They advised us strongly to visit some interesting Roman remains at no great distance, which but for them we should have missed, Mahadjiba, or Kasr-el-Mahdjouba, the Castle of the Female Recluse and the Seniore of the Itinerary of Antoninus.
The position of this city or stronghold was admirably chosen from a strategic point of view, being built on an isolated hill, the top of which is a rough triangle rising abruptly from the plain and sloping backwards towards its base in a series of terraces.
In front of it is an extensive stretch of rich corn and pasture land, reaching as far as Constantine, while behind it on the South is a narrow pass in the Fedj-bou-Ghareb, a remarkable scarped hill of compact limestone, giving access to the plain of the Amer Cheraga and Oued Zenati, in which are situated 83,000 out of the 100,000 hectares of land so lavishly granted to the Société Generale Algérienne by the late Emperor.
Thus this position completely commanded the ancient highway between Cirta and Kalama, as it now commands the Arab road between Constantine and Guelma.
The whole hill is covered with the remains of buildings constructed of huge blocks of cut stone; some of the walls are entire to above the level of the first-floor, the holes for the reception of the joists being distinctly visible. The principal and best-preserved edifice is the tower, from which the ruins derive their Arab name, an elegant and massive building, which perhaps formed the citadel of the place. It consists of a rectangular inner keep about 30 ft. by 18, and 40 high, complete as far as the cornice. It was divided in ground plan into two portions, communicating with a door which was about half the whole interior width; there were probably also two or more stories. This was surrounded on three sides by an outer wall four feet thick, forming a spacious enclosure, the whole being a part of the general system of defence. The fourth side of the tower, towards the body of the place, was not thus surrounded; a simple prolongation of its face completed the enceinte. The walls of the tower are pierced with narrow apertures, like modern loop-holes for musketry, while the outer wall has larger ones, resembling embrasures for artillery.
Two different styles of masonry are observable in the outer walls of this building, the stones in both being identical. The lower courses are accurately and closely joined, the upper ones much more loosely put together. This would indicate that, like many other Roman strongholds, Seniore was more or less destroyed by the Vandals, or suffered to fall into decay during their occupation, and restored by Belisarius or his successor Solomon. Every building in the place seems to have been built with a view to defence. All have the same loopholes, and many of them have what appears to have been a species of portcullis.
This was formed by two immense upright blocks of stone, a, a, having an exterior and interior groove. In the former large flat stones were dovetailed, c, and it is probable that some of these were habitually left out, and only put into position during an actual siege; the lowest one generally exists at present in its proper place. In times of peace, bars of wood, b, one above the other, let into the inner grooves, formed a more temporary barrier.
At the base of the hill below the citadel is an arch of cut stone, giving access to a subterranean passage, whence flowed a stream of water. This is now choked up, and the water has forced itself a passage through the débris about a hundred yards further down, where it has created a little oasis of trees, the only ones as far as the eye can reach. Here, again, the destruction of forests has been taking place. Shaw, alluding to it, says, ‘There is a large tower at this place, besides a fountain of excellent water, and good pasturage, but the forests all about it are so frequented with wild beasts that the Girfah will rarely sit down in the neighbourhood of it.’[21]
M. Renier gives ten inscriptions found here, but none of them of any great importance,[22] and illustrations of the ruins have been made both by Ravoisier and De la Marre.[23]