KEF

This article appears in Volume V15, Page 714 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: JUN-KHA

KEF , more correctly El-Kef (the Rock), a town of Tunisia, 125 M. by rail S.S.W. of the

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

, and 75 M. S.E. of Bona in Algeria. It occupies the site of the Roman colony of Sicca Veneria, and is built on the steep slope of a rock in a mountainous region through which flows the Mellegue, an affluent of the Mejerda. Situated at the intersection of main routes from the west and south, Kef occupies a position of strategic importance. Though distant some 22 M. from the Algerian frontier it was practically a border post, and its walls and citadel were kept in a state of defence by the Tunisians. The town with its half-dozen mosques and tortuous, dirty streets, is still partly walled. The southern part of the

wall

WALL (O. Eng. weal, weall, Mid. Eng. wal, wane, adapted from Lat. vallum, rampart; the
original
- ORIGINAL
O. Eng. word for a wall was wag or tenth)
WALL, RICHARD (1694-1778)

has however been destroyed by the French, and the remainder is being left to decay. Beyond the part of the

wall

WALL (O. Eng. weal, weall, Mid. Eng. wal, wane, adapted from Lat. vallum, rampart; the
original
- ORIGINAL
O. Eng. word for a wall was wag or tenth)
WALL, RICHARD (1694-1778)

destroyed is the French quarter. The kasbah, or citadel, occupies a rocky eminence on the west side of the town. It was built, or rebuilt, by the Turks, the material being Roman. It has been restored by the French, who maintain a garrison, here.
The Roman remains include fragments of a large temple dedicated to Hercules, and of the baths. The ancient cisternsremain, but are empty, being used as part of the barracks. The town is however supplied by water from the same

spring

SPRING (from " to spring," " to leap or jump up," " burst out," O. Eng., springau, a common Teut. word, cf. Ger. springer, possibly allied to Gr. QnrFpxecOac, to move rapidly)

which filled the cisterns. The Christian cemetery is on the site of a basilica. There are ruins of another Christian basilica, excavated by the French, the

apse

APSE
APSE (Gr. alkir, a fastening, especially the
felloe
- FELLOE
of a wheel; Lat. absis)

being intact and the

narthex

NARTHEX (Gr. vapOr7E, the name of the plant giant=fennel, in Lat. ferula)

serving as a church. Many stones with Roman

inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS (from Lat. inscribere, to write upon)

are built into the walls of Arab houses. The modern town is much smaller than the Roman colony. Pop. about 6000, including about 100 Europeans (chiefly Maltese).
The Roman colony of Sicca Veneria appears from the character of its

worship

WORSHIP (i.e. " worth-ship," O. Eng. weor8scipe)

of Venus (Val. Max. ii. 6, 15)to have been a Phoenician settlement. It was afterwards a Numidian stronghold, and under the Caesars became a fashionable residential city and one of the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

centres of Christianity in North Africa. The Christian apologist Arnobius the Elder lived here.
See H. Barth, Die Kiistenlander des Mittelmeeres (1849); Corpus Inscript. Lat., vol. viii. ; Sombrun in Bull. de la soc. de geog. de Bordeaux (1878). Also Cardinal Newman's Callista: a Sketch of the Third Century (1856), for a " reconstruction " of the manner of life of the early Christians and their oppressors.

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