an excerpt from "Orient Line Guide - Chapters for travellers by sea and by land"

From Suez to Cairo

The tourist who comes fresh from Australia or New Zealand and wishes to see the wonders of the Old World cannot do better than begin with Egypt.
This is especially the case if he happens to have a taste for history, or a taste for art. The earliest history of which we know much is that of Egypt. The oldest works of art which have come down to us were made by the ancient Egyptians. There are no writings elsewhere in the world which are known to date before hieroglyphics. All the great pictures and statues we shall see in Europe, all the beautiful buildings, must be traced to beginnings on the banks of the Nile thousands of years before any of the other peoples inhabiting the Mediterranean shores had attained civilization. All our alphabets and mode of writing can be shown to take their ride from the hieroglyphic forms first used to record their ideas by the ancient Egyptians. Of late years the researches of scholars have been rewarded with a success which was long denied to them.
Frenchmen and Germans are engaged in an amicable rivalry in the interpretation of old inscriptions and the discovery of fresh historical treasures. Unfortunately it has not been found possible to awaken much interest in Egyptian archaeology at Oxford or Cambridge, and foreign universities have long distanced ours in a branch of knowledge the foundations of which were laid in England and by Englishmen. The study of Egyptology would be admirably suited to the universities of Australia, which would find an open field unoccupied by the older institutions at home, though even better calculated than the study of ancient classics for opening the mind and cultivating the mental powers.

Apart entirely from any dry or scientific view of the subject, a visit to Egypt offers attractions to the modern traveller of the most varied and fascinating character. Every one has heard of the pyramids. Every one has read the Arabian Nights. The pyramids stand in sight of Cairo, the capital of Egypt. The scene of half the Thousand and One Chapters is laid in its streets. The winter climate is the most perfect for almost all classes of invalids. Modern civilization has penetrated so far that we may make the whole voyage to the second cataract nearly a thousand miles from the sea – in a steamer, or partly by steamer and partly by rail, while hotels quite equal to those of Europe exist at Suez, Alexandria, Cairo, Thebes, and other places. The novelty of mixing with Orientals, of coming into direct contact with oriental life, of hearing a tongue so utterly unknown to most of us as Arabic, of witnessing the exercise of Mohammedan devotion, and of observing the character of a civilisation older than our own, yet in every respect different, is an experience in itself so interesting and so strange, that it is not possible to imagine any better embodiment of the doctor’s favourite prescription, “change of air and scene,” than a visit to Egypt.

There is little to delay us at Suez, though it may be necessary to stay a night at the hotel, as there are only two trains in the day to Cairo. If the evening is fine (and are not all evenings fine in Egypt?), we may mount to the roof of the hotel and see the sunset. Below us is the town, with the harbour, the flat-roofed houses, the pointed minarets, from which blind men with stentorian voices are calling the faithful to come to prayer; the shabby white-washed mosques; and beyond them the yellow desert, the low pink hills, the deep blue sea, nowhere of a more lovely colour than in the Gulf of Suez; and, as a back-ground, the fine bluff heights of the Jebel Attaka. Close to the hotel is the little house with an outside stair, in which General Buonaparte lodged when he was at Suez, in 1798. If we look to the north, we can trace for many miles the winding course of the great canal, marked here and there by the tall masts of a steamer going to or coming from the Mediterranean. As the sun sets those of the vessels which have no “search light,” wherever they may chance to be, are moored for the night, which comes on rapidly without the long twilight of other skies. The bazaars at Suez are filthy and narrow, and there is little to be found in them worth the buying, yet, if time permits, we may here gain our first impressions of eastern life, and first hear the cry of “backsheesh,” with which we are destined to become so familiar before we have gone far into Egypt.

