OCR Text |
Show 1 Ore Train Opens Tunisia Farcounfiy Phosphates, olives and tour-;in, tour-;in, ... an odd combination for one company's business interests? inter-ests? Perhaps anyplace else but Tunisia. The Gafsa Phosphate and Railroad Company operates principally in the south of Tunisia. The phosphates extracted ex-tracted from the mines in the Gafsa basin are transported by rail to Sfax, port of embarkation embarka-tion for the principal countries of Europe and the Far East. The railroad network includes in-cludes several lines. That from Sfax to Metlaoui is used primarily pri-marily for the transport of phosphates. It has branch lines to various isolated mines, and also connects with two of the most beautiful oases of Tuni- sia Gabes and Tozeur. The branch connecting Metlaoui Met-laoui and Reieyef is built in the heart of the gorges of Sel-dja Sel-dja an incontestobly spectacular spectac-ular technical achievement. The entry to the gorges is a split in the rock cliffs called "the sabre cut." At the bottom of the gorges flows a little stream which never dries up. This area has bocome a real tourist attraction, made accessible acces-sible to visitors new by the little lit-tle 'phosphate' railroad. The Gafsa Company also owns a large agricultural area in the beautiful region of Ma-hares, Ma-hares, 40 miles south of Sfax. It is planted with 200,000 olive trees and has an ultra-modern oil producing plant. The oil produced here is extremely high in quality and is generally gener-ally sold for export. To its multiple activities the company has recently added the management of The Olive Tree Hotel at Sfax. Built in 1925, this hotel was lately modernized and refurbished. Now, with comfortable and attractive accommodations, it provides the indispensable stopover point for the tourist wishing to set out to see the recently opened routes to the beauties of the desert. Pws7f;sa7ij fevjsss' ::fi?iS. s& .'ftCif Wm&S&W&A lmm- " '-StflsliliiM . 7777. ::-77lw17J&-:7,;7 nmmiiv mnr..rjiiimiimrniiiiiii...iiri . The sturdy little phosphate, now tourist carrying tram is dwarfed by the towering walls of the Seldja gorges. |