Numerous columns of black diorite and the brèche of Djebel Chennoua lie scattered about the place, as well as magnificent fragments of what must once have been a white marble temple of singular beauty. In the museum a great variety of fragments are collected, many of which probably belonged to the same building, together with broken statues, tumulary and other inscriptions, capitals and bases of columns, amphoræ, etc., and in one corner, amongst a heap of rubbish, are some precious specimens illustrating curious facts connected with the state of industrial arts during the time of the Romans. For instance, a small section of a leaden pipe shows us that such implements were then made by rolling up a sheet of the metal, folding over the edges, and running molten lead along the joint. An ingot of the same metal exists, as perfect as when it left the foundry, with the maker’s name in basso relievo. There is a boat’s anchor much corroded, but still perfect in shape, a sundial of curious design, and, most interesting of all, the lower half of a seated Egyptian divinity, in black basalt, with a hieroglyphic inscription. This was found in the bed of the harbour, and may have been sent as a present to the fair Cleopatra, from her native land.
One of the most interesting buildings in the town is the Military Hospital, once a Mohammedan mosque, supported on 89 columns of diorite, surmounted by capitals brought from other buildings, without regard to size or style. The bases are embedded in the ground, it having been found necessary to raise the floor, in order to protect the building from damp. The mosque, which was of immense size, has been divided by partition walls to make four separate wards.
From an antiquarian point of view, there is no place in the province of Algiers so interesting as Cherchel and its neighbourhood, and however reckless has been the destruction of the precious architectural treasures which it contained, abundance still remains to testify to the splendour of the capital of Mauritania Cæsariensis.
FOOTNOTES:
[13]De Vermeuil et Bugnot, Rev. Afr. xiv. p. 45.
[14]Shaw, p. 45.
[15]Salah Rais.
CHAPTER III.
START FOR BONE — VISIT THE FOREST OF EDOUGH AND MINES OF AIN BARBAR.