The principal Roman ruins at Diana are the two triumphal arches—of which the finer was drawn by Bruce, though unhappily his sketch is no longer extant in the Kinnaird Collection—the remains of a temple of Diana and a Christian basilica. The ruins of an aqueduct which brought the waters of Ain Sultan to the city are still visible for about nine miles.
From this point Bruce directed his course towards the Medrassen, spending the night of December 7 only eight miles distant from Diana. We descended from the diligence at Ain Yakoob at four A.M. on April 24, and hired mules to convey us thither. There is a road-side inn at Ain Yakoob, kept by a Maltese, and there is usually very little difficulty in obtaining beasts, though the Arabs, seeing travellers entirely at their mercy, without any French authorities to control them, know how to charge accordingly. The distance is less than six miles.
Shaw, in describing this building, says: ‘Five leagues to the east of Tagou-Zainah, upon the northern skirts of Jibbel Auress, we have a very remarkable sepulchral monument, situated between two eminences. It goes by the name of Medrashem, or Mail Cashem (‘the treasure of Cashem’), being nearly of the same fashion with the Kubber Romeah, but differeth in being larger and in having the cornish of the base supported with Tuscan-like pilasters. The Arabs imagine, as they do with regard to other large piles, that an immense treasure lieth buried beneath it, and have therefore made the like attempts as at the Kubber Romeah to lay it open.’[44]
Bruce dismisses the subject of the Medrassen with very few remarks, although he has left a drawing and a plan of it, the former of which is here given ([Plate V.])
The 8th, arrived at Medaghashem, or Mad Cashem, at two o’clock, 12 miles, and finished the design that night. The entrance is to the east; it is situated in a plain about two miles square, between two mountains, Azim and Boaref, and has to the east a view of an extensive lake, and by the south-east side passes the remains of a public road, which is probably that from Cirta to Lambese, of which we found traces between Constantina and Physgeah.
This remarkable monument, very similar to the Tombeau de la Chrétienne near Algiers, was situated on the high road between Theveste and Diana Veteranorum. The form is that of a truncated cone, placed on a cylindrical base 193 feet in diameter; the total height is 60 feet. The lower portion, which forms a vertical encircling zone or ring, is ornamented by 60 engaged columns, of which not one half are now perfect. The upper part, or roof, gradually diminishes, by a series of steps, each 22 inches in height, and 38 in breadth. The columns are stunted, much broader at the base than at the top, the height being about four times the lower diameter. They rest on three steps, which serve as base both to the monument and to the columns. The capitals are Doric, and above them is an entablature with a large, bold cavetto, as if of Egyptian origin. Commandant Foy,[45] probably following the description of Shaw, calls them of the Tuscan order; Colonel Brunon,[46] criticising the former, remarks that the capitals belong rather to the genre Egyptien than to the Tuscan order, the truth being that they are neither one nor the other, but purely Greek. Greece and Egypt seem to have inspired the ornamentation, while the tumulus suggested the monument itself, as it did the Tombeau de la Chrétienne, Etruscan tombs and the Pyramids of Egypt. The actual conical part has lost its apex, if it ever had one. The exterior masonry is remarkably fine, the stones being of great size, well cut, the joints not more in some places than the thickness of a knife and each stone joined to its neighbour by a massive clamp, probably of iron set in lead, the search for which has greatly contributed to the destruction of the building. Unfortunately the interior masonry was of a much inferior kind, and an extensive subsidence of it has caused a dislocation of the outer coating.
Plate V.
J. LEITCH &. Co. Sc.
THE MEDRASSEN OR TOMB OF THE NUMIDIAN KINGS