Sji Americ. Books, , 134, rue Je Kivnli c , lb. (ju»i Maxtna B/EDEKER'S GUIDE BOOKS. GREAT BRITAIN, with 15 Maps, 30 Plans, and a Panorama. Second Edition. 1800. 10 marks. LONDON and its ENVIRONS, with 3 Maps and 15 Plans. Eighth Edition. 1892. G marks. BELGIUM and HOLLAND, with 13* Maps and 20 Plans. Tenth Edition. 1891. 6 marks. THE RHINE from Rotterdam to Constance, with 39 Maps and 21 Plans. Twelfth Edition. 1S92. 7 marks. NORTHERN GERMANY, with 35 Maps and 54 Plans. Tenth Edition. 1890. 8 marks. SOUTHERN GERMANY and AUSTRIA, with 15 Maps and 30 Plans. Seventh Edition. 1891. 8 marks. THE EASTERN ALPS, including the Bavarian High- lands, Tyrol, Salzkammergut , etc. With 35 Maps, 12 Plans, and 7 Panoramas. Seventh Edition. 1891. 8 marks. GREECE, with 6 Maps, 14 Plans and a Panorama of Athens. 1889. 10 marks. NORTHERN ITALY, including Leghorn, Florence, Ra- venna, with 16 Maps and 23 Plans. Ninth Edition. 1892. 8 marks. 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PALESTINE and SYRIA, with IS Maps, 43 Plana, a Pano- rama of Jern al< m, and 10 Views. 1876. marks. CONVERSATION DICTIONARY in four languages. Eng- 11 li. Fran a, German, Italian. .'3 marks. THE TRAVELLER'S .MANUAL OF CONVERSATION, in IH, Ckicjian, French, ami Italian. 8 marks. E G Y P HANDBOOK FOE TRAVELLERS EDITED BY K. BAEDEKER. 1 . PART FIRST : LOWEK EGYPT, WITH THE PAYUM AND THE PENINSULA OF SINAI. WITH 16 MAPS, 30 PLANS, 7 VIEWS, AND 76 VIGNETTES. SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND AUGMENTED. LEIPSIC: KARL BAEDEKER, PUBLISHER. LONDON: DULAU AND CO., 37 SOHO SQUARE, W. 1885. All rigJits reserved. >Ji Americ. Books, 224, rue Jc Rivoli .' lb, Q»a' Mas-. f ARTS PREFACE. The present volume is the second of a series of Hand- books for the East now in course of preparation, and de- signed, like the Editor's European handbooks, for the guid- ance of travellers. The materials from which the first edition of the Hand- book for Lower Egypt was compiled were partly furnished by Professor G. Ebers of Leipsic, while articles on special subjects, as well as man} r additions and emendations, were contributed by a number of other writers. The Editor is specially indebted to Professor Ascherson and Dr. Klunzinger of Berlin, Dr. G. Schceinfiirth and Franz Bey of Cairo, Pro- fessor Springer of Leipsic, and Professor Socin of Tubingen. To several English gentlemen who contributed a number of valuable corrections and suggestions, and particularly to the distinguished Egyptologist , Dr. Samuel Birch , the Editor also begs to tender his grateful acknowledgements. The corrections and additions for the second edition have been mainly furnished by Dr. Schweinfurth, Dr. Spitta Bey (late librarian to the Khedive) , and JEmil Brugsch Bey, all of Cairo. The Editor has also repeatedly visited Lower Egypt for the purpose of obtaining the most recent practical infor- mation , of the kind most likely to be useful to travellers. As, however, a tour in the East is attended with far greater difficulty than in Europe, and sources of information are far less abundant, the Handbook must necessarily contain many imperfections, and the Editor will therefore gratefully avail himself of any communications which his readers may kindly contribute, as many of them have so generously done in the case of his European handbooks. As Oriental life and scenery differ widely in many respects from European, and can hard- ly be appreciated without some previous study , the Editor has endeavoured to supply the traveller with all the most necessary preliminary information, believing that it will be acceptable to most of his readers, although somewhat beyond the province of an ordinary guide-book. The Maps and Plans have been an object of the Editor's special care , as he knows by experience how little reliance can be placed on information obtained from the natives, even when the traveller is conversant with their language. The maps of the Handbook are based upon the large maps of v^ PREI-'M I Mahm4d Boy, Linant, Lepsius, and Kiepcrt, together with the English and French Admiralty charts, and the map of the Jfench expedition, so far as still serviceable ; while numerous corrections and additions have been specially made on the spot. The plans of the mosques and the sketch of the Tombs of the Khalifs have been contributed by Franz Bey, the architect. It is therefore hoped that the maps and plans will, on the whole, be found the most serviceable that have yet been published for the use of travellers in Egypt. Heights above the sea-level and other measurements are given in English feet , from the latest and most trustworthy English and other sources. The Pricks and various items of expenditure mentioned in the Handbook are given in accordance with the Editor's personal experience, but they are liable to very great fluctu- ation , in accordance with the state of trade , the influx of foreigners, the traveller's own demeanour, and other circum- stances. In some cases the traveller's expenditure may be within the rate indicated in the Handbook, but as many un- expected contingencies may arise on so long a journey, an ample pecuniary margin should always be allowed. Hotels, etc., see p. 17. Transliteration. The vowel sounds of Arabic words mentioned in the Handbook are represented by a, 6,1,0, andz<, as pronounced in Italian (ah, eh, ee, 0, and 00). The e used in the Handbook is a contracted form of ei , and is used in preference to it, as it exactly represents the usual pronuncia- tion [viz. that of the a in fate). The diphthong sound of ei is rarely used except in the recitation of the Koran. Arabic words written in accordance with this system will generally be found to correspond with the forms used by German, French, aud Italian philologists. CONTENTS. Page Introduction 1 I. Preliminary Information (1). Plan and Period of Tour. Travelling Companion?. Routes 2 (2). Expenses. Money 3 (3). Passports. Custom House 6 (4). Consulates. International Tribunals 6 (5). Steamboats on the Mediterranean 7 (6). Modes of Travelling in Egypt 11 (7). Dealing with the Natives. Dragomans 12 (8). Equipment for the Tour. Health 14 (9). Beggars. Bakshish 16 (10). Public Safety. Weapons. Dogs 16 (11). Hotels. Hospitality 17 (12). Cafes. Story-Tellers, Musicians, Singers, etc. . . 17 (13). Baths 21 (14). Bazaars 23 (15). Intercourse with Orientals 25 (16). Tobacco 27 (17). Post and Telegraph Offices 28 (18). Weights and Measures 28 II. Geographical and Political Notice (by Dr. G. Schwein- furth of Cairo) 29 Boundaries and Area of the Egyptian Empire 29 Divisions and Administration 31 Distribution of Land 35 Population 36 Origin and Descent of the Egyptians 37 The Modern Egyptians 38 (1). The Fellahin 39 (2). Copts . .' 42 (3). Beduins . . . ■ 45 (4). Arabian Dwellers in Towns 48 (5). Berbers 49 (6). Negroes 51 (7). Turks 52 (8). Levantines 52 (9). Armenians and Jews 53 (10). Europeans 53 The Nile 55 Extent of the River 55 Its Sources 56 Alluvial Soil. Nile Mud 57 " T CONTENTS. ^ Page Inundation 57 Civil rer 59 Embouchures of the Nile 59 Geology of Egypt and Notice of tlie Desert (by Professor K. ZitteO 60 The Oases (by Prof. P. Ascherson) 63 Climate 67 Atmosphere 07 Rain 07 Winds 68 Temperature 69 Thermometers 70 Agriculture and Vegetation 70 Capabilities of the Soil 70 Irrigation 71 nltural Periods (Win ter, Summer, and Autumn Sea iltural Implements 72 Farm Produce of Egypt 74 Trees and Plantations 75 Trees in Ancient Times 77 Fruit Trees 77 Decorative Plants 77 The Animal Kingdom in Egypt (by Dt. M. Th. v. Heug- liri) 78 Domestic Animals 78 Wild Animals 79 Birds of Passage 80 Other Mammals and Birds SI Lies 83 of the Nile (by Dr. C. B. Klunzinger) 83 III. Outline of the History of Egypt 85 Chronological Table 86 Primaeval Monarchy 86 Middle Monarch] 87 Period of the 1 1 > ksos New Empire iin riod '.).'! uies 96 The Romans lis The Byzantines 100 Mohammedan Period . . I'M Khalifa nil Mamelukes 104 105 The French Mohammed 'AH and hi 106 [V. Hieroglyphics 110 V. Frequently Recurring Names of Egyptian Kings ... 118 VI. B Uicii mi I ; fptians KM VII. Doctrines of El-Islam (by Prof. Socin) 140 ri.- on Mohammedan Customs L53 VIII Hist. itian Art L57 DSL. Buildings of the Mohammedans (by Franz Bey of Cairo) 174 . ... 183 CONTENTS. 1X Page X. The Arabic Language 188 Arabic Vocabulary 192 XI. Works on Egypt 200 Route 1. Alexandria 203 Arrival 203 Hotels. Cafe's. Baths. Carriages. Consulates, etc. . . 203-206 Disposition of Time 206 History 207 Topography of Ancient Alexandria 20S Mahniudiyeh Canal 215 Public Institutions. Waterworks. Harbours 216 Place and Monument of Mohammed r Ali. Pompey's Column 218 Catacombs. Ras et-Tin 219 Ginenet en-Nuzha. Palaces of Nimreh Telateh and Mo- harrem Bey 220 Meks and the New Docks 221 Excursion to Ramleh. Cleopatra's Needle. Nieopolis . . 222 2. From Alexandria to Cairo 223 Lake Mareotis 223 From Tell el-Barud to Bulak ed-Dakrur 224 Winter Aspect of the Delta' 225 The Fair of Tanta 226 From Tanta to Shibin el-K6m 226 From Benha to Kom el-Atrib (Athribis) 227 3. Cairo 231 Arrival. Railway Stations. Hotels. Pensions. Private Apart- ments. Restaurants. Cafes 231 Money-Changers. Bankers. Consulates. Carriages . . . 232 Omnibuses. Donkeys. Commissionnaires. Dragomans. Post Office. Telegraph Offices. Theatres. Physicians. 233 Chemists. Churches. Schools. Hospitals. Teachers of Languages. Clubs. Baths. Booksellers. Photographs 234 European Wares. Goods Agents. Barbers. Wine. Tobacco 235 Arabian Bazaars. Woodwork, etc 236 Religious Festivals of the Mohammedans 236 Dervishes 239 Sights and Disposition of Time 239 History of the City 241 Remarks on the Situation of the City. Population . . . 243 Public Institutions 244 Street Scenes 244 General Characteristics. Conspicuous Features. Turbans. Women. Street-Cries. Beggars. Water-Carriers (Sakkas. Hemali). Public Kitchens. Sweetmeats, Fruit, etc. Schools. Artizans 244-251 Bazaars 251 Muski. Suk el-Hamzawi. Suk el-'Attarin. Suk el-Fahhami 253 Sukkariyeh. Shoemakers' Bazaar. Suk es-Sellaha. Bazaar of the Saddlers. Ghuriyeh Street. Suk es- Sudan. Bazaar of the Booksellers and Bookbinders 254 Khan el-Khalili . . . 255 Suk es-Saigh. Suk el-G6hargiyeh. Suk en-Nahhasin. . . 256 Bet el-Kadi. Gameliyeh. Smaller Bazaars 257 Ezbekiyeh Place and New Town of Isma'iliya 258 Southern Quarters of the Inner City 260 x CONTENTS. Eoutc Page Boulevard Mohammed r A 1 i . Garni' Rifa'iyeh. Garni' Sul- tan Hasan' 260 Rumeleh and Karam&dan (Place MeTi^met Ali). Garni' Mah- mudi and Garni' 'Abderrahman. Citadel 262 Garni' Mohammed 'Ali 263 Garni' Salaheddin Yfisuf. Joseph's Well. Garni' Suleman Pasha .' 264 Tekiyet el-Maulawiyeh. Sebil of the Mother of 'Abbas Pasha. Gami' Ibn Tulun 265 Garni' Kait Bey. Garni'* es-Seiyideh Zenab 268 Viceroyal Library at Derb el Gamamiz 269 Monastery of Dervishes in the Habbaniyeh 271 Garni' el-Benat. ShSkh iil-Islam. Bab ez- Zuweleh (Muta- welli). Garni' el-Muaiyad. Derb el-Ahmar. Gami' el- Werdani '. 272 i of Mohammed 'Ali. Garni' el-Ghuri 27-1 North-Eastern Quarters of the City 275 Muristan Kalafin 275 of sultan .Mohammed cn-!Nasir ibn Kalaun .... 277 I'.arkukiyeh Mosque ." 278 Sebil uf 'Abder-Bahman Kikhya. Okella Sulfikar Pasha. Medreseh Gameiiyeh. Garni' el-Hakim 270 Bab en-Nasr and Bab el-Futfih . 280 Burckhardt's Tomb. New Waterworks 281 Tombs of the Khalifs 282 Tomb-Mosques of Sultan Kansuweh el-Ghuri, Sultan el- Ashraf, and Kniir' Viisuf. ' Tomb-Mosque of Sultan Barkuk 282 Sultan tfarag. Sultan SulSman. Seb'a Benat .... 284 Bur'sbey. Ma'bed er-Rifa'i. , 285 Okella and Tomb-Mosque of Kait Boy 286 Gami' el-Azhar I University) . 287 Garni' el Hasanen . . 292 Bulah and the Mo yptian Antiquities 293 i. Environs of Cairo 317 Old Cairo (Masr el- Atika") 317 Fumm el-Khalig. Old Waterworks of the Citadel. Christian Cemeterii of Bdda 318 The Hilometi c I aikyas) . .' 319 Castle of Babylon. Abu Sergei (Coptic Church of St. Mary) 320 deb Maryam (Greek Church of St. Mary). Mari Mena, Aim SefSn. Synagogue. Church of St. Barbara . . . 324 Gami' 'Ami 324 Tomba of the Mamelukes 327 Imam Shafe'i. Si la. Hdsh el-Memalik .... 328 Chateau and Park of Gezireh 328 Shuhra Avenue 330 Villa Ciccolani. Kasr en-Kasha. Garden of Shnbra, . . 331 Beliopolis 331 Gami' ez-Zahir. 'Abbasiyeh. Palace ofKubbeh. Race-Course 332 Matariyeh' and the Tree of the Virgin" 333 El-Merg. Khfmkah. Birket el-Hagg The Mokattam Hills ' J Gebel el-Ahmar •"'•'>7 Moses' Spring and the Petrified Forest 337 Gebel I mall Petrified Wood) Great Petrified W I near Bir el-Fahmeh Pj ramids of Gizeh 340 CONTENTS. X1 Route Page From Cairo to Gizeh ... 340 Situation of the Pyramids 342 Disposition of Time 343 History of the Building of the Pyramids according to Hero- dotus, Diodorus, Strabo, Pliny, and others 344 Structure of the Pyramids according to Prof. Lepsius and others 350 Opening of the Pyramids and Attempts to destroy them . 352 Great Pyramid (ascent and interior) 354 Second Pyramid 358 Third Pyramid 360 The Sphinx 362 Granite Temple near the Sphinx 365 Tomb of Numbers 366 Campbell's Tomb. Walk round the Plateau of the Pyramids 367 Pyramids of Abu Roash 370 From Gizeh to Sakkara via, Abusir. Pyramids of Abusir 370 Site of Ancient Memphis and Tombs of Sakkara. . . . 371 From Cairo to Memphis via Bedrashen 371 History of Memphis . 372 Colossal Statue of Ramses II 374 From Mitrahineh to Sakkara ■ 376 Tombs of Sakkara. Structure and Ornamentation of the Mastabaa .' ' 378 Step-Pyramid of Sakkara 382 Pyramid of King Unas. The Serapeum 3S3 Tombs of the Apis-bulls (Egyptian Serapeum) 385 Mastaba of Ti 388 Mastabas of Ptahhotep and Sabu 401 Mastaba Far'un 402 Pyramids of Dahshur 402 Quarries of Tura and Baths of Helwan 403 The Barrage' du Nil .... .' 406 5. From Cairo to Suez 408 Tell el-Yehudiyeh 408 The Freshwater Canal from Cairo to Suez 409 The Ancient Bubastis 410 The Biblical Land Goshen 411 Tell el-Maskhuta (Ramses) . 414 6. Suez, Ain Musa, and the Red Sea 415 Natural Products of the Red Sea 415 Submarine Coral Reefs 416 The Red Sea and its Coasts 421 7. From Suez to Port Sa'id. The Suez Canal 421 Topography and History of the Isthmus. Anciuul Canals through the Isthmus 425 The present Suez Canal. History and Statistics 429 Monuments of Darius 432 Ruins of Pelusiuni. Lake Menzaleh 435 8. Towns of the Central and Northern Delta 438 a. From Cairo to Mansiira 438 From Mansura to Behbit el-Hager 440 Ruins of Mendes . . . 442 b. From Mansura to Damietta 442 Environs of Damietta. Mouth of the Nile. ...... 444 From Damietta to Rosetta via Lake Burlus 445 c. From Damietta to Tanta 445 xn CONTENTS. Route Page Prom Mahallet Rub to Zifteh 445 From Mahallet Run to Desuk 445 d. Sa'is. ..'....'...' 445 e. Rosetta 447 I >i in Alexandria to Rosetta. Canopus 447 From Damanhur to Rosetta 448 The Rosetta Stone 450 f. San (T.ini-o 451 Knuri Aim ShrKnk or Abu Kebir to Tanis 451 From Port Said to Tanis. The Ancient Tennis .... 452 Fr Tanis to Damietta, Manaura, or Sinbelawin. . . . 452 9. The Fayum ' 456 Situation and History of the Fayum 456 arsions from Medinet el-Fayum 459 Hawara el-Kebir, the Pyramid of Hawara, and the Labyrinth 459 Lake Moeris. Circuit of the old bed of the Lake .... 462 Birkel el-Kurfln and Kasr Karon 465 Pyramid ami Mastaba of .Mcdum 467 Atfifc (Aphroditopolia). Almas el-Medineh (Herakleopolis) 469 Benl-Suef. Monasteries of S8. Anthony and Paul .... 470 10. The Peninsula of Sinai 470 Preparations. Contract with Dragoman. Camels, etc. . . 470 Routes. Sea-Voyage to Tur 473 Formation of the Peninsula; Group of Jit. Sinai .... 477 Inhabitants 478 History 479 Exodus of the Israelites 481 From Suez to Mt. Sinai by Maghara and Wadi Firan. . 485 Stations of Hie Israelites in the Desert, and Number of the rants 486 The Jehel Ilammam FarTin 488 Mines of Maghara 491 The Wadi Maghara a station of the Israelites 493 Sinaitic Inscriptions 493 The Oasis of Firan 495 Rephidim, and the Biblical Narrative 496 Mt. Serbal 497 Monastery of St. Catharine on Mt. Sinai 503 Church of the Transfiguration. Chapel of the Burning Bush. Mo que. Library. Cemetery. Garden 500-500 The Jehel Musa and Ras es-Safsaf 510 The Jebel Fr6 r a. ...'.".! 513 The Wadi el-Leja. DSr el-Arbaln 514 'I 'In- Jobol Katherin 514 The Wadi Sebafyeh 515 rebel I' in in Shomar 515 Route to Mt. Sinai via Tur 515 1. Through the Wadi e'e-SlSh 517 2. Through the Wadi 1.1.1, ran 518 From the Monastery of Mt. Sinai to 'Akaha 519 Prom r Akaba to Petra 520 Return-Route from the Monastery of Mt. Sinai to Suez through the Wadi esh-ShekhandviaSarhutel-Kbldem 520 I ii ill- x 525 MAPS, PLANS, etc. xm Maps. 1. Map of the Delta (Routes 2, 5, 7, 8), before the Title Page. 2. General Map op Egypt, shewing the Character of the Soil, between pp. 30(31. * 3. Map of the Environs of Alexandria (R. 1), between pp. 222, 223. r 4. Map of the Environs of Cairo (as far as the Barrage on the N. and Dahshur on the S.; R. 4), between pp. 316, 317. i 5. Special Map of the Eastern Environs of Cairo (R. 4), between pp. 330, 331. - G. Special Map of the Southern Environs of Cairo (R. 41, between pp. 340, 341. 7. Map of the Pyramids of G!zeh (R. 4), between pp. 354, 355. i 8. Map of the Ruins of Memphis (R. 4), between pp. 372, 373. I 9. The Pyramids and Tombs of Sakkara and AbusIr (R. 4), between pp. 37S, 379. , 10. Map of the Gulf of Suez, with Moses' Springs (R. 61, between pp. 414, 415. 11. Map of the Suez Canal (R. 7), between pp. 434, 435. . 12. Map of the Nile from Cairo to Feshn, beyond the FayOm (including the Pyramids ; R. 9), between pp. 456, 457. -13. Map of the Peninsula of Sinai (R. 101, between pp. 470, 471. 14. Map of the Environs of Mt. Sinai and Mt. Serbal (R. 101, between pp. 496, 497. 15. Map of the Environs of the Monastery of Mt. Sinai and of Jebel Musa (R. 10), between pp. 502, 503. 16. Map showing Routes to the Levant, after the Index. Plans. 1. Arabian Bath, p. 22. 2. Arabian Dwelling House : Ground Floor, p. 186. 3. - - First Floor, p. 187. 4. Plan of Alexandria, p. 202. 5. Plan of Ancient Alexandria, p. 208. 6. Large Plan of Cairo, p. 22S. 7. Gami' Sultan Hasan, p. 261. 8. - Mohammed 'Ali, p. 263. 9. - Ibn'Tulun, p. 266. 10. MOristan Kalaun, p. 276. 11. Bab en-Nasr and Bab el- Futuh, p. 281. 12. Tombs of the KhalIfs, p. 282. 13. Tomb Mosque of Sultan Barkuk, p. 283. 14. - - of Kait Bey, p'. 286. 15. Gami' el-Azhar, p.' 290. 16. Plan of Bulak, p. 294. 17. Museum of Egyptian Antiquities at Bulak, p. 295. 18. Church of Abu Sergeh, at Old Cairo, p. 321. 19. Gami' 'Amr, at Old Cairo, p. 325. 20. Hosh el-Basha, p. 328. 21. Park and Palace of Gez!reh, p. 329. 22. The Great Pyramid of Gizeh, p. 355. 23. The Third Pyramid of Gizeh, p. 361. 24. Granite Temple, adjoining the Great Sphinx, p. 366. 25. Tombs of the Apis Bulls at Sakkara, p. 388. 26. The Mastaba of Ti, p. 390. 27. Suez and* Port Ibrahim, p. 415. 28. IsMA'iLiyA, p. 434. 29. Port Sa'Id, p. 435. 30. Mines of Maghara, p. 492. Views. 1. General View of the Tombs of the Khalifs, p. 2S4. 2. View of the Tombs of the Mamelukes and the Citadel, p. 327. *" \ I..M. I , i. of the Tombs of the KhalIks, p. 327. i. View of thb Granite Temple, the Sphinx, and the Gbeat Pyramid of Glzi; h, p. 356. B \'n:\v of the Sphinx, p. 356. PYRAMID OK SaKKAEA, p. 382. i ii k Intebiob of the Apis 'Tombs at Sakkaba, p. 3S2. Vignettes. I Names of 150 Egyptian Kings, pi>. 118-121. ■IT,. Mythological Illustrations, pp. 127-138. 28. Hohakh es of Phayeb, p. 148. 29. Dancing Dbbvishes, p. 151. \rt Illustrations, pp. 158-172. 48. Arabian B irbbr, p. 235. 49. I. ids in' Walki p, 247. 50. Won in ind Child, p. 247. 51. 52. Water-cabbiebs (Sakka, Hemali), pp. 248, 249. 53. Pi bi ii Kitchen, p. . oi \ PrEAMiD, showing t lie structure, p. 351. 55. The Gbeat Sphinx, at the time of Its excavation, p. 363. i Apis Tombs at SablkIea, p, 386. is in the Mastaba of Ti, 'at Sakkara, pp. 390-400. Asterisks are used as marks of commendation. INTRODUCTION. '/ shall now speak at greater length of Egypt , as it contains more wonders than any other land, and is pre-eminent above all the countries in the world for works that one can hardly describe.'' Herodotus (B.C. 456j. At the close of 1st century Egypt was in a great measure re- discovered by the French savants attached to Bonaparte's Egyptian expedition. Since that period it has attracted the ever-increasing attention of the scientific ; its historical and archaeological marvels have been gradually unveiled to the world ; it is the most ancient, and was yet at one time the most civilised country of antiquity ; and it therefore cannot fail to awaken the profoundest interest in all students of the history and development of human culture. Like other countries of the far East, Egypt possesses for the 'Frank' traveller the twofold attraction of scenery and history. To the first category belong the peculiar charms of its Oriental climate, the singularly clear atmosphere, the wonderful colouring and effects of light and shade, such as are unknown in more northern climates, the exuberant fertility of the cultivated districts contrasted with the solemn, awe-inspiring desert, and the manners, customs, and ap- pearance of a most interesting, though not always pleasing, popu- lation. At the same time Egypt is pre-eminent among the coun- tries of the East, and indeed among those of the whole world, as the cradle of history and of human culture. At every step we en- counter venerable monuments which have survived the destructive influences of thousands of years and the vandalism of invaders and conquerors, and which are executed on so grand a scale, with so much artistic skill, and with such historical consistency, as at once to excite our highest admiration and command our most pro- found respect. Owing to its distance from the homes of most travellers, and to the expense involved in exploring it, Egypt will never be overrun by tourists to the same extent as Switzerland or Italy ; but it is now reached without difficulty by one of the numerous Mediterranean steamboat lines, and increased facilities are afforded to travellers by the recent construction of railways (p. 11) within the country itself, while its unrivalled attractions abundantly reward the enter- prising traveller and supply him with a subject of life-long interest. Baedekek's Egypt I. 2nd Ed. 1 I. Preliminary Information. I I l. Plan of Tour. Season. Companions. Routes. Plan. The facilities for travel in Egypt are now such that the intending visitor may make an outline of his tour at home with almost aa great ease as for most of the countries of Europe. During the travelling season, moreover, the weather is always fine (comp. p. 67), and never causes disappointment and derangement of plans as in most other countries. If, therefore, the traveller from a more northern region retains his energy in this somewhat enervating climate, and resists the undoubted attractions of the 'dolce far nil ute', he will have no difficulty in disposing of every day to ad- vantage. Season. From the beginning of November till the middle or end of April there arc but few days of bad weather in the interior <>! Egypt; the prevalent temperature is that of a delicious spring or moderate summer, and the few drops of rain that occasionally fall will hardly be observed by the European traveller. The fertilising inundation of the Nile ( p. 57 ) has by this time subsided , and the whole face of the country smiles with fresh verdure. About the end nf April, and sometimes as early as March, begins the period of the Khamsin (p. 69), a sultry, parching, and enervating wind from the desert, prevailing at longer or shorter intervals for about fifty days (whence the name I, though in some seasons it does not make its appearance at all. Winter is therefore the proper season for a tour in Egypt. Those travellers, however, who can endure the tierce glare of an African summer sun will at that season have the advantage of seeing the extent of the overflow of the Nile, and will find that prices are then generally much lower than in winter, i C pare also p. , Companions. The traveller can hardly be recommended to start alone for a tour in a country wh toms and language are so entirely different from his own; but, if he has been unable to make np a Buitable partj at home, he will probably have an opportunity of doing so at Alexandria or Cairo, or possibly at Suez or Port Said. Travelling as a member of a party is, moreover, much Leas pensive than travelling alone, many of the items beingthe same for a sinjrle traveller as for several together. Apart, however, from the pecuniary advantage, a partj is more likely to succeed in making ■tor> arrangements with the natives with whom they have to deal. (Voyage up the Nile, see vol. ii : journey to Mt. Sinai, R. in. i Routbs. A glimpse at Lower Egypt, i.e. Alexandria, I and the Sue/ Canal, hi i Or obtained in three weeks (exclusive of the journey out I ; and the traveller may distribute his time as follows : — EXPENSES. 6 Alexandria 172 Days. Railway to Cairo 1, or including Tanta ... l'/2 Cairo and its environs, tlie Pyramids, etc. 10 Railway to Suez and stay there 3 Visit to the Springs of Moses 1 Railway to Isma'iliya 1 Steamer on the Suez Canal to Port Sa r id ... 1 Days of rest 2 "21 Days. These three weeks, however, might he spent very pleasantly at Cairo alone. A visit to Mt. Sinai requires 18-24 Days. The Fayiim 4-6 Voyage up the Nile and hack — (a) P>y steamer, as far as Assuan, and hack, 21 ; thence, from above the first cataract to Ahu Simhel near the second cataract, and hack 11 32 (b) By dahahiyeh to Assuan, and hack, ahout 60 (c) By dahahiyeh to Ahu Simhel and hack . . 90 - A complete tour through Egypt, including the Nile and the pen- insula of Mt. Sinai, will thus occupy 3-5 months in all. (2). Expenses. Money. ExrEXSEs. The cost of a tour in Egypt, and in Oriental coun- tries generally, is considerahly greater than that of a visit to any part of Europe, the reasons heing that most travellers cannot con- form with the simple hahits of the natives, that they are ignorant of the language, and that special arrangements have to he made to meet their requirements. The average charge at the hotels for a day's hoard and lodging is 15-25 fr., without wine (compare p. 17). The cheapest wine costs 3-4 fr. per hottle ; English heer 2-2Y 2 ft'-; fee tyg-l fr- ; the traveller's hotel expenses will therefore amount to at least 20-30 fr. a day, to which must be added the hire of don- keys and carriages and the inevitable 'pourboires'. The total day's expenditure should therefore be estimated at 30 fr. at least. (Steam- boat-fares are of course extra ; p. 10). The traveller whose time is very limited, or who is accompanied by ladies, will also require the services of a guide or valet-de-place, or 'dragoman', as they prefer to style themselves (5-8 fr. per day). Money. A small sum of money for the early part of the journey may be taken in English or French gold, or in English banknotes, but large sums should always be in the form of circular notes. These notes, which if kept separate from the 'letter of indication' cannot be cashed by a thief or a dishonest finder , are issued by the principal London banks. .Fresh supplies may be forwarded from England by post-office order, in sums not exceeding 500 fr. 1* 4 MONEY. The current rate of exchange, should always be ascertained from a banker ( pp. 206, 232; see also Table, p. 5), and money should be changed as rarely as possible at an ordinary money-changer's, at a hotel, in the bazaars, or through a dragoman. For excursions in the countr) the traveller should be provided with an ample supply of small change (silver piastres, half-piastres, and. copper coin), as the villagers sometimes refuse to change money of any kind, and the traveller may thus be very seriously inconvenienced. They also frequently decline to take a coin if the inscription is worn away by mI in theii examination of gold pieces they attach great im- portance to the ring of the metal. The traveller should also be on his guard against counterfeit dollars and piastres. A favourite orna- ment with Oriental women consists of a string pf gold coins worn round the head, or as a necklace, and coins with holes in them arc accordingly often met with, but they are very apt to be rejected by the natives. In changing money, therefore, all these points should lie attended to. it need bardlj be observed thai money should al- ways lie carefully kept under lock and key, and that it should be shown as little as possible, in order that the cupidity of the people with whom the traveller has to do may not be aroused. Paper money is unknown in the East. Besides the Egyptian coinage, which moreover has two different rates of exchanger, Turkish. French, English, Italian, Austrian, and Russian gold and silver coins arc freely circulated. The unit of reckoning in the Egyptian currency is the Piastre, which contains it) Paras. In ordinary retail traffic accounts are kept in current-piastres, which are worth one-half of the govern- ment tariff-piastres. As, however, these do not, as might he sup- posed, indicate two different coins, this twofold mode of reckoning is exceedingly puzzling to strangers. It should he particularly ob- served that a1 the shops and bazaars the prices are always fixed in current pia tres, so that half the number of silver coins only has to n. The shopkeepers, however, generally convert their prices tics for the benefit of strangers, and although their demands are tin i raised, the} are at leasl more intelligible. On the other hand, h small purchases, and in dealing with country-people, it is more advantageous to keep to the reckoning in current piastres, as the sellers are very apt to demand as many franc-, as the amount of the p -tres. three i-.it>' of exchange : 'Tariff', 'Current i ; and tin- latter is also liable to considerable fluctuation in the interior mtry. In Cairo, i tariff piastre is worth however, copper mono; declined.) The value we penetrate into ""• " i: at tin- b I Napoleon realised 180 Alexandria, and beyond it a b r can be derived "' value ■ xcept when very lai e i ots are made In copper, u i tie- custom with He- peasantry. As all He- ta MONEY. Value in Value Egyptian in Money French Tariff u | v . Cur- Money Arabian Name European Name rent T- V a Remarks £ fc 'C 'C a (iold Coins. Gineh Masri Egj i>tian pound too _ 20( i — 26 — Nusseh „ half „ „ 50 — LOO — 13 — Rub'a „ quarter „ ., 25 — 50 — 6 50 Masriyeh fifth „ „ 20 — in — 5 20 Nusseh Masriyeh tenth „ „ L0 — 20 — 2 60 RulVa ',, twentieth „ „ :") — L0 — 1 30 Gineh Stambuli Turkish pound 87 :;o it;) 20 a 22 75 a. In mercantile Nusseh „ half „ „ 43 35 87 3o 11 id transactions fre- Rub'a „ quarter „ „ 21 37 i;; 35 5 70 quently reckon- Gineh Ingilisi or English sovereign ed as 23 fr. Frengi 97 20 L95 — 25 25 Nusseh „ „ half „ H 3i i 97 20 12 62 Bintu Napoleon d'Or 77 li 154 L2 20 _ Nusseh Bintu half „ „ 38 20 77 6 10 __ Rub'a „ quarter „ „ L9 in 38 20 5 — Gineh Moskufi Russian Imperial* 79 is L58 36 20 i5 '). Not often met Magar Austrian Ducat 15 37 91 1 12 8 with . and can- Silver Coins. not be changed Riyal Masri Egyptian Dollar L9 20 39 _ 5 8 without a slight Nusseh Riyal loss. Masri half „ „ 9 30 19 20 o 50 Rub'a „ „ quarter „ „ 4 35 9 3n 1 25 Tunaneh „ „ eighth „ „ 2 17 4 35 — I in Bariseh Parisi c 8 30 17 JO 2 35 c. Egyptian coins Nusseh Bariseh half „ 4 L5 8 30 1 10 struck at Paris. Rub'a „ quarter „ 2 7 4 L5 — 56 Kirsh Silver piastre 1 — > — 25 Nusseh Kirsh half — 20 1 — 12 Rub'a ' „ quarter „ „ — L0 — — — 6 Riyal Shinku 5-franc piece 19 10 38 20 5 — Ferank Franc 4 — 8 — 1 _ Nusseh Ferank half „ 2 - 4 — 50 Riibiyeh Rupees (2s.) 8 _ 16 - 2 d. The Anglo-In- Nusseh Rilbiyeh half „ 4 in 8 20 1 10 dian coin, much Rub'a „ quarter „ '' 5 4 10 — 55 circulated. Abu Medfa' « Spanish Douro 19 — 33 — 5 — e. Called 'father Riyal Abutera •Maria Theresa dollar i; 34 _ 4 511 of the cannon 1 Riyal Moskufi Ruble ii 27 29 u 3 80 by the Arabs, Riyal „ ilia rub'a three-quarters ruble n _ ■ >o — 2 85 who mistake NussebR.Moskuli half „ 7 14 14 J 7 1 110 the columns for Rub'a „ „ ' quarter „ 3 J 7 7 14 — 95 cannons. Rub'a Fiorini (Quarter Austr. florin 2 Ii 4 _ (ill Shilling 4 35 9 ]n 1 25 Nusseh „ 2 17 i 3:3 — 62 payable in gold and silver only, the precious metals flow steadily from the country to the gove nment coffers in the towns, where Greek and Jewish money-change r rofit largely by these variations in the exchange. The 'shekhs-el-beled' or village-chiefs, who always endeavour to de- preciate the value of copper, also gain considerably by similar transactions. 