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architecture, the stiles of the four-panelled stone doors being mistaken for crosses. Hence it was inferred that such a tomb must have been that of a Christian! The name is preserved,' says Dr. Judas, 'but nevertheless we must protest against its absurdity.' Leaving this tangle of French and Arabic, we turn with satisfaction to the pages of Pomponius Mela, a geographer of the first century who had seen this monument, probably in the lifetime of Juba II., and we find it described in simple language as 'Monumentum commune regiæ gentis.' That it was intended as the common sepulchre of Juba and his descendants is clear enough; but his dynasty, as we have said, was shortlived. It is worthy of mention, in concluding an account of this edifice, that vegetation is so luxuriant on its conical top that some years ago M. Jourdain, the naturalist, found ample matter for a pamphlet entitled Flore murale du Tombeau de la Chrétienne.

Mention should here be made of a similar tomb about fifty-two miles south of Constantine, called by the Arabs the Medrassen, probably after a tribe known as the Madres, who occupied a neighbouring territory on the northern slopes of the Aures mountains. By some it has been thought to be the sepulchre of Syphax, and there is a tradition that the monument was raised by the Emperor Probus in honour of the African chief Aradion, who fell bravely in his last struggle with the soldiers of the Empire. We may pass by these conjectures, for it is tolerably certain that the edifice was built by Masinissa as a sepulchre for himself and his descendants, or by his son and successor Micipsa. Its situation in the centre of his kingdom, and at a convenient distance from his new capital Cirta, favours this supposition. There is no sufficient ground for supposing it to have been built by Syphax, for it must be remembered that, till the last year of his reign, his capital was at Siga, on the western frontier of his dominions. Moreover, Syphax was

led captive to Rome and died in prison.

The form of the tomb is cylindrical, surmounted by a truncated cone composed of a series of steps, each being 21 inches high. The cylinder, having a diameter of about 190 feet, is ornamented by 60 engaged columns with a frieze and cornice, and stands on three steps forming a base to the entire monument. The material of the facework is a fine sandstone, but

the mass of the structure is formed of thin slabs of inferior stone in regular courses, having at a distance the appearance of bricks. The columns and cornice are Egyptian in character. The capitals are Greek. The monument, in fact, is one of the few existing buildings in North Africa which mark the transition between Egyptian and Greek art, and was probably the work of an architect from the neighbouring colony of Alexandria towards the close of the second Punic war, B.C. 201. The entrance to the sepulchral chamber, which is nearly in the centre of the monument, is above the cornice on the west side, and is approached by a series of steps and a straight narrow gallery. The tomb has been ransacked from time to time in search of treasure, and, from the charred appearance of some of the masonry, attempts must have been made to set it on fire. It was not till 1873 that the French engineers succeeded in finding and effecting an entry, and, after much patient labour, discovered, the sepulchral chamber measuring 10 feet 3 inches by 4 feet 7 inches. Nothing of value is stated to have been found during the exploration. The points of resemblance between these two monuments, the Medrassen and the so-called Tombeau de la Chrétienne, are very striking, leaving no room for doubt that one furnished the idea for the other. Their value must be estimated, not on the ground of any special artistic merit, but as links in a long chain of architectural history, and as memorials of two men whose names will be for ever associated with that old-world country Numidia.1

The remains of Juba's renowned capital, splendidissima colonia Cæsariensis, as it is designated in one of the numerous inscriptions, are very extensive. Sacked by Firmus in the fourth century, it was razed to the ground by the Vandals a century later. Under Barbarossa it regained something of its former splendour, but the city was almost entirely overthrown by an earthquake in 1738. After such vicissitudes it is not surprising to find the remains in a fragmentary condition.

A somewhat similar monument is that of El Djedar in Oran. And in Western Algeria, not far from the village of Frenda, is a group of smaller tombs in the form of low pyramids supported on square, instead of circular or polygonal, podiums. The largest is about forty-three feet high, the podium being about ten feet. The entrance was from the top of the podium, descending by a flight of steps to a vaulted corridor communicating with the sepulchral chambers in the centre of the monu

ment.

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'Nothing,' says Shaw in 1730, 'could have been better contrived, either for strength or beauty, than the situation of this city. A strong wall, forty feet high, buttressed, and winding nearly two miles along the shore, secured it from all encroachments from the sea.' The outlines of the amphitheatre, choked with some twelve feet of earth, may still be traced in the middle of a ploughed field. Nearly all the steps have disappeared, and the blocks of stone and marble with which the edifice was constructed have been regarded as a quarry for many centuries past. The great cisterns, storing more than four million gallons, are still used as reservoirs, and in connection with the same system of supply as the ancient city. The principal therma, the façade of which was more than 300 feet long, are scarcely traceable in outline, though the huge masses of solid walls still standing give a fair idea of the magnificence of the edifice. There were at one time two other palatial baths, the remains of one of them being still visible by the seashore. The hippodrome, which some seventy years ago was in fair preservation, with its portico and columns of marble and granite, is now a mere undulation of its surface. The blocks of stone have been removed, and the débris accumulated during this long interval has almost obliterated the outline. There is little doubt that Julia Cæsarea remains to be unearthed. Whenever excavations have been made, architectural fragments have been brought to light: columns of black diorite, shafts of white marble, busts and broken statuary, many of them replicas of Greek statuary ordered by Juba for the embellishment of his city. Some of them are still stored in the little museum at Cherchel, sufficiently attesting the splendour of Juba's capital and his appreciation of the work of Greek artists. Outside the city are the remains of the aqueduct which conveyed the waters of Djebel Chennoua. Eighteen arches only remain. When Bruce visited Cherchel in 1765 he found the aqueduct in much better condition. A drawing made by him has been preserved, showing a triple series of arches, rising in one part to the height of 116 feet.1

'The construction of this aqueduct, which is a conspicuous object in the landscape, is very irregular, and will not bear comparison with the great aqueduct of Carthage. The span of the arches is about nineteen feet, and the thickness of the piers averages fourteen feet.

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