Though Cairo is only about sixty miles in a direct line from Suez, the railway passes round by Ismailia and Zagazig, thus making the journey a long one.
The train is very slow, and the carriages by no means too comfortable, with windows which let in the dust, and doors which will neither shut tight nor open easily.
On our right, as we steam out of this station is a high mound surmounted by a wooden half-ruinous villa, brought hither from Norway for the opening of the canal. The mound marks the site of the Roman Clysma. At its foot were buried the soldiers shot by Buonaparte, in 1798, “pour encourager les autres.” At the opposite side of the line is a curious little domed tomb. It marks the, grave of a great sheikh, one of the Erbaeen, or forty original supporters of Mohammed. A little further the line bends to the right round the Victoria Camp. The first fifty miles or so are along the desert, with fine views here and there of the Canal, and as we approach Ismailia, of the great Bitter Lake and Lake Timsah, both of them fine sheets of salt water, and only wanting a little more vegetation on their shores to be really beautiful. Ismailia was for a time expected to become a pleasant seaside or lakeside health resort, and had good hotels; but some years ago, owing to the carelessness of its builders in allowing the drainage to filter into the canal on which the town depends for fresh water, an outbreak of fever occurred, of such virulence that the prosperity of the place was suddenly but irretrievably ruined. During the recent war it became the base of the British operations, and Lake Timsah was crowded with men-of-war and transports. One of the first stations we reach after we leave Ismailia is Tel-el-Kebeer, “the great mound,” which is supposed to cover the site of one of the “treasure cities” built by the Israelites of the Captivity. Here Arabi’s troops were finally defeated although they had raised great entrenchments. The battle commenced very early in the morning of the 13th September, 1882, when the British troops under Sir Garnet Wolseley (now Viscount Wolseley) left their camp at Kassasseen in strict silence, and marched by star-light on either side of the Canal, which we see from the railway. The rebels’ chief entrenchment was to the right of the line. In the General’s despatch he says the enemy were completely surprised and it was not until one or two of their advanced sentries fired their rifles that they realised that the British forces were upon them. The works, which are now almost obliterated by the drifting sand, were speedily lined with Arab soldiers who fired at our advancing lines, made dimly visible by the dawn, and by the remarkable southern comet, (b. 1882,) which appeared above the eastern horizon, and deceived the combatants into an idea that the sun was rising. The victory was soon declared for the British forces; after fighting for twenty minutes the Arabs fled precipitately, their general, Arabi, having already set them the example and run away, literally, without his boots. (See Royle’s Campaigns, i. 325). The English loss in killed and wounded was, the Egyptian loss being set down at about 2,000. The whole rebel army was dispersed, the Indian Contingent, marching along by the course of the railway and canal, twenty-five miles, to Zagazig, without a halt, took that place at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, and captured five trains which had been filled with soldiers, who disappeared immediately. Cairo was taken on the 14th.

Modern research has been very busy with the history of Joseph, the Captivity, and the Exodus. Joseph is believed to have come into Egypt into the reign of a monarch who was one of the last of a long line of foreigners, the so-called Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, who dominated the country, especially that lower part of it which we call the Delta (because it is triangular in shape, like the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet), after the time of a great native royal family, known in history as the Twelfth Dynasty. So long are the periods of Egyptian history, that it has been found convenient to refer to different epochs by the number of the dynasties or royal families who successively occupied the throne. Mena, the first king of whom we have historical knowledge, founded the first of these dynasties. Joseph’s brethren, then, were settled in the eastern valley or arm of the Delta, along the banks of a canal which even at that early date ran from the Red Sea to the Nile. After the time of Joseph a race of native kings, reckoned by historians the Eighteenth Dynasty, rose against the Hyksos, and drove them out. The Eighteenth Dynasty was succeeded by the Nineteenth, one of whom, the third king, is supposed to have been the Pharaoh “which knew not Joseph” (Exodus i. 8.). His name was Rameses II., and we shall find the monuments of his power and greatness all over the country. His daughter it must have been who found and brought up Moses; and to this day the modern Arab inhabitants of Cairo point out a place on the island of Roda, in the Nile, close to the city, as the exact spot where the princess ” came down to wash herself at the river.”

“In process of time,” the sacred narrative continues, “the King of Egypt died.” He had reigned sixty-seven years, and had mightily oppressed the Israelite colony in Goshen. The new king was thirteenth son of Rameses II., and was named Merenptah. He has left us no account on his monuments of the Exodus, but we are aware that other misfortunes besides his defeat at the Red Sea overtook him, and that the prosperity of Egypt under him began to decline. The famous crossing of the children of Israel probably took place below Suez, where, before the making of the Canal, there was a passage fordable at low water, but exceedingly dangerous in certain winds. A great German writer has formed a theory that the Israelites crossed an arm not of the Red Sea but of the Mediterranean, but recent authorities have refused to accept his opinion.