6 Passports. Custom House. Passports are usuallj asked for at all the Egyptian ports, and if tlic traveller is unprovided with one he is liable to detention and great inconvenience. The passport is given up at the custom-house ami reclaimed at the traveller's consulate. Ci btom Bouse. The custom-house examination at Alexandria rally carried out with great thoroughness, though with per- t. i politeness, and no article of luggage is allowed to esrape un- opened. « Ine of the objects chiefly sought for is cigars, on whicn 75 per cent of the estimated value is charged. Considerable difficulty is also made about admitting lirearms and cartridges. The custom- bouse is now under European management, and it is on the whole advisable to refrain from an attempt to facilitate matters by bak- shish (p. 16). On exported, one per cent of duty is charged on the lue. and luggage is accordingly examined again as the traveller quits the country. The exportation of antiquities is strictly prohibited i p. 25). If luggage be forwarded across the frontier, the keys must be sent with it; but, if possible, the traveller should always superintend the custom-house examination in person. (4). Consulates. -uls in the East enjoy the same privilege of exterritoriality as ambassadors in other countries. A distinction is sometimes made between professional fjconsules missi : ) and commercial consuls, the former alone having political functions to discharge ; and there rice-consuls, and consular agents, possessing various degrees of authority. In all cases of emergency the traveller should applj for advice to the nearest consul of his country, through whom the authorities are most conveniently approached, and who will effectu i over his interests. It is therefore very desirable that travellers should I irliest possible opportunity of cn- tering into friendly relations with these most useful officials, and the i fore which tribunal and by » hal I I iltimately be decided, th erious I". ih i,, lh i ireia] interests. The Egyptian p i . . i v. hich was : pported b>3 Hi. then mini d to bj the i>ou era STEAMBOATS. / represented by consuls, that mixed tribunals should be appointed, consist- ing of courts of first and second instance, for the trial of all civil cases arising between natives and foreigners, or between foreigners of different nationalities, in accordance with Egyptian law, founded on that of France and Italy. Cases in which the Khedive himself and the Egyptian government are concerned are also tried before this new tribunal, so that the system of appeals, formerly so much abused, is now done away with. The courts of the first instance are at Alexandria and Cairo. The judges consist of natives and foreigners, the latter being elected by the Khedive out of the qualified officials nominated by the Great Powers. The appeal court at Alexandria is constituted in the same manner. Some of the judges of the first instance are also chosen from members of the smaller European states. These courts enjoy a constitutional guarantee for the independence of their jurisdiction, and, so far as necessary, they execute their judgments by means of their own officers. The languages used are Arabic, French, and Italian. From 1881 to 18S4 the jurisdiction of these mixed tribunals was prolonged by the consent of the Powers from year to year, and at the beginning of the latter year it was agreed to continue it for another period of five years. — Besides these new courts, the consular and local tribunals still continue to sub- sist , their jurisdiction being, however, limited to criminal cases and to civil suits between foreigners of the same nationality, provided the question does not affect land. At the beginning of 1884 there was called into existence a new sy- stem of Native Courts, which take precedence of the mixed courts in de- ciding criminal cases between natives and foreigners. The general pro- cedure is based on the Code Napoleon. Courts of the first instance have been, or are to be erected at Cairo, Alexandria, Tanta, Zakazik, Benha, Beni Suef, Siiit, and Kene, while the courts of appeal are at Cairo and Siut. With the native judges are associated ten Belgians, two Dutch- men, and one Englishman. — A scheme is, however, on foot to appoint a commission to extend to the mixed tribunals the criminal jurisdiction in cases where different nationalities are engaged. (5). Steamboats on the Mediterranean. Alexandria, the chief seaport of Egypt, is regularly visited by English, French, Austrian, Italian, Russian, Greek, and Egyptian steamers. Whether the traveller returns westwards on leaving Egypt, or intends to proceed to Syria or elsewhere, it is important that he should be familiar with the principal steamboat services. The time-tables of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. may be obtained inXondon at 122 Leadenhall St., E.G., or at 25 Cockspur St., S.W. Those who purpose including Syria, Greece, and Constantinople in their Oriental tour should also, before leaving home, write to the 'Administration des Services des Messageries Mar i times, 16 Rue Cannebiere, Marseilles'' for a 'Livret des Lignes de la Miditerranie et de la Mer Noire" 1 , and to the ' Verwaltimgsrath der Dampfschifffakrtsg>">elUchuft des Oester- reich-Ungarischen Lloyd, Trieste'' for ' -Information for Passengers by the Austrian Lloyd's Steam Navigation Company' 1 (published in English). With the aid of these time-tables, the traveller will have little difficulty in making out his programme. See also 'Baedeker's Palestine and Syria' (sold at the bookshops of Alexandria and Cairo). In selecting a route the traveller must of course be guided by circumstances and his own inclination. The shortest sea-voyage is that from Brindisi, three days and a half; from Trieste (via Corfu), or from Venice (via Ancona and Brindisi), five days ; from Naples, four days. The last-named route is perhaps the best for returning, as the temperature of Naples and Home forms a pleasant intermediary ^ STEAMBOATS. between the warmth of Egypt and the colder climate of N. Europe. of the principal lines are all nearly on a par with somfort and speed, many of them being large and hand- BOmely fitted up, while ethers are inferior. The i'ii:~ i Class cabins ami berths are always well furnished; those of the th ■ b li 38 showy, are tolerably comfortable, and are of1 d bj gentlemen travelling alone. In autumn anil winter thi el bound for Alexandria, and in spring those returning ard8, are api t" be n™; I'll.- Food, which is included in the first-class fare and usually in Hie second also, is always abundant and of good quality. Passengers iir daj i>\ ordering a cup of coffee at 7 or 8 o'clock; at 9 or 10 a dejeuner a la fourchette of three courses is served; lunch or tiffin is a simi] i I : and at 5 or (! there is a very ample dinner, : i ih. provided. M any travellers prefer the cookery on board the French and Austrian steamers as being lighter and better Buited lo the climate than thai of the English vessels. Passengers who are prevented 1>\ m partaking of the regular repasts are nade and other refreshments gratis. Steward's I'm . which the passenger pays at the end of the Uj from ' •' fr. to 1 fr. per day; but more is expected if nnn i: en given. The Baths provided tor the n.^e of passengers in the English and Some of the Other vessels may he used without extra charge, but the attendant expect-, a tee at the end of the voyage. Difference in sJolar lin minutes. + or — signifying tha Ihe t ime of the place at the head of the p o .5 s 09 % C .5 a C a o ■d c c "C ^ o a - < - < pq pq o "J O ►J rt Alexandria - 65 + 1'.' 25 06 47 + — 4 — 40 - 119 - 98 Ancona 4- 65 + n + 41 — Mi! 4- is + 71 4- 62 + 26 - 54 - 33 - 12 — 7i ii 36 — 7 s ig — - 15 — 52 — 131 — 110 Alliens - 41 + 36 — 41 — 23 4- lin 4- 21 — 15 — 95 — 73 Berlin + >[■: + 41 u 4- is 4- i'. 1 4- 92 4- 26 - 54 - 32 Brindit i + n + oil — le <> 4- 53 4- 44 4- 8 - 51 Cairo 6 — 71 + (i - 30 — . — 53 (i - 9 16 — 125 — 104 tantin, 4- 4 — 62 -r lo — 21 — 62 — y 4- 9 — 36 - 116 - 94 — 20 4- 52 + 15 — ■:r, — 8 + ii; 4- 36 — 80 - 58 + HI 4- 95 4- 54 + 72 + 125 4- 116 4- 80 4- 21 + no + ra 4- 32 + 51 + L04 4- 94 4- 58 — 21 ina 4- till — V + 10 + 63 4- 54 4- H — 62 44 Munich 4- 8 + 85 4- 48 4- i + '.'ii -I- rg 4- 69 4- 33 — 25 — 3 + .i 4- 38 3 4- 15 4- 68 4- 59 — 57 - 36 4- 350 + 391 4- 30 4- 368 4- VI 4- 412 4- 376 4- '-"'li 4- 317 + llii 4- si; 4- 14 4- o:i + in; 4- llll 4- in - 9 4- 12 4- 55 — — i + in 4- 40 4- 8 — 76 50 4- 81 4- i 4- 22 + io 4- (Hi 4- 30 - 50 - 28 + Id 61 19 + 1 — 5 - 42 121 - 100 i — i 4- I. + 7(1 4- 61 4- 25 — 55 — 34 4- 46 + i 4- 23 4- 76 4- 66 4- 30 - 28 4- » J* i L2 4- 7 + tin 4- 50 4- 14 - 66 U STEAMBOATS. Tickets should never be taken at foreign ports through the medium of commissionnaires or other persons who offer their services, but the traveller should, if possible, purchase them at the office in person. The tickets bear the name of the passenger and the name and hour of depar- ture of the vessel. Return or circular tickets (to Syria and Constantinople) and family tickets for three or more persons are generally issued at a reduced rate, but no reduction is made on the charge for food. A child of 2-10 years pays half-fare, but must share the berth of its attendant; but for two children a whole berth is allowed. Luggage of 150-2201bs. is allowed to first-class, and of 85-135 lbs. to second-class passengers. Embarkation. Passengers should be on board an hour before the advertised time of starting. At Marseilles, Trieste, and Brindisi the vessels start from the quays, so that passengers can walk on board ; but at Venice and Naples passengers are conveyed to the steamers in small boats, for which the charge at all the Italian ports is 1 franc or lira for each person, including luggage. Good order is kept at these ports by the police. Payment of the boat-fare should not be made until the passenger and his luggage are safe on deck. Before the heavier luggage is lowered into the hold, the passenger should see it properly labelled. All complaints should be addressed to the captain. On board the foreign steamers a kind of military precision is affected, and questions addressed to the officers or crew are apt to be answered very curtly. From Trieste to Alexandria (Austrian Lloyd) every Friday at midday. On Saturday and Sunday the Dalmatian and Albanian Time between : — column is before or behind ;hat of the place od the left side of the page) .a u o 1> 4) *fl a o5 & o P3 CO EH > > Alexandria — 57 — 73 62 — 415 — 110 43 — 70 + 2 — 64 — 70 — 54 Ancona + 8 — 8 + 3 — 350 - 45 + 22 — 4 + 67 + 1 — 5 + 12 Assuan - 69 — 85 — 74 — 427 — 122 55 — 81 — 10 — 76 — 82 — 66 Athens - 33 — 48 — 38 — 391 — 86 19 — 45 + 26 — 40 — 46 - 29 Berlin + 9 — 7 + 3 — 350 — 44 + 2:5 — 4 + 68 + 1 — 4 + 12 Brindisi - 10 — 26 — 15 — 368 — 63 + 4 — 22 + 49 — 17 — 23 — 7 Cairo — 63 — 79 — 68 — 421 - 116 49 — 75 — 4 — 70 — 76 — 60 Constantin. - 54 - 69 — 59 — 412 — 107 40 — 66 + 5 — 61 — 66 — 50 Corfu — 17 — 33 + 23 — 376 — 70 3 — 30 + 42 — 25 — 30 — 14 London + 62 + 46 + 57 — 296 + 9 + 76 + 50 + 121 + 55 + 49 + 66 Marseilles + 41 + 25 + 36 — 317 — 12 + 55 + 28 + loo + 34 + 28 + 44 Messina — 16 — 5 - 358 — 53 + 14 — 12 + 59 — 7 — 13 + 3 Munich 4- 16 + 11 — 342 — 37 + 30 + 3 + 75 + 9 -t- 3 + 19 Naples + 5 — 11 — 353 — 48 + 19 — 7 + 64 — 2 — 8 + 9 New York + 358 + 342 + 35 + 305 + 372 4- 346 + 417 + 351 + 345 + 361 Paris + 53 + 37 + 48 — 305 + 67 + 41 + 112 + 46 + 40 + 56 Pesth - 14 — 30 — 19 — 372 — 67 — 26 + 45 - 21 — 27 — 11 Rome + 12 — 3 + 7 — 346 — 41 + 26 + 71 + 5 — l !'2 + 16 St.Petersb. - 59 — 75 — 64 — 417 — 112 4-) — 71 + 66 — 72 — 56 Trieste + 7 — 9 + 2 - 351 — 46 + 21 — 5 + 66 — + 10 Venice + 13 — 3 + s — 345 — 40 + 27 + '|-2 + 72 + 6 + 16 Vienna — 3 — 19 9 — 361 — 56 + 11 — 16 + 56 - 10 — 16 10 31 I \Ml\u.\TS. coast lies on the left. Arrival at Corfa on Sunday at noon, and halt of i-.~i hours; arriva] at Alexandria generally ahout 4p.m. on Wed- nesday. — Feom Alexandria to Trieste every Tuesday at 4 p.m. ; arrival at Trieste on Sunday at 6p.m. — Fares to Alexandria: 1st class L20 11. ; Mud class 80 fl., in gold. The journey may he hroken at any of the intermediate ports. From Venice and Brindisi to Alexandria. The steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental Company leave Venice every Thursday afternoon, touch next morning at Ancona, and on Sunday morning at Brindisi, where they receive the English mails for India (arriving from London via Paris and Turin in 56 hrs.). They then leave Brindisi at 4 a.m. on .Monday for Alexandria, where they generally arrive on Thursday. — From Alkxandria to Brindisi the depar- tures take place mi Thurs., Frid., Sat., or Sun., 36 hrs. after the arrival of the Indian mail in Suez, notice of which is given at the post-office. — The fare to Alexandria, either from Venice or Brin- disi, is I'll, for the 1st cahin and 9i. for the 2nd cabin, so that pas- sengers emharking at Venice effect a considerable saving. From Marseilles and Naples. Vessels of the Messageriea Maritimea leave Marseilles every Thursday about noon , arrive at Naples on Saturday morning, start again after a halt of some hours, and arrive at Alexandria on Wednesday about 5 p.m. On the voyage from .Marseilles to Naples these vessels pass through the Strait of Bonifacio, but on the return-voyage they steer round Capo Corso in order to avoid adverse currents. In quitting the harbour at Naples the passenger enjoys a delightful view in fine weather. On the out the vessel passes through the Strait of Messina at night. — From Alexandria to Naples and .Marseilles every Tuesday at '.•a.m. On Friday about noon the vessel sights the Calabrian coast with the Capo Spartivento, and to the \V. the pyramidal /Etna, which is covered with snow until summer. It then steers through the Strait of Messina on the E. side, commanding a view itiful promontory of Aspromonte on the right; towards evening it passes close to the island ofStromboli, and next day i vitunl;.} i .-irri\es at Naples about '2p.m. — Fares from Marseilles to Alexandria 375 and 250 fr. ; from Naples 275 and L75fr. Besides these steamboats may be mentioned those of the Kalian o, which ply between Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, and Alexandria once weekly (leaving Alexandria on Saturdays), and those of the French firm Fbajssiket A Co. which ply between Mat jellies, Leghorn, an ria twice monthly. The fares are about ird lower than tho lentloned. The departures arc adver i the hotels of the different ports. II" . the former of which are tolerabl ,, Alexandria and the eastern ports only (Syrian | intinople), and art amended to ordinarj travelli ,1 a t the hotels. — El '•'hi ioii ,, ,,,,, lation for a fev plj bed u sen Alexandria and Leghorn at Irre alar interval . which n irtained at the Alexandrian it Co. 11 (6). Modes of Travelling in Egypt. Railways. A network of railways constructed by the Egyptian government now connects most of the important places in the Delta. The engineer of the oldest of these lines , that from Alexandria to Cairo, was Mr. Stephenson, and the others were planned by Faid- Bey. The railways are under the management of a board of admin- istration, the president of which is a native, while most of the members are Englishmen or other Europeans. The carriages re- semble those of other countries , but the third class is insufferably dirty. The dust and heat render railway travelling in Egypt ex- ceedingly unpleasant in hot weather. The traveller should be at the station fully half-an-hour before the hoar for starting, as the process of issuing tickets and booking luggage is often very slow, and the ticket-clerks are entitled to close the office 10 minutes before the departure of the train. Gold coins that are in any degree either defaced or of light weight are not accepted at the booking-office. The personal tickets are printed in English and Arabic, the luggage tickets in Arabic only. The hours of departure are seldom altered, and those at present fixed are given in the following pages. Steamboats on the Suez Canal, see R. 7. Donkeys (Arab, homdr) form the best means of conveyance both in the narrow streets of the towns and on the bridle-paths in the country. They are of a much finer, swifter, and more spirited race than the European, and at the same time patient and persevering. Those in the towns are generally well saddled and bridled in Oriental style. The attendants are either men or boys + , who contrive to keep up with their beasts at whatever pace they are going, and often address long sentences to them in their Arabic patois. As the gait of the donkeys is sometimes very uneasy when they break into a trot, care should be taken not to engage one with this defect for an excursion of any length. As the stirrups are often in bad condition they had better not be used at all. The donkey-boys (Arab, hammar) are fond of showing off the pace of their beasts, and often drive them unpleasantly fast. The rider who prefers a slower pace shouts 'ala mahlak or 'aid, mahldkum ; if a quicker pace is wanted, yalla, yalla, or mashi, or suk el-homur ; if a halt is to be made, osbur, or the English word 'stop'. The donkey-boys, especially at Cairo, are generally remarkably active, intelligent, and obliging. Many of the donkeys, particularly in the country, will be observed to have been deprived of part of one or both ears. This has been done, according to the somewhat cruel practice of the country, as a punishment for trespass, an additional t The boya are preferable to the men, as tbe latter are generally more exorbitant in their demands and less obliging, and even their donkeys appear to partake of their unpleasant disposition. 12 CAMELS. fragment being cut "IT for each repetition of the offence, and the delinquents are known as har&miyeh, or thieves. The horse and don- k,\ - - of metal with ;t hole in the middle. The Camel i for riding hegtn, in Syria deltil; for baggage gemel; with one hump are the only kind found here) is generally used for the Mi. Sinai tour ( 1«. 10) only, but for the sake of experiment ridden on one of the shorter excursions from Cairo (e.g. to the Petrified Forest or to Helwan). The patient 'ship of the desert' is always surly in appearance, and though lie commands our respect never wins our affection. Those only which have been properly 1 can be ridden with any comfort, the baggage-camels being as unsuitable for the purpose as the ponderous Flemish cart-horse. If well mounted on a tall and well trained hegtn, the traveller will find that camel-riding is quite undeserving of the vituperation so often bestowed upon it by the inexperienced (comp. also li. 10). (7). Dealings with the Natives. Dragomans. The traveller, apart from his ignorance of the language, will find it exceedingly difficult to deal with the class of people with whom lie chiefly comes in contact. The extra if their demands is boundless, and they appear to think that Europeans are absolutely ignorant of the value of money (p. Hi). Every at- tempt at extortion should be firmly resisted, as compliance only 3 the applicants for bakhshish doubly clamorous. Payment should never be made until the service stipulated for has been rendered, after which an absolutely deaf ear should be turned to the protestations .did entreaties which almost invariably follow. Thanks, it need hardly be said, must never ho expected from such recipients [comp. p. 16). Even when an express bargain has been made and more than the stipulated sum paid, thej are almost sure traveller in the way indicated. V\ hen no bargain has been made, the fees and prices mentioned in the Handbook, all of which are ample, shouldbepaid without remark ; and if the attacks which not silenced by an air of calm indifference the traveller ma;, use the word ruh or imshi (comp. p. '204) in a quiet but ed and imperative tone. The Egyptians, it must be remem- apy a much lower grade in the scale of civilisation than and cupidity is one of their chief fail- but if the tr,-i\ oiler maki for their shortcomings, and treats the natives v, ith consistent firmness, he will find that they ir of fidelity, honest) . and kindlini 38. ithstanding all the suggestions we have ventured to offer, t have to buy his experience. In irges to which he will be exposed will be ratively trifling; hut if extortion is attempted on a larger • bad hotter refer the matter to his consul. DRAGOMANS. 13 Travellers about to make a tour of any length may avoid all the petty annoyances incident to direct dealings with the natives hy placing themselves under the care of a Dragoman (Arab, tur- gemtin). The word dragoman is derived from the Chaldrean tavgem, 'to explain 1 , or from targtim, 'explanation'. The Arabic targam also signifies 'to inter- pret'. The dragoman was therefore originally merely a guide who ex- plained or interpreted. Since the 7th cent. B.C. when Psammetichus I. threw open the eountry to foreign trade, against which it had previously been jealously closed, this class, which is mentioned by Herodotus as a distinct caste , has existed in Egypt. That author informs us that Psammetichus caused a number of Egyptian children to be educated by Greeks in order that they might learn their language ; and it was these children who afterwards became the founders of the dragoman caste. The great historian himself employed a dragoman , from whom he fre- quently derived erroneous information. A dragoman, who was employed by the governor iElius Gallus to accompany him up the Nile, is accused by Strabo of absurdity, conceit, and ignorance. The ignorant Arabian, Nubian, or Maltese dragomans of the present day do not attempt to ex- plain or translate the ancient inscriptions. An effort was recently made with some success to educate young Arabs for this calling in a school founded for the purpose ; but , like most Oriental undertakings , the scheme has not been persevered with. The dragomans, who speak English, French, and Italian, undertake for a fixed sum per day to defray the whole cost of locomotion , hotel accommodation, fees , and all other expenses , so that tlic traveller is enabled to obtain, as it were, a bird's eye view of the country without being concerned with the cares of daily life. On the other hand the traveller is frequently imposed upon by the dragoman himself. The charge made by the dragoman varies very greatly according to circumstances, such as the number and the requirements of the travellers, the length of the journey, and the amount of the demand for the services of such a guide. A dragoman is usually employed for the longer tours only, such as the voyage up the Nile, the journey to Mt. Sinai, the excursion to theFayum, and a visit to the less fre- quented towns in the Delta. Visitors to Alexandria, Cairo, Suez, Isma'iliya, and Port Sa f id may well dispense with a dragoman , as every necessary service will be rendered them by the commission- naires of the hotels (5-10 fr. per day). Dragomans of the better class, moreover, usually consider it beneath their dignity to escort their employers through the streets of the towns , and are apt to consign them to the guidance of the local cicerones. For the above-named longer tours the charges vary so greatly, and the services to be rendered on each are so different, that a separate contract with the dragoman should be drawn up in each case. (Thus, for the Nile voyage he has to procure a dahabiyeh, for the Fayum horses, for Mt. Sinai camels, for the Delta canal- boats and donkeys, and, for the last three journeys, tents also.) Information regarding expenses and other details, as well as the names of some of the best dragomans, will be prefixed to each of the routes in question. The larger the party , the less will be the II BQ1 II'MKNT. expense for each member of it, while for a single traveller a drago- iu,iii is of course a ?erj oostly appendage. In conclusion, we may add that most of the dragomans arc fond tming a patronising manner towards their employers, -while generally treat their own countrymen with an air of vast superiority. The sooner this impertinence is checked, the more satisfactory will be the traveller's subsequent relations -with his guide : and the hints already given with reference to the traveller's intercourse with the natives may not un frequently be applied to the dragomans themselves. On the successful termination of the journej travellers are too apt from motives of good nature to write a more favourable testimonial for their dragoman than he really deserves; but this is truly an act of injustice to his subsequent employers, and tends to confirm him in his faults. The testimonial therefore should not omit to mention any serious cause for dis- satisfaction. Information w ith regard to dragomans ('name, languages spoken, conduct, and charges) will always be gratefully received by the Editor of the Handbook for the benefit of later editions. (8). Equipment for the Tour. Dress. It is less important now than it formerly was to pur- chase every requirement for the journey before leaving home, as the traveller can easily supplement his outfit at some of the modem shops of Alexandria or Cairo. For all ordinary purposes a couple of light Tweed suits, a few flannel and soft cotton shirts, a supply of thin woollen socks, one pair of light and easy boots, one of shoes, and one of slippers, a moderately warm Ulster orlong travelling cloak, a pith-helmet and a soft felt hat, together with the most necessary articles nl' tin- toilet, will amply suffice. It is advisable, for the pre- vention Of colds and chills, to wear a woollen fabric next the skin ; but light underclothing, with an Oxford shirt, will be found mure suitable to the climate than a heavy flannel shirt. Those who intend making a prolonged stay at the principal towns may add a dress-suit and a few white shirts, [f a muslin 'puggaree' be used for severing the hit. it should lie made to fall over the back of the neck and ears as broadly as possible. This favourite European head-dress, however. Invariably attracts hosts of importunate candidates for 'bakshish'. Hers prefer the fez or tarbftsh, a red cloth skull-cap with black-silk tassel I i-lfifr. ), over which, in native fashion, they ilk keffiyeh [manufactured in Egypt, 15-20 fr. I, falling down behind in a triangle. This head-drCSS protects the lleck and cheeks admira scorching Egyptian sun. especially when a bd, led handkerchief or a white skull-cap (tdkiyeh) is worn under the (arbush. In prolonged riding tours, a sun-shade is a fatiguing encumbl W 111 I U I articles should be new ami strongly made. Is often ditiiciiii and troublesome to get repairs properh HEALTH. 15 cutcd in Egypt. White shirts, collars, and -wristbands, which require frequent and skilful -washing, should be as far as possible eschewed, as good laundresses are rare and expensive (2-4 fr. per dozen articles, irrespective of size). Few travellers walk in Egypt, except for very short distances, but sportsmen should add a stout pair of waterproof shooting-boots to their equipment. For tours on horse or camel-back two small portmanteaus are much more suitable than a box or trunk of larger size. Miscellaneous. Among the most important extras are a drinking cup of leather or metal, a flask, a strong pocket-knife, note-books, writing-materials, straps and twine, a thermometer, a pocket-com- pass of medium size, and a supply of magnesium wire for lighting caverns and dark chambers. To these may perhaps be added a 'remontoir', or keyless watch, as a watch-key lost during the journey is not easily replaced. Health. Fine as the climate of Egypt generally is, the chilly mornings and evenings are often treacherous, and if cold is caught it is apt to result in a tedious intermittent or other fever. There are good chemists at Alexandria and Cairo, from whom small medi- cine-chests adapted for the climate may be purchased. In serious cases of illness a European doctor, when procurable, should always be consulted, as the traveller's own experience acquired at home is of little avail in the climate of Egypt. Fits of shivering are the usual prelude to an attack of fever. Qui- nine is the hest remedy, of which 1-3 doses should be taken on the days when the patient is free from fever. Rest and copious perspiration will also afford relief. Diarrhosa, which is apt to turn to dysentery, is a very common com- plaint in this climate, and is generally the result of eating unripe fruit or of catching cold. The patient should first take a slight aperient, and afterwards tincture of opium or concentrated tincture of camphor. A simple farinaceous diet (such as well-boiled rice), with tea or well matured, unfortified, and unsweetened red wine, will be beneficial, while fruit, meat, and fatty substances should be avoided. In cases both of diarrhoea and fever all remedies are sometimes unavailing except change of climate, especially if the patient is in a marshy or unhealthy locality. Sprains, which often result from exploring ruins and caverns , are most effectually treated with cold compresses, while the injured limb should be tightly bandaged and allowed perfect rest. The sting of a scorpion (seldom dangerous) or bite of a snake is usually treated with ammonia. Sunstroke is very common in Egypt, even in spring when the air is still cool. The head and neck should therefore always be carefully shielded in one of the ways above indicated. The usual remedies are rest and shade, cold compresses, and warm baths with cold douches applied to the head and neck. Grey spectacles or veils may be used with advantage when the eyes suffer from the glare of bright weather. Zinc eye-wash, or some other innocuous lotion, should be used in such cases. The sticking-plaster, lint, as well as all effervescing powders, and other medicines carried by the traveller should be carefully kept from exposure to moisture. 16 I'.M. Beggars. Bakshish. Most Orientals regard the European traveller as a Croesus, and uies too as a madman, — so unintelligible to them are the objects and pleasures of travelling. Poverty, they imagine, is unknown among us, whereas in reality we feel its privations far more keenly than they. That such erroneous notions prevail is to Bome extent the fault of travellers themselves. In a country -whore the requirements of the natives are few and simple, and money is , a few piastres seem a fortune to many. Travellers are there- fore often tempted to give for the sake of affording temporary pleasure at a trilling cost, forgetting that the seeds of insatiable cupidity are thereby sown, to the infinite annoyance of their successors and the demoralisation of the recipients themselves. As a rule, bakshish should never be given except for services rendered, or to the sick and aged. Sir Gardner Wilkinson has justly observed that the cry of 'Bcrfc- sfttsA, bakshish, yd khawdgeh' (oh, sirl a gift!), with which Euro- are invariably assailed, is an insulting substitute for the day' of other countries. The Arab reserves his pious bene- is for his own countrymen, but never hesitates to take advan- i hat be considers the folly of foreign travellers. The best replj i< such applications is l md fish, m"i fish' (I bave nothing for you]), which will generally bave the effect of dispersing the assailants. Or a beggar may be silenced with the words l AUdh ya'tW (may God give thee ! I. The word bakshish, which resounds so perpetually- in the traveller's ears during his sojourn in the East, and haunts him long afterwards, simply means 'a gift'; and, as everything is to be had in return for gifts, the word has many different applications. Tims with the tardj formalities of the custom-house officer are accelerated, bakshish supplies the place of a passport, i ii is the alms bestowed on a beggar, bakshish means black mail, and lastly a luge proportion of the public officials of the nil fco live by hakshlsh or bribery. I I'M. Public Safety. Weapons. Dogs. I'm re. The authority of the Khedive is so well Jhed throughout the whole of Egypt that travellers arc very I to predatory attacks, even on the Sinai journey, and travelling is indeed safer than in some parts of Europe. The pro- 'i escort is therefore never necessary as it is in certain ine and Syria. Travellers, however, who have md who require the co-operation of the or of the pasha or mudir of a district, or those who have tend any difficulty or danger, may obtain through their i | r unmendation (finndn or tcslcireh), w hich w ill nil, ii I,, found very useful. HOTELS. CAFES. 