Tivoli has documents dating from the 10th century relating to the landed property of the see (L. Bruzza, Regesto della chiesa di Tivoli, Rome, 1883), and the municipal archives date from 1450. The castle was erected in 1460 by Pius II. on the site of the amphitheatre; it is now a prison. In November 1826 a flood of the Anio led to a change in its course, and threatened to carry away the town. A new channel, consisting of two parallel tunnels (the Traforo Gregoriano) 290 and 330 yds. long, was therefore made to the north-east in 1826–1835 by Folchi, and on emerging from these the river has a fall of 354 ft. Farther north-west are smaller falls (the cascatelle) of that portion of the river which is carried through the town and serves for industrial purposes. Five miles west are the sulphur baths of Acque Albule, which were known to the ancients, and are now frequented by over 40,000 persons annually. The temperature of the water is 75·2° F. The falls in the river afford electric power for lighting Rome and driving its trams, as well as for driving several factories in Tivoli itself. Tivoli is also the centre of an agricultural district, and its olive trees are especially fine.
TLAXCALA, an inland state of Mexico, bounded N.E. and
S. by Puebla, and W. by the state of Mexico. Area 1505
sq. m. Pop. (1900), 172,315. Tlaxcala lies on the great central
plateau of Mexico and has a mean altitude of about 7000 ft.
Several mountains rise in the west and south, culminating in
the volcanic peak of Malinche, or Malintzin (14,636 ft.).
The state has three railway lines crossing its territory.
The capital is Tlaxcala and the principal towns are
Chiautempan (about 5000). Calpulalpan, San Antonio, Tlaxco,
Huamantla and Barron-Escandon (Apizaco). The state
nearly coincides with the ancient Indian republic founded
in the 13th century by a branch of the Nahuatlan race, who
migrated from the western shores of Lake Texcoco. Though
surrounded on all sides by the great Aztec Empire, the tiny
republic maintained its independence until the arrival of the
Spaniards. The Tlaxcaltecs, or Tlascalans, after a fierce resistance
to Cortés in 1519, became efficient allies of the Spaniards
and contributed largely to their final success. The present
inhabitants are chiefly of this original stock, and retain their
language and many ancient customs.
TLAXCALA, a town of Mexico, capital of a state of the same
name, on the Atoyac river, 58 m. E. of Mexico city by rail.
Pop. (1900), 2715. It is of historic interest in connexion with
the conquest of Mexico by Cortés. The state-house is its only
fine edifice of a political character, and the old bishop’s palace
its finest building of a religious character. Of most historic
interest, perhaps, is the church of San Francisco, the first erected
on the American continent, which still contains the vestments,
pulpit, font and cedar ceiling brought from Spain in 1521. The
handsome sanctuary over the holy well of Ocotlan, on a hill
outside the town, is one of the landmarks of the surrounding
country.
TLEMÇEN, a town of Algeria, the capital of an arrondissement
in the department of Oran, near the frontier of Morocco,
68 m. by road and 102 by rail S.W. of Oran. It stands 2500 ft.
above the sea, on the north slope of the Lella Setta hills, which
rise to a height of over 4000 ft. It is the chief town of a wide
district exporting olive oil, esparto, corn and flour, wools and
Algerian onyx; and has a population of (1906) 24,060. From
Tlemçen the railway is continued westward to the Moroccan
frontier at Lalla Maghnia, a distance of 44 m.
Among the cities famous in the annals of Arab-Berber, or Moorish, art and civilization, Tlemçen takes high rank. In architectural merits its monuments, though not so extensive, are worthy of comparison with those of Granada. The older walls and towers-there were three ancient lines of fortifications—are in great part destroyed, but a wall built by the French encircles the town.
