Shaw observes that Sbeitla is situated on a rising ground, shaded all over with juniper-trees.[149] Bruce says that it is surrounded above by a wood of white firs, by which he means the Pinus haleppensis, from which the inhabitants made pitch; and he remarks that Dr. Shaw has called them juniper-trees by mistake. Desfontaines, the well-known botanist, visited the place in 1783 and noticed both the Aleppo pine and the Juniperus macrocarpa.[150] At present not a tree or a bush is to be seen on the wide plain as far as the eye can range; the inhabitants have disappeared almost as completely as the pitch they once made; and the traveller may sleep in peace amongst the ruins, without any dread of the Oulad Amran—who twice attempted to surprise Bruce’s camp at night, and whom he described as ‘the greatest robbers and assassins in the kingdom of Tunis’—or of the lions, who ‘greatly incommoded’ him, and ‘who came to the door of the tent, and afterwards fell upon the neighbouring dowar.’
One of the most remarkable features of this part of the country, and which evidently led to its selection as the site of the ancient city, is its excellent water-supply. To the north of Sbeitla two ranges of hills diverge to the north-east and the north-west. Several streams flowing in a south-easterly direction drain this district and eventually become the Oued Djilma. One of these is the Oued Sbeitla, which in the first part of its course flows through a deep and narrow ravine, but as it emerges into the plain, the soil of which is extremely absorbent, the water becomes lost in the sand.
In the neighbourhood of Sbeitla the bed of the river is of compact limestone; on either side of it numerous tepid springs are seen bubbling up from the earth, accompanied by free carbonic acid gas. These unite into one stream of volume sufficient to supply an immense city, quite as large as the famous fountain of Zaghouan, and for more than a mile it thus flows in a clear and beautiful stream, never dry even in the hottest part of summer.
We observed numbers of small fish, probably barbel, and a large water-snake of a pale brown colour spotted with yellow; it was probably not venomous, but, even if it had been, its presence would not have deterred us from revelling in the delicious coolness of the stream after our long and arduous journey from Djebel Trozza. The temperature of this stream is just high enough to make it slightly warm in winter, but quite sufficiently cool in summer.
Roughly-built aqueducts brought the upper waters of this river along either bank into the city; that on the left bank crossed by a bridge of three arches, evidently of comparatively modern construction. It is of rubble masonry with conical buttresses to the right and left of the central arch, through which alone the stream flows, and on both façades of it. The piers of the arch are strengthened with three upright courses or bonds of cut stone on each side, evidently from older buildings; in one is a cippus of white marble containing the following inscription:—
M . AELIO AV
RELLIO[151] VERO
CAES. COS. II
IMP. CAES. T. AE
L. HADRIANI