17 Weapons for self-defence are an unnecessary encumbrance. Guns for purposes of sport, see p. 79. Dogs, being regarded by the Muslims as unclean (p. 79), are never touched by them. Their barking is sometimes a source of alarm, especially in country places, but they fortunately never bite. As they are never domesticated in Oriental countries, it is quite useless to attempt to establish friendly relations with them. (11). Hotels. Hospitality. Hotels. The traveller will find good , first-class hotels at Alexandria, Cairo, Isrna'iliya, Port Sa'id, and Suez, kept by Germans, Frenchmen, or Greeks, with European waiters. The charges are generally high, 15-25 fr. per day being charged during the season for board , lodging , and attendance , whether all the meals are partaken of or not. For a prolonged stay a lower rate should be stipulated for in advance. Wine is generally extra. The waiter expects a fee of 2-3 fr. per week, his native assistant l^St., and the porter about 2 fr. ; for errands in the neighbourhood there is generally a separate tariff. Orientals attract the attention of waiters by clapping their hands, and sometimes with the exclamation — l ya iveled' (ho, boy !). — Tolerable inns have also sprung up of late years at Tauta, Mansura, Zakazik, Damietta, and at Minyeh and Siut in Upper Egypt. Hospitality. In all other parts of Egypt the traveller who is not provided with tents must apply to the principal natives or officials, or to European merchants for accommodation. The latter are to be met with in every part of the Delta, and will be found most courteous and hospitable. Letters of introduction may be ob- tained without difficulty at Alexandria and Cairo. (12). Cafes. Story-tellers, Musicians, Singers, etc. Eukgpean Cafes are to be found at the towns above mentioned, beer being one of the refreshments they afford (^ &• per glass). The beer either comes from Vienna or Gratz , or is made in Cairo by the Societe Genevoise. Arabian Cafes (kahwa) abound everywhere, even in the smallest and dirtiest villages. In the country they usually consist of wooden booths, with a few seats made of plaited palm-twigs (gerid), and even in the large towns, like Cairo, they are very small and uninviting. The kahwas are frequented by the lower classes exclusively. The front generally consists of woodwork with a few open arches. Outside the door runs a mastaba, or raised seat of stone or brick, two or three feet in height and of about the same width, covered with mats, and there are similar seats on two or three sides of the interior. Coffee is served by the kahwegi at 10 paras per cup (fingan), and several nargUehs and shhhehs or gozehs Baedeker's Egypt I. 2nd Ed. 2 18 STORY-TELLERS. [water-pipes") are kept in rend inoss for the use of customers. The tumbuk i]). 27 ) smoked in the latter is sometimes mixed with the Intoxicating hashish (hemp. Cannabis Indioa), the strong and on- mista i I] of w bich is often perceptible even in the street. The Bale of hashish is now nominally prohibited in Egypt. 'The leaves and capsules of hemp, called in Egypt hasheesh, were employed in some countries of the East in very ancient times to induce an exhilarating intoxication. Herodotus (iv. 75) informs us that t lie Scythians had a custom of burning the seeds of this plant in religious ceremonies, and that they became intoxicated with the fumes. Galen also mentions the intoxicating properties of hemp. The practice of chewing the leaves of this plant to induce intoxication prevailed, or existed, in India in very early ages 5 thence it was introduced into Persia ; out six centuries ago (before the middle of the thirteenth century 11I" nur era] this pernicious and degrading custom was adopted in Egypt, but chieflj by persons of the lower orders. ...The preparation of hemp ting produces boisterous mirth. Few inhalations of the smoke, but the last very copious, are usually taken from the gdzeh. After the emission of the last draught from the mouth and nostrils, commonly a lit of coughing, and often a spitting of blood, ensues, in consequence ut the lungs having been filled with the smoke. Hasheesh is to be obtained not only at some of the coffee-shops: there are shops of a smaller and more private description solely appropriated to the sale of this and other intoxicating preparations: they are called mahsheshehs. It is some- musing to Observe the ridiculous conduct, and to listen to the tinn, of the persons who frequent these shops. They are all of the lower orders! The term hashshdsh, which signifies a smoker, or an eater, oi bemp, is an appellation of obloquy: noisy and riotous people are often called hashshdsheen, which is the plural of that appellation, and the Origin oi our word assassin; a name first applied to Arab warriors in Syria, in the time of the Crusades, who made use of intoxicating and to render their enemies insensible'. 'The use of opium and other drugs to induce intoxication is not so .■..nun. -n In Egypl as in many Other countries of the East: the number of Egyptians addicted to this vice is certainly not nearly so great in pro- portion to the whole population as is the relative number of persons in our own countrj who indulge in habitual drunkenness'.... i Soozeh or boozah, which is an intoxicating liquor made with barley- bread, crumbled, mixed with water, strained, and left to ferment, is commonlj drunk by the boatmen of the Nile, and by other persons of the lower orders'. — Lank (1833-35). Numerous taverns now exist exclusively for the sale of bu/.eh, kept chiefly by Nubians. It is usually dispensed immediately from a large iili a wooden ladle, which is passed from mouth to mouth, the Customers being of both sexes. The liquor is intoxicating in a very Many of the kahwas are frequented, especially on the eves of festivals (p. 236 ), by story-tellers and musicians. The performances rom those of a very simple character to gorgeous entertain- ments with dancing, music. .Hid fireworks; and these 'fantasiyas', ■ lied by tin- modem Arabs, afford unbounded delight. i"i in private domestic circles are generally ill form a e Lc Oriental institution. AVherever ,k '' their whether in the public streets or the 1. peopled alleys of the large towns, 01 in I country villages, or among the tents of the wandering 1 ot an attentive, easily pleased, and ex- oeeditlgly grateful crowd. The more sensational the tale, the better, MUSICIANS. 1 and the oftener is the narrator applauded with protracted cries of 'AaV, or 'Allah', or 'Allahu akbar 1 '. The story-teller generally occupies a small stool on the mastaba, whence he delivers his address. Most of the members of this class belong to the so-called sho'ara (sing, sha'ir), literally 'singers'. They are also known as 'Andtireh (sing. 'Antari) or Abu-Zedtych, according as their theme consists of tales and romances from the history of 'Antar, a Beduin hero, or from that of Abu Zed. Others again are called Mohaddittn, i.e. narrators of history, their province being the Tecital in prose of passages from the history of Sultan Ez-Zahir Bcbars, who reigned over Egypt in 1260-77 (p. 104). The entertainments of the i alf leleh u leleti (thousand and one nights) are, however, no longer heard, as popular superstition has branded this collection of tales as 'unlucky'. There are also profes- sional improvisors and travelling singers, whose performances are very popular ; but the themes of the whole fraternity are too often of an immoral character. Musicians by profession, called dldttyeh (sing, dldti), are in- dispensable on every festive occasion. The usual instruments are the rekk or tambourine with little bells, the nakkdreh, or semi- spherical tambourine, the zemr or hautbois, the tabl beledi ot drum, the tabl shdmi or kettle-drum , and the darabukeh, a kind of funnel-shaped drum (generally made of earthenware, but some- times of mother-of-pearl and tortoise-shell, with a fish-skin stretch- ed over the broad end), which last is accompanied by the zummdra, a kind of double flute. A better class of instruments, used for chamber music, consists of the ndi, a kind of flute, the kemengeh or two-stringed violin, the body of which consists of a cocoa-nut shell, the rebdbeh, or one-stringed violin with a square wooden body, the kdniin, a kind of zither with strings of sheep-gut, and lastly the 'fid, the lute or mandoline, the oldest of all the instruments. The Egyptians consider themselves a highly musical people, and the traveller will indeed often he struck by the frequency of their singing. The Egyptian sings when indulging in his kef (p. 23), whether sitting on his heels or stretched out on his mat, when driving his donkey, when carrying stones and mortar up a scaffolding, when working in the fields, and when rowing. He sings whether alone or in company, regarding his vocal music as a means of lightening his labour and of sweetening his repose. A peculiarity of the Egyptian songs, however, is that they have no tune, though they have a certain rhythm, which is always dependent on the text. They are sung through the nose on seven or eight different notes, on which the performer wanders up and down as he feels in- clined, f The character of this so-called music is exceedingly monotonous, and to a European ear displeasing. The songs (mawwdl or shughl) are all of a lyrical description, most of them are erotic and often grossly obscene, and many are at the same time pointless and meaningless. Some of t In the large work entitled the 'Book of Songs 1 an endeavour is made to reduce Arabic music to a system, and the notes are divided into seven different keys, each having the same notes, differently arranged ; but the popular songs are sung without the least regard to these artiheial rules. 2* 20 I'l.M VLB SINGERS. them, however, exto) the pleasures ol friendship and rational enjoyment, i >r express derision of an enemy, or contempt for the rustic fellah. Thus I the donkey-boya derides ;i young fellah called 'All. the favourite of his village, and is usually sung in mockery of some one of Hi'- name. Shuftum 'AH yd ndt Shvftum 'AH ftkv/m toilbds Walldhtaf ttttcd'ikum ida-l-'aObus Wdhrtih beled min ddl ) il'iib el-birgds Wd"ua teldtin yOm Wal 'antaret ethaddit Kulluh 'aid shdn 'AH \ il beled haggit Ya'ni ya'ni Kulluh 'ala shdn 'AH Kulluh 'ala shdn 'AH. Ya'ni ya'ni Kulluh Utla shdn 'AH. 1. II i people, in shirt and drawers, standing on tin- bridge of 'Abbas and showing off his equestrian tricks? Bat the bridge is now destroyed, and half the village has flown away. And all this for 'Ali's sake. •J. Have you seen r Ali among you? If not, I will run off with your Skull-caps i)i. 14) and will go into one of the villages and remain there thirty days. All this for 'Ali's sake, yes, for 'Ali's sake. The pleasures of hashish-smoking are thus extolled: — G6zeh min el-hind iriiiitriikkeb 'alehd ghdb Wumdandisheh bil tea' wumgamm'a el ahbdb Akhalteh minhd iiefes el-'akl minni ghdb Ba'it abaldam zei el ganuil guwwa Ighdb Tub 'altya yd lawwdb Min slturb el gdzeh wal ghdb. hd /id hd t Min shurb el gCzcli wal ghdb. Oh cocoa-nut ; r of India, in which is fixed the stem inlaid with shells, that collects friends around it. I have taken a whiff from it — and my understanding tied. I drew so that the tube gurgled like a camel. oh! thou Blotter out of sins! that I smoke out of the cocoa-nut v. itli il Thwarted love is another favourite theme. One of these songs begins — Hoi. hOi. yd habtbil HOi. hOi, kun tabibi! (come, come, oh beloved ! come and be my physician !). These songs also frequently describe the charms of tb ibject with great minuteness. l'l.MALi; Singers ['AwCilim , sing. 'Almeh or 'Alimch; i.e. 'learned women') of a good class are now very rare, and those who still exist perforin only in the harems of wealthy natives, so that the traveller will seldom or never have an opportunity of hearing them, others of a low class are frequently seen in the streets ac- companied by one or two musicians, who are generally blind. 'lli' 1 I'imm.i Danckrs, or caste of the Ghawazi (sing. Ghaziyeli), which is quite distinct from that of the 'Awaliin, were formerly one of the chief curiosities of Egypt, but for some years past they have bet n prohibited from performing in the streets. Really good dancers arc said to be now rare, but on the Nile voyage the traveller will have ighing caused by the great quantity ■'b'l hj the ha bi b imoker at intervals of Vv'/a hour, after Wnicb icated i ad in i a ible. pipe .mii of which tl aaoked has generally ir the water through which the smoke BATHS. 21 an opportunity at Keneh, Luksor, and Esnch of seeing very curious and elaborate, though to his taste often ungraceful performances. Most of the dancers congregate at the fair of Tanta (p. 226), but the most skilful decline to exhibit unless paid with gold. The Handed, or men in female attire, who frequently dance at festivities instead of the Ghawazi, present a most repulsive appearance. The Snake Charmers (Rifd'tyeh, sing. Rifd'i), who form an- other distinct caste , exhibit performances of a very marvellous character, as credible European residents in Cairo have testified ; but the traveller will rarely come in contact with them. The ordinary exhibition of dancing snakes may, however, occasionally be seen in the Ezbekiyeh. The boys who exhibit small snakes at the hotels must of course not be confounded with the Rifa'iyeh. The Jugglers (Hawl) of Egypt are similar to those of other countries. The performances of the Buffoons ( Kurtiddti or Mohab- bazi), which are chiefly intended for the amusement of the young, are disgracefully indelicate. (13). Baths. The baths of Egypt, with their hot-air chambers, are those com- monly known as Turkish, but they are neither so clean nor so well fitted up as some of those in the larger cities of Europe. The Hardra (see Plan), as well as the Maghtas and Hanaflyeh, have flat ceilings in which are openings covered with stained glass. The maghtas and the Hanafiyeh each contain marble basins for washing, provided with taps for warm water; the maghtas contain besides a bath sunk in the pavement. Cold water is brought in ewers. The hardra, or general bath-chamber, is less heated than the separate rooms, and is filled with steam. All the chambers are paved with marble slabs and heated by flues under the pavement and behind the walls. When a cloth is hung up at the entrance to the baths, it indi- cates that women only are admitted. The baths are always cleanest in the early morning. Fridays are to be avoided, as numerous Muslims bathe early on that day, which is their Sabbath. The visitor first enters a large vaulted chamber covered with a cupola ( hosh el-hammdm) , having a fountain of cold water in the centre (faskiyeh), and the bathing towels hung around on strings, these last being swung into their places or taken down with bamboo rods according to requirement. Having taken off his shoes and given them to the attendant, the visitor is next conducted to one of the raised divans which are still unoccupied, where he proceeds to undress. Valuables may, if desired, be entrusted to the bath owner. Wrapping a cloth round his loins, he leaves his divan, is provided with pattens or wooden shoes (kabkdb), and is conducted to the hot room (hardra) in the interior of the establishment. Near 22 BATHS. one of the basins here a linen cloth is spread for the bather, and lie. i> now lrtt in perspire. As soon as the skin is thoroughly moist, he calls for the attendant (comp. Arabic vocabulary, p. 198), who pulls and kneads the joints till they crack, a process to which Eu- ropeans are not generally subjected. This is followed by the pleas- anter operation of shampooing, which is performed by the ahu kts or abu *"tulc (my house is thy house). When in the course of the bargaining the purchaser increases his offer in order to make a concession, he generally uses the expression l min shdnak 1 (for thy sake I. ftothitlg raises the traveller so much in the estimation of'Orien- i resisting imposition; but even the most wary and experienced must be prepared to pay somewhat higher prices for everything than the natives themselves. The various prices mentioned in the Handbook will give the travellers fait idea of what may lie .justly dema uded. and will prove a Bafegoard against aii .. vi-i ions extortion. The dragomans and va lets-cle-place are always in league with INTERCOURSE WITH ORIENTALS. 25 the shopkeepers, from whom they receive 10-20 per cent on all ar- ticles purchased by travellers under their guidance. Travellers are cautioned against purchasing antiquities, their exportation being moreover strictly prohibited (p. 6). Spurious 'antiquities' (particularly scaTabfei) are largely manufactured both in Egypt and Syria, and the name is unhesitatingly applied to everything in the seller's possession, especially in Upper Egypt, if he sees that the traveller is disposed to make purchases of the kind. Remains of mummies are frequently offered for sale in the neighbourhood of all the ancient burial-places. Both at Alexandria and Cairo there are goods-agents (pp. 206, 235), who will undertake the transmission of all purchases to the traveller's home at moderate cost. Their services are especially re- commended if the traveller intends making a tour through the con- tinent of Europe on his return from Egypt, in which case every new article, or object not intended for personal use, is liable to duty at half-a-dozen different frontiers. (15). Intercourse with. Orientals. Orientals reproach Europeans with doing everything the wrong way, such as writing from left to right, while they do the reverse, and uncovering the head on entering a room, while they remove their shoes, but keep their heads covered. The following rules should be observed in paying a visit at an Oriental house. The visitor knocks at the door with the iron knocker attached to it, whereupon the question 'mtn' (who is there?) is usually asked from within. The visitor answers, 'iftah' (open). In the case of Muslim houses the visitor has to wait outside for a few minutes in order to give the women who happen to be in the court time to retire. He is then conducted into the reception-room, where a low divan or sofa runs round three sides of the room, the place of honour always being exactly opposite the door. According to the greater or less degree of respect which the host desires to show for his guest he rises more or less from his seat, and approaches one or more steps towards him. The first enquiries are concerning the health (see p. 199) ; the salutation i Salam aleikurn is re- served for Muslims. The transaction of business in the East always involves a prodigious waste of time, and as Orientals attach no value whatever to their time, the European will often find his pa- tience sorely tried. If a visitor drops in and interrupts the business, it would be an unpardonable affront to dismiss him on the plea of being engaged. Again, when a visitor is announced at meal-time, it is de rigueur to invite him, at least as a matter of form, to partake. At all other hours of the day visitors are supplied with coffee, which a servant, with his left hand on his heart, presents to each according to his rank. Under the coffee-cup (fingan) there is 26 INTERCOl RSE WITH ORIENTALS. generally a ear/', or kind of Bancei of egg-cup shape. To be passed ovei wheu coffee is handed round is deemed by the Ucduins an insult of the gravest kind. Having emptied his cup, the visitor must not put it down on the ground, which is contrary to etiquette, but keep it" in his hand until it is taken from him by the servant. after which be salutes his host in the usual Oriental fashion by placing his r i ir 1 1 1 handt on his breast and afterwards raising it to Iris forehead, and pronouncing the word l ddiman' (i.e. 'kahweh daiman', may you never want coffee). This custom originated with the Beduins, who only regard the persons of their guests as inviolable alter they have eaten or drunk with them. When vi- sited by Datives, the European should in his turn regale them liberall) with coffee. It is also usual to offer tobacco to the visitor, the cigarette being new the ordinary form. The long pipe (shibuk) villi amber mouth-piece, and its howl resting on a brazen platoon the ground, is mure Ln vogue with the Turks. Visits in the East must of course be returned as in Europe. Those who return to a place after an absence receive visits from their acquaintances before they .in- expected to call on them. Europeans, as a rule, should never enquire after the wives of a Muslim, his relations to the fair sex being sedulously veiled from the public. Even looking at women in the street or in a house is considered indecorous, and may in some cases be attended with danger. Intimate acquaintance with Orientals is also to be avoided, disinterested friendship being still rarer in the East than elsewhere. Beneath the interminable protestations of friendship with which the traveller is overwhelmed, lurks in most cases the demon of cupidity. the sole motive of those who use them being the hope of Borne gain or bakshish. The best way of dealing with persons who 'do protest too much' is to pay for every service or civility on the spot, and as far as possible to li\ the price of every article beforehand, a plan which is usually effectual in limiting their mercenary designs. On the other hand the most ordinary observer cannot fail to be Btruck with the fact that the degraded ruffianism so common in the most civilised countries is unknown in Ivjypt. The people of the country, even the pooresl and the entirely uneducated, ofte iv possess a native dignity, self-respect, and gracefulness of manner, of which the traveller's own countrymen of a far more favoured class are Bometimee utterly destitute. Notwithstanding their individual sel- fishness, too, the different native communities will be observed to hold together With remarkable faithfulness, and the bond of a common religion, which takes the place of 'party' in other coun- and requires its adherents to address each other as l y& aJchHya im;. brother), is far more than a mere name. r Th I in | reetin ■ and as mucli in eatin f| band being n ei ed TOBACCO. 27 "While much caution and firmness are desirable in dealing with the people, it need hardly be added that the traveller should avoid being too exacting or suspicious. He should bear in mind that many of the natives with whom he comes in contact are mere children, whose waywardness should excite compassion rather than anger, and who often display a touching simplicity and kindliness of disposition. He should, moreover, do his utmost to sustain the well established reputation of the 'kilmeh freng*iych\ the 'word of a Frank', in which Orientals are wont to place implicit confidence. (16). Tobacco. Cigar-smokers will find it very difficult to become accustomed to the Oriental tobacco, but they will find tolerable cigar-shops at Alexandria and Cairo, most of which have been established quite recently. As a general rule smokers are recommended to carry with them, both in going to and returning from Egypt, as little tobacco as possible, especially if they travel by the overland route, as a rigorous search is often made and a heavy duty exacted, both at the Egyptian, and at the French, Austrian, and Italian frontiers. Travellers returning to England direct, with their luggage booked through, are allowed half-a-pound of tobacco or cigars free of Eng- lish duty, or they may bring three pounds on payment of the duty (5s. per lb. ) and a small fine. Tobacco (dukhdn) is kept in good condition by covering it with a moist cloth, with which, however, it must not come in contact. Strong fhdmi) or mild (burid) may be asked for according to taste. Stambuli is a long and fine cut tobacco, the best qualities of which (40-60 fr. per okka = 2 lbs. ll ] / 2 oz.) come from Roumelia and Ana- tolia, and the inferior from the Greek islands. The Syrian tobacco (15-20 fr. per okka), which is cut less regularly, and contains parts of the stalk, is considered less drying to the palate than the Tur- kish. It is of two kinds, the. kurdni, or light-brown, and the gebeli. or dark-brown, a mixture of which may be used. The latter, which derives its colour from being dried in the smoke of resinous woods, is known in Europe as i Latakia\ from the region of N. Syria where it is chiefly grown (Ladikiyeh), but that name is not applied to it in the East. The native Egyptian tobacco (dukhdn bclcdi, or aJchdar, green tobacco) is of very inferior quality (about 15 piastres tariff per okka). The natives often gather the leaves from the PJ e( j e( i dry them in the sun, rub them to pieces, and smoke th^ £ 00 - os fresh. Tumbak, or Persian tobacco, is used in a nip£j er ' f Abvs- dition in the long nargtlehs or water-pipes only, and ts f t^gij. war _ a particular kind of charcoal. The smoke of the^ n ^ e j ono . run t0 into the lungs. ' monarch fol their The stems of these pipes, with their decoratioi,^ f ^ e Mahom- alone are of native manufacture. The reservoirs rea t ens to entail mouth-pieces are imported from Europe, chiefly froi- Egypt proper 28 I I ~i I. Post and Telegraph Offices. The Eotptiah Pobtai System is admirably organised in all the principal towns, and now also in many smaller ones. The officials, who are very civil, arc often Italians. The addresses of letters des- tined for Egypt should always he written very distinctly (particularly the initial letters), and they had better be directed to the hotel at which the traveller intends to stay, or to the consulate. Registered letters are not delivered to the person whose address they bear unless he gets a resident to testify to his identity. The forwarding of letters up the Nile or elsewhere in the interior may be entrusted to the landlord of the hotel. The General Post Office for the whole of Egypt is at Alexandria. Postage-stamps, bearing a sphinx and a pyramid, are issued at 5, 10 and 20 paras, and at 1, 2, 2'/-j and :") tariff piastres. There are letter-boxes in the streets and at the hotels of the principal towns. Egypt is now a member of the Postal Union, and the postage for letters within Egypt and to other coun- tries in the union is 1 piastre tariff for every 50 grammes (l'/^ozO, and for book-packets 10 paras for the same weight. Post-cards cost 20 paras. Parcels not exceeding 6l/ 2 lbs. in weight may be sent to the countries of the union for 11 piastres tariff. Post-office orders, see p. 3. The Egyptiakt Telegbaph System, the various lines of which are about 3750 English miles in length, extends northwards as far as Palestine, and southwards along the Nile to Khartum, a town at the continence of the Blue and White Nile, whence a line diverges to Kassala, and another by Kordofan to Dar-Ffir ( comp. Map, p. 30). All the larger towns in the Delta have telegraph-offices, and even the Fayum is included in the system. Telegrams to Ale- xandria, Cairo, Isma'ilfya, Port Sa'id, and Sue/, may be sent in English, French, or Italian, but Arabic must lie used for messages to all the smaller stations. Within Egypt the Egyptian telegraph must he used (6 piastres tariff per ID words), hut telegrams to Europe should he Bent b) the English wires, via Malta, and cer- t.iinly not h> the Egyptian, via Constantinople, a provokingly di- latory route. The following Is the tariff of the English telegraph : each word (not exceeding ten letters; if longer, it is reckoned as two words) to Vustria, France, or Germany 1». 8d. ; to London Is. i''"-'. : to other parts of Great Britain Is. Lid.; to Italy Is. 5d.; to . Vine,-;, 'a 2s. 2d. I 18). Weights and Measures. I Dirhem =>- 3.93 grammes = 6O.65 grains ,r "> ' '■> 1 ro t' =445.46 grammes = L-oi&i lbs. avoirdupois (about I lb. '/soz.); 1 okka = i ilogramme8jfcs=2. 72 74lbs. (about 2lbs. II 1 '.. oz.}; I h.. ut.ar = LOOrotl— • i-MrAiloLM-aiiiincS -— 101..,, II, s. |. .limit III! His. 5 OZ.). The usual weigjfti of a hale of wool in Egypt is about 282 kilo- grammes, or ■) ] /., cut. GEOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 29 1 Rub'a = 3. 75 litres = 6y 2 pints; 1 webeh = 30 litres = 6 gals. 2% qts.; 1 ardeb = 7 webeh = 210 litres = 46 gals. l 3 / 5 qt. 1 Pik = 0.67 metre = 26.37 inches ; 1 pik, land measurement, = 29.507 (about 2972) inches; 1 kassaba = 3. 55 metres = 11 ft. 7-763 (about 11 ft. 73/4) inches. 1 Feddan = 4200 square metres = about 5082 sq. yds. = l'/ao aere - II. Geographical and Political Notice. By Dr. Schioeinfurth of Cairo. Boundaries and Area (comp. Map, p. 30). The countries sub- ject to the supremacy of the Khedive embrace by far the greater part of N.E. Africa, or nearly the whole of the territory adjacent to the Nile. The natural boundaries of the vassal kingdom founded by Mohammed r Ali and bequeathed by him to his successor in 1848 are formed by the Mediterranean Sea on the N., the Libyan Desert on the W., the Red Sea on the E., and Abyssinia, which may be called the Quito of Africa, on the S.E. These boundaries include Egypt Proper, with the five oases of the Libyan desert and part of the peninsula of Sinai, the Nubian Valley of the Nile, with the Nubian desert regions, and lastly the so-called Egyptian Sudan, which consists of the districts of Tdka, Senndr, and Kordofdn. The Khedive Isma'il, whose dominions were secured to him as a fief hereditary in the male line, extended his boundaries still farther to the S., S.E., and S.W. Thus he purchased Saudkin and Masau'a on the Red Sea, and ZUa' and Berbera on the Gulf of r Aden, four im- portant seaports and commercial places, together with the coast districts adjoining them, which formerly belonged directly to the Turkish government ; and in the same way he acquired part of the coast of the Somali, extending to the equator, a district replete with still untouched natural treasures. The districts of the Bogos and Galabat on the frontiers of Abyssinia have been occupied with a view to protect important commercial routes, and together with the Somali territory of Harar have been annexed to the Egyptian empire. Ddr-Fur, once an entirely independent principality in the Moham- medan Sudan, and the terror of its neighbours, has lately been con- quered by the Egyptians, and the empire of the Khedive has thus been increased by four very populous provinces, while Mohammed r Ali, who was less fortunate in his designs on that region, succeeded in gaining possession of Kordofan only, the E. part of it. Bogos, Galabat, and the other provinces adjoining the N. frontier of Abys- sinia are, however, constantly exposed to the inroads of their war- like neighbours, and it will probably be impossible in the long run to resist the importunate demand of the Abyssinian monarch for their restitution. The rebellion which broke out in most of the Mahom- medan provinces of the Egyptian Sildan in 1883 threatens to entail the entire loss of Isma'il's acquisitions to the S. of Egypt proper. '.'