We now approach Zagazig, a large modern Arab city. Here a handful of the British troops, after the fight at Tel-el-Kebeer, performed a brilliant feat of arms, intercepting and dispersing five trains full of Egyptian soldiers. The railway stations are crowded with the long-robed and turbaned native merchants and their bales of cotton and sacks of wheat carried on asses. Reuben and his brethren must have looked just like some of these men. We can fancy Benjamin, a brown-faced boy in loose garment and bare feet, following his elders, with a sack like theirs. But we are recalled from speculating if the silver cup is in it by the offer of oranges which a pleasant-looking little girl in blue insists on our buying, or by the earthen bottle of cold water which another offers to pour over our hot and dusty hands.

We lunch at the railway station at Zagazig, and possibly buy our first antiquities from the bar-keeper. Before the war there was a fine bronze statue of a cat standing on the middle table of the refreshment-room, and we were reminded that the great brown mounds which we have just passed on the left, and which stretch away for miles to the southward, are the remains of what was once Pi Bast, now Tel Basta, the city sacred to Bast, the holy cat, whose worship was nearly as extensive in ancient Egypt as that of Apis, the bull of Memphis. The ruins are composed of crude, that is, unbaked brick, and are constantly being dug down by the farmers, as the dust forms a valuable dressing for the fields. In these diggings innumerable images of Bast, in almost every conceivable material, are found, some larger than life, some small enough to hang at the watch chain. The site of the city has been in part explored by M. Naville, who has found the Temple of “the sacred Cat, the lady of the White Crown.”

We are now really in the Delta. The ancient name of Egypt was “Kam,” which means blackness. We see its significance now. Wherever the ground is turned up it is like peat. The contrast of this blackness with the green of the luxuriant crops is very striking. If we watch the smaller canals along whose banks the train goes, we shall see specimens of the lotus-flower, a pale blue water-lily. The air is full of birds, many of them strange to us. The hawks are numerous, from the great kite down to the little kestrel or windhover, which the ancient Egyptians worshipped as Heru or Horus. Following the ploughman are flocks of the little white cranes called by the Arabs Aboo Goordán, and by us the Paddy-bird, or buff-backed heron. We can quite understand as we watch them flitting about that the ancients used the figure of one as a hieroglyph for “Ba,” the soul. Long strings of camels carry green fodder, or canes, or corn; a man on a donkey, with a child in his arms, goes by with his blue-robed wife following him on foot. Sometimes it is she who rides, which she does seated astride. The Fellahs are a cheerful folk, and as they go they talk and laugh incessantly, as if the tax-gatherer, and the usurer, and the conscription, and forced labour, and all the other enemies of the poor in Egypt, had never existed.

Agriculture is, of course, the main business of Egypt, and the soil of the Delta is perhaps the most fertile in the world. It is always supplied with water by innumerable canals, annually filled when the Nile is high, and gradually diminishing till the inundation commences again in June. As the canals go down, the character of the crops is varied, but three distinct harvests are commonly taken off the same ground if it is artificially watered. This is effected, for the most part, in a very awkward and clumsy manner by means of the sakeeyeh, or water wheel, and by the shadoof, or leather bucket, worked at the end of a pole balanced on a horizontal bar. But in Lower Egypt steam pumps are now becoming very common, as are also windmills, which act extremely well, as a perfect calm is very rare, and as the wind blows pretty steadily for an average of nine months in the year from one quarter, namely, the north.

The Nile and its inundation are objects of constant interest and solicitude. A low Nile means something like starvation for thousands. The cause of the inundation is the heavy rains of Central Africa. The Nile receives no affluents for the last 1,8oo miles of its course, but is constantly feeding canals and reservoirs, so that by the time it arrives at the Delta very little of the original river remains, and the two mouths of the Nile, flowing into the sea respectively at, Damietta and Rosetta, are inconsiderable streams. The average difference between high and low water is about twenty-six feet, and in Upper Egypt, where it is permitted to flow over the land, the towns are raised on high mounds to protect them.

