2-982-479 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

An Excursion from Tunis to Zowan - Roman and Saracen Entrance-Gate to Zowan, fifty miles south from Carthage, 1858. Engraving from a sketch by Mr. Arthur Hall, made during '...an excursion from Tunis to the source of the stream which supplied Carthage with water...About one o'clock we arrived at the outskirts of the town Zowan, which is situated at the foot of the mountain from which the Carthaginians procured their water. What a contrast now presented itself to the sandy desert over which we had toiled! Beautiful, clear, gushing streams were pouring out in every direction, and, passing up a lane hedged with trees, oleanders, blackberry-trees laden with fruit, and various shrubs, we entered through an old Roman Gateway...Beneath the Roman arch the Saracens built a smaller one, and both are still in tolerable preservation. The Roman arch has on the keystone a ram's head, with a serpent holding its tail in its mouth a symbol of eternity, and within the circle the letters AUX LIO'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.