-It GEOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. Frontiers. The boundaries of Egypt in a due S. direction were still more boldly extended by [sma'il. Thej now comprise the whole course (if the White Nile and the greater part of the river region of the Bahr el-6hazdl, where merchants from Khartum had already for many jessed settlements and by force of arms had sub- dued the negro tribes. At the time of Mohammed 'Ali's death the S. boundary of the Egyptian dominions on the White Nile was formed by the corn-magazines of El-'Esh and the wharves near it, situated about 13° N. latitude, while it now extends to the military station of Fautra (on the river connecting the Victoria and the Albert Nyanza), situated about 2°N. latitude, so that the whole length of the empire is dom about 2000 English miles. The S. frontier, from D r-l'ur to Berbera, a distance of L560M., now almost entirely surrounds the kingdom of Abyssinia. Down to 1883 the whole of the vast territory within these boun- daries was, nominally at least, immediately subject to the Khedive, b but sparsely occupied by his comparatively small army, and it contained no tributary peoples mediately subject to him. These enormous tracts, on the other hand, are utterly disproportionate to the population, the desert regions are immeasurably more extensive than the fertile districts, and the barbarous and unprofitable in- habitants far more numerous than the civilised and wealth-pro- ducing. The geographer and the political economist therefore would vary widely in their description of the real boundaries of the country. The country which ( until the most recent events) owned no other master than the Khedive or his representatives is of im- mense extent, but the cultivable part of Egypt, which forms the sole source of its wealth, is of very limited area. The extensive dominions of the Khedive which lie to the S. of Egypt proper are still entirely profitless, and hence it was that Ismail did his utmost to extend the commerce in thia direction, and to improve the means of communication. Thus while Egypt is nominally as extensive as two-thirds of Russia in Europe, it shrinks to the size of Belgium when the Val- lej of the Nile, its only productive part, inhabited by a tax-paying population, is alone taken into consideration. The total area of the empire is fully one and a quarter million square miles, including that part of the Libyan Desert which falls within the western boundary drawn from the oasis ofSiwa to the west end of PAr- nd which alone measures ">'25,000 sq. M. in extent. On the other hand Egypt proper, extending towards the desert so far only irrigated b) the fertilising Nile, the Tiii.au Mask' ( the Misraim 50M. in length, is the narrowest country in the world. The area of this cultivable tract, which das rem, lined imi.i hi he remotest antiquity, IB about 11,342 sq.M. only ( or 21 so. M. less than Belgium ). excluding WMi Haifa and the other districts above AssuAn. In 1882Amici Bey calculated the entire in- Division. GEOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 31 habited area of Egypt, excluding the deserts, as 12,830 sq.M. and the area actually under cultivation as 9460 sq. M. The alluvial soil of the Nile Valley, in contradistinction to the desert, known among the natives by the Arabic word ^Er-Rlf, begins at Khartum, at the con- fluence of the White and the Blue Nile. Following the wide curve described by the Nile through Nubia, the length of the valley as far as the first cataracts is 989 M., but as the space between the river and its rocky banks is very limited, and the irrigation system is imperfectly developed, the cultivable area in this part of the valley is only about 1050 sq. M. The Nubian portion of the alluvial soil of the Nile is thus very insignificant ; and when the ancient oracle described Egypt as the country watered by the Nile, and the Egyptians as the people who quenched their thirst with its water, the river below the first cataract must obviously have been meant. Divisions and Administration. The ancient prehistoric Egyp- tians were at first subdivided into numerous tribes, who formed a number of distinct small and independent states, with their own laws and their peculiar tutelary gods. These states were afterwards gradually united into the two large principalities of Lower Egypt or the Northern Country (To Mera, or To Meh), and Upper Egypt or the Southern Country (To Res, or To Kema). At a later period these two larger states , united under one sceptre, formed the empire of the Pharaohs, or the land of Kemi. The smaller states then constituted provinces or nomes (Egyptian hesoph ; Greek nornoi). The ancient Egyptians divided each nome into four principal parts : — (1) The capital (Nut), the religious and admin- istrative centre of the province; (2) The cultivated land (Vn), subject to the annual inundation; (3) The marshy land which re- mained in a moist condition after the inundation; (4) The district traversed by canals conducted out of the Nile. The civil and mili- tary administration of the nome was presided over either by here- ditary governors (hik), or by nomarchs (mer-nat-t'dt-to) appointed by the king. Under the Ptolemies these governors were called stra- tegoi (nomu) or nomarchoi, and over a group of these presided an epi- strategos. The chief authority in religious matters was the high priest of the temple, whose appointment was sometimes hereditary and sometimes elective ; and his staff consisted of a prophet, a temple- scribe, a stolistes or custodian of the vestments, and an astrologer. The number of the nomes varied at different periods. Most of the classical authors (thus Diodorus, liv. 3 ; Strabo, xxviii. 1, 3) enumerate thirty-six. The Egyptian lists, such as that of Edfu, mention forty-four, half of them being in Upper and half in Lower Egypt (but two of those in Upper Egypt and three in Lower Egypt are counted twice). The Greeks and Romans sometimes divided Egypt into three parts — Upper, Central, and Lower Egypt, or the Thebai's, Heptanomis, and Delta. The following is a list of the ancient Egyptian nomes : — 32 GEOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. Administration. UPPER EGYPT. NOMEfl Egyptian Greek CAPITALS Egyptian Greek Arabic TO KENS TES HOR TEN VAS 5 HOETJI vE.Msni ? II \ BEKHEKfl TENAI(?) KM KM TUF B\AR A'I'I'.K KIIKXT \tkk l'Kiju i \y, INXi: Ml II A N" I ' I ' [JAB OMBITES APOLLINOPOLI- TES LATOPOLITES DIOSPOLITKS I'llATYKITKS IIKKMoXTHITES KOPTITES TEXTYRITES DIOSPOLITES TIXITES PANOPOLITES ANT2EOPOLITES IIYI'SELITES LYKOPOLITES IIEKMOPOLITES Northern part of HJERM.OPOLITES KTNOPOLITE8 pt. Tl HO) Ko. II.V SUTEN I'A U \/,A (Copt. 1'IMKI.I OMBUS (Egypt. Nubi) APOLLINOPO- LIS MAGNA EILEITHYIA (LATOPOLIS) TIIEBAI DiospoHs magna IlEUMuNTlUS KOPTUS TENTYRIS (TENT Yi; A | IHo.SPOLIS PAKVA TIS iTinisI, ABYDUS (III-. .MM IS (PA HOPOLIS) ANTiEOPOLIS HYPSELE (IS) LYKOPOLIS CI1USAI iii:km(H'(iijs THE0DO8I0- POLIfl !<■> MH'OLIS OXYIMIIIYX ('IMS KUM O.MBI ESNEII EL UKSUR KARXAK MED1XET ABU EEMENT KUFT DENDERA khai: \i;i-;i; EI, ttADFUNEJ AKIIMIM KAU EL KEBIR SATB ASYUT KtisiYEIi Asiimk- XKX ? I \H \ EL medJneh EL KES BEHNESA Administration. GEOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 33 UPPER EGYPT. NOMES. CAPITALS Egyptian Greek Egyptian Greek Arabie 19 NEHT KHENT HERACLEOPO- LITES HA KHNEN SU ' (Copt. Hnes) HERACLEOPO- LIS MAGNA ahnAs el 3IEDIXEH 20 PA HA BENNU HIPPONON •Jl XEHT PEHT ARSINOITES MERI TUM ( Me it o mi SHED KROKODILO- POLIS MEDUM MKDIXET EL FAYUM 22 MATENNU APHRODITOPO- LITES TEP AHE APHRODITO- POLIS ATFIH LOWER EGYPT. 1 ANEB HAT MEMPHITES MEN NOFER (HA KA PTAH) MEMPHIS 2 A A LETOPOLITES SOKIIEM LETOPOLIS 3 AMENT NOMOS LIBYA NI EXT HA PI APIS 4 SEPI RES SAITES ZOQA CANOPUS 5 6 SEPI EMIIIT KA-SIT SAITES XOITES SAI KHESAUU SAlS xois SA EL ' HAGER 7 AMENT ? SOXTINOFER METELIS ? 8 . . . ABOT SETHROITES PI-TUM (Sdkot) (SETHROE) 1 9 AT PI BUSIRITES P-USIR-NEB-TAT BUSIRIS L0 KA KEM ATHRIBITES HA TA HIR AB ATHRIBIS TELL , 11 KA HEBES CABASITES KA HEBES CABASUS ATRIP 12 KA THEB SEBEXNYTES SUPERIOR THEB EN NUTER SEBENNYTUS SEMEN- NUD 13 HAQ-AT HELIOPOLITES ANU HELIOPOLIS U KHENT ABOT TANITES ZOAN PIRAMSES (ZOAN-RAMSES) TAXIS SAN L5 THUT HERMOPOLITES PI THUT HERMOPOLIS 10 IT KHAR SAM HUT MENDESIUS DIOSPOLITES PIBI NEB TAT PI KHUN EN AMEN MENDES TACHNAMUNIS or DIOSPOLIS ?TMEY EL AMDIP ? 18 ig AM KHENT AM PEHU BUBASTITES BUTICUS. or PTHENOTES PI BAST PI UZO BUBASTIS BUTO TELL BASTA 20 LAPT PHARBiETHITES SHETEN PHARBiETHUS HORBET Baedekee 'a Egypt I. 2nd E i. 3 34 GEOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. Administration. Lower and Uppei Egypt itlie latter known as Sa'lcT) are now cacli divided into seven I'hovincks or Mudlriyeh. Those of I ppei Egypt are: ( I ) Kalyfib, at the head of the Delta ; ( 'J I 8harklyeh, i.e. 'the eastern", with Zakazik as its capital; [3j Dakahltyeh, with Mansura as its capital; (4) Menu/'; ( f>) Qharbiyeh 'the western', with Tanta as its capital; (f>) Behereh, i.e. 'of the lake', with Damanhfir as its capital; (7) Gizeh, opposite to Cairo. The seven Dpper Egyptian provinces are those of Beni-Suef, Minyeh, Siut, Girgeh, Keneh, Esneh, and Wadi Haifa. The seat of the niudir or governor of < i i rijeli has recently been transferred to the not far distant Suhag. The Fayum forms a niudiriyeh by itself. The following capitals and commercial towns are presided over by governors of their own, and are independent of the provincial administration : Cairo, Alexandria, Suez. Tort Sa'id, Damietta, Bosetta, Isnia'iltva, and lastly the small seaport of Kosei on the Red Sea. The administration of the Upper Egyptian provinces, and still more those of the Sudan, is liable to frequent change, Beveial of them being sometimes united under a governor-general, and at other times again disjoined, or managed by a commission appointed by the minister of the interior. The recently acquired seaports on the Red Sea have governors (mudirs) of their own, and the) in their turn are under the supervision of a governor-general (hokmd&r) resident at Kassala. These last districts are (or were) known as the East Sudan, while the government of the West Sudan was cen- tralised at Khartum. Before the outbreak of the revolution the W est Sudan consisted of the provinces of Khartum, Sennar, Bahr el-Abyad, Kordofan, four of Dar-Fur, and the provinces of Bahr-el-Ghazal and the Equator. The last two provinces include almost the whole region of the Dpper White Nile and are inhabited solely h\ negro tribes. Khartum was the seat of a governor-general whose juris- diction extended ever the whole of the provinces beyond the limits of Egypt in the narrower sense. Lastly, the Nubian part of the \.ille\ of the Nile is divided into the provinces of Donkola and Berber, which are administered independently of each other, the c i pital of the former being El- r Ordeh, that of the latter El-Mekherif i or Berber). The chief official Ln every province is the Mudtr, or governor, who is assisted i>\ a council, or 'diwan', ofother officers. This coun- cil consists of a Wild/, or vice-governor; achiefclerk, tax-gatherer, and accountant, who is always a Copt; a Kadi, or supreme judge, andthechii I in spiritual matters; sometimesthe president of a chamber of commerce and chief authority in civil affairs; a superintendent of police ; an architect for the supervisi r canals and other public works ; .-11111 lastly the. chief physician of the pro- vince. The BUb-gOVemorS in the smaller towns, who. ire under the jurisdiction of the Mudir, are sometimes called Kdshif, 01 Administration. GEOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 35 el-Kism. Subordinate to the nazir again is the Shekh el-Beled, or chief magistrate or mayor of the village, usually known simply as shekh (plur. shiukii). In the larger towns there is a magistrate of this kind in each quarter (at Cairo fifty-three), over whom are placed prefects of larger sections (shekh et-tumn). Over the whole of these presides the Mu- dir, and lastly over the latter in some cases a Hokmdar with very extensive powers. Other provinces again are governed by specially appointed inspectors, who occupy the highest rank in their respective jurisdictions. If the administrative reforms proposed by England actually come into effect, the duties of the provincial governors will be very ma- terially circumscribed. The police administration has been made a separate department, and Egypt has been divided into the three police districts of Cairo. Alexandria, and Upper Egypt, each under an inspector general. The administration of justice is to be com- mitted entirely to the native courts, while a special minister is to have the charge of canal-making and other public works. In order, however, to afford some idea of the importance of the Mudir in the public life of the provinces, we give here a short account of the functions he has hitherto had to perform. The Duties of the Mudir were very multifarious. He presided over the administration, the finances, and the police of his province. He was required to watch over the public safety, to superintend public works, to regulate all sanitary matters, to register all transfers of property, contracts of sale, title-deeds, and mortgages, to pronounce judgment in all law-suits which do not fall exclusively within the jurisdiction of the spiritual court (the Jlehkemeh) , and lastly to collect the taxes. The four chief taxes are as follows: (1) Land-tax (khardg), levied from the Arddi el-Mirtyeh (see below; the Ab'ddiyeh pay ten per cent only, while the Shijlik is entirely exempt). It is levied monthly by the sarraf. A feddan of the best land in Lower Egypt pays about 25s. per annum, but medium and inferior land is taxed at a lower rate. A valuation, is made annually, and the different estates and farms registered under one of these three classes. (2). Income-tax, paid by merchants, bazaar-keepers, and artizans (werko, i. e. the Turkish wergi, firdeh, or 'tax'), and varying from 4 to 20 per cent. (3). Market-tax (himl), levied according to a certain tariff on all produce brought to the markets, at a rate varying from 2 to 9 per cent. This tax is now confined to the four largest towns. (4). Palm- lax, levied at the rate of 20 piastres per tree. Distribution of Land. Down to 1870 the Khedive and his family pos- sessed one million and a half feddans of landed property, or about one- fourth of cultivable Egypt; valued at forty million pounds sterling, and practically forming his private property. This land is officially called Shijlik (or properly tshij'tlik, the Turkish for 'estate 1 , or 'farm'). Part of these vast estates came into the hands of the reigning monarch by the confiscation of the fiefs (ikld'a) held by the Mamelukes, who were exterminated by Mohammed r Ali on ilth March, 1811, and by the appro- priation of all family foundations (irsdd), estates belonging to mosques (teakf), and land which in consequence of the depopulation caused by the Mameluke regime had ceased to have any owner. The great bulk of the crown estates was, however, amassed during the 15 years 1 rule of Khedive Isma'il, who was not over-scrupulous as to the methods he employed in doing so. Shortly before his abdication he was forced to resign almost the entire estates of himself and his family to the board of domains ap- pointed by the international financial commission. 3* 30 GEOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. Population. Another kind of landed property is called AV&dtyeh, by which U meant the uncultivated land presented by the Khedive to suitable per- sons with full right of property on condition of its being reclaimed or cultivated. Estates of this kind pay no taxes for the first three years, after which 10 per cent on the value of the produce is levied Cushr). The rest of the land is officially known as El-Aradi el-Miviyeh, i.e. government estates. Nearly the whole of the soil of Egypt is thus in the hands of government. The tellfihin or peasants are merely tenants for life, or so long as they con- tinue to pay their ground-rent (kliardg). According to the Koran, an estate on the death of the life-tenant reverts to the bet el-mdl, 'or government treasury, as the common property of all Muslims; but a humane law of 1851 provides that it may be claimed by the next of kin of both sexes on payment of 24 tariff piastres per feddan for registration of the title. The trees planted by the life-tenant, and the buildings and irrigating apparatus erected by him, are his property, and pass to his heirs. The right of occupation, or usufruct, of these lands may also be sold, let, or mortgaged; but the contract must be ratified by government in each case; and where mortgaged lands are not redeemed within fifteen years, they continue in possession of the mortgagee and become bis property. A piece of land may at any time be taken possession of by government for public purposes (railways, canals, embankments), in which case the oc- cupant receives another piece of land elsewhere as compensation. The ground-tax (khardff) is in some cases as high as 20 per cent. Instead of a certain tax being imposed on each village as formerly, the tax payable by each estate is now fixed by the Mudiriyeh or chief authorities of the province. To facilitate the collection of taxes, all landed estates are formed into groups, generally consisting of properties taxed at the same rate, and known in Lower Egypt as Md, and in Upper Egypt as kabdleh. In certain poor districts where there was a difficulty in collecting tie' taxes in the reign of Mohammed 'Ali, payment was undertaken by a number of capitalists, who were empowered to recover them from the feliahin. This right, however, was not transferable, and it could be i urued by the government at any time. Groups of estates where this system still prevails are called 'nluhli. Since 1822 several attempts have been made at a comprehensive scheme of land valuation, but none has been carried out for more than a few limited districts. In 1879, however, a land valuation office was established al Cairo in connection with the projected reforms in the land tax. Population. The population of Egypt lias been ascertained to have been greater in ancient than in modern times; Cor, disregard- ing the exaggerated calculation of Theocritus, based on a mere as- sumption, it appears to have numbered at least T 1 /* million souls in 1 1 e lime of Josephns and the Emperor Nero. This number is quite reasonable in itself, as it is estimated that the country could sup- port 8-9 million inhabitants. According to the enumeration made by Aniici I'.ey in 1882 the present population of Egypt proper is 6,811,448, or about 600 per Bquare mile, and is therefore denser than that of most European states. The thickest population is found in the province of Esneh, the thinnest in ilu Fayum and in Behereh. The sexes occur in al- iii" i equal proportions. The number of houses enumerated in the same census is 1, 090,000, distributed among 12,876 towns, vil- lages, and hamlets. The population of the provinces beyond the limits of Egypt proper, on the other hand, has never been ascer- tained by any regular census, and can therefore only be estimated in a conjectural way. The densest population is that of the pro- Population. GEOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 37 vince of Bahr el- Abyad , where in the case of the Shilluk tribe, numbering about one million souls, the proportion of inhabitants to the square mile is the same as in Egypt proper. The total po- pulation of the empire, including Dar-Ffir and Harar, is now esti- mated at between 16 and 17 millions. Origin and Descent of the Egyptians. For thousands of years the banks of the Nile have been occupied by the Egyptians , the oldest nation known to history, and still exhibiting many of their ancient personal characteristics unaltered. Notwithstanding the in- terminable series of immigrations and other changes affecting the character of the inhabitants, the Egyptian type has always predom- inated with marvellous uniformity. As Egypt is said to be the 'gift of the Nile', so has the character of its inhabitants been ap- parently moulded by the influences of that river. No country in the world is so dependent on a river which traverses it as Egypt, and no river presents physical characteristics so exceptional as the Nile; so, too, there exists no race of people which possesses so marked and unchanging an individuality as the Egyptians. It is therefore most probable that this unvarying type is the product of the soil itself, and that the character of the peoples who settled at different periods on the bank of the Nile , whatever it may origin- ally have been , has in due course of time been moulded to the same constant form by the mysterious influences of the river. In all countries , indeed , national characteristics are justly regarded as the natural outcome of soil and climate, and of this connection no country affords so strong an illustration as Egypt, with its sharply defined boundaries of sea and desert, and in its complete isolation from the rest of the world. These considerations tend to throw serious doubts on all the current theories as to the origin of the Egyptians. According to the Bible, Mizraim (Misraim) was the son of Ham and brother of Canaan and the Ethiopian Cush; and, as his name was applied by the Hebrews to Egypt, it is probable that lie migrated Avith his sons from Asia to the banks of the Nile. The name, moreover, of Ludim, his eldest son, corresponds to the word Rotu, or Lotu , the hieroglyphic name for the Egyptians. Philologists, who have discovered points of resemblance in the roots and inflec- tions of the ancient Egyptian and the Semitic languages, likewise come to the conclusion that the Egyptians originally came from Asia, either by way of Suez, or across the Red Sea from Arabia. The ethnographer + , on the other hand, who observes that many of the + No inference can legitimately be drawn from the fact that the skulls of the ancient and modern Egyptians , which are very similar in form, have no affinity with those which are usually described as of the negro type, as our craniological collections are very incomplete, and our knowledge of the negro races imperfect. The fact is, that several negro races, such as the Nubians and the Shilluk , might be named, whose characteristics undoubtedly belong to the negro type, while their skulls are just as little prognathous as those of the Egyptians. 38 GEOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. Population. domestic utensils employed by the ancient Egyptians, as well as many of their customs, are similar to those of the dwellers on the banks of the Zambezi and Niger, but totally different from those seen mi the banks of the Indus or Euphrates, will always maintain an opposite view. The considerations already mentioned, however, tend to show that the truth lies between these extremis. Even those who most strongly maintain the Asiatic origin of the Egyptians will probably admit that the immigrants found an aboriginal race already settled on the banks of the Nile, which in its persistent opposition to all foreign influences was doubtless similar to the race usually known as the Egyptian. We start with the cardinal fact, that, although the country has been at various periods overrun by Hyksos, Ethiopians, Assyrians. Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and 'lurks, and although the people were tyran- nised over, ill-treated, and in most cases compelled to intermarry with these foreigners, the Egyptians have for thousands of years retained the same unvarying physical types, while their character has been but slightly modified by the introduction of Christianity and Mohammedanism. If it now be borne in mind that these foreign illy invaded the country in the form of an army, that they formed but a small body compared with the hulk of the population, and that they either married native women or sought w Lves in other countries, it is obvious that they would either con- tinue to exist for a time as a foreign caste, a condition apparently repugnant to nature and necessarily transient, or that they would gradually succumb to the never-failing influences of the soil and be absorbed in the great mass of the aboriginal inhabitants. An excellent illustration of this process is afforded by the Arabian in- vasion , with the circumstances and results of which we a re better acquainted than with the history oi r foreign immigrations; for, disregarding the Beduin tribes, who are entirely distinct from the Egyptian population, we now And that the Arabian (dement has entirely disappeared, and we meet with genuine Arabs in the towns only, where the merchants, pilgrims, and other members of that people form a class entirely distinct from the natives, and their existence is only maintained by means of reinforce- ments from abroad. Another proof of the transforming influences i 'i i in climate is afforded by the uniform character of the domestic animals. The oxen , in particular (which , however, are gradually being replaced by the buffalo), though they have often been repeatedly exterminated in a single century by murrain, and have been suooeeded by foreign races from every quarter of the globe, invariably after a few generations assume the well-known tian t> |ie w ith w hich the representations on the ancient temples render US So familiar. The Modern Egyptians. The population of Egypt is composed of the follow ing ten different elements. Fellahtn. THE MODERN EGYPTIANS. 39 (1). The Fellahin (sing, fellah"), the 'tillers' or 'peasants', form the bulk of the population, and maybe regarded as the sinews of the national strength. They are generally slightly above the middle height; their bones, and particularly their skulls, are strong and massive; and their wrists and ankles are powerful and some- what clumsy. In all these respects the fellahin , as well as their domestic animals , contrast strongly with the inhabitants of the desert, the fellah and the Beduin differing from each other precisely in the same points as their respective camels. Notwithstanding this largeness of frame, however, the fellah never grows fat. The woman and girls are particularly remarkable for their slender build, and they often speak of each other as 'zei el-habl', or slender as a rope. The men generally keep their heads shaved , but the hair of the soldiers and the long tresses of the girls, though always black and often curly , is by no means of the short, woolly negro type. The chief peculiarity of the Egyptians is the remarkable close- ness of their eyelashes on both lids, forming a dense, double, black fringe, which gives so animated an expression to their almond- shaped eyes. The very ancient and still existing custom of blacken- ing the edges of the eyelids with antimony ('kohl'), which is said to serve a sanitary purpose, contributes to enhance this natural expression. The eyebrows are always straight and smooth , never bushy. The mouth is wide and thick-lipped, and very different from that of the Beduin or inhabitant of the oases. The high cheek- bones, the receding forehead, the lowness of the bridge of the nose, which is always distinctly separated from the forehead, and the flatness of the nose itself, are the chief characteristics of the Egyptian skull; but, as the jaws project less than those of most of the other African coloured races, it has been assumed that the skull is Asiatic, and not African in shape. The Egyptian peasantry have a much darker complexion than their compatriots in the towns, and their colour deepens as we proceed southwards, from the pale brown of the inhabitant of the Delta to the dark bronze hue of the Upper Egyptians. There is also a difference between the tint of the Nubians and that of the Upper Egyptians, even where they live in close contiguity , the former being more of a reddish-brown. The dwelling of the fellah is of a miserably poor description, consisting generally of four low walls formed of crude bricks of Nile mud, and thatched with a roof of dura straw, rush, rags, or old straw-mats. In the interior are a few mats, a sheep's skin, several baskets made of matting , a copper kettle , and a few earthenware pots and wooden dishes. Instead of using the crude bricks, the fellahin in Upper Egypt often form the walls of their huts of a mixture of mud and straw. The dark, windowless interior is en- tered by a small opening, in front of which the proprietor usually forms an enclosure of circular shape , with a wall of mud about 5 it. in height. This is the court-yard of the establishment, and the 40 THE MODERN EGYPTIANS. Fellahln. usual resort of the family and their domestic animals in summer. The walls of the yard generally contain round hollows, used as re- ceptacles for the grain which forms the food of the family. Within the yard are usually placed a square pillar, about 5 ft. in height, with openings in its sides as receptacles for objects of value, and a thick column of the same height, terminating in a platform shaped like a plate, with the edges bent upwards, which is used by the proprietor as a sleeping-place in hot weather. The fact is, that beneath an Egyptian sky, houses are' not of the same paramount Importance as in more northern regions, all that is wanted being shelter for the night. The poorer peasant's mode of life is frugal in the extreme. The staple of his food consists of a peculiar kind of bread made of sorghum flour in Upper Egypt, or of maize in the Delta, wheaten bread being eaten by the wealthier only. This poor kind of bread often has a greenish colour, owing to an admixture of bean-flour I Fcenum Graecum). Next in importance in the bill of fare are broad beans (ful). For supper, however, even the poorest cause a hot repast to be prepared. This usually consists of a highly salted sauce made of onions and butter, or in the poorer houses of onions and linseed or sesame oil. Into this sauce, which in summer acquires a gelatinous consistency by the addition of the universal bamia (the capsular fruit of the Hibiscus) and various herbs, each member of the family dips pieces of bread held in the fingers. Both in town and country, goats', sheeps' , or buffaloes' milk also forms a daily article of food, but always in a sour condition or half converted into cheese , and in very moderate quantities only. In the height of summer the consumption of fruit of the cucumber and pumpkin species, which the land yields in abundance, is enormous. In the month of Ramadan alone, when a rigorous fast is observed during the day. and on the three days of the great Beiram festival i Korbarj Beiram (, even the poorest members of the community indulge in meat, and it is customary to distribute that rare luxury to beggars at these seasons. Che dress of the Egyptian peasanl calls for little remark, espec- ially as he usually works in the fields divested of everything. The chief articles of his wardrobe at other times are an indigo-dyed cot- ton shirt fkamts), a pair of short and wide cotton breeches, a kind lak of brown, home-spun goats' wool (zu'but, 'ab&yeh, or 'aba), or simply a blanket of sheep's wool (hiram), and lastly a close- littiug felt skull-cap (libdeh). He is generally barefooted, but occa- Hionally wears pointed red fzerbtln). or broad yellow shoes (balffha). The shekhs and wealthier peasants, when they go to toarket, wear wide, black woollen cloaks and the thick red 'Tunisian' fes (tarbfah) with a blue silk tassel, round which they coil a white or red turban immeh). In their hands they usually carry a long and thick stick (nabb&t), made from the central Stalk of (he palm leaf. Fellahtn. THE MODERN EGYPTIANS. 