The sun is beginning to set as we approach our destination, and just as we pass the last station, Kalioob, we may see on the right the dim forms of two of the pyramids; and on the left the domed mosque in the citadel above Cairo.

There are plenty of excellent hotels in Cairo. If we would see fashionable life, we may go to the celebrated “Shepheard’s”; if we would have comfort and quiet, there are several others, such as the “Nil,” in the old town, near the bazaars. The scene at the railway station is one to remember. The many coloured dresses, the many coloured faces, the mixture of eastern and western manners, the noise, the dust, and the soft golden light of evening over it all, are unlike anything else in the world. The modern part of Cairo is not beautiful, though much improved in the last few years. The streets are too wide for a hot climate. Constant watering will not subdue the dust. The trees give but little shade under a vertical sun; and we are glad to escape from the glare into the old town, with its narrow winding lanes, sometimes roofed over, and its red and white mosques with their picturesque minarets, and the comparative stillness of unpaved roadways.

If there be sufficient time at disposal, the best way to see the wonders of Egypt is to take a sailing boat, or dahabeeah, up the Nile. The voyage to the second cataract occupies about three months, and is, on the whole, very pleasant, very healthful, and moderately cheap. An alternative method is by one of Cook’s, steamers, which “do” the Nile in a superficial style in forty days. A third plan is to go by rail as far as Siout, where the railway terminates, about 250 miles above Cairo, and on by the postal steamers, which run twice a week, but only allow of a. visit to some of the principal objects of interest.

As it would obviously be impossible within moderate limits to give any account of the Nile voyage, some particulars of what may be seen during a few days’ stay in Cairo must suffice to show the reader how much he will find to enjoy in a visit to Egypt.

The Pyramids of Geezeh are about seven miles from Cairo, at the other or western side of the Nile, which is here a broad and magnificent stream. The road, one of the few roads in Egypt, crosses it by a fine iron bridge, part of which opens for an hour every day to permit the passage of boats up and down. The road for the rest of the way is bordered by trees, which somewhat intercept the view of the pyramids, and as it runs in a straight line for the last four miles, we only gain occasional glimpses of the gigantic cairns till we are quite close to them. Far away, near the horizon, on the left, we can make out the pyramids of Sakara and Dashoor. A little nearer are those of Abooseer, and still nearer, but less visible, owing to their ruinous state, those of Zowyet-el-Arrian. There are, in fact, about sixty pyramids in Egypt, of which number those at Geezeh are the nearest to Cairo, and the largest.

There is now no longer any doubt that every pyramid was built as the sepulchre of a king. But as the kings of the pyramid-builders reigned at a period so remote that some have not hesitated to date it six thousand years ago, and as very few records of their time have come down to us, it was not at first very certain that they had not some more useful purpose than merely to contain the body of one person, however great. As our knowledge increases, it becomes, however, more abundantly clear, that the people of that time worshipped their king as a visible and incarnate deity, paying him the most extravagant homage, and obeying him without hesitation, even in such folly as the building of a pyramid. The first pyramids were built as early as the time of Ata, the fourth king of the second dynasty. The pyramids of Geezeh were erected by three of the kings of the fourth dynasty. A long period therefore elapsed before they were brought to the perfection we see in these later ones, and among the forty or fifty ruinous heaps which once were pyramids, we have abundant evidence that the art of building for eternity was not learned in a day.

There are nine distinct and but partially ruined pyramids on the summit of the bluff before us. We are able to identify the personages for whom they were built with some amount of certainty, though no record is carved on any of them. The nearest, which, though not now the highest, is always called the “great” pyramid, has been attributed to a king named Shoofoo, or Chufu, whose royal title appears painted, apparently by the masons on some of the stones of the interior. He is called by the Greek historians, Cheops. Of his life and reign we have a few particulars. He succeeded a king of the third dynasty, Seneferoo, whose pyramid is believed to be at Maydoom, about fifty miles up the Nile. He married the widow of his predecessor, and had several sons and daughters, some of whom are buried in the cemetery which surrounds the pyramid. He reigned for sixty-three years, during which he employed his subjects in erecting this stupendous monument, and as a modern author has observed, the echo of the cries of his oppressed people still resounded in the time of the Greek historians who visited Egypt. On the other hand, it must be remembered that the life and treasure spent in even a very short war would build a pyramid greater than this. The times of Chufu were probably very peaceful, though he and his predecessors are both represented on the rocks of Sinai as smiting down their enemies in battle, and population and food were abundant; while the neighbouring nations had not yet learned of the wealth of the Nile Valley.

