room of the cella.
*Jebel Zaghouan (4245 ft.), the ancient Mons Ziquensis, the finest mountain in Tunisia, offers from the summit, called Râs el-Kasa, a superb panorama of the greater part of N. Tunisia and of the E. coast as far as Susa. It is ascended from the Nymphæum path in 4 hrs., past the kubba of Sidi Sala Bou-Ghobrin (2264 ft.) and the zinc-mines (with their humble canteen), and lastly by rough and toilsome paths. Less extensive, but also very grand, is the view near the Poste Optique (3199 ft.), 2 hrs. above the Prise d’Eau (bridle-path; mule 2–3 fr.).
Our train, running to the S.W. with a fine view of Jebel Zaghouan on the left, now intersects the Smindja plain and reaches the Fahs er-Riah, the fertile upper basin of the valley of the Oued Miliane, which is here formed by the Oued Jarabia and the Oued el-Kébir. Its inhabitants are of the Riah tribe, descendants of the Beni Hilal (p. [323]).
40 M. Pont-du-Fahs (574 ft.). The village (Hôt. Calega, poor), occupied by immigrants, lies ½ hr. to the N.E., on the left bank of the Miliane. Behind it, on the spurs of Jebel Djaffar (1185 ft.), are the extensive ruins of Henchir-Kasbat (702 ft.), the ancient Thuburbo Majus; in the forum are two ruined temples, one of them, dedicated to Mercury, dating from 211 A.D.; there are also triumphal arches, thermæ, and a Byzantine fortress.
On the right rises the curiously shaped Jebel Klab (1204 ft.). We cross the Oued el-Kébir and run to the W. through the Jarabia valley to (48½ M.) Tarf ech-Chena, 3 M. to the N.W. of Apisa Majus. Farther on almost the only habitations visible are the tents and gourbis (twig-huts) of nomadic tribes.
Beyond (55½ M.) Bou-Arada we cross the watershed between the Oued Miliane and the Oued Siliana (p. [354]).
65 M. El-Aroussa, station for Ksar Hellal, which has an early-Christian chapel of trefoil form. 70 M. Sidi-Ayed, on the Oued Siliana. We then ascend the winding valley to the S.W.
75 M. Gaffour (about 1080 ft.; Rail. Restaurant, with rooms), with its railway-works, is the station for the large estate of the Société Foncière de Tunisie, 72,500 acres in area, where extensive corn-fields are seen in spring. From Gaffour a road, tolerably fit for driving in dry weather, leads over Jebel Sidi Abdalla Ben-Cheid (2070 ft.) to Teboursouk (Dougga; comp. p. [354]).
82 M. El-Akhouat, in the valley of the Oued Soufi, near the zinc-mines on Jebel el-Akhouat (2061 ft.); 86½ M. Le Krib, on the S. edge of the fertile Plaine du Krib.