41 The agricultural population of Egypt does not exceed two million souls, an unnaturally low proportion when we consider the nature of the country. The sole wealth of Egypt is derived from its agriculture, and to the fellahin alone is committed the important task of tilling the soil. They are, indeed, neither fitted nor inclined for other work, a circumstance which proves how completely the stationary character of the ancient Egyptians has predominated over the restless Ara- hian hlood, which has heen largely infused into the native popula- tion ever since the valley of the Nile was conquered hy the armies of El-Islam. The modern Egyptians, moreover, resemble the ancient in the lot to which they are condemned. In ancient times the fellah , pressed into the service of the priests and the princes, was compelled to yield up to them the fruits of his toil , and his position is nearly the same at the present day, save that the names of his masters are changed, and he has obtained some relief ow- ing to the almost entire abolition of compulsory work. In early life the Egyptian peasant is remarkably docile, active, and intelligent, but at a later period this freshness and buoyancy is crushed out of him by care and poverty and his never-ceasing task of filling the pitcher of the Danaides. He ploughs and reaps, toils and amasses , but he cannot with certainty regard his crops as his own, and the hardly earned piastre is too frequently wrested from him. His character, therefore, becomes like that of a gifted child, who has been harshly used and brought up to domestic slavery, but at length perceives that he has been treated with injustice, and whose amiability and intelligence are then superseded by sullenness and obstinacy. Thus, as in the time of Ammianus Marcellinus, the fellah will often suffer the most cruel blows in dogged silence rather than pay the taxes demanded of him. In his own fields the fellah is an industrious labourer, and his work is more continuous than that of the peasant of more northern countries. He enjoys no period of repose during the winter, and the whole of his spare time is occupied in drawing water for the irriga- tion of the land. Notwithstanding his hard lot, however, he is an entire stranger to any endeavour to better his condition or to im- prove his system of farming. As soon as he has accomplished the most necessary tasks he rests and smokes, and trusts that Allah will do the remainder of his work for him. The fellah is a believer in the religion of Mohammed, although he knows but little of the prophet's doctrines and history. Fol- lowers of all other religions he believes to be doomed to eternal per- dition ; but travellers are not on that account disliked by him. We serve rather to confirm his belief in eternal justice , for he is con- vinced that all the comforts and luxuries we now enjoy will be counterbalanced by torments hereafter. At the same time he admires and overrates our knowledge, which is so superior to his own. Every well-dressed European is in the estimation of the natives a prodigy 42 THE MODERN EGYPTIAN. K of wisdom; and. as their ideas of a scholar and a physician are Identical the) place implicit reliance on onr ability to heal the Bick and to Bave the dying. The traveller who comes in contact with the fellahin will often he applied to for medicine, and will often find drugs inure effective than money in Becaring their good will. (2). Copts (kilbt, ubt). While we have regaided the fellahin as genuine Egyptians in consequence of their uninterrupted occupation of the soil, the religion of the Copts affords us an additional guarantee for the purity of their descent. The Copts are undoubtedly the most direct descendants of the ancient Egyptians, there being no ground for the assumption thai their, ancestors were foreign immigrants who embraced Christianity after the conquest of the country by the Mohammedans, while on the other hand the obstinacy with which they defended their monophysite Christianity for several centuries against the inroads of the creed of Byzantium affords another indication of their Egyptian character, '1'he Coptic population is officially stated as 250,000, but these figures are obviously too low, and the number is more probably about 400,000, i.e. about a fifth of the purely indigenous population of the valley of the .Nile. : They are most numerous in the towns of Northern Egypt, aroun ancient Coptos, at Negada, Luksor, Esneh, Dendera, Girgeh, Tahtn, and particularly at Siut and Akhmim. A large proportion of the population of all these places is Coptic. The Coptic Patriarch is elected from their own number by the monk.-; <<{' tlic live chief monasteries of Egypt. 'I hi monasteries oi St. Anthony and St, Paul in the westi rn desert, the two in iln> valley of the n Lakes, and the large convenl of tfarrag, near Moafalut. Most of the Copts are dwellers in towns, and are chiefly engaged in the more refined handicrafts ( as watchm Ismiths, jewellers. embroiderers, tailors, weavers, manufacturers of spurious antiquities, etc.), or in trade, or as clerks, accountants, and notaries. Their physique is accordingly materially different from that of the fella- hin. They are generally somewhat below the middle height, and of delicate frame, with small hands and feet; their skulls are higher and narrower than those of the peasantry, and with less protruding cheek-bones; and, lastly, their complexion is fairer. These dif- ferences are sufficiently accounted for by their mode of life; for, when we compare those Copts who arc engaged in rustic pursuits, or the Coptic camel drivers of Upper Egypt, with the fellahin, we find that the two races are not distinguishable from each other. The two distinct types have also been recognized in the skeletons of the ancient mummies. I'ew nations in the East embraced the Gospel more zealouslj than the dwellers on the Nile. Accustomed as they had long been tn regard life as a pilgrimage to death, as a school of preparation lor t The total number "t Christians in Egypt, incl idin i uropea • \ i I 8j rian . i about & 0,0 " I, or one tcntn o) i lie < atii lation. Copts. THE MODERN EGYPTIANS. 43 another world, and weary of their motley and confused Pantheon of divinities, whose self-seeking priesthood designedly disguised the truth, they eagerly welcomed the simple doctrines of Christianity, which appeared so well adapted to their condition and promised them succour and redemption. Like Eutyches, they revered the divine nature of the Saviour only, in which they held that every human element was absorbed ; and when the Council of Chalcedon in 45 t sanctioned the doctrine that Christ combined a human with a divine nature, the Egyptians, with their characteristic tenacity adhered to their old views, and formed a sect termed Eutychians, or Monophysites , to which the Copts of the present day still belong. The mime of the Copts is an ethnical one, being simply an Arabic cor- ruption nf 1he Greek name of Egyptians. The theory is now exploded that they derive their name from a certain itinerant preacher named Jacobus. who according to Makrizi was termed El-Beradi'i, or 'blanket-bearer', from the old horse-cloth worn by him when he went about preaching. This jacobus promulgated the monophysite doctrine of Eutyches, which had found its most zealous supporter in Dioseurus, a bishop of Alexandria, who was declared a heretic and banished after the Council of Chalcedon ; and his disciples were sometimes called Jacobites. If this name had ever been abbreviated to Cobit or Cobt, it would probably have occurred frequently in the writings of Monophysites ; but there we find no trace of it. It is, on the other hand, quite intelligible that the word Copt, though originally synonymous with Egyptian, should gradually have come to denote a particular religious sect; for, at the period when the valley of the is'ile was conquered by "Amr, the native Egyptians, who almost exclusively held the monophysite creed, were chiefly distinguished by their religion from their invaders, who brought a new religious system from the East. These Egyptian Christians strenuously opposed the resolutions of the Council of Chalcedon, and thousands of them sacrificed their lives or their welfare in the fierce and sanguinary conflicts of the 6th century, the causes of which were imperfectly understood by the great majority of the belligerents. The subtle dogmatic dif- ferences which gave rise to these wars aroused such hatred among these professors of the religion of love, that the defeated Monophy- sites readily welcomed the invading armies of El-Islam, or perhaps even invited them to their country. After the conquest of Egypt by f Amr the Copts were at first treated with lenity, and were even appointed to the highest govern- ment offices ; but they were soon doomed to suffer persecutions and privations of every description. These persecutions were mainly due to their unbounded arrogance and their perpetual conspiracies against their new masters, and their Mohammedan contemporaries even attributed to them the disastrous conflagrations from which the new capital of the country so frequently suffered (p. 242). Accus- tomed for many ages to regard themselves as the most civilised of nations, and the Greeks as their inferiors, they perhaps imagined, that, if they succeeded in throwing off the yoke of the barbarous children of the desert, they could prevent the revival of the hated Byzantine supremacy. Their hopes, however, were doomed to bitter 44 THE MODERN EG YPT1 A.NS. Copts. disappointment, and their national pride to utter humiliation. Their conquerors succeeded in maintaining their position, and though apparently at Jirst inclined to moderation, were at length driven by ondnct and the previous example of the Copts themselves to id oppress them to the uttermost. In spite, however, of all these disasters, a numerous community of Copts has always existed in Egypt, a fact which is mainly to be iited for by the remarkable tenacity and constancy of the Egyptian character. Owing, however, to the continual oppres- sion and contempt to which they have been subjected, the grave disposition of the subjects of the Pharaohs has degenerated into sullen gloom, and their industry into cupidity. The rancour which they have so long cherished has embittered their character, while the persecutions they have Buffered have taught them to be at one time cringing, and at another arrogant and overbearing. They are in very few respects superior to their Mohammedan countrymen. T1h\ generally possess an hereditary aptitude for mathematical science, and are therefore in great request as book-keepers and accountants, but on the other hand they are entirely destitute of the generous and dignified disposition of the Arabs. They obey their law which forbids polygamy, but constantly abuse that which per- mits them to indulge in spirituous liquors, drunkards being fre- quently met with, even among their priests. Their divine worship will strike the traveller as strange, and anything but edifying or elevating. The traveller may distinguish the Copts from the Arabs by their dark turbans, which are generally blue or black, and their dark- red clothes. This costume was originally prescribed by their oppressors, and they still take a pride in it as a mark of their origin, though now permitted to dress as they please. A practised eye will also frequently detect among them the ancient Egyptian cast of features. Towards strangers the Copt is externallj obliging, and when anxious to secure their favour he not unfrequently appeals to his Christian creed as a bond of union. Many (.'opts have recently been converted to Protestantism by American missionaries, parti- cularly in Qpper Egypt, chiefly through the foundation of good schools and the distribution of cheap Arabic Bibles. Even the orthodox Copts have a great reverence for the sacred volume, and it incon ii to meet with members of their sect who know the who!, pels DJ heart. The Roman propaganda, which was begun by Franciscans at the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th cent., has been less successful among the Copts, and there now exist a few small Roman Catholic communities in I'pper Egypt only (at Girgeh, Lkhmim, andNegada). To the Romanists, however, is parti] due the preservation of the old Coptic language, into which spels to be translated by the most learned scholars of Ho- day (accompanied by a preface asserting the supremacy id' Beduins. THE MODERN EGYPTIANS. 45 the pope) for circulation in Egypt. Notwithstanding the serious defects to which we have alluded, the Coptic community boasts of a number of highly respectable members, and in spite of the frequent heavy contributions levied from the sect by previous governments, it contains several wealthy landowners and merchants, some of whom we shall hereafter have occasion to name. 3. Bedtjixs. Bedu (sing, bedawi) is the name applied to the nomadic Arabs, and 'Arab to those who immigrated at a later per- iod and settled in the valley of the Nile. They both differ mater- ially from the dwellers in towns and from the fellahin , who usually call themselves 'Sons of the Arabs' (Ibn el- Arab). The subdivisions of the Beduin tribes are called KabUeh (whence the name Kabyles , applied to some of the Algerian Beduins ). Though differing greatly in origin and language , the wandering tribes of Egypt all profess Mohammedanism. Again, while some of them have immigrated from Arabia or Syria , partly in very ancient, and partly in modern times, and while others are sup- posed to be the aboriginal inhabitants of the territories claimed by them (as the Berbers of N. Africa and the Ethiopians or Blem- myes of Nubia), or former dwellers on the Nile expelled from their homes by foreign invaders, they all differ greatly from the stationary Egyptian population; and this contrast is accounted for by the radical difference between the influences of the desert and those of the Nile valley. The Beduins may be divided into two leading groups : (1) Beduins in the narrower sense, i. e. Arabic speaking tribes, most of whom have probably immigrated from Arabia or Sy- ria, and who occupy the deserts adjoining Central and Northern Egypt, or who are to be found in different regions of Southern Nubia as a pastoral people ; (2) 'Bega', who range over the regions of Upper Egypt and Nubia situated between the Nile and the Red Sea. and extending to the frontiers of the Abyssinian mountains (their ter- ritory being known as 'Edbai'). To these last the name of Ethio- pians may as accurately be applied as that of Arabs to the first group ; and they are believed by Dr. Lepsius to be the descendants of theBlemmyes, who occupied the Nubian part of the valley of the Nile down to the 4th cent, after Christ, when they were expelled by 'Nubian' invaders from the south. The second group consists of three different races, the Hadendoa, the Bisharin, and the Ababdeh. The last-named , who are widely scattered in the valleys of the desert between the tropics and the latitude of Keneh and Koser, and who lead a poverty-stricken life with their very scanty stock of camels and goats, are those with whom alone we have to deal as inhabitants of Egypt. Though closely resembling the other Bega tribes in appearance, the Ababdeh (sing. Abadi, the Gebadei of Pliny) possess an original language of their own ('to-bedyawiyeh' ). which, however, they have long since exchanged for bad Arabic. Besides the girdle round their loins they wear a kind of long white 16 THE MODERN EGYPTIANS. Beduins. shift, and in winter a light-coloured striped woollen mantle, while the Bisharin and Eadendoa tend their large flocks of sheep and li.nls lit' camels in a half-naked condition, girded with a leathern apron and wrapped in a kind of blanket (mcluyeh). All these 'Ethio- pians' are Dolichocephali , with orthognathous skulls, and arc re- markable tor their fine and almost Caucasian cast of features, their very dark, bronze-coloured complexion, and their luxuriant growth of hair, shading their heads like a cloud, or hanging down in iiuiu- . plaits over their necks and shoulders, while in front it is short and curly. Their lijrures are beautifully symmetrical, and more or less slender in accordance with their means of subsistence, ami their limbs arc gracefully and delicately formed. In other re- spects they resemble all the other children of the desert, as in the purity of their complexion, the peculiar thinness of their necks, and the premature wrinkling of the skin of their faces. Com- pared with their bold and quarrelsome neighbours the Bisharin, the Ababdeh, who are armed with a dagger worn in a sheath attached to the upper part of the left arm. or with a long, straight sword, but never with a gun, are exceedingly gentle and inoffensive. The. Egyptian government has put an end to the old feuds between the Bisharin and the Ababdeh by entrusting to the latter the superin- tendence of the great commercial route through the Nubian desert ( from Korusko to Abu Hammed), and by placing the nine tribes of the Bisharin under the jurisdiction of the chief shekh of the Abab- ileli, v. no is personally responsible forthe safety of the routes through bhe desert, and is therefore obliged to reside in the valley of the Nile, i II is present headquarters are at the small village of Behereh, at the foot of the hill of Redesiyeh, opposite to Edfu.) The total number of the Ababdeh amounts to about 30,000. The chief shekh whose dignity is hereditary, appoints over the principal vil- lages a number of sub-chiefs, who are appealed to as judges in family quarrels which the head of the family has been unable to settle. The dwellings of the Ababdeh consist, ofhyw and miserable hovels ikes covered with rajrged straw-mats, and placed in groups of not more than 1-8 togi ther. The) also sometimes live in caves, like genuine Troglodytes, a it hough exposed to danger from snakes. Like Hie other Bega tribes, they are chiefly occupied as shepherd- and camel-drivers. The vv e.ilthior purchase a little BOrgh- rain, which the} eat either raw, orroasted, or in the form of unleavened cakes, but the poorer seem to have a marvellous power of sustaining life on homoeopathicalr) minute quantities of goats' milk and the game which the] occasionally capture. The Bisharin also live mi milk and a little meat, while the Arabian Beduins Of the North till the soil to some extent when an opportunity of- fers. A considerable number of the Ababdeh and Bisharin who live ne.ir the coast and possess no cattle or other propei precariousl] on the produce of the sea. They are not fishermen, as Beduins. THE MODERN EGYPTIANS. Al they possess no boats or other appliances, with the exception of spears and landing-nets, but merely 'Iehthyophagi', who pick up shell-fish, octopoda, or small fish thrown up on the beach. Occasion- ally they make a prize of turtle's eggs , and sometimes succeed in reaching the sandy islands of the Red Sea where the sea-swallow (sterna) lays its eggs. This poor mode of life of course has an in- fluence on their mental capacity, which is not of a very high order; but they are intelligent in their own affairs, and remarkably skilful trackers, so much so that they are often employed by the government in pursuing criminals. They are nominally Mohammedans, but they do not pray, or keep the fast of Ramadan, or make pilgrimages, except on rare occasions. Nor do they, like orthodox Mohammedans, fear 'ginn' and 'ghiils', but they permit polygamy, observe the rite ol' circumcision, and worship saints. Besides the Bega, there are numerous Beduins who inhabit the steppes and deserts belonging to the region of the Nile, but beyond the limits of Egypt, and range as far as the confines of the heathen negro-races on the left bank of the Nile, nearly to 9° N. latitude ; but with these we have not at present to deal. Among the Arabian Beduins of the North, there are three important tribes in the pen- insula of Mount Sinai: the Terdbiytn, who carry on a brisk caravan traffic between Suez and Cairo, and claim territorial rights as far as the banks of the Nile near Basatin above Cairo ; the Tihaya, who occupy the heart of the peninsula, between Suez and r Akaba ; and the Sawarkeh or El-'Arayish, to the north of the latter. In Upper Egypt, besides the Ababdeh , the only Beduins who occupy the eastern bank of the Nile are the Beni Wasel and the Atuni, or Haw&d&t, who, however, have now settled on both banks of the Theban Nile valley and are gradually blending with the fellahin, and the Ma'azeh (about 3000 in number), who dwell in groups among the limestone mountains between Suez and Keneh, where there are good pastures at places. Most of the Arabian Beduins, on the other hand, who belong to Egypt, confine themselves to the western bank of the Nile. They occupy the whole of this side of the river from the Fayum as far as Abydus near Girgeh, and it is mainly with their aid that communication is maintained with the western oases, peopled by a totally different race (p. 65), who till the ground and possess no camels, being probably allied to the Berbers of Northern Africa (one of the numerous Libyan tribes mentioned in ancient inscriptions). The Beduins of the North have inherited with comparative purity the fiery blood of the desert tribes, who achieved such marvellous exploits under the banner of the prophet, but the traveller will rarely come in contact with them unless he undertakes a journey across the desert. The loiterers who assist travellers in the ascent of the pyramids and pester them to buy antiquities, which are generally spurious, call themselves Beduins, but, even if originally 48 THE MODERN EGYPTIANS. Dwellers in Towna. of that race, they have entirely lost all its nobler characteristics in consequence of their intercourse with strangers and their debasing occupations. Genuine Beduins are to be found nowhere except in tlii'ir desert home, where to a great extent they still retain the spirit of independence, the courage, and the restlessness of their ancestors. As in the time of Herodotus, the tent of the Beduin is still his home. Where it is pitched is a matter of indifference to him, if only the pegs which secure it be firmly driven into the earth, if it shelter his wife and child from the burning sunshine and the chilly night air, and if pasturage-ground and a spring be within reach. In consequence of the frequent wars waged between the different tribes, every Beduin is a warrior. Most of them, too, as might be expected, are extremely poor. Thus at Manileh on the coast, near Alexandria, the traveller will have an opportunity of seeing a whole colony of the poorest class encamped in their tents, where they !i\e in the most frugal possible manner, with a few miserable goats ami t lie fowls which subsist on the rubbish in their neighbourhood. Though professors of El-lslam , they are considerably less strict in their observances than the fellahin of the valley of the Nile, who are themselves sufficiently lax, and above all they sadly neglect the religions duty of cleanliness. They do not observe the practice of praying live times a day, and they are as a rule but slightly ac- quainted with the Koran. Relics of their old star-worship can still be traced among their customs. The traveller will occasionally observe Beduins in the bazaars of the armourers and leather-merchants, and will be struck with the proud and manly bearing of these bronzed children of the desert, whose sharp, bearded features and steady gaze betoken lirmncss and resolution. In Egypt the traveller need not fear their predatory propensities, but they have frequently attacked travellers in Tur- kish Tripolitania and in the eastern part of Arabia Petraea. ( 1 ). AitAitiAX |)\vi:i,t,kbs inToavns. Those Arabs with whom the traveller usually comes in contact in towns arc shopkeepers, officials, servants, coachmen, and donkey-attendants, or perhaps these last only, as most of the best shops are kept by Europeans, while in of- ficial and legal matters his intercourse with the natives is carried on through the medium of his consul. The indolence and duplicity ill these \rabs, which proceed to some extent from the character of their religion, have often been justly condemned, while their in- telligence, patience, and amiability arc too often ignored. They are lly of a much more mixed origin than the fellahin, as the va- rious conquerors of Kgypt usually made the towns their head- quarters. Alexandria, for example, was chiefly favoured bj the Greeks ami \rahs, and Cairo by the Arabs and Turks. It thus hap- pens that the citizens of the Egyptian towns consist of persons of Complexion from dark brown to white, with the features of the worshippers of Osiris or the sharp profile of the Beduins, and Berbers. THE MODERN EGYPTIANS. 49 with the slender figure of the fellah or the corpulence of the Turk. Among the lower classes frequent intermarriage with negro women has darkened the complexion and thickened the features of their offspring; while the higher ranks, being descended from white slaves or Turkish mothers, more nearly resemble the European type. As the inhabitants of the towns could not be so much oppressed by their rulers as the peasantry, we find that they exhibit a more in- dependent spirit, greater enterprise, and a more cheerful disposition than the fellahin. At the same time they are not free from the dreamy character peculiar to Orientals, nor from a tinge of the apathy of fatalism; and their indolence contrasts strongly with the industry of their European rivals in political, scientific, artistic, and all business pursuits. A glance at the offices of the ministers, the bazaars of the merchants, the schools of the Arabs, and the building- yards and workshops constructed by natives will enable the traveller to observe with what deliberation and with what numerous inter- vals of repose they perform their tasks. From such workers it is in vain to expect rapidity, punctuality, or work of a highly finished character, and the caustic remark of Prince Napoleon that the Egyp- tians are 'capable of making a pair of pantaloons, but never of sewing on the last button', was doubtless founded on experience. The townspeople profess Islamism, but, in their youth particularly, they are becoming more and more lax in their obedience to the Koran. Thus the custom of praying in public, outside the house-doors and shops, is gradually falling into disuse. The European dress, more- over, is gradually superseding the Oriental, though the latter is far more picturesque, and better suited to the climate +. On the whole, however, they are bigoted Mohammedans, and share the contempt with which the fellahin regard all other religions. Their daily inter- course with unbelievers and their dread of the power of the Christ- ian nations tend, however, to keep their fanaticism, which otherwise would be unbounded, in check, and has even induced them to admit strangers to witness the most sacred ceremonies in their mosques. (5). Berbers. The name Berberi (plur. barabrci) is believed by many authorities to be identical with 'barbarians', a word which is said to have been adopted by the Greeks from the Egyptians, -who used it to denote all 'non-Egyptians', and to be derived from brr, i. e. 'to be unable to speak', or 'to speak imperfectly'. The 'Ber- bers' of N.Africa and the town of 'Berber' in S. Nubia also doubt- less have the same origin. In Egypt the name is applied in a half contemptuous way to the numerous immigrants from the Nubian t About the year 1865 a kind of uniform called the 'Stambulina' was prescribed by the government for all the officials of the higher classes (black coat with a row of buttons and low upright collar), but they are allowed to wear ordinary European clothing in their offices. All the officials, however, in the pay of the Egyptian government, including Eu- ropeans, and even the members of the mixed court of justice, must wear the red fez (tarbiishj. Baedeker's Egypt I. 2nd Ed. 4 50 THE MODERN EGYPTIANS. Berbers. part of the valley of the Nile, who form the largest foreign element of tin' community, and who never entirely assimilate with it, as the Nubians make it a rule never to marry Egyptian wives. The Nubi- ans, on the other hand, speak slightingly of the Egyptians as 'Wod- en-Kit", or sons of the Nile valley (comp. p. 31). The two races entertain a great dislike to each other, and their dispositions are fundamentally different. The Nubians are inferior to the Egyptians in industry and energy, especially in tilling the soil, and also in physical strength; and they are more superstitious and fanatical, as is indicated by the numerous amulets they wear round their necks and arms. They arc, however, superior to the Egyptians in cleanliness, honesty, and subordination, and possess a more highly developed sense of honour. The Nubian doorkeepers who are to be found in all the mercantile houses of Alexandria and elsewhere arc noted foi their honesty. The traveller must not expect to find them very sincerely attached or grateful , any more than the native Egyptians (comp. pp. 12, 25), but as servants they are certainly preferable. The inhabitants of the Nubian part of the valley of the Nile are not all strictly Nubians ; for in the southern parts of that region a colony of Slieglyeh and other Arabian tribes has settled in comparatively recent times. The genuine Nubians (a name unknown to themselves, and of ancient origin) occupy the valley of the Nile from Gebel Barkal near the fourth cataract down to the first cataract, and are divided in accordance with the principal idioms of their language into Mahas , Keniis , and Don- kolas. Their language belongs to the Libyan group of the N.African tongues, and Dr. Brugsch is of opinion that it may afford a clue to tlic interpretation of the still undeciphered Ethiopian LMeroitic) inscriptions of the Nubian part of the Nile valley. Dr. Lepsius, on the other hand, who has published an admirable work on the subject, maintains that the 'to-bedyawiyeh' language of the Bega (p. 45) is more likely to be cognate with that of the inscriptions, as he believes that the Blemmyes, the ancestors of the Bega, were the original inhabitants of the region in question, and were expelled by the handsome and intelligent 'Nuba' negroes from the district to the S. of Kordofan. Friedrieh Miiller places the Nuba tongue in rate category along with the dialects of a few other tribes in different parts of Africa, and there is certainly much to be said in favour of this distinction of it from the languages of the Hamitic races on the one side and the typical negro races on the other. Those r.orhcrs who do not learn Arabic grammatically never speak it thoroughly w ell ; but itisgenerally, though imperfectly, understood In Nubia. The tra\ oiler must therefore not expect to learn good Arabic from his Nubian servants. In their native country they till the banks of the Nile, hut their land is of very limited extent and poorly culti- vated j ami as their harvests are scanty they are rarely able to support large families. They accordingly often emigrate at an early age to the Negroes. THE MODERN EGYPTIANS. 