The beauty of the construction and the great size of the pyramid of Chufu are alike remarkable. The stones of the entrance passage, and the enormous black granite slabs, of which the principal interior chamber is built, are so closely jointed, that even a penknife cannot be inserted between. The sides of the pyramid are so carefully faced to the four cardinal points of the compass, that we are not surprised to hear that its ancient name was Khut, the “horizon.” The whole mass which covers thirteen acres, and is still four hundred and sixty feet high, or a hundred feet higher than the dome of St. Paul’s, contains only three small chambers, the largest and best constructed of which measures only 39 feet by 17 feet. In this, which is called the king’s chamber, is an empty sarcophagus of granite, the lid of which is lost.

The second pyramid rises at a steeper angle than the first, and stands on higher ground; but is very inferior in construction, the stones being comparatively small, and ill-jointed. The ruins of a temple, which was attached to every pyramid, still remain at the eastern side of this one, and a stone was lately found in it which bore the name of Cliafra, the third king of this third dynasty, thus confirming the Greek attribution of the pyramid to Chephren From the entrance of the temple a long
causeway or paved path of white limestone, leads at a steep slope to the foot of the hill, where it enters a very curious building of red granite and alabaster, constructed below the present surface of the ground, and evidently at once a temple and a tomb. Here no fewer than nine statues, carved with the name of Chafra were discovered.

The third pyramid is the best built in many respects, but it is very small in comparison with its gigantic neighbours. In it was found the wooden coffin of a king named Menkaoora, probably the Mycerinus of the Greeks, who was the successor of Chafra, and whose body was in the coffin. Both are now in the British Museum. The six smaller pyramids were constructed for the queens and other members of the royal family, and on one of them was recently found the name of a daughter of Chufu, the princess Hentsen.

Next in interest to the pyramids, is the Sphinx, a colossal statue of a sitting lion with a human head, carved out of the solid rock of the hill-side. It presents as now seen no feature older than the time of Thothmes IV., a king of the eighteenth dynasty, who left a long inscription respecting a dream he dreamt, while reposing in its shadow. The French archaeologist, Mariette, suggested that the Sphinx is the tomb of an early king, but this is very unlikely.

In addition to the pyramids, an immense number of tombs may be visited in the same part of the cemetery of Memphis. They are carved with pictures of agricultural life, exactly like what we saw by the roadside as we came through the Delta, and with long inscriptions in hieroglyphics, describing the owner of the tomb, his birth and parentage, his wife and his children, his public employments, his immense possessions, but above all, the fact that he was in favour with the great god, Chufu, or Chafra, or Menkaoora, as the case might be.

Such are a few of the attractions of an excursion from Cairo, which may be made comfortably in a carriage, with no fatigue or inconvenience. Luncheon will be served in a house built near the Great Pyramid by the late Khedive for the reception of the Ex-Empress Eugenic. Its obtrusive ugliness mars the view, but, on the other hand, every traveller is glad to escape into it for a few minutes from the glare of the sun, and the shouting of the Arab guides outside.

A quiet afternoon may be spent at the Boolak Museum, where even better than among pyramids and tombs the details of the ancient art of the Egyptians may be studied and admired. Here, among the remains of the earliest period is one of the statues of Chafra, mentioned above, carved life size, out of a beautifully veined block of diorite, a stone so hard that it will turn the edge of a steel knife. Here also are statues, in wood, of a man, Ra-em-Ka, and his wife, which are marvels of ease in portraiture: and stone statues of the prince Rahotep, supposed to be a son Seneferoo, and the lady Nefert his wife. A room is devoted to such examples of the period of the pyramid builders, and among them may be seen the sarcophagus of Shoofoo-ansh or Chufu-anch, who may reasonably be supposed to have been the builder employed on the Great Pyramid itself.

