Twenty minutes more brought us from Oudena to the southern end of the plain spanned by the aqueduct, where is a domed building, from which the syphon of the modern aqueduct starts; this is sixteen miles from Tunis, and twenty-and-a-half from Zaghouan.
From this spot we continued our journey through an undulating country overgrown with brushwood, and after a few miles arrived at the ruins of a Roman post, called by the Arabs Bab Khalid, the ancient name of which is unknown.[108] The gate, or small triumphal arch, which gives its name to the place, and which was entire when Guérin visited it in 1860, has now fallen; one half however remains upright. There are numerous cisterns and foundations of buildings scattered about, but nothing of much interest. At thirty-three miles from Tunis is the spot called Magaran, where the two sources from Zaghouan and Djougar unite, and are conveyed in a single stream to Tunis, as they formerly were to Carthage.
The former source will be described hereafter; the latter, Ain Djougar, is situated twenty-three miles further to the west, close to the village of Bent Saida, which occupies the site of the ancient Zucchara Civitas. Like the other, this one also issued from a monumental fountain, now in a very bad state of preservation, but when visited by Shaw the frieze of the building still existed, and bore the following inscription—[109]
. . . . . RORISII TOTIVSQVE DIVINAE DOMVS
EIVS CIVITAS ZVCCHARA FECIT ET DEDICAVIT.
At Magaran there is a very neat house, surrounded by a garden, occupied by the French employé in charge of the waterworks, and close to it an establishment, also belonging to a Frenchman, for the collection of alpha grass, which grows abundantly on Djebel Zaghouan.
Continuing our route from this spot, which is thirty-three miles from Tunis, and four from the village of Zaghouan, we reached the latter place in about an hour, having travelled thirty-seven miles in eight hours, or at the rate of 4⅝ miles per hour.
Here we were hospitably received by the Khalifa, Si Hamoud Wuled Fadhel, who lodged us in the Dar el-Bey, and very kindly attended to all our wants. We had taken the precaution to obtain an amra, or recommendation, from the Bey of Tunis, without which it is quite impossible to travel in this country.
The Dar el-Bey is a large and by no means handsome building, used for the reception of guests, but it affords what alone travellers require—a complete shelter, and a few rude beds on which they can pass the night. We found it perfectly free from vermin of all sorts.
After the first destruction of Zaghouan it was rebuilt by a colony of Andalusian Moors from Spain; but, notwithstanding its exceptionally favourable position and the abundance of its water supply, it appears to be falling into decay, half the houses are ruined, and there is no appearance of any modern construction going on. Yet the land in the wide plain below it appears everywhere capable of being cultivated; when cleared it seems to yield satisfactory results, but a large proportion is still covered with lentisk scrub. The olive woods around are very extensive, and ought to be a source of great riches; but the trees are all old, and there is no evidence of the formation of new plantations.