51 richer lowlands, chiefly to the large towns, and particularly to Alex- andria, in quest of employment ; and they find no difficulty in attaining their object, for they are generally active, intelligent, and honest, while the older immigrants, who are strongly attached to their country, are always zealous in procuring them work and rendering them assistance. When the Berber has succeeded in amassing a moderate fortune, he returns to settle in his native country, of which throughout his whole career he never entirely loses sight, and to which he frequently remits his hardly earned savings for the benefit of his relations. The cold winter nights in Egypt are very trying to the poor Berbers, who often have to sleep in the open air outside the doors, and many of them are attacked by consumption. They are most commonly employed as doorkeepers (bawwub), as house-servants (khaddam), as grooms and runners (sdisj, for which their swiftness renders them unrivalled, as coachmen ('arbagij, and as cooks (tabbdkh). Each of these five classes is admirably or- ganised as a kind of guild, with a shekh of its own , who levies a tax from each member, and guarantees the character and abilities of members when hired. Thefts are very rarely committed by the Nubians , but in cases of the kind the shekh compels the whole of his subjects to contribute to repair the loss, and cases have been known in which several hundred pounds have been recovered in this way. The result is that there is a strict mutual system of supervision, and suspected characters are unceremoniously excluded from the fraternity. Nubian women are seldom seen in Egypt. (6.) Negroes. Like the Berbers, most of the negroes in Egypt are professors of El-Islam, to the easily intelligible doctrines of which they readily and zealously attach themselves. Most of the older negroes and negresses with whom the traveller meets have originally been brought to Egypt as slaves, and belong to natives, by whom they are treated more like members of the family than like servants. Although every slave who desires to be emancipated may now with the aid of government sever the ties which bind him to his master, most of the negroes prefer to remain on the old foot- ing with the family which supports them and relieves them of the anxiety of providing for themselves. The eunuchs, who also belong almost exclusively to the negro races, but are rapidly becoming rarer, very seldom avail themselves of this opportunity of regaining their liberty, as their emancipation would necessarily terminate the life of ease and luxury in which they delight. The slave-trade is now very rapidly approaching complete extinction in Egypt, not so much owing to the penalties imposed (which the rapacious officials take every opportunity of enforcing), as from changes in the mode of living, and the growing preference of the wealthy for paid ser- vants. Down to 1870 the trade was still carried on in secret with some success, but since then it has been at a standstill. Since IS IS the government has kept a complete register of domestic 52 THE MODERN EGYPTIANS. Turks. slaves, and special officials are appointed to watch over tlicir in- terests. The negroes, who voluntarily settle in Egypt in considerable numbers, form the dregs of the people and are employed in the most menial offices. Most of the negro races of Central Africa to the N. of the equator are represented at Cairo, particularly in the rank and file of the negro regiments. Ethnographers, linguists, ur other scientific men who desire to see specimen- of as many different races as possible should obtain an intro- duction to an Arabian merchant in the Gamcliyeh, who will conduct them to merchants from every part of the interior and of the Afriean coast, each attended by his staff of negro servants. The latter, however. resident in Egypt, cannot give trustworthy information about their country and their origin. Some of them have forgotten their mother tongue and even the name of their native country. Foreigners are prohibited from taking negro servants out of the country, but if through the intervention of their consul they obtain per- mission they must find security for their subsequent restoration. (Ty. Turks. Although the dynasty of the viceroys of Egypt is of Turkish origin (see p. 106), a comparatively small section of the community belongs to that nation, and their numbers appear to be diminishing. The Turks of Egypt are chiefly to be found in the towns, where most of them are government officials, soldiers, and merchants. The Turkish officials are much to blame for the maladministration which so long paralysed the rich productiveness of the valley of the Nile, having always with few exceptions been actuated in their pro- ceed i ngs by motives of reckless cupidity without regard to ulterior con- sequences. Now, however, that the government of the Khedive has adopted more enlightened principles, it has admitted other national- ities also to its highest civil appointments, some of which are held by able Europeans, and under their auspices a brighter future is pTobablyin store for Egypt. The Turkish merchants are generally a prosperous class, and, although fully alive to their pecuniary inter- ests, they are dignified and courteous in their bearing, and are often remarkable for the handsomeness of their features. (8). Levantines. A link between the various classes of dwellers in Egypt and the visitors to the banks of the Nile is formed by the members of the various .Mediterranean races, known as Levantines, who have been settled here for several generations, and form no in- considerable element in the population of the larger towns. Most of them profess tlic Latin form of Christianity, and Arabic has now be- come their mother tongue, although they still speak their old national dialects. They are apt linguists, learning the European languages with great rapidity, and good men of business, and owing to these qua- lities they are often employed as shopmen and clerks. Their ser- vices li.i \ .■ also become indispensable at the consulates as translators of eocuments destined for tin- Dative authorities, and as bearers of communications between the respective offices. A large proportion Of them are wealthy. Being Christians, the Levantines all Live under the protection Of the different consuls, and thus unfairly escape Europeans. THE MODERN EGYPTIANS. 53 payment of taxes, although they derive the whole of their wealth from the country. (9). Armenians and Jews. This section of the community is about as numerous as the last, and in some respects contrasts favourably with it. The Armenians generally possess excellent abilities, and a singular aptitude for learning both Oriental and European languages, which they often acquire with great gram- matical accuracy. Many of them are wealthy goldsmiths and jewel- lers, and they often hold important government offices. The Jews are often distinguishable by their red hair from the native Egyptians, as well as by other characteristics. Most of them are from Palestine, but many have recently immigrated from Wal- lachia. All the money-changers in the streets (sarrdfj, and many of the wealthiest merchants of Egypt, are Jews, and notwithstand- ing the popular prejudice entertained against them, owing as is alleged to their disregard of cleanliness , they now form , thanks to the impartiality of the present government, one of the most highly respected sections of the community. (10). Europeans. The number of European residents and visitors in Egypt at the census of 1882 was 82,000, exclusive of the British army of occupation. The Greeks are most numerously represented, then the Italians, French, English (including Maltese), Austria:is (including many Dalmatians), and Germans. The nu- merous Swiss residents in Egypt , who are not represented by a consul of their own, are distributed among the above leading clas- ses (French, Italian, German). Beside these nationalities, there are also a few representatives of Russia, America, Belgium, Scan- dinavia, and other countries. Each of the above leading natio- nalities shows a preference for one or more particular occupa- tions, in which they sometimes enjoy a complete monopoly. The Greeks of all classes are generally traders. They constitute the aris- tocracy of Alexandria, and the victual-dealers (bakkal) in all the other towns are mostly Greeks. They are the proprietors of the numerous small banks which lend money on good security, both to the peasantry and the government officials, at a Tate of interest sometimes amounting to 6 per cent monthly , the maximum per- mitted by law ; and they are the only Europeans who have established themselves permanently as merchants beyond the confines of Egypt proper. The Greeks also have the unenviable notoriety of com- mitting numerous murders, thefts, and other crimes, but it must be borne in mind that they are by far the most numerous section of the European community (35,000 from Greece alone, besides many Turkish subjects), and that some 30,000 of them belong to the lowest class of emigrants from an unhappy and ill-conditioned country. Many of these crimes must, moreover, be regarded as the outcome of the sadly misdirected daring and ability which characterise their nation. The superiority of the Greeks to the 54 THE MODERN EGYPTIANS. Europeans. Orientals is nowhere so strikingly manifested as in Egypt, where it affords a modern reflex of their ancient, world-renowned supremacy. Most of them are immigrants from the various Greek islands, and the purity of their type is specially noteworthy. The Italian residents, 16,000 in number, consist chiefly of tra- ders of a humble class, advocates, and musicians, from the operatic singer down to the Calabrian itinerant. Of French nationality ( If). 1)00) are all the artizans of the higher class, who are generally noted for their skill, trustworthiness, and sobriety, and indeed form the most respectable stratum of the European community. Most of the better shops are kept by Frenchmen, and the chief European officials of the government, including several architects and engineers, are French. The English settlers number about 5000, exclusive of the troops, of which there were about 7000 at the beginning of 1885. 1 ntil recently their specialities were the manu- facture of machinery and the construction of railways and harbours; but of late they have, also almost monopolised the chief posts in those branches of the administration (post and telegraph office, railways, custom-house) that have been remodelled after the Euro- pean pattern. A large majority of the residents who enjoy the pro- i of the Uritish consulate are Maltese, and to them apply even more forcibly most of the remarks already made regarding tin' Greeks. It has been ascertained that the Maltese settlers in foreign countries are more numerous than those resident in their two small native islands, and of these a considerable proportion be- longs to Egypt. At home, under the discipline of l.ritish institu- tions, they form a pattern little nation of their own, but in Egypt, where they are freed from the restraint of these influences, they are very apt to degenerate and to swell unduly the ranks of the criminal class. Many of the Maltese, however, are enterprising tradesmen and industrious artizans, such as shoemakers and joiners. To the Austrian (3000) ami German iloiiO) community belonga number of merchants of the besl class, all the directors of the prin- cipal hanks, many physicians and teachers, innkeepers, musicians, and lastly handicraftsmen of humble pretensions. With regard to the capability of Europeans of becoming ac- climatised in Egypt, therearea number of widelj divergent opinions. Much, of course, must depend on the nature of the climate of their own respective countries. It has been asserted that European families settled in Egypt die out in the second or third generation, hut of this there is no sufficient proof, as the European community is of very recent origin, and many examples to the contrary might he cited. The climate of Egypl i- less enervating than that of most other hot countries, an advantage attributed to the dryness of the air and the saline particles contained in it ; w bile the range of tem- perature between the different seasons is greater than in Ireland or Portugal. Course. THE NILE. 55 The Nile (comp. Map, p. 30). The Nile ranks with the Ama- zon and the Congo as one of the three longest rivers in the world (about 4000 M. ), since its headstream is prohahly to be found in the Shimiju, which rises five degrees to the S. of the Equator. Throughout nearly the whole of its course the river is navigable, with two great interruptions only (at Abu Hammed-Barkal and Donkola-Wadi Haifa"). Though it is greatly surpassed by the Ama- zon and Congo in volume, neither these nor any other river in the world can vie in historical and ethnographical interest with the 'father of rivers'. The discovery of the true sources of the Nile and the cause of its annual overflow are two scientific problems which for upwards of '2000 years European scholars laboured to solve, while the Egyp- tians themselves regarded the river as a deity, and its origin and properties as the most sacred of mysteries, to be revealed to the curious spirit of man only when he should have quitted this earthly scene. As it is the Egyptian Nile only with which we have at present to deal, we shall advert but briefly to the subject of the sources of the river, and mention the principal affluents only which affect Egypt. The Nile is formed by the confluence of the Wliite and the Blue Nile at the town of Khartum, from which point to its principal mouths at Damietta and Rosetta , a distance of upwards of 1800 miles, it traverses an absolutely barren country, and receives one tributary only, the Atbara, on the east side, about 180 miles below Khartum. Throughout the whole of this distance, in the course of which it falls 1240 ft. , the river has to contend against numerous absorbing influences, for which it receives no compensation beyond the rare showers attracted in winter by the mountains between its right bank and the Red Sea. Notwithstanding the immense length of the river, it very rarely presents the picturesque appearance of some of the great European and other rivers , as its banks are generally flat and monotonous, and it contains hardly a single island worthy of mention. The broadest parts of this portion of the Nile are a little below Khartum, a little above its bifurcation near Cairo, and also near Minyeh, at each of which places it attains a width of about 1 100 yds. , while the White Nile is of greater breadth throughout a long part of its lower course. As the river pursues its tortuous course through thirsty land, for a distance of 15 degrees of latitude, much of its water is consumed by evaporation and infiltration (a pro- cess by which it is probable that Libyan oases are supplied with water from the Nubian Nile) , and still more so by the extensive system of artificial canals requisite for the irrigation of a whole kingdom. M. Linant estimates this loss at the time of the inun- dation within Egypt proper, i.e. between Gebel Selseleh and Cairo, as one-third of the total volume; he found that 1,093,340,222 cu- bic metres of water passed Gebel Selseleh in 24 hrs., while on the 5(5 THE NILE. Source. same day only 70o,.)SS,;>89 cubic metres passed Cairo. At the confluence of the White and Blue Nile theii average volumes are in the proportion of three to one, but the latter assumes fai greater importance when swollen by the Abyssinian Tains. The Blue Nile is in fact a species of mountain-torrent, being liable to rise suddenly and sweep away everything it encounters on its ra- pidly descending course. It is therefore called the Buhr el-Azmk. i. e. the blue, 'dark', or 'turbid', in contradistinction to the Buhr el-Abyad, i. e. the white, or rather the 'clear 1 river, whose water descends from clear lakes and is farther filtered by the vast grassy plains and occasional floating plants through which it passes. The Blue Nile [together with its coadjutor the Atbara) may there- fore be regarded as the Bole origin of the fertility of Kgypt, and also as the cause of the inundation, while On the other hand the regular and steady supply of water afforded by the White Nile performs the very important office of preventing the lower part of the river from drying up altogether in summer. The White -Nile is not only much larger than the Blue in average volume, but is. with its tributaries, more than double the length. It dees not, however, remain very long undivided. Higher up, in 9° N. latitude, it receives on the east side the waters of the Sobdt, a stream descending from the mountains to the south of Abyssinia, and resembling the Blue Nile in character, though much smaller. A little farther up, on the opposite Bide, the White Nile is joined by the Bahr el-Ohazdl, or Gazelle River, a very sluggish stream, fed by numerous springs rising in the Nyam- nyam and Kredy regions, between 4°and5°N. latitude. Higher up the river takes the name of Bahr cl-d'ehcl, and is considerably smal- ler in volume, and beyond "<" V latitude it ceases to be navigable, as it descends in a series of raj. ids from the Albert Nyanza Or Mwutan Lake. This sheet of water is connected by another river. the Somerset', which may be regarded as the continuation of the White Nile, with the Victoria Nyanza or Ukerewe Luke: while the Sliimiju and other S. feeders of the latter may be called the ulti- mate sources of the Nile. The Valley of the Nile from Khartum to the Delta, although from its greai length ( 15° of latitude) necessarily possessing great varieties of climate, terms one I'Hiir unbroken tract of country, the fertilising soil of which is brought down l>y the Blue Nile from the A byssinian mountains. The breadth of the Valley of the Nile, including the barren land immediately flanking it. varies from i'/oto 10 miles in Nubia, and from I ■'( to 32 miles in Egypt. The banks, of which the eastern is called the 'Arabian', and the western the 'Libyan', rise at places to upwards of 1000ft., resembling two large canal embankments. between which the riser has forced its passage through the plateau of 'Nubian sandstone' [■which extends to thetlebel Selseleh above Edfu), and through the uummulite limestone of Upper and Central Inundation. THE NILE. 57 Egypt. The breadth of the cultivable alluvial soil corresponds with the above varying width, but nowhere exceeds 9 miles. The soil deposited by the Nile averages 33-38 ft. deep in Egypt, but near Kalyub at the head of the l)elta it increases to about 50 ft., the bottom of it being at places below the level of the sea. The bed of the river is also of considerable depth, and at low water the mud- banks (gef) rise above its surface to a height of 25 ft. in Upper Egypt, and 14 ft. at Cairo. These are also the depths of the various irrigation wells. "Throughout the whole (?) of Egypt the Nile mud rests on a bed of sea- sand. The whole country between the first cataract and the Mediter- ranean was formerly a narrow estuary , which was probably filled by degrees during the pleiocene period with lagoon deposits, washed down [Ynm the crystalline Habesh. At a later period, when Egypt had risen from the sea (and after the isthmus had been formed), the river forced Hs passage through these deposits of mud, sweeping away many of the louse particles at one place and depositing them again farther down 1 . (Frmis.) The Nile soil is unlike any other in the world in its composi- tion. According to Regnault it contains 63 per cent of water and sand, IS per rent of carbonate of lime. , 9 per cent of quartz, silica, felspar, hornblende, and epidote , 6 per cent of oxide of iron, and 4 per cent of carbonate of magnesia. Nothing certain is known regarding the average increase of the alluvial land, all the calculations regarding it having hitherto been based on erroneous or insufficient data. Thus the Nilometer of antiquity furnishes the depth relatively to the level of the sea, but not absolutely. The thickness of earth accumulated around buildings of known age has also been found a fallacious guide ; and lastly local measurements lead to no result, as the river often capriciously washes away what it has deposited in previous years. An approxi- mate calculation might possibly be made if the proportion of solid matter annually brought down by the river could be ascertained, but no investigation of this kind has ever been made. It has some- times been asserted that the desert has begun to encroach upon the cultivated part of the valley, but Sir G. Wilkinson has shown, that, while the sand of the desert may be advancing at places, the cultiv- able bed of the valley is steadily increasing in thickness and width. The Inundation, as is obvious from what has already been said, is more or less favourable according to the greater or less amount of rain that falls among the Abyssinian mountains, for that which falls in Central Africa is a more constant quantity, being regulated by the influence of the trade-winds. Like the Waterspouts which descend on equatorial Africa, the overflow al- ways recurs at the same season of the year, varying in its advent by a few days only, and in its depth by several yards. At the be- ginning of June the river slowly begins to swell , and between the 15th and 20th of July the increase becomes very rapid. Towards the eud of September the water ceases to rise, remaining at the same height for a fortnight or more , but during the first half of October it rises again and attains its highest level (comp. p. 239). AfteT 58 THE Nil. i Inundation. having begun to subside, it generally rises again for a short time, so times regaining and even passing its lirst oulmiuating point. At length it begins to subside steadily, and after a time the de- crease becomes more and more rapid. In January, February, and March the fields from which the water has receded gradually dry up. and in April, May, and the first few days of June the river is at its lowest. The height of the inundation most favourable for agriculture at the present day has been ascertained by long obser- vation to be 23 cubits '2 inches (i.e. about 41 ft. 2in., the cubit being 21.386 inches), while in the time of Herodotus 1(1 cubits suf- ficed, and the god of the Nile in the Vatican is therefore repres- ented as surrounded by sixteen children. A single cubit more i^ apt to cause terrible devastation in tin' Delta, and elsewhere to cover many fields destined for the autumn crop (nabdri, p. 74), while a deficiency of two cubits causes drought and famine inUpper Egypt. As health depends to a great extent mi the regularity of the pulsations of the heart, so the welfare of the whole of this singular country is jeopardised by a too powerful or a too scanty flow id' the great artery on which its very existence depends. An excessive overflow . especially if it does not give notice of its approach in due time, is far more disastrous now than formerly, as the extensive cotton-fields in the Delta will not bear flooding, and have to be protected by embankments. Egypt is now no longer a vast lake during the inundation as it formerly was, nor docs the overflow of the fields take place in ;i direct manner as is commonly supposed. The water is conducted into a vast network of reservoirs and canals, and distributed as re- qnired (comp. p. 71), and special engineers are appointed for their supervision. The whole of the cultivable land is divided into huge basins, in which the water introduced by the canals is maintained at a certain height until it has sufflcientlj saturated the soil and deposited the requisite quantity of mud. After the water in the riser has subsided, thai in the basins may either be discharged into the river or into the canals, or it may be used for filling other ba- s'us 1 > i 1 1 ir at a lower level. During these operations many of the villages arc connected by means of embankments only, while others can only be reached by boat, and the whole country presents a very peculiar and picturesque appearance. If the river and the ;s\stem of canals connected with it are in any way neglected, th nsequences are vers disastrous, as was notably the case during the latter part of the Byzantine supremacy ami under the disgraceful swa\ of the Mamelukes, when the fertile soil ofEgypI yielded Less than one-half of its average produce. The mean difference between till' higheS) and the lowest state, of the river LS abOUl 25ft. at Cairo. 38ft. at Thebes, and j'.lft. at Assu.'in. Even in March and April the traveller will have an opportunity of ing how powerful and rapid the flow of the river still is, THE NILE. 59 although its fall from Assuan (by the first cataract) to Cairo is 299 ft. only, or about seven inches per mile. The rapidity of the stream, however, which averages Smiles an hour, is not so serious an impediment to the navigation as the frequent changes which take place in the formation of its channel, sometimes occasioning difficulties which the most careful of captains is unable to foresee. If we now enquire what influence this remarkable river has exercised on the history of civilisation, we can hardly avoid the conclusion that it was the Nile, with its unique character, that stimulated the ancient Egyptians to those great physical and in- tellectual exertions which rendered them the most famous and the most civilised among the nations of antiquity. The necessity of controlling its course and utilising its water taught them the art of river-engineering and the kindred science of land-surveying, while in the starry heavens they beheld the eternal calendar which regu- lated the approach and the departure of the inundation, so that the river may perhaps have eiven the first impulse to the study of astronomy. As the annual overflow of the water obliterated all land- marks, it was necessary annually to measure the land anew, and to keep a register of the area belonging to each proprietor ; and above all it became an important duty of the rulers of the people to im- press them with a strong sense of the sacredness of property. Every succeeding year, however, there arose new disputes, and these showed the necessity of establishing settled laws and enforcing judicial decisions. The Nile thus led to the foundation of social, legal, and political order, and it is also natural that the mighty and mysterious river on which the welfare of the entire population de- pended should have awakened their religious sentiment at a very early period. Subsequently, when the engineers and architects, in the service of the state or in the cause of religion , erected those colossal structures with which we are about to become acquainted, it was the Nile which materially facilitated the transport of their materials, and enabled the builders of the pyramids and the other ancient Egyptians to employ the granite of Assuan for the structures of Memphis, and even for those of Tanis, on the coast of the Medi- terranean. As the river, moreover, not only afforded a convenient route for the transport of these building materials, but also an ad- mirable commercial highway, we find that the Egyptians had acquired considerable skill at a very early period in constructing vessels with oars, masts, sails, and even cabins and other appliances. From the earliest historical period down to the present time the course of the Nile, from the cataracts down to its bifurcation to the north of Cairo (the ancient Kerkasoros, i.e. the mutilation of Osiris), has under- gone very little change. This, however, is not the case with its Em- bouchures; for, while ancient writers mention seven (the Pelusiac, the Tanitic, the Mendesian, the Bucolic or Phatnitic, the Sebennytic, the Bolbitinic, and the Canopic), there are now practically two channels only through which the river is discharged into the sea. These are the mouths at Rosetta (Reshid) and Damietta (Dumyat), situated near the SO GEOLOGICAL NOTICE. middle of the Delta, while the Pelusiae and Canopic mouths, the most important in ancient times, lay at the extreme east and west • the coast respectively. The water was afterwards gradually compelled to seek other outlets. The Pelusiac arm found a convenient exit through the Phatnitic near Damietta, while the Canopic was artificially conducted into tlic Bolbitinic. All the principal amis of ancient times atles tirely disappeared, combining to form the modern outlets. Those last will in their turn be abandoned, as the river will doubtless again force for itself a more direct passage with a greater fall. Geological Notice (by Prof. Zittel). (ll Egypt PSOPES. There is no ration in the often repeated saying that Egypt is 'the gift of the Nile . Bui for the bounties dispensed by the river, what is now the most fertile Country in N. Africa would be a wilderness of bare rock or sand. With the greatest height attained by the inundation and the extreme length of the irrigation canals corresponds precisely the line which di- vides the Sahara from the cultivated land. The whole of the alluvial soil deposited by the Nile is an entii a element in the geologi- cal structure of N. Africa , and its haracter is uniform and easily determined. The origin, composition, and thickness of the alluvium has already bated. The perpendicular, black, and furrowed mud-banks, which often rise to a height of 25-35 ft., are composed of distinct parallel strata of somewhat different colours, with thin layers of sand occasionally in- tervening. In Lower Egypt the mud is rather more thinly spread over the who],. Delta, in the form of a blackish or reddish-brown laminated mass, a few its only remaining uncovered. Wherever the ground is denuded of its alluvium, apart from which there is no permanent soil in Egypt, it is absolutely sterile; for in this hot and dry country there is uo winter, with its protecting mantle of Snow, to retard the decomposition of Vegetable matter, and to promote its admixture with disintegrated rock, so as to form fertile soil. Owing to the want of vegetation and moisture, without which the prOgl di integration is reduced to a minimum, the surface of the naked rock pt and the neighbouring deserts retain; its character almost, un- altered. The huge masses of debris observed at the foot of the rocks in the valley of the Nile, and particularly at the mouths of the wadies. and the curious isolated hills With which every traveller through the desert is struck, could not possibly have been formed during the present state of the Egyptian climate. They prove that at Borne pre-historic period the now parched and sterile ground must, have loon overflowed bj co- pious volumes of water which produced these and various other effects on I he a ppea ranee of tin I lace. The geologist will find little to attract his attention in the alluvial soil of Egypt; but on the ea coast, and in that part of the isthmus which i- intersected by the canal, there are several points of interest. tin entering the harbour of Alexandria the traveller will observe the mi live blocks .1 the quarries of Meks of which the quays are constructed. Thej COD i-t of recent tertiary, ligh t-COlOUred , sandy i innii rable broken fragments of con,- chylia, a kind of rock which extends far to the W. of Alexandria, and probably constitutes it reater part of the lofty Cyreneean plain. This rock forms the building-Stone generally used at Alexandria, and is also emploj • 'i in tie Port Sa'id. Amidst the desert sand of the i llmoi . which even in Lower Egypt form i the Nile mud, and which in the E. part of the de ert i nearlj covered with a solid gypseous and saline crust, the rock Occasionally crops up. or has been uncovered in the course ef the excavation of the canal. Near the Shaluf station) p. 132) a greenish olid lime tone . w bich conta i n i the tertiary marine conchylia, ih arks' teeth, and remains of crocodiles and am- phibious mammalia, lie game formation occur- in other placi and ridges ol the earlj tertiary nummulite limestone likewise occasionally GEOLOGICAL NOTICE. 61 rise from the plain. At several points on the coast of the Red Sea, particularly near Koser, at a height of 600-950 ft. above the sea-level, we find rock of the late tertiary or diluvial era containing coral, which shows how much the land must have risen since that period. With these coral-reefs the petroleum wells of Gebel ez-Zet and the sulphur which occurs on the Ras el-Gimsah appear to be closely connected. To the miocene , or middle tertiary period, belong several isolated deposits of sandstone near Cairo , in which are found the beautiful fos- sil sea-urchins (Clypeaster Aegyptiacus) frequently offered for sale near the Pyramids. The place where they occur, on the margin of the desert, about 2 31. to the S. of the Sphinx, has been visited and de- scribed by Prof. Fraas. One of the principal geological curiosities near Cairo is the Petri- fied Forest (comp. p. 339). About 5 31. to the E. of the town begins the Khasliab ('wood') desert, the surface of which for many miles is sprinkled with whole trunks and fragments of silicified wood. Few travellers go beyond the 'small' petrified wood; the 'great' lies about 20 31. to the E. of Cairo. 