From Aïn-Ghrasesia to Metlaoui, 182 M., railway in 13 hrs. (fares 32 fr. 85, 24 fr. 95, 17 fr. 55 c.; from Susa 38 fr. 35, 29 fr. 10, 20 fr. 50 c.). This new railway, diverging here to the S.W., affords the easiest access to the ruins of Sbeïtla, Kasserine, Thelepte, and Feriana in central Tunisia. It runs over a low saddle between the Sebkha Sidi el-Hani (see p. [370]) and the marshy plain of the Oued Hathob, and across the bleak plain of Kairwan, to the S.W. borders of the Sahara Atlas, which it reaches at the foot of Jebel Touila, with its zinc and lead mines.
47½ M. Hadjeb el-Aïoun, the ancient Masclianae, on the Oued Zourzour, is the chief market (Tues.) for the Oulad Sendassen, a branch of the Djlass tribe (p. [370]), and, like the following stations, possesses an alfa-depot. Branch-line to Sbiba, the ancient Sufes, projected.
Farther on we pass the foot of Jebel Hadjeb el-Aïoun to (58½ M.) Djilma (1152 ft.), the Roman Cilma, on a tributary of the Hathob, here called Oued Djilma, We now enter, to the W., the valley of the Oued Menasseur, at the foot of Jebel Mrilah (4508 ft.) and Jebel Sbeïtla, inhabited by the Madjeur tribe (p. [362]).
76 M. Sbeïtla (1762 ft.; hotel), near the extensive ruins of Sufetula, on a plateau on the right bank of the Oued Sbeïtla, as the Oued Menasseur is named here. It was a poor castellum in the time of Augustus, but after the 2nd cent, became one of the most important junctions of different routes, and in the 5–7th cent. attained its prime under the Vandals and the Byzantines. In 645 it became the residence of Gregory, the governor, who had rebelled against Byzantium; it was soon after attacked by the Arabs under Abdallah ibn Saâd (p. [322]), and in 648 it was entirely destroyed. The chief boast of Sbeïtla is the *Capitol (comp. p. [288]), rising in the midst of the ruins. The temple-court, once used by the Byzantines as a fortress and now destroyed save a few fragments of the limestone pavement, was entered by a three-arched propylæum, bearing an inscription in honour of Antoninus Pius (138–61). The chief temple was pseudo-peripteral, with composite columns; there are still traces of the steps up to it and of the portico. The three cellæ are well preserved, especially at the back, and have a transverse wall, instead of a semicircular apse, adjoining the Corinthian smaller temples. We may note also a fine Triumphal Arch of the time of Constantine, the remains of a Byzantine Church incorporated with a temple, to the N. of the capitol, a Chapel built into a smaller temple, to the E., and the Aqueduct across the Oued Sbeïtla. Higher up is the spring of the new water-conduit, 103 M. long, which supplies the town of Sfax.
Passing many other ruins we come to the Plaine du Foussana (about 2650 ft.), one of the upper districts of the Oued Hathob, here called Foussana, at the S. foot of Jebel Semmama (4307 ft.; with the zinc-mines of Aïn-Khamouda on its N. side). Then a descent to (95 M.) Kasserine (2382 ft.), the ancient Cillium, a flourishing town from the 2nd cent. A.D. under the name of Colonia Cillitana, now a poor village with a caravanserai on the Thala and Feriana road (see p. [362] and below), not far from the chalky limestone masses of Jebel Chambi (5217 ft.; p. [320]). We may here visit the ruins of the Roman Arch and of the Tomb of the Petronii, and above all the interesting Mausoleum of T. Flavius Secundus, of the time of Trajan. This is a kind of tower in three stories, in the Phœnician fashion, terminating in a pyramid; the 110 bombastic lines of the inscription correspond with the number of years attained by the deceased. A little to the S., on the Oued Derb, are remains of a Roman Barrage,—The landscape farther on, where Roman ruins still abound, assumes more and more the Sahara character.
116 M. Thelepte (hotel) is the station for the ruins of the ancient town of that name, now called Medinet el-Khedima (‘the old town’), which in the 2nd–4th cent. A.D. was the chief place on the road between Tebessa (p. [315]) and Gafsa (p. [383]). Large thermæ, ruins of early-Christian basilicas, and a Byzantine fortress with many towers are to be seen here. The extensive Roman Quarries are interesting.
118½ M. Feriana (2628 ft.; Hôt. Hostelier; Restaurant Bernard; pop. 1200), an oasis of corn, fruit, and vegetables on the Oued Feriana, in the midst of a sandy plain, has a new and pretty mosque.—Thence we cross the Plateau de Msila (2930 ft.), overgrown with alfa, and descend to (134 M.) Maâjen Bel-Abbès, with the ruins of a Roman town, 28 M. to the N.W. of Gafsa. 141 M. Sidi Bou-Beker.
153½ M. Henchir Souatir (about 1640 ft.). A short branch-line diverges hence to Aïn-Moularès (1806 ft.), a caravanserai near the great beds of phosphate on the Algerian frontier.
166 M. Tabeditt is connected by railway with (9½ M.) Redeyef, which has rich phosphate deposits.—Beyond Tabeditt the train runs through the valley of the Oued Seldja (p. [386]), here inhabited by the Oulad Sidi-Abid nomads, to (183 M.) Metlaoui (p. [386]).
The Kairwan Line runs to the W. over the bleak steppe, often passing the tents and the browsing camels and cattle of the Djlass (p. [370]). We cross the Oued Hathob, here called Zeroud.