59. From Susa to Sfax.
Till the opening of the new railway (81½ M.) in 1911, which diverges from the line to Mehdia at Ouardenine (p. [369]), this excursion must be made by Road (79½ M.). Motor-omnibus or the Bône-Guélma Co., starting from the station, in 6½ hrs. (in the reverse direction 7 hrs.), fare 7 fr. 50 c.; at El-Djem, halfway (fare 3 fr. 75 c.), the ½ hr. allowed for visiting the amphitheatre barely suffices. Seats should be secured beforehand; outside (impériale) preferable in fine weather. Diligence at night, in 14 hrs., fare 12 fr. 90 c. (to El-Djem in 6½ hrs., 6 fr.), uncomfortable.—Steamers to Sfax, comp. R. 64.
Susa, see p. [366]. The road leads round the town on the side next the sea. It then ascends through the new industrial and villa quarters, and past the Jewish and the Christian Cemeteries (on the left), to the hill-country of the Sahel (p. [366]).
A little to the left lie the thriving villages of Zaouïet-Sousse and Ksiba, and to the right Messadine. The soil is extremely fertile; the road is bordered with huge olive-trees and tall cactus-hedges.
To the right, also off the road, lies (7½ M.) M’Saken (154 ft.; Hôt. de France; pop. 10,000), a station on the Mehdia line (p. [369]), whence a road leads to Kairwan (p. [372]).
The country beyond M’Saken, one of the most fertile parts of central Tunisia in ancient times, has become a mere desert since the Arab irruptions. In the midst of the dreary steppe, scantily overgrown with alfa, appear a few corn-fields and olive-plantations, the first signs of renewed colonization. Here and there are seen Arabs with their camels, belonging to the Souassi tribe, now partly settled on the land, descendants of the Hilalides (p. [323]).
In the distance to the right, beyond Bourdjine, the only village before El-Djem, appears the Sebkha Sidi el-Hani (p. [370]). 23 M. Col de Koudiat el-Goulal (525 ft.), the highest point on the road.
We are now in sight of the amphitheatre of El-Djem, whose enormous pile dominates the landscape for miles around.
40 M. El-Djem (361 ft.; Hôt. de l’Amphithéâtre, R. 2–3, B. ¾, déj. 3, D. 3¼ fr., humble, charges should be ascertained), a poor Arab village with a few olive and cactus plantations, is the site of Thysdrus, which in the late-Roman age was one of the most thriving towns near the E. coast and the junction of seven roads.
About ¼ M. from the inn and the post-office (halting-place of the motor-omnibus) is the **Amphitheatre, the grandest Roman structure in Barbary (first half of the 3rd cent.), noted in history also as a fortress. Here in 689, after the defeat of the united Byzantines and Berbers by Zoheir ibn Kaïs (p. [322]), the prophetess (kahina) Damia, the legendary leader of the Berbers, is said to have still defied her enemies. In 1685 the building, still almost intact, where many a rebel had sought refuge, was blown up on the W. side by order of Mohammed Murad Bey (p. [335]). Since then it has served the villagers of El-Djem as a quarry. The topmost story, consisting of an attica with Corinthian pilasters, the tiers of seats, and the stone steps have gradually disappeared. The ascent (not without the Arab keeper; ½ fr.) is very toilsome.