If you do not mind a little scrambling, you can climb from here up to the
last spur of the Jebel Guettor which overlooks the plain--it is crowned by
a ruined building, once whitewashed, and easily visible from Gafsa. On its
slopes I struck a vein of iron, another of those scientific discoveries,
no doubt, like the flint implements, in which someone else will have
anticipated me. And here I also found iron in a more civilized shape, a
fragment of a shell--relic, perhaps, of the first French expedition
against Gafsa, or of some more recent artillery practice.
From its summit one sees the configuration of the country as on a map; the
high Jebel Orbata, 1170 metres, now covered with snow, coming forward to
meet you on the other side of the wide valley. From this point it is easy
to realize, as did the commander of that French expedition, the
significance of this speck of culture, its strategic value: Gafsa is a
veritable key to the Sahara. I daresay the abundant water-supply of the
town is due to these two chains of hills which almost touch each other and
so force the water to rise from its underground bed.
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