'The desert here is so completely covered with trunks, that, except the fine sand itself, no other kind of stone is visible than the Hint into which the Sicoliae have been converted'. (Fraas.) Trunks of 60-90 ft. in length and 3 ft. in thickness have sometimes been found. These have been described by TJnger as Nicolia Aegyptiaca (of the family of the Sterculiaceae), but, according to more recent investigations, it would seem that the forest contained various other trees also (palms and dicotyledonous plants). Whether the trunks have grown and been silici- fied on the spot, or were brought here by inundations from the south, is still an open question. At all events these remarkable deposits date from the late tertiary period. Above Cairo, to the S. , the Nile is flanked by ranges of hills, the valley between which is generally 4-9 31. in width. On the east side of the Nile begins the Arabian, and on the west side the Libyan desert, both of which are very inhospitable, being ill provided with water, and covered at places only with scanty vegetation. From the northernmost spur of the Arabian desert (the Jlokattam near Cairoj to a point above Edfu, both banks of the Nile consist of early tertiary nummolite lime- stone. The strata dip gradually from south to north, so that the farther we ascend the Nile the older are the strata that we meet with. The limestone of the 3Iokattam, with its millions of nummulites, is the ma- terial of which the new buildings of the European suburbs of Cairo are constructed, and it was from the venerable quarries of Tura and 3Ia f - sara that the ancient Egyptians obtained the stone for their pyramids. The blocks for these stupendous structures were conveyed to them by means of a huge stone dyke, of which all trace has now disappeared. On the 3Iokattam , near 3Iinyeh , Beni Hasan, Siut, Thebes, Esneh, and at other places the limestone is rich in fossils, and. in the vicinity of Cairo geologists can easily form a considerable collection of them. The quar- rymen on the 3Iokattam offer visitors fossil crabs (Xanthopsis Paulino- Wiirti mbergicus) and sharks' teeth for a moderate bakhshish. To the south of Edfu the nummulite limestone disappears, being re- placed by marl and rocks of calcareous and sandy character , which, according to Figari-Bey , contain chalk fossils. After these we come to quartzose sandstone, belonging to the middle chalk formation, and form- ing considerable cliffs at the Gebel Selseleh , which confine the river within a narrow bed. This last formation, known as 'Nubian sandstone', which covers many thousands of square miles of Nubia and the Sudan, was the ma- terial almost exclusively used for the construction of the ancient temples of Upper Egypt; and near Selseleh, and in the Arabian desert between Keneh and Koser, are still to be seen the extensive quarries which yielded the material for the colossal structures of Thebes. From Assuan to Selseleh the Nile flows through Nubian sandstone, but near the ancient Syene a transverse barrier of granite and 'syenite' advances from the east, forming the boundary between Egypt and Nubia. 62 GEOLOGICAL NOTICE. This barrier extends eastwards for about ISO miles, forming a very ir- regular chain of barren hills y(JU-13UU ft. in height. The Nile has forced a passage for itself through this hard rock, ex- to view at places the beautiful red felspar crystals which it con- tains, and tonus a wild cataract at Assuan, Near the cataracts an' the deserted quarries of the ancient Egyptians, where to this day we still re a number of unfinished gigantic obelisks, and columns half hewn out of the solid rock. f2) The Arabian Desert. Parallel with the coast of the Red Sea. a broad and massive range of mountains, consisting of crystalline rocks aite, diorite, porphyry, hornblende slate, gneiss, mica-slate, etc.)] runs through the Arabian Desert, sending forth numerous ramifi- cations into the interior of the country. At Hammamat, on the caravan- route from KosSr to Thebes, we pass the quarries whence the dark- coloured stone [aphanite, diorite, and verde antico) used for the ancient sarcophagi and sphinxes was obtained by the Egyptian sculptors. Near the Bed Sea, almost opposite the southern extremity of the peninsula of Sinai, rises the Grebe! Dukhan, which yielded the beautiful red porphyry (porfido highly prized by the Greeks and Romans at a later period, and used by them for vases, columns, sarcophagi, busts, and mosaics. The granite quarries of the Gebel Fatireh yielded both building stone and copper. .Most celebrated of all, however, were the emerald mines of the Gebel Zebara, situated on the Red Sea in the Latitude oi 8 This extensive: range of mountains of crystalline formation., rising to a height of 6600ft., of which those of the peninsula of Sinai form a rpart, terminates towards the east in roof-shaped, stratified for- mations. At first there occurs a considerable stratum of Nubian sandstone, next to which we lind a series of clayey and calcareous strata, identified liy Figari-Bey with the Triassic and Jura formations, probably errone- as the collection of specimens of the rock at lorence shows that apparently the chalk alone is completely developed. These strata are osivi masses of limestone, belonging to the nummulite formation, and stretching to the Kile. Among these last formations is found the pale yellow, brownish., and snow-white alabaster, a kind of limestone composed of nodulous masses, which was formerly quarried at the ancient Alabastron near -out. and still occurs on the Gebel I'rakam near Beni-Suef. In the reign of Mohammed c Ali this alabaster was largelj i ■ d in the construction of his alabaster mosque (p. 263), and it ■, tensively exported in ancient times for the embellishment of buildings and for sculptural purpose Blocks of it are even found among the ruins of the Oasis of Amnion. mountains, with their numerous profound ravines and boldly shaped masses of rock, impart a most imposing character to the Arabian Desert. This region is by no means so destitute of vege- tation as is usually supposed; for, although without oases, it contains, particularly in the N. part, a number Of springs and natural cisterns, which are mini bj the rare, but often copious, rains of winter. The Libyan Desbbt. This region again presents an entirely dif- ferent character, li consists of an immense, monotonous, and stony table- i ni the Nile, extending between the Nile and the oases of Chargeh, Dakhel, Farafra, and Bahriyeh. Throu mountains, nor valleys, nor even I o- lated hills of anj con iderable height; and there is no trace of crystal* ii r volcanic formation I the desert rises in gradations, each preceded bj a broad girdle of isolated mounds, which have been i<\ erosion, the materials having been washed down from Hi plateau. The whole of this stony and absolutely on- n, the monotony of which is only varied by a few solitary inii . consists of nummulite limestone. In the direction in precipitous slopes, furrowed with numerous iccasionallj marly 1000 ft. in height. The different of the earlier nummulite formation, as well as those of the upper chalk, are here exposed to view, and generallj contain numi 1 1. The THE OASES. 63 oases, particularly those of Dakhel and Khargeh, are remarkable for tlieir fossil wealth. The soil of the deep depressions in which these oases lie, partly below the level of the Nile, consists of the variegated clayey or sandy strata of the upper chalk. The ground is so strongly impregnated with alum at places that it was thought worth while about thirty years ago to erect manufactories for its preparation, but the un- dertaking was afterwards abandoned owing to the difficulties of transport. Numerous thermal springs well up from the upper strata of the chalk, and the soil thus irrigated is luxuriantly clothed with vegetation (see p. 64). The barrier of Nubian sandstone which abuts on the valley of the Nile at Selseleh extends far into the Libyan desert. It forms the south- western boundary of the oases of Khargeh and Dakhel, beyond which it stretches for an unknown distance into the heart of the desert. This for- mation contains silicified wood and iron and manganese ores in abundance. About six days' journey to the W. of the oases begins a complete ocean of sand. As far as the eye can reach we discover nothing but a vast expanse of loose yellow sand, which generally forms itself into ranges of sand-hills, many miles in length, and occasionally rising to a height of 300 ft. or upwards above the level of the plain. The oasis of Farafra lies in a recess eroded in the nummulite lime- stone , and enclosed by precipitous slopes, except on the S. side where there is an opening. To the N. and W. of Farafra extends the eo- cene limestone plateau as far as the neighbourhood of Siwa, between which oasis and Bahriyeh it is remarkable for its numerous basin-shaped and sharply defined depressions. These basins, especially those which are filled with salt-lakes, impart a peculiarly attractive character to the scenery. The whole of the desert around the Oasis of Ammon consists of recent tertiary deposits, the fossil wealth of which was once extolled by Herodotus and Eratosthenes. Approximately speaking, the Libyan Desert consists of Nubian sand- stone , the upper chalk, the nummuiite limestone, and the more recent tertiary formations, arranged in this sequence, and extending in broad successive strips from S.S.E. to N.N.W. The Oases (by Prof. P. Ascherson). In the midst of the Libyan De- sert, the most bleak and desolate part of the whole of the African Sa- hara, at a distance of several days' journey to the W. of the Nile, there have existed since hoar antiquity a number of highly favoured spots, which are abundantly irrigated by subterranean supplies of water, and richly covered with vegetation almost vying in luxuriance with that of the valley of the Nile. The Coptic word 'Wah', according to Brugsch, is of ancient Egyptian origin, and signifies an inhabited station; in its Greek form 'oasis' (properly Ouagis or Auaai;), the word is used as the geographical term for irrigated and cultivable spots , or islands of vege- tation, in the midst of the stony and sandy ocean of the desert. Four of the five Egyptian oases lie in a somewhat curved line drawn from S.E. to N.W. , and converging at the S. end to the valley of the Nile: — (1) Walt cl-Klidrgeh, i.e. 'the outer oasis' (already so named by Olympiodorus in the 5th cent. A.D.), or Oasis Major of antiquity, situated 3-4 days journey from Thebes or from Girgeh on the Nile. (2) Wdh ed-Ddkheliyeh, or more commonly Dakhel, i.e. the 'inner oasis' (also so named by Olympiodorus), 3 days' journey to the W. of Khargeh, and about 6 days' journey from the valley of the Nile near Siut. (3) Farafra (i.e. the bubbling springs), about 5 days' journey to the N.N.W. of Dakhel, and 8-10 days' journey from the valley of the Nile near SiAt. (4) Siwa, anciently the celebrated oasis of Jupiter Ammon, 1G days' journey to the W.S.W. of Alexandria and about 14 from Cairo. The direct route from Siwa to Farafra (traversed by Rohlfs and Zittel in 1874 in 10'/2 days) is little known as yet, as most European travellers make the long circuit towards the E. via, — (5) Wdh el-Bahriyeh , i.e. 'the northern oasis', or Oasis Minor of antiquity, situated 6V2 days' journey to the S.W. of Medinet el- Fay um, about 4 days' journey from Behneseh in the valley of the Nile, 9 days from Siwa, and 5 days from Farafra. 64 THE OASES. The oases always lie at a considerably lower level than the stony plateau of the desert, which rises above them In picturesque rocky pre* , and the oasis of Siwa is about 178ft. below tb ; I. The Hat surfaces of these depressions do not always form a Bingle cultivated area, but consist, even in the case of the smalle Farafra. of a number of comparatively small parcels "I cultivable soil, separated bj belts of sterile ground. One of thi . like that of Khargeh, when surveyed from the neighbouring hei nts the. appearance of a large expanse of desert, flecked with isolated , light and dark green, the former being fields of corn and other crops, and the latter palm-groves. These islands of vegetation , the extent of which depends on the copiousness of the springs in their midst and the amount of care used in the distribution of the water, have, often since the time of Strabo been not inaptly compared to the spots on a pan- ther's skin, but the simile applies to the oases individually, and not to those of the Libyan desert as a whole, as they are but few in number and very far apart. As already observed, these Libyan oases owe their fertility to the copiousness id' their water supply. Inexhaustible subterranean chai or an immense reservoir, perhaps common to all the oases, are believed to connect them with the Nubian Nile, or possibly with the Sudan; and of this supply it is probable that a very limited portion only comes to the surface in the form of springs. Within the last thirt] years llasau- Bffendi, a well-digger from the valley of the Nile, and formerly servant to a French engineer, has sunk about sixl_\ new well, in the oasis of Dakhel, some of which, though close to older wills, d il m to di- minish the copiousness of the latter. With the aid of this additional supply a large area of sterile soil has been brought under cultivation, and it is therefore probable that by means of Artesian wells, such as those. sunk by the French in the Algerian oases, the extent of the cultivable soil might still be largely increased. The high temperature of the water, both in the natural springs and in the wells, shows that it conies from a great depth; and it is strongly impregnated with mineral ingredients, as in the case of the bath-springs ofKasr Dakhel and Bahriyeh (97° Fahr.), and the beautiful sun-spring ('Ain l.lammam) at Siwa (85°), the curative properties of which, owing to their remote situation, are eldom utilised. At Bahriyeh the stratum from which the water more immediately bursts forth seems to lie at no great depth below the surface of the soil. The thermal waters of Dakhel contain iron, and, like tho i Ya and Khargeh, are not unpleasant to drink when cooled; but the water of Siwa is brackish and nauseous to the taste. The wells are generally very deep (90-320 ft. and upwards), and in ancient times the inhabitants of the oases, as we an' informed bj Olympiodorui , • ated for their skill in sinking them. The invasion of the Arabs, however, was suc- ceeded by several centuries of barbarism, during which the art Of boring wells was well nigh forgotten; many wells were filled up, and exl tracts of cultivated land, still traceable by the old divisions of the fields, were abandoned; but, as above mentioned, the practice is beginning to lie revived. The considerable force with which the water comes up from its profound reservoirs enables the inhabitants to construct wells or ar- tificial dams on tin' highest parts id' the always arranged in terraces of picturesque appearance, over which the fertilis- ing element is conducted downwards in SUCCOSSi in, thai the laborious system of sakiyehs and shad ill's used in the vallej of the Nile is dispensed with. Am on " the southern oases, on the other hand, we frequently ob- e water-conduits, carried by artificial embankments to long distances for the purpose of conveying the precious liquid over ste- rile Ball ground to I soil, or necessitated by the requirements cf the curiously involved rights ol property. Th< e conduits not (infrequently i o-i, other at different levels. Thi sprin are i Derail; tl perly of the communities, rarely that of wealthy indi id it is in proportion to their number, and that, of the I thai the in- nts have to pay taxes, while the soil its, It is nominally free. THE OASES. 65 the springs are common property, the periodical distribution of die water has from time immemorial formed the subject of statutory re- •>ii].ilii>ns. The cultivable land consists of open fields and of gardens, v [mil are carefully enclosed with earthen walls about 6 ft. high, crowned with twisted palm-leaves, for the purpose of keeping out intruders, or are more rarely hedged in with branches of the sunt or other thorny plant. In the oases, as in the valley of the Nile', a regular rotation of win fer ami summer crops is observed (eomp. p. 72), although, with their uniform supply of water, there is not the same necessity for it. The winter crops are wheat and barley; those of summer are rice, dura f Sorghum vulgare), and a small proportion of dukhn (Penicillaria spicata), while in Dakhel and Khargeh indigo is grown in considerable quantities. Cotton is also cultivated to a small extent, but the yield is hardly ade- quate for even the local requirements. By far the most important fruit yielded by the gardens is that of the date-palm. The delicious dates are very superior to those of the Nile valley, and they form, particularly at Dakhel and Siwa, the only important article of export. Olive-trees also occur in all the oases, especially in Farafra, Bahriyeh, and Siwa, where they yield a considerable quantity of oil, besides which there are apricots, oranges, lemons, and melons, but very few other fruit trees. The ordinary vegetables grown in the valley of the Kile, such as lettuces, cabbages, and kulkas , are never met with; nor have the recently in- troduced sugar-cane and the beautiful lebbek acacia (p. 76) yet found their way to the oases. The venerable sunt-trees (p. 77) form a very characteristic feature of the southern oases. They generally shade the wells, or the sites of old wells now filled up owing to neglect, and they indicate the course of the water-conduits to the still distant traveller. The most prominent of the indigenous plants of the oases is the r oshr •opis procera), which is also common on the banks of the Nile in It is a broad-leaved shrub or small tree, attaining a height of 6 ft. or more, with a copious milky and very poisonous sap, and round fruit ot the size of a large apple containing woolly seeds, and known on the banks of the Dead Sea as the 'apple of Sodom'. The indigenous animals of the oases are much fewer in number than of the valley of the Nile. The only large mammal that occurs is the gazelle, which is also found in the sterile parts of the Libyan desert. Tiie only beasts of prey are several varieties of jackals (Arab, dib) ami foxes (Arab, la'leb). Among the latter is the pretty fenek, which is only halt the size of the European fox, yellowish-grey in colour, and with ears longer than the breadth of the head. Hyenas seem to be unknown, except in Bahriyeh. The timid ostrich rarely visits the Libyan oases. The domestic animals kept by the inhabitants of the oases consist of a few horses, numerous donkeys of a small and weakly type, which will not bear comparison with their strong and active congeners of Alexandria and Cairo, and a few oxen, sheep, and goats. Buffaloes are also kept in Khargeh and a few in Bahriyeh. It is surprising how few camels are to be found in the oases, but it is said that the bite of a certain fly en- dangers their lives in summer. Turkeys and fowls are plentiful. The population of the oases is not of a uniform character. According to Brugsch, the original inhabitants were Libyan (or Berber) tribes, but after the oases were annexed to Egypt many new settlers were introduced from the valley of the Nile and from Nubia. The Berber nationality of the inhabitants of the oasis of Ammon, notwithstanding its having been connected with Egypt for several thousand years and its reception of immigrants from the west, in the middle ages, is still very marked, while the population of the other oases, like that of the Nile valley, has adopted the Arabic language. In Bahriyeh (where, besides the natives of the place, there is a colony of Siwanese who still speak the Berber dia- lect) and Farafra the physiognomic type of the Berber race still predom- inates ; in Dakhel the features of most of the population are not ma- terially different from the fellah type ; while in Siwa , through which the great caravan route from Alexandria and Cairo via HUirzuk to the Sudan leads, and in Khargeh. which lies on the route to Dar-Ftir, the Baedeker's Egypt I. 2nd Ed. 5 66 THE OASES. admixture of negro blood imparts its unmistakable stamp to the features of the inhabitants. There are no Coptic settlers in the oases, but they are sometimes temporarily met with there in the capacity of merchants eminent clerks; and Europeans are Mill more rarely encountered. pulation of tl comparatively small (Khargeh, according b weinfurth, posse ing to Rohlfs, i Farafra 320, Bahriyeh about 6000, and Siwa 5600), and the narrow limits of the cultivable soil prevents ii from increasing; l>ut a more auspicious era may now be in store for these isolated communil they follow the exam L thi inhabitants of Dakhel by sinking fresh wells and thus extending their territory. As a rule, even in the most favourably circumstanced oasis of Dakhel, the physique of the population is poor and stunted, owing partly to their almost exclusive vegetable diet (of which Prof. Virchow has found evidence in the condition of the teeth of Skulls from the ancient tombs of Dakhel), and partly to the unhealthiness of the climate, which bas been notorious from the remotest antiquity. In the early Egyptian period, and also during the domination of the Roman emperor > rally used as pi; banishment, partly because their isolation rendered escape well nigh im- Le, and partly peril I the climate was expected to vate the miser] of tl xUes lus of the water used fi cultural purposes forms a series of marshe ml lakes on line soil, and these last contribute greatly to the picturesqueness of the landscape in Siwa, which is farther enhanced bj a number of isolated rocky heights; but the exhalations of these waterj tracts in summer are very unhealthy. Within the las) few centuries this evil ba aggravated bj neglect, and the artificial swamps required for the rice cultivation are fraught with additional danger. Some measure for utilis- ing the super r, or at least rendering it harmless, is perhaps more urgently needed for the well-being of the oases than an increase of the water supply. Under present circumstances Europeans had better abstain from visiting the oa es from the beginning of April till the end of November, but in the winter months they may visit them safely. With regard to the construction of the dwellings in the 0a8es it may be remarked that they all have more or le thi character of town- houses, as. even at the present day. the unsafe state of the countrj n them to be strongly built in close proximity to each other. Instead of the ivels of the >'iie valley, we therefore and in all thi i iii. somewhat rudelj built of mud (and times of stone, as at Bahriyeh) and palm I \ curious feature of these [recurring in the otl i the Sahara al o, as. for example, in the famous commercial town of Ghadames, to the S.W. of Tripoli) is the covered streets running under the nppi r Si and ometimes Of SUCh length a to be perfectly dark. As. moreover. like most Oriental streets, thi nerally crooked, it is hardly prudent for a stranger to venture into them without a guide. The main street Of the town of Siwa wind-; in fcj eminence on which the houses are built, and the ieed in this n one of the most curious in thi - usually the case with place lyin e from thi i world, the government of thi i in the bands of thi ad u ealthy membi n \ and a I pati rnal ol i r bj the Egyptian goverment finds it difficult to i bori it i- only thi ili and omi Limi bli i dj quarrel ot the leading parties of the Lifayeh and the Gharbin (of whom the latter, as the name indicates, are immigrants from the west) that afford him an opportunity ot interposing in hi- judicial capacity, in the other oa i also, down to tie middle of the present century, the power of the government officials i ui paralj 3ed bj that ol the obstinate but after the repression "f the Kednin revolt Said Pasha sui in firmly establishing the viceregal authority In the I Since that period pi I throughout the oases, and as the pi Rain. CLIMATE. 67 of taxation is not nearly so heavily felt here as in the valley of the Nile the inhabitants are comparatively wealthy. Of late years, how- ever, they have occasionally suffered from the predatory attacks of nomadic marauders from the Cyrenaica, and even by the Arabs of the Nile valley. A new disturbing element, too, has unfortunately sprung up within the last ten years in Siwa, Bahriyeh, and Farafra, in the establish- ment and rapid spread of the Senusi order of Mohammedans , by whom the introduction of all Christian culture is bitterly opposed. This re- ligions order was founded about the middle of the present century by Sidi Snusi lor Senusi, as the name is pronounced in Eastern Africa, where the vowels are more distinctly pronounced than by the Moghrebbins of Algeria and Morocco), a talib (or scripture scholar) of Tlemsen in Al- geria, for the purpose of restoring the observance of Islam to its origi- nal purity, and, above all, of warring against Christianity. Although the members of the order are regarded by other Mohammedan sects as Khoms, or heretics, they have rapidly acquired great power in the districts sur- rounding the eastern Sahara, and, like the Jesuits in Christian countries, have amassed considerable wealth, their principal treasury being at Sara- bub, the chief seat of the order, two days' journey to the W. of Siwa. Sarabub is also the residence of Sidi-Mahdi, the general of the order and son of its founder, who has succeeded in obtaining certain privileges from the Sultan of Turkey. At Siwa he has established a richly endowed Zawiyeh, or school of religion; at Farafra the Zawiyeh is all-powerful, having within the ten years of its existence bought up a considerable part of the landed property there ; and at Bahriyeh the order has suc- ceeded in monopolising the schools, so that the rising generation may be expected to succumb to their influence. The hostility of this new sect to all modern culture is obviously a serious obstacle to the progress which the Egyptian government is now anxious to promote. Climate. The climate of Egypt is to some extent influenced by the great artery on which the country's life depends, but the desert may be regarded as its chief regulator. But for the immense ab- sorbing power of the desert the winter rains of the Mediterranean regions would extend far up the Nile valley ; and, but for its prox- imity, the great expanse of nearly stagnant water at the mouths of the Nile, covering an area of upwards of 2500 sq. M., would render the Delta one of the most unhealthy and uninhabitable regions in the world. The air of the desert is pleasantly cool, and possesses the most refreshing and health-giving qualities ; indeed, to borrow Bayard Taylor's expression, it is a true 'elixir of life'. To the deli- cious purity of the air+ of the desert a kind of parallel is afforded by the excellence of the water of the life-giving Nile. Rain, throughout a great part of Egypt proper, is a very rare phenomenon. At Cairo the fogs of winter are rarely condensed into showers of any duration, and the rain occasionally blown inland from the sea seldom lasts long. Observations carried on at Cairo for five years show a mean annual rainfall of only l 1 / 2 inch, while the mean at Alexandria lor a period of fourteen years was 8 inches. The unusual frequency of rain during the last few years has been absurdly attributed to the great increase of the area planted with t It may be noticed here that the air is largely impregnated with saline particles from the limestone rocks of the desert, and it is chiefly to their presence that the beneficial effect of the air on the respiratory organs is supposed to be due. 5* 63 CLIMATE. Sain. trees, a boon which the country oweB to the government of the Khe- dive Isma'il. The winters of these same years were also unusually wet in Greece and other regions adjoining the Mediterranean where but littl nerally falls, so that the weather of thi tional seasons was doubtless affected by unknown climatic influ- ences extending far beyond the limits of Egypt. The recent for- mation of the extensive Bitter Lakes in the Isthmus of Suez lias also no influence on t] except in their own immediate neighbourhood, [f the hanks of the Red Sea still remain desert in spite of the huge evaporating surface beside them, what change of importance could be expected from the artificial creation of a few square miles of water? The whole of the base of the Delta lies within the region of the winter rains, which from January to April are blown inland by the thru prevailing sea-breezes to a distance of 30-50 English miles. In I pper Egypt, on the other hand, rain is almost unknown, and it is not uncommon to meet with adult natives who have never seen a single shower. In that part of the country a thunder-shower, oi the extreme fringe of the tropical rains, falls at rare intervals in April or Ma J to the no small wonder of the natives. These showers are mere frequent above the first cataract, and they recur regularly a little to the N. ofNe-K Donkola or f Ordeh (19° N. lat.), while to the S. of Shendi there is annually a short wet season, with its concomitants of malaria and fever. The rainfall in the deserts mi each side of the Nile is very unequally distributed, hut of these regions also it is approximately true that rain is of very partial and sporadic occurrence. Tims there are vast tracts of the Libyan desert which fm- years together derive their sole moisture from the damp north ami north-westerly winds, and when the wind is in any other quarter they are even deprived of their nightly ri I of dew. On the Arabian side the case is materially 'I here, along the coast of the lied Sea, runs a range of mountains 1800-10,000 ft. in height, where occasional, hut \ery violent Bhowers fall between October and December, hol- lowing out the deep valleys which descend to the Nile. Although these desert rains are of too short duration permanently to affect ihe character of the country, their fertilising effect on the light and loose soil is far greater than if they had to penetrate a heavier soil covered with thick vegetation. \- ile- year is divided in the valley of the Nile by the rise and fall of the river into two well-defined seasons, one when the soil LS l easily cultivated, and the other when nothing will grow without artificial irrigation, so also it may he divided in accordance with tin' prevalent Winds into two different Of i i'jht and of four months. North winds prevail as a rule from the middle of June to the middle of February, and Bouth Q3,E. and S.W.) during the rest of the year (while in the Red Sea the lent winds at these seasons are almost exactl) in the reverse Temperature. CLIMATE. 