In another room we see the forty coffins, chiefly of kings, queens, and princes, found in 1881 by Herr Brugsch, near Thebes; some of them, though older than the time of Moses, looking perfectly fresh and new, with nothing faded about them except the wreaths of flowers-lotus and acacia-which were placed on them by the mourners of three thousand years ago. They comprise the remains of among other kings, Thothmes III., Sety I., Rameses II., and many more whose names are familiar in Egyptian history. It is curious to look at the Jewish features of the Pharaoh who brought up Moses. The exhibition of these mummies is as sad as it is interesting. In a central case are the jewels of a Queen, Aah-hotep, whose husband, Kames, played a principal part in driving out those Hyksos of whom mention has been made already as having been the patrons of Joseph.

In another chamber we see the bust of Merenptah, the Pharaoh of the Exodus, and statues of Rameses his father are in the vestibule and in the garden outside. In short, it would be impossible in the present limits to mention even a tithe of the interesting or beautiful objects with which this museum abounds. In one respect it excels all other Egyptian Museums; we know whence everything came, and are sure of its genuineness, since all result from actual diggings carried out during many years under the superintendence of M. Mariette and Herr Brugsch. The whole collection has just been re-arranged in the palace of Geezeb.

We have thus seen that the student of antiquity may have some pleasant days at Cairo, although we have said nothing of Heliopolis, where Joseph’s father-in-law was priest, or of Sakara, where the oldest tombs and pyramids are found and the stupendous catacombs of the sacred bulls; or of the marvellous quarries at Toora, whence the stone for the pyramids was taken; or, in short, of many other places and things well worth a visit. Let us pass on to see what there is of a more modern kind in Cairo.

The native city is of great size, and contains so many mosques that the people say there is one for every day in the year. The native population is upwards of 35o,ooo. The street scenes are so different from anything in a European city that a walk affords the stranger a series of surprises, and if he has any taste for the Picturesque his eyes will constantly be charmed with the most exquisite combinations of colour and form. The main street of the old town is called the Moosky, after its builder, a vizier of the famous Saladin. It was formerly roofed over with great beams, but these have lately been removed and the street has lost its charm, as it is bordered on either side by European shops. Passing rapidly along it, therefore, we come to a cross street where everything wears a very different aspect. If we go to the right we reach the bazaar for Oriental produce, perfumes, slippers, silk, long robes, red caps, and so forth. If we turn to the left we come to the place where gold and silver ornaments are made, and to the so-called Turkish bazaar, where the principal dealers in curiosities have their stalls.

Choosing this route for our walk, we have to jostle our way as best we can through a dense crowd. Here are women bearing baskets of fruit or eggs on their heads, and begging you to buy in very good English. Here is a man with a wickerwork table, which he carries along before him. On it is some stuff which looks exactly, in colour and consistence, like putty. It is a sweetmeat made of almonds, and large slices are sold as he goes. Here is a man with a skin full of water over his shoulders, with which he very dexterously sprinkles the street to keep down the dust. The crowd becomes greater and then you find that you are assisting at a kind of auction, A man carrying a gorgeous piece of embroidery elbows his way past calling out the last price he has been offered. You have a moment to look at the article he carries and perhaps you add a franc to the sum he has named. He goes on, calling out the new price. Meanwhile, you turn to the left down some steps and through a low doorway. Between rows of low divans, on each side of which a man sits cross-legged, is a narrow pathway, only just wide enough for two people to pass each other. It extends, apparently, an interminable distance and you see branches and side aisles. This is the gold and silver bazaar. Each merchant has behind his divan a great iron safe in a recess; some of them have small glass cases in front, in which are specimens of earrings and bracelets, often of very pretty work. When you thread your way through the labyrinth you find yourself among the manufacturers, and see all kinds of operations, chasing and gilding, casting and moulding, and so on, being done in the open air. A little further a great clatter proclaims the vicinity of the coppersmiths. Emerging into the street again, you are about to cross it to enter the Khan Khaleelee or Turkish bazaar, when a man touches your arm. It is the seller of embroideries. He has had no bid so high as yours, and so adjudges the article to you. The Khan Khaleelee is of greater architectural pretensions than any other in Cairo, and is a paradise of painters, but the shops and stalls seldom contain anything worth buying. Near the entrance is the carpet bazaar, but, except by chance, you see nothing better or cheaper than what you can obtain in London. About the middle is a very fine pointed arch over which are hung models of ships. The arch led into the slave market, and the ships were the votive offerings of slave merchants who were anxious for the safe arrival of a cargo of their human wares. The bazaar within was unaltered till the other day. But the wooden cells in which the more precious slaves were confined have now been pulled down, and the place has more the aspect of a cotton market, into which it has been turned.