The various quarters are grouped around the principal mosque—the Jewish to the south-west, the Moorish to the south-east, that of the merchants to the north-east, while the new town with the civic buildings lies to the north-west. Of the sixty-four mosques which existed at the period of the French conquest, several have disappeared. The great mosque (Jamaa-el-Kebir) has a brick minaret 112 ft. high, adorned with marble columns, and cased with mosaic of the most varied designs; a fountain of alabaster—of the kind known as Algerian onyx—stands in the alabaster-paved inner court; and 72 columns support the arches of the interior. This mosque was built A.D. 1136 to replace a much older building. The mihrab is finely ornamented with arabesques. The mosque of Sidi Ahmed bel Hassan, usually called Abul Hassan, built A.D. 1298, now transformed into a museum of antiquities, has two series of arches, which rest on alabaster pillars. The courts are ornamented by sculptures of great beauty and richness; the delicately-carved cedar ceiling bears traces of polychromatic painting. The exterior has been altered in French taste. Among the antiquities preserved in the museum are the epitaph of Boabdil, the last king of Granada, who died at Tlemçen in 1494, and the standard cubit measure—in marble—used in the Kissaria, bearing date A.H. 728 (1328). The mosque of El-Halawi (the Sweetmeat Maker), dating from 1353, is outside the walls of the town. It has eight magnificent columns of Algerian onyx, with richly sculptured capitals. The ceiling of cedar is richly carved, and there is a fine colonnade on each side of the court. The minaret is decorated with mosaics. The military authorities occupy the Meshuar or citadel, built in 1145, which separates the Jewish and Moorish quarters and was formerly the palace of the rulers of Tlemçen. Only the minaret of the mosque, dating from the 14th century, and the battlemented wall, flanked by two towers, remain of its former magnificence. The vast basin (sahrij) under the old walls, now dry (720 ft. in length, 490 in width and 10 in depth), was apparently made for naval exhibitions. At one period barracks of the spahis occupied all that remains of the Kissaria. the place of residence of European merchants from Pisa, Genoa, Catalonia and Provence. The barracks have been cleared away and a covered market made in the upper part of the Kissaria. The ancient college (medressa) where many learned Arabs taught—of whom Ibn Khaldūn, author of a History of the Berbers, may be mentioned—has entirely disappeared. The church erected by the French is a fine building in the Byzantine style. Besides the large trade carried on there are native manufactories of cloth, carpets and leathern articles. A special manufacture is that of red shawls, used throughout the department of Oran by Jewish women when in mourning.
In the immediate neighbourhood of the modern Tlemçen are numerous remains of the fortifications of Agadir (vide infra), and the minaret of the mosque, a beautiful tower dating from the 13th century, the lower part of which is built of large hewn stones from the Roman Pomaria. More noteworthy, however, are the ruins of Sidi Bu Medin and of Mansura.Sidi Bu Medin. Sidi Bu Medin (more properly El Eubbad) is a little over a mile south-east of Tlemçen. It was founded A.D. 1337 by Ali V., the first of the Beni-Marin (Marinide) sultans who ruled Tlemçen, and commonly called the Black Sultan. The ruins of a small building, conjectured to be a palace of Sultan Ali, which commands a beautiful view, were excavated in 1881. The kubba or tomb of Sidi Bu Medin, near the palace, is held in great veneration by the Arabs. The roof and walls are covered with arabesques, and the legend El-Mulk Lillah, “the kingdom is God’s,” is repeated again and again. The saint himself was born at Seville A.D. 1126, and died near Tlemçen in his 75th year; his disciple Sidi Abd-es-Selam of Tunis lies near him. The adjacent mosque is a beautiful specimen of Moorish art. The large double doors of cedar wood, covered with bronze showing a geometric interlaced pattern, have been compared with those of Ghiberti at the Baptistery of Florence. The mosque is divided by columns into five aisles. Delicate lacework extends from the spring of the arches to the roof. The tile mosaics are believed to have come from Morocco. The medressa is a building resembling the mosque.
Mansura, which is about 112 m. west of Tlemçen, owes its foundation to the attempts of the Beni-Marin rulers of Morocco to extend their sovereignty. The Amir Abu Yakub Yusef besieged Tlemçen in the early years of the 14th century The siege lasted eight years, and Yusef turned his camp into a walled city. The siege being raised, El Mansura (the victorious), asMansura the new city was called, was abandoned. It was reoccupied when (1335) Ali V. renewed the siege, which this time proved successful. On the expulsion of the Marinides in 1359 Mansura was finally deserted. Besides the walls and towers, and the minaret of the mosque, little remains of Mansura, of which Ibn Khaldun has left a contemporary and graphic sketch. The minaret, notwithstanding that one side and parts of two other sides have perished, is one of the finest mosque towers in existence. It is 125 ft. high, and is built of hewn stone. The arches are circular or pointed. The upper part of the tower is ornamented with green and blue tiles and the entrance arch is beautifully carved. An inscription records that the tower was built by order of Abu Yakub Yusef. Of the rest of the mosque only the outer walls remain. It is about 320 ft. long by 200 wide and was divided by magnificent marble columns into thirteen aisles. Excavations made by the French brought to light some of these columns, which are now in the museums of Tlemçen and Algiers.
History.—A Roman town, Pomaria, occupied a site east of the present town. It derived its name from the abundance and
