The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-07-09
ACROSS AFRICA In AN AUTOMOBILE.
az FRANK q. CARPENTER.
Copyright 1905

OF eEhty miles Is here equally
goods. and. as dusk comes on. and We
fy along wiki tsic yellow devils eyes
blazing forth their ~acetyisne flames
We have no fears n bursting tires
nor or ruts which maj cause a break
down II IS pitch dark as we MAKE
front OF a French hotel where We
stay for the night.
The Amplntheater of E1-Djcm-
wonder Y you have ever heard q
El-Dtem. II = one Of the most Won
derful or all Roman ruins. and - sur
passed only in sire by tho Colosseum
a. Rome. / mean the great amphl
theater which Il situated on inns foaI
about twenty miles from the sea
Sfax II stands on a plain rising hlsh
above its surroundings The Colosseum
az Rome * dwarfed by other buila-
inRs. EI-Djem IS right out IN the
open; and save FOR a htile AFao VII
iage of mud huts about ten ieet N
height there are ne other buildings
in sight.
From the top OF the automobile one
can see tho ruins long before he comes
TO them At FIRST they look Ike a
mighty blur. a fortihcation or the
walls OF a fortified town. Nearer We
observe that they are a great hinph4-
theater and closer still the walls tow
er over us to tn height OF a twelve
story flat. One side OF the ampht-
thearer has been torn away. but n
greater part still stands. | climbed UP
from gallery to gallery. and wandered
trough the arcades, where the men
and women ~promenaded IN the days
of imperial Rome while waiting TOT
the gladiatorial shows to begin in the
arena below.
The outlines of the arena are plain
" marked. They inclose an ellipse OF
almost an acre. and according 10 my
PAGES. they actually measure about -o0
feet long and lis feet side.
The walls of this mighty structure,
the most Of which still stand. are lzV
feet high. and ii Is said that they were
one story highe but tina the top
story has been torn away. There are
three galleries rising one over the
other. Under the lower ones are the
cells where the wild animals were
kept and the rooms in Whlch the
zladIators waited until called into the
arena to fight with beasts or murder
the early Christians. This theater saw
the massacre of thousands; II was
even more noted for its ions than that
Of Rome. the wild beasts being
brought from the Atlas mountains
nearby.
El-Diem VS.. the Roman Colosseum
1t is said that the Colosseum -
Rome seated $1,000 spectators. FL
Diem was about three-Quarters as
large, and is said to have seats for
10000. Looking at its galleries TINS
seems probably true. The DulidlnS
has a ground floor of five or six acres.
and, with the galleries. it could have
accommodated an enormous number
Of people. | have seen as many as
$4,000 men at one Of our great ma
tional conventions. Fully that many
were seated at Chicago when Garfield
was nominated, and the seating ca
pacity Of El-Djem was almost three
times as large. The circumference
of the amphitheater here is only zoo
feet less than tina of the Colosseum,
and its width and breadth each meas
ure as much within 100 feet. The
Colosseum. as it exists today, is a lit
tie higher than El-Djem. but with the
story which was torn away added they
would be of about the same height.
The Romans had an old saying
which read:
While stands the Colosseum. Rome
shall stand;
When falls the Colosseum, Rome shall
fall,
And when Rome fails. with it shall
fall the world
On the Site of Old Thysdrus.
| doubt not the citizens Of north
ern Africa thought the same Of Ell
Diem. But who can now tell US any
thing OF the people who sat in this
mighty playhouse? We know only
that there was a great town here in
the time of imperial Rome. 1t was
called Thysdrus, anc IL must have
been of enormous size to have re-
Quired a theater like this. During the
third century it was one of the rich
est cities Of northern Africa. inc the
capital of a thickly populated
try. There were other great cities
nearby; about eight miles away was
one which had also a theater. and
which still shows the remain of vast
cisterns built for its water supply.
Thysdrus remained great up to about
the time of the Arab intasion, but
the people about were then governed
by a Berber queen known as kahena.
The country was so rich that it was
attacked again and again, and Ka-
hena, thinking the matter over, came
to the conclusion that the wealth of
her people was the cause of the num-
erous invasions, and that if they de-
strOyed their cities her ountr would
be let alone. She thereupon called
her mountain tribes together and or
dered them to cut down the orchards
and lever the towns. Th1S was done
all over the country, vast territories
being reduced from riches to poverty.
IT had, however, h reverse effect Of
what she intended. The people who
had lost their property sided with the
invaders, and kahena was defeated.
Her last stand was made in the am
phiterater of El-Djem, and its bat
tered walls still show the effects of
that siege.
Since then It has been robbed by
the generations which followed. It
has been a quarry for both Arabs and
Christians. and of late the French
have uncovered its mosaicS and car
ricd them off to their museums. To-
day they are making efforts to protect
what is left. | found parts Of the
ruins shut off by doors and wire
fences, and masons were at work here
and there repairing the damages Of
h vandals
Ruins of North Africa.
Inc day will come when northern
AFRICA Will be t~hronged with tourists
ana others studying the historic re-
mans OF Its past. The most Of the
ruins mere have, until now, been al