When we are tired of the bazaar we may ascend, by a long street called the Darb el Vizier, to the citadel. This street is remarkable for the beauty of the windows of carved wood-work which project overhead. The lattices are formed of round knobs, very ingeniously arranged in patterns. Some of the prettiest have disappeared of late years, and modern French windows with Venetian blinds have taken their place. At one place the street is covered over with boarding. At this point we may stop to see a mosque, that of Ak Sunkur, which is perhaps the most beautiful in Cairo for the tile decoration which covers a whole wall. The rest of the building is in a very ruinous state: but as you step over the sill of the door, you see that it is formed of a column of black granite covered with hieroglyphics, a relic probably brought from old Memphis, at the other side of the river.

The citadel contains a mosque of great antiquity, now used as a barrack, and some towers built by Saladin, but the chief feature is the gigantic but unlovely, mosque of Mohammed Au, the founder of the present rulers of Egypt. The interior is vast, without being impresive, and a moment’s glance shows you that the alabaster lining of the walls is only carried up a little way, the upper part being painted in bad imitation. The tomb of the Pasha is behind a bronze screen. The most beautiful objects in the building are the carpets, with which the whole of the floor is covered, some of them being of a colour and material not now to be obtained. But the great object of a visit to the citadel is to see the view. For this purpose we pass round to the back of the mosque and look over a wall, down at the city below, and across the river, in the distance, to the Pyramids. Sunset seen from the. citadel is a sight not to be forgotten, and worth even the price of a chill, which is hardly to be avoided, so suddenly does the heat of day turn into the coldness of night. The reader may refer to the Hon. Ralph Abercromby’s Seas and Skies in many Latitudes, for a scientific account of an Egyptian sunset.

A fortnight may easily be passed at Cairo; and the climate is so temperate, often for weeks together without a cloud in the sky, yet, except in the height of summer, Pleasantly cool and dry, that no better place can be imagined in which to make a. break in the voyage to or from Australia.

In returning to complete the voyage to Australia the traveller may find it convenient to join his steamer at Ismailia, instead of going on to Suez by the dusty train. There is no difficulty about this course: and the hotels at Ismailia, of the usual oriental type, are not inconvenient. It must be remembered that except to the acclimatised, the drinking water is, to put it briefly, poison, producing both fever and also parasites, including the curious Bilhargia Egyptiaca, which is said to begin life as a parasite of the mosquito. There is a grim satisfaction in thinking that this odious little pest is itself a subject of attack by a still smaller insect, and we may repeat Swift’s famous lines:

“So naturalists observe, a flea
Hath smaller fleas that on him prey;
And these have smaller still to bite ‘em,
And so proceed ad infinitum.”

Note on chief landmarks in the Red Sea.
Jebel Attaka, “The Ancient.”
Jebel Abu Darraj, “The Father of Steps.”
Ras Zaffarana, from Zafaran, Saffron, the colour of the sands.
Ras Al Ashrafi, “The Noble,” or “Conspicuous.”
Ras Gharib, “The Strange.”
Jebel Zeyt, “The Oil Mountain.”
Jubal, “The Camel’s Hump.”
The Brothers, in Arabic, “Achwan.”
Sawakin, “The Colonists.”
Jebel Tayr, “The Birds’ Mountain,” or Dokhan, “Smoke.”
Jebel Zukur, “The Monument,” or “Obelisk.”
Ras al Feel, or Fil, “The Elephant’s Head.”
Ras al Shar, or Asser, “The Saw,” (Gardafui).

from Orient Line Guide - Chapters for Travellers by Sea and by Land
London, 1890

Featured product by our sponsor

Up the Nile by Steam
by R. Etzensberger - Thomas Cook & Son
with Tourist Programmers for the East by Thomas Cook & Son and Specially designed maps by Keith Johnston. London, Thomas Cook & Son, 1872. An eBook from Bookolica.com.