embattled wall flanked with towers; above the ramparts appear the domes and minarets of numerous mosques, surrounded by a magnificent olive grove. It was also till recently peopled by Mussulman fanatics, who would not tolerate any other religion in their town but their own; but, being now visited by a regular service

Fig. 46. — Mahdiya.

of steamboats, its colony of Europeans is slowly increasing. It is the cleanest and best regulated town in the whole of Tunis.

Not far from the promontory, of which Monastir occupies the western angle, is a small group of islands, one of which is pierced with some fifty artificial grottoes,