GABES  , a

town of Tunisia, at the head of the gulf of the same name, and 70 M. by sea S.W. of Sfax . It occupies the site of the Tacape of the Romans and consists of an open port and European quarter and several small Arab towns built in an oasis of date palms . This oasis is copiously watered by a stream called the Wad Gabes . The European quarter is situated on the right bank of the Wad near its mouth, and adjacent are the Arab towns of Jara and Menzel . The houses of the native towns are built largely of dressed stones and broken columns from the ruins of Tacape . Gabes is the military headquarters for southern Tunisia . The population of the oasis is about 20,000, including some 1500 Europeans . There is a considerable export trade in dates . Gabes lies at the head of the shat country of Tunisia and is intimately connected with the scheme of Commandant Roudaire to create a Saharan sea by making a channel from the Mediterranean to these shats (large salt lakes below the level of the sea) . Roudaire proposed to cut a canal through the belt of high ground between Gabes and the shats, and fixed on Wad Melah, a spot to m . N. of Gabes, for the sea end of the channel (see SAHARA) . The company formed to execute his project became simply an agricultural concern and by the sinking of artesian wells created an oasis of olive and palm trees .

The Gulf of Gabes, the Syrtis

Minor of the ancients, is a semi-circular shallow indentation of the Mediterranean, about 50 M. across from the Kerkenna Islands, opposite Sfax on its northern shore, to Jerba Island, which lies at its southern end . The waters of the gulf abound in fish and sponge .