Excerpt from The Earth and Its Inhabitants, Vol. 2: Africa; North-West Africa On the North African seaboard the rounded mass of the plateau of Barka corresponds with the region of Tunis, which limits the Gulf of Cabes towards the west, and projects in the Carthaginian headlands in the direction of Sicily. The two territories resemble one another in their geographical position, their climate, and products. They also played their part in the history of the old world, one through its Hellenic colonies, the other through its Phoenician republic. In comparing Cyrene with Carthage, observers have dwelt on the natural advantages of the former, and have expressed their surprise that it never rose to the same pitch of commercial prosperity as its western rival. It is, however, to be observed that for the purposes of international trade Carthage really occupied a position far superior to that of the maritime cities of Cyrenaica. Forming no part of the Greek world, it did not reach the same standard of general culture; and although not lacking great thinkers, it never exercised the same influence in the development of the arts and sciences. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.