CHAPTER VII 



AFRICA, MALTA, AND THE SMALLER 

 MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS 



NORTH AFRICA is a great stronghold of the 

 megalithic civilization, indeed it is thought 

 by some that it is the area in which megalithic 

 building originated. Morocco, Tunis, Algeria, and 

 Tripoli all abound in dolmens and other monu- 

 ments. Even in the Nile Valley they occur, for 

 what looks like a dolmen surrounded by a circle 

 was discovered by de Morgan in the desert near 

 Edfu, and Wilson and Felkin describe a number 

 of simple dolmens which exist near Lado in the 

 Sudan. Tripoli remains as yet comparatively 

 unexplored. The traveller Barth speaks of stone 

 circles near Mourzouk and near the town of 

 Tripoli. The great trilithons {senams) with holes 

 pierced in their uprights and ' altar tables ' at 

 their base, which Barth, followed by Cooper in 

 his Hill of the Graces, described as megalithic 

 monuments, have been shown to be nothing 

 more than olive-presses, the ' altar tables ' being 

 the slabs over which the oil ran off as it descended. 

 True dolmens do, however, occur in Tripoli, and 

 Cooper figures a fine monument at Messa in the 



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