EL  MELLAHA.
190
following  magnificent  inscription,  which  is  engraved  upon  the  rock,
just  over  the  sea,  where  the  road  turns  southward:
IMP  CAES  M  AVRELIVS
ANTONINV  S.  PIVS.  FELIX.  AVGVSTVS
PART  MAX.  BRIT.  MAX.  GERM.  MAXIMVS
PONTIFEX.  MAXIMVS
MONTIBVS  INMINENTIBVS
LICO  FLVMINI  CAESIS  VIAM  DELATAVIT
PER
ANTONINIANAM  SVAM
The  last  line  but  one  has  been  purposely  erazed.  Below
the  frame  in  which  the  above  is  engraved,  is  this  figure.
Higher  up  in  the  road  are  several  other  places  in  the  rock,
where  inscriptions  have  been  cut,  but  the  following  one  only  is  legible ¬
  :
INVICTIM
ANTONIN  FELIX  AVG
MV..IS  NISIM*
According  to  the  opinion  of  M.  Guys,  the  French  consul  at
Tripoli,  which  seems  well  founded,  the  Emperor  mentioned  in  the
above  inscriptions  is  not  Antoninus  Pius,  but  Caracalla  ;  as  the
epithet  Britannus  cannot  be  applied  to  the  former,  but  very  well
to  the  latter.  Opposite  to  the  bridge  is  an  Arabic  inscription,  but
for  the  greater  part  illegible.
The  road  continues  for  about  half  an  hour  through  the  rock
over  the  sea,  above  which  it  is  no  where  higher  than  fifty  feet.
At  the  southern  extremity  is  a  square  basin  hewn  in  the  rock
close  by  the  sea,  called  El  Mellaha,  in  which  the  salt  water  is
sometimes  collected  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  salt  by  evaporation. ¬
  On  the  summit  of  the  mountain,  to  the  left  of  the  rocky
road,  lies  the  Deir  Youssef  el  Berdi  (g  1);  half  an
*  In  the  year  1697  Maundrell  read  this  inscription  as  follows  :  Invicte  Imp.  Antonine ¬
  P.  Felix  Aug.  multis  annis  impera.  Ed.