69 directions). Early in the afternoon of a day during the second of these seasons the wind, as is the case in all tropical regions, some- times rises to a hurricane, in which case it is called a 'Sarniini'. Of this wind there are two or three different varieties : (1) It is called a 'Shobeh' when it blows chiefly from the east, and (2) a 'Merisi' when it comes directly from the south. In the latter case it is also sometimes called a 'Khamsin', but this name more properly applies to the very hot, dry, and dust-laden winds which frequently blow unremittingly for one or two whole days together, and render the climate peculiarly trying in March and April (comp. p. 2). The name Khamasin, as it is more correctly written, is the plural of Khamsin, signifying 'fifty'', and is applied to these winds in conse- quence of the fact that they prevail only during a period of fifty days before the summer solstice, after which they invariably cease. The Arabs confine this name to the period, and name the winds themselves shard. The wind to which the name is applied in winter affords but a feeble idea of the Khamsin of the hotter season, which forms the only disagreeable feature of the Egyptian climate, and one from which there is no escape. The impalpable sand finds its way into the most carefully closed rooms, boxes, and even watches, and the parching heat is most destructive to the blossoms of fruit-trees. In accordance with the Temperature the Egyptian year may also be divided into two seasons, a period of hot weather, lasting eight months (April to November), and a cool season of four months (December to March). Throughout the whole country the heat gradually increases from April till the middle or end of June, and many of the superstitious natives believe that a perceptible fresh- ening of the air takes place on the night of the 'dropping' ( 17th June ; see p. 239). In Alexandria the blowing of the N. N.W. wind sometimes interrupts the regular increase of the heat , so that the maximum may be reached as early as May or June or may be post- poned to September or October. The maximum heat in the Delta is about 95° Fahr. in the shade, in Upper Egypt about 109°. At Cairo the thermometer sometimes rises as high as 114° during the prevalence of the Khamsin. In December, January, and February the temperature is at its lowest, falling in the Delta to 35°, in Alex- andria to 40", and in Upper Egypt to 41°. The quicksilver rarely sinks to the freezing-point, except in the desert and at night. On 16th Feb. 1874, during Rohlfs' expedition in the Libyan desert, the thermometer fell to 23°. About sunrise the traveller will some- times find a thin coating of ice in his basin, or on neighbouring pools of water, where, owing to the rapid evaporation, the tempe- rature falls several degrees lower than in the surrounding air. As a rule, throughout the whole country, and at every season, the tem- perature is highest from 1 to 5 p.m., and lowest during the two hours before sunrise. The result of the observations often years has been that the mean temperature in the Delta and at Cairo is 58° Fahr. in winter, 78° in spring, 83° in summer, and 66° in autumn. M. Pirona's observations, carried on for fourteen years, fix the mean temperature on the coast near Alexandria at 60° in winter, 66° in 70 AGRICULTURE. spring, T7 n in summer, and 74°in autumn. At Alexandria the sum- mer days are much cooler and the winter nights much warmer than at Cairo. but the moisture of the air makes the heat much more op- pressive. In the drier air the constant absorption of moisture from the skin keeps the body at a much lower temperature than that of the surrounding air. and thus renders the great heat of the desert much more bearable than one would expect. The strong sea-breezes at Alexandria also make the heat of summer less oppressive than it is ai man) places on tin' Mediterranean situated much farther to the V As three different thermometers are used in Kurope, — those of Fahrenheit, Celsius, and Reaumur ( 1° F. = -V,, C. = 4 9 ° |;. ), _ the traveller may find the following table convenient for reference. -^ Si U o u S3 5 a> U c •- a ~ e X a 2 a 1 3 t- a u t. 7Z cS — a - a . a? a ■^ v .1 ■■- |X( ~ a ■- PS - fc g o X M ° +124 1-40,89 +29,78 +74 +23,88 +49 +7,56 +9,44 123 10,44 50,56 98 36,67 73 L8,22 22,78 4S ;.n L22 40,00 50,00 91 28,89 36,11 72 L7,78 22,22 •47 6,67 S.33 121 19. ii 96 28,44 35,56 71 17,33 21,67 iO 6,22 L20 39,11 18,89 95 28,00 35,00 70 16,89 21,11 45 5,78 ::r> 119 38,67 94 27,56 34,44 69 L6 y 'JO. 50 44 5,33 6,67 118 47,78 03 27,11 33,81 OS 16,00 20,00 43 i.S!l 0.11 117 37,78 11 22 92 26,67 :;;;;::; 07 15,56 lii.ii 12 4 . i i III) 16,67 91 32,78 GO 15.11 18,89 41 | in 5,00 115 Hi. II 90 25,78 32,22 05 L4.67 18,33 40 3,50 1,44 114 ., iG 89 25,33 31,67 04 1 1 22 L7,7fi 3!) 3,89 113 36,00 15,00 8S 24.89 31,11 G3 13,78 38 2,67 L12 35,56 4 I . 'i i s; 24 ; 30,56 62 13,33 16,67 37 2,22 " ra 111 35,11 86 24,00 30,00 01 12,89 10.11 36 1,78 III! 34,61 85 2 1, 1 1 12,44 15,51 35 L,33 1,67 109 84 23,11 28,89 59 12,00 34 0,89 l.ll HIS 12,22 83 28,33 58 11.50 1 1 . 1 i 33 1 1. i 1 0,56 L07 33,33 ii.n; 82 27,78 57 ll.il 13,88 32 0,00 0,00 L06 ii ii 81 21,78 56 10,67 L3,3S 31 1 1 1 1 L05 32,44 10,56 so ia 26',67 55 L0,22 12.78 30 0,89 l.ll oil )U. (HI ,' 26, 1 1 54 9,78 12,22 103 78 20 1 1 53 11,67 1,78 102 31,11 38,89 77 20,01 52 8,89 ll.ll :>7 12 2,78 L01 30,67 38,33 re 19,56 1 1 . i'i 51 8, i i 'JO 3.33 LOO :;; re 75 19,11 23,88 50 S 1 II 1 L0,0fl 25 3,89 Agricultu- I. Cavahilitiks of the Soil, [n the time of the Pharaohs the Egyptian agricultural year was divided into three equal parts, the period of the Inundation (from the end of June to fchi end of October), that of the growing of the crops (from the_ end of October to the rod ofFebruary), and thai of the harvest (from the end of February to the end of June), \t the present da? there arc two principal si asons, corresponding to our summer and winter, - which there it a short additional season, corresponding with Irrigation. AGRICULTURE. 71 the late summer or early autumn of the European year. The land is extremely fertile, but it is not so incapable of exhaustion as it is sometimes represented to be. Many of the crops, as elsewhere, must occasionally be followed by a fallow period ; others thrive only when a certain rotation is observed (such as wheat, followed by clover and beans); and some fields require to be artificially manured. Occa- sionally two crops are yielded by the same field in the same season (wheat and saffron, wheat and clover, etc.). The recent great extension of the cultivation of the sugar-cane, which requires a great deal of moisture, and of the cotton-plant, which requires extremely little, has necessitated considerable modifications in the modes of irrigation and cultivation hitherto in use. As both of these crops are of a very exhausting character, the land must either be more frequently left fallow, or must be artificially manured. The industry and powers of endurance of the Egyptian peasantry are thus most severely tried, and no imported agricultural labourers could ever hope to compete with them, as has sometimes been thought possible. Although the homogeneous soil of the valley of the Nile breaks up of its own accord after its irrigation, and requires less careful tilling and ploughing than ours, it exacts more uni- form attention throughout the whole year, while its irrigation involves a great additional amount of labour to which the European fanner is quite unaccustomed. The increasing use of artificial manures, which were formerly but little known, is another source of great labour. As the country is thickly peopled and supports numerous cattle, there ought to be no lack of natural manure; but, as the dung of the domestic animals is used as fuel throughout Egypt, where wood is very scarce, that of pigeons (p. 79) is almost liic only kind available for agricultural purposes. An abundant source of manure is afforded by the ruins of ancient towns, which were once built of unbaked clay, but now consist of mounds of earth, recognisable only as masses of ruins by the fragments of pottery they contain. Out of these mounds, which conceal the rubbish of thou- sands of years, is dug a kind of earth sometimes containing as much as 12 per cent of saltpetre, soda, ammonia, and other salts. This manure possesses extremely fertilising properties, but if used at the wrong time or place is very injurious to the soil. II. Irrigation'. The whole of the cultivable soil of Egypt is divided into two classes in accordance with its relative height above the surface of the Nile : (1) The 'Era', or fields which retain their moisture after the subsidence of the overflow long enough (or nearly long enough) to admit of the ripening of the crop without additional irrigation; ('2) The l SharQki\ or those which always require artificial irrigation. The irrigation is effected by means of: ( 1 ) The l Sakiyeh\ or large wheels (rarely exceeding 30 ft. in dia- meter I, turned by domestic animals of various kinds, and fitted with scoops of wood or clay, resembling a dredging-machine. (In the 72 AGRICULTURE. Agricultural Seaaona. Faytim a peculiar kind of water-wheel is in use. so contrived as to be turned by the weight of the water. ~) According to Figari-Beyj the number of sakiyehs used in Central and Lower Egypt in 1804 was about 50,000, which were turned and superintended b) '200,000 oxen and 100,000 persons, and "which irrigated 4,500,000 ac land. {'1 ) The i 8hddUf\ an apparatus resembling that of an ordinary v. ell, set in motion by one person only, and drawing the water in buckets resembling baskets in appearance; as a substitute for the sakiyeh several sh. a tint's are sometimes arranged one above the other. \'.\) When it is possible to store the water in reservoirs above the level of the land to be watered, it is allowed to overflow the fields whenever required. This is the only method available in the oases, where fortunately the water rises from the springs with such force as to admit of its being easily dammed up at a sufficiently high i i I I'n in [is driven by steam are also used, particularly when a large supply of water is required, as in the case of the - plantations on the 'Gefs' of the Nile in Northern Egypt, where they are seen in great numbers. (&) Lastly the l Tdbut\ a peculiar, very light, and easily moved wooden wheel, which raises the "water by means of numerous fans, is used in the Lower Delta only and in places where the level of the water in the canals remains nearly the same. In order to distribute the water equally over flat fields, they are sometimes divided into a number of small squares b) means of embankments of earth, 1 ft. in height, which, owing to the greai plast icily of the Nile mud, arc easily opened or closed so as to regulate the height of the water within them. Before describing the different Egyptian agricultural seasons, we must first observe that thej are no longer so Bharply defined as they probably were in ancient times. Besides the old crops, there are now several others of recent introduction, and BO extensively grown as in some measure to revolutionise the modes of cultivation. These are maize, rice, the sugar-cane, cotton, ramieh, and indigo. (This last plant was known to Pliny, but it was probably grown in his time only to a very limited extent. I The agrarian measures of lie Egyptian government are all directed towards the emancipation of farming from its dependence upon the inundations, in order that every crop may be cultivated at the season in which it thrives best. The embankments and various apparatus Tor the regulation of the water supply, recently constructed or founded by the govern- ment, rie in importance with the greatest ancient works of the kind. III. Agricultural Sbasons, (1) The Winter Crop, or l Eah- 8hitdwi\ grown exclusively on the 'Rai' land (p, rii. is sown Immediately after the subsidence of the inundation, which takes ely from s. to v in Upper Egypt seed-tim cordin irly as the middle of October, Ln Central Egypt I from Sifij to Cairo | ,,i the beginning of November, and in the Delta about the end of December. The ground is seldom prepared Agricultural Seasons. AGRICULTURE. 73 for sowing by the use of the plough. The seed is scattered over the still soft and moist soil, and is then either pressed into it by means of a ■wooden roller, beaten into it with pieces of wood, or trodden in by oxen+. Throughout the whole country a period of four months elapses between seed-time and the completion of the har- vest. The winter harvest is, therefore, over in Upper Egypt about the middle of February, in Central Egypt about the middle of March, and in the Delta towards the end of April. In Upper and Central Egypt this is the most important harvest of the whole year. The principal crop everywhere is wheat (occupying 50% of the fields in Upper Egypt and 30% in the Delta), next to which are barley (in the proportion of 10% and 14%, in these regions respectively), clover (10% and 24% respectively), and broad beans (20 % and 12%-) respectively). (2) The Summer Crops C-Es-Sefi or l El-Kedi\) are much more varied than those of winter, but they are comparatively unimportant in Upper and Central Egypt, as the cultivable land in these regions is very narrow, and belongs chiefly to the 'Rai' category, two-thirds of it being under water during summer. In the Delta, on the other hand, summer is the farmer's most important season. The vege- tation with which its whole surface is densely clothed in June and July is marvellously rich and beautiful, thousands of magnificent trees clustered in groups afford delightful shelter from the fierce rays of the sun, and the eye ranges over an immense expanse teem- ing with luxuriant crops. Another charm of the country in summer consists in its abundantly stocked gardens and orchards : but of all these attractions the traveller who, like a bird of passage, merely seeks refuge in Egypt from the cold and rains of a northern w inter cannot possibly form any adequate idea. At this season every dis- t The Agricultural Implements of the Egyptians are exceedingly primitive and defective. The chief of these is the plough (mihrdt), the form of which is precisely the same as it was 5000 years ago ; and the traveller will recognise it on many of the monuments and in the system of hieroglyphics. It consists of a pole about G ft. long, drawn by an ox, buffalo, or other Least of burden, attached to it by means of a yoke, while to the other end is fastened a piece of wood bent inwards at an acute angle, and shod with a three-pronged piece of iron (lis&n). Con- nected with the pole is the handle which is held by the fellah. These rude and light ploughs penetrate but slightly into the ground.' (On the e ami I'm in a draughty place. The grain is afterwards passed through a sieve. 74 FARM PRODI ( I trict of Egypt has its favourite erop; ill Upper Egypt, between Assuan andEsneh, tlio penicillaria, and in the Delta rice are chiefly cultivated ; while the peculiar looking indigo-plant, a rich profusion of grapes, anda plentiful growth of cucumbers and melons are seen in everj part of the country. The summer cultivation, ofwhichthe 'Shaiaki' land alone is capable, is carried on from April toAugusI ; but many of the plants grown at this season require a longerperiod of development, extending throughout the whole of the autumn and even part of the winter. This is particularly the rase with the rice crop, which is sown in .May, hut does not attain maturity till the middle of November, and with the cotton-plant, sown in April, and harvested in November or I >ecembeT. A large quantity of cotton is also yielded by a second harvest from the pruned plant in the month of August, in the second year of Its growth. Summer is also the principal season for the tobacco crop. (3) The Autumn Seast w i En-Nabdri ot'Ed-Denfori"), as already observed, is of very subordinate importance, being sometimes oc- cupied, as in the case of rice and cotton, in bringing the summer crop- to maturity. It is also the shortest season, extending to little more than seventy days ; and yet within this brief space the rich soil of the Delta yields its harvest of maize, which, next to wheat, is the most important of the Egyptian cereals. (The annual yield of these two grains is said to amount to '24 million bushels. I The autumn cultivation lasts from August to October, and sometimes till November. At the beginning of October, throughout the whole Delta from Sue/ to Alexandria, th< will observe an almost unbroken ocean of maize-fields, seldom varied except i>\ the low villages, resembling i Is of earth, with their neighbouring palm groves. The picture of teeming fertility which the country then its far surpasses thai presented by the rich maize-fields of Bouth-eastern Europe. LnCentral Egypl maize is also an important summer crop. Along with it, is sometimes cultivated the Le mon Sorghum, or Dura, or Indian millet, which is eaten by the poorest fellahin only. It is, however, largely consumed by the Bed- uins on the Arabian side of tie- Nile, and in the Sudan and Nubia forms the chief food of the inhabitants. Another plan! cultivated in autumn, i in Egypt, bul common in the Sudan and Nubia, is the tropical Sesame, from which oil is largely prepared. i. Farm Produce of Egypt. The following i< an enumeration of all Ho- most important industrial crops cultivated within Ho- bouudai . aami of those with which he is unacquainted, the them with the aid of the Egyptian name tven i» low. 'I'lir \ arioua product - are enumerated in the order of their importance. Cereals. I. Wheal [kamh; that from Ho- Delta, kamhbahri; from Upper Egypt, kam\ lis i Syrian; called in Byria d irley (shatr). i. Bi cultivated onlj in do- lower part of tin- Delta ot Alexandria and Rahmaniyeb. , as far as ... Zakazik, Salihiyeh, and in the Wadi ad also in the Fayum and in the oaset of tin' Libyan re (dura durs of ill nti imply called dura in the Sudan; Ital. TREES AND PLANTATIONS. 75 sorgho. Engl, eaffereom . and the Tyrolese sireli). 6. Penieillaria (dukhn). 7. Sorghum saccharatum. b. Podded Fruits. 1. Broad beans (fAl). 2. Lentils ('ados). 3. Chick- peas (hummus). 4. Lupins (tirmis). 5. Peas (bisilla). 6. Doliehos Lubia (h'ibiija). 7. Doliehos Labial) (lablab), which is very frequently seen fes- tooning walls and pinnacles, but is also grown in fields in separate plants. 8. Vigna Sinensis. 9. White beans (Itibiya frengi). 10. Phaseolus Mungo. 11. Horse beans (Canavalia gladiata). c. Green Crops. 1. White Egyptian clover (bersim). 2. Fcenum Grsecum (helbeh, frequently ground into flour and used in making bread ; iierally eaten raw by the natives in winter; not to be confounded with clover). 3. Medicago sativa, or lucerne (bersim heg&zi). 4. Lathyrus sativus. or Hat pea (gulb&n). 5. Sorghum halepense (gtrau). d. Stimulants. 1. Virginian tobacco, or Nicotiana Tabacum (duihdn ahmar). 2. Peasant's tobacco, or Nicotiana rustica (duihdn akhdar). 3. Poppies, for the manufacture of opium (abu-mtm, or 'father of sleep). 4. Indian hemp (hashish; comp. p. 18). e. Textile Materials. 1. Cotton (kotn), introduced from India in 1821, but extensively cultivated since 1863 only. 2. Flax ( keltdn). 3. Hemp (til). 4. Hibiscus cannabinus. f. Dyes. 1. Indigo argentea , a peculiar kind (nileh). 2. Lawsonia inermis (henna), used for dyeing the nails, the palms of the hands, and the soles of the feet yellowish red (a very ancient custom, which has recently been prohibited); properly a tree, but, like the tea-plant, cultivated in fields in the form of a dwarfed bush. 3. Saffron (kartam or 'osfur). 4. Madder (fihi). cultivated in small quantities. 5. Reseda Luteola (bliya) , used as a yellow dye. Oil Plants. 1. Castor-oil plant (Tchirwa). 2. Sesame (sim-sim). 3. Lettuce (khass), very largely cultivated. 4. Rape (selgam). 5. Chicory (hendebeh). 6. Mustard ( khardal , or kabar). 7. Arachides, or earth-nuts (/HI senndri, or simply fill). S. Saffron (as an oil-yielding plant). 9. Poppy (as an oil-plant). 10. Garden cress, or Lepidium sativum (rishdd). h. Spices. 1. Capsicum annuum, the Italian peperone (filfil ahmar). 2. Capsicum frutescens. or Cayenne pepper (shitSta). 3. Aniseed (yansiln, or Anisiin). 4. Coriander (kusbara). 5. Caraway (kiuuinhi). G. Nigella (kemmflu aswad). 7. Dill (shamdr). 8. Mustard. i. The Sugar Cane (kasab es-sukhar) has of late been largely cultivated in the N. part of Upper Egypt for the purpose of being manufactured into sugar. An inferior variety, which is eaten raw, introduced from India in the time of the khalifs, is cultivated in every part of the country. k. Vegetables. 1. Bamyas , or Hibiscus esculentus (bdmiya). 2. On- ions (basal). 3. Pumpkins (kar'a). 4. Cucumbers (khiydr). 5. Egyptian cucumbers (frequently trumpet- shaped and ribbed; different varieties called 'abdel&wi, 'agdr, etc.). 6. Melons (kdwfta; the best, shammdm). 7. Water-melons (battikh). S. Melonzanes (b'ddingdn). 9. Tomatoes tin). 10. Corehorus olitorius (melUkhiyeh). 11. Colocasia (kulkds). 12. Garlic (tfim). 13. Mallows (khoblSzeh). 14. Cabbage (korumb). 15. 'Celery (kerafs). i6. Radishes, a peculiar kind, with fleshy leaves, which form a favourite article of food (figl). 17. Lettuces (khass). IS. Sorrel (hvmrnM). 19. Spinach (es-sibdnikh). 20. Parsley (bakdHnis). 21. Purslane (rigl). 22'. Turnips (lift ). 23. Carrots (gazer, a peculiar kind, with red juice). 21. Beetroot (bangdr). A variety of other vegetables are cultivated in small quantities in garden-'. exclusively for the use of European residents. 5. Trees and Plantations. During recent years new avenues and parks have been so extensively planted that Egypt will soon present a far greener and more richly wooded appearance than formerly. In ancient times every square foot of arable land seems to have been exclusively devoted to the cultivation of in- dustrial crops, the natives preferring to import from foreign coun- tries the timber they required for ship-building purposes , and 76 TREES AND PLANTATIONS. probably also the small quautitj employed in the construction of their temples. The best proof of the scarcity of good timber in is afforded by the fact that sycamore-wood, one of the worst possible kinds owing to the knottiness and irregularity of its grain, has been laboriously manufactured into coffins and statues. Mohammed 'Ali, a great patron of horticulture, at one time offered prizes for the planting of trees, but his efforts were unattended with success, as the climatic and other difficulties at- tending the task were then but imperfectly understood in I J I is successors were sworn enemies to trees of every kind, and they were content that their palaces should be exposed to the full glare of the sun. The Kin-dive Ismail, however, at length revived the plans of bis celebrated ancestor, and by the engagement ofM. Barillet I 1869), superintendent of the gardens of Paris, one of the Bl skilful landscape-gardeners of the day. introduced an entirely new feature into Egyptian scenery. This enterprising and able man un- fortunately died ( L87 i I before all his plans had been carried out, but the eye of ever) new-comer will rest wit! n the parks and gardens for which Egypt is indebted to him. While, for example. the traveller had formerly to ride all the way to the Pyramids sterile soil, exposed to the scorching rays of the sun. he now drives comfortably thither in a carriage on a well-shaded road. M. Barillet s nmst important works are the Ezbekiyeh Garden at Cairo, the ex- tensive pleasure-grounds at Gezireh, and the plantation of trees which shades the roads on the left hank of the Nile, opposite the city. Hundreds of thousands of trees were planted within a few years. their annually increasing shade has converted man) of the dU8ty and Stifling roads in and around Cairo into pleasant | nades. The finest of all these tree-, both on ac inl ofil brageousness and the excellence of iis wood, and one which thrives admirably, is tie Llbizzia Lebbek), which has long been (J b) I ravellerS I he acacia el' I he Nile ( the latter properl) the sunt tree). Within fort) years the lebbek attains a height of mi ft. and a great thii 'He the branches pro- ject to a long distance over the roads, d ring them with a d.nse leaf) canopy within a pi horl lime. Thus, an avenue planted in 1866 near the German Protestant church alread) forms a complete arcade over the road. Another very valuable and interest- ing property of the tree is. 1 1 consisting of branches more foot thick, and even portions of the trunk, will strike root and thrive, while ill the case of most Other I I'ees the cuttings must III the course of a single summer the shady avenues leading to the Pyramids wen aed, U>out two hundred different kinds of trees, chiefly of E. India ire now d in the parks of i he K lo-dive ( aboul t v\ eni > iii number), and the) are constantly multiplied in QUTSerii a laid out for the pu Among the most important of these are the magnificent 'Flam FRUIT TREES. 77 des Indes' (Poinciana pulcherrima) and the rapidly-growing Eu- calyptus, tropical fig-trees, and several rare varieties of palms. The commonest Trees of an Earlier Period which the traveller will encounter in every town in Egypt are the following: — The Acacia Nilotica (sunt), the thorn-tree of antiquity, the pods of which, resembling rosaries (gdrral), yield an excellent material for tannine purposes. Next I:, the palm, this is the tree most, frequently seen by the, way-side and in the villages. The Acacia Farnesiana [fatneh ). with blossoms of delicious perfume. The sycamore (gimmez), anciently considered sacred. The zizyphus, or Christ's thorn-tree (nebk). Tamarisks (tar/a; not to be con- founded with tamarinds). The Parkinsonia (seseb&n, a name also applied t'> the wild Sesbania shrub). Mulberry-trees (Mil), in Lower Egypt only. Carob-trees, or bread of St. John (kharr&b). The cypress, olive, poplar, plane, myrtle. Aleppo pine, Shinus, Melia, and various fig-trees of Indian origin are of less frequent occurrence. Among the Fruit Trees the must important is the date-palm {nakhleh; the date, balah; the rib of the leaf, gerkl; the leaf, lif; the points of the i af; the crown, gumm&r). There are no fewer than twenty-seven kinds of date commonly offered for sale. The largest attain a length of three inches, and are called ibrimi, or sitkku/L as they come from N. Nubia. The must delicately flavoured are the small dark brown ones known as amhat, which are eaten fresh. The Beduins idler for sale at the hotels a kind of -.serve packed in what professes to be gazelle-skins, but is usually Leather ('agweh). Palm-wine (lagbi), villained by boring the heart of the crown of the palm, whereby the tree is killed, is met with in the oases only. Excellent brandy, however, is distilled from the fruit. The value of the dates exported annually amounts to about one million francs only, as they realise too high a price in the country itself to remunerate the exporter. The date-palms blossom in March and April, and the fruit ripens in August and September. Fresh dates are rough in appearance, blood-red or pale yellow in colour, and harsh and astringent in taste. Like the medlar, they become more palatable after fermentation has set in. The vine thrives admirably in Egypt, and grapes ('oenab) abound from July to September. Wine was extensively made from them in ancient times, and this might still easily lie dime, were it not that Egypt is al- ready amply supplied with cheap and excellent wines from every part of lb.- Mediterranean. The vine blossoms in March and April, like the palm, and the grapes ripen in June and July. Oranges are abundant and cheap (the harvest beginning in September), and so also are. man- darins and lemons (the small and juicy fruit of the Citrus limonium); citrons, and cedros are of less frequent, occurrence. Among other fruit- trees we may also mention the pomegranate (rumm&n), which is spe- cially cultivated for the benefit of the Turks, who are very partial to them, and which yields a handsome return. Apricots are common, but quit.' destitute of flavour, and the same remark applies to the peaches (kliOk/i); almonds (loz) are also frequently seen. Throughout the whole o| I.nwer Egypt figs (tin) abound in summer, and the cactus-fig (ti/i-shok) IS also a favourite fruit. Apples, quinces, pears, and plums abound, particularly in the region of Girgeh and in the Fayum, but these last are perfectly tasteless: these fruits, moreover, are so abundantly brought to the market from the Mediterranean regions that no at- tempt is made to extend their cultivation in Egypt. Within the last ten years the banana (mdz) has gradually become naturalised in Egypt, but it is still a somewhat expensive fruit (l-i'/^fr. per pound). A deli- cacy imported from the W. Indies for the benefit of strangers is the Anona squamosa (kishta, i. e. 'cream'). Pine-apples are very rarely seen. Fine tropical fruits of this kind (including also the mango) are only to be found in the gardens of the Khedive, where, however, their capability of acclimatisation has been abundantly proved. The principal Decorative Plants are roses (wai'd ; of which the Rosa Damascena moschata and the sempervirens are specially cultivated for the manufacture of otto of roses), oleanders of astonishing height, carnations, 78 ANIMAL KINGDOM. and ;eraniums, all of which have been grown in Egypt from a very early period. \ bushj tree, which in its half leafless condition attracts it,, attention of every traveller on landing at Alexandria in winter, is the ttia pulcherrima, The insignificant blossom is surrounded by leaves of the most brilliant rod. presenting a very picturesque and striking ap- Natural forests, or even solitary wild trees, are never met with in the valley of the Kile or in the valleys of the northern 'i On the embankments and on the brink of the rivers we occasionally find wild tamarisks and \vill.,ws (safsdf), but always in the form of mere bushes. In the desert-valleys of Upper Egypt, however, grow five different kinds of acacia and several other shrubs o( inferior intl re t. Another tree of considerable importance is the beautiful dilm palm, which grows wild in the valleys of S. Nubia and even in the oases, but those which occur in N. Egypt are always planted. Even in Lower Egypt it is not met with beyond 27° N. latitude (indeed hardly beyond Keneh), and attempts to acclimatise it at Cairo have never been successful. * Lastly we may mention two circumstances which throw some light on the bo- tanical position of Egypt. One of these is. that the commonest weeds associated with the industrial crops of Egypt, and which occur nowhere else, are of E. Indian origin; and the other, that numerous plants culti- vated by the Egyptians are only now to be found in their wild condition in the central regions of Africa. The Animal Kingdom in Egypt. (By Dr. M. Th. i\ Heuglin.) I. Domestic Animals. The Horn (hosdn; horse-, khtl; mare, faras; foal, iiuihr; the rider, khagydl) was probably unknown to the most ancient Egyptian . and was first introduced by the llyksos |p. 88). It is now to be met with throughout the whole of the valley of the Nile, and even in the oases. Owing to want of proper care and insufficiency of food, the tian horses are generally of insignificant appearance. The Egyptian Donkey (Arab. horndr; comp. p. 11) is noted for l\ [lower of endurance, its spirited temper, and its moderate requirements. The .)/»/' i \imIi. baghl, or baghleK), although admirably adapted for carrying heavy burdens, is less frequently bred in Egypt, but is some- times imported from Abyssinia. Spain, and other parts of Southern Europe, Syria, and Asia Minor. The Camel (Arab, gemel, fern, ndka; the camel for riding, hegtn), was not unknown to the ancient Egyptians, as it is mentioned in several papyri, but it was probably randy used, particular! J during the early monarchy. During the hottest weather the camel can dispense with u three daj or more, while Its scant; provender consists of a few handfuls of maize or bean , of the dry and wiry desert gra I straw, or of pricklj acacia leaves. The Buffalo (Arab, gdm&s) eemi to havi been long domesticated in lis flesh is not esteemed, but the cow- yield milk and butter. The buffalo requires little food and attention, but does not thrive except. in swampj -round or in the vicinity oi lowing water. The hide forms d ble leather. Ox ( \ i- .- 1 1 ■ . t6r; cow, bakara; calf, 'igl; milk, leben; sweet milk, hnUi, ; sour milk, luiinnl or )•! thrives in Egypt on the dry soil of (he arable land, and is also reared in the oasei Down to the y$ar L863 a long-horned race of oxen which \ ■ often represented on the monuments; but the breed was entirely wept awaj bj a cattle- during that year. Tin fellahin make both butter and cheese from the milk. Instead of a churn they use a leatb i pi nded from a rope (kirbeh). I i M Qoai (Arab. u>i':n or 'anzeh; he-goat, tes; kid, gidii is to be found in everj cottage on the banks of the Nile, and in every tent in the desert. Its milk is palatable and wholesome. The hide makes durable and u atl rprOOf water : Sheep (Arab. khaiHtf, ntfgeh, ghanam^ rami*; ram, kebnh) are almost as gem bj the Egyptian peasantry as goats, the most esteemed ANIMAL KINGDOM. 79 being the fat-tailed varieties (ovis pachycera recurvicanda and ovis piatyura). The wool of the Egyptian sheep is harsh and wiry, while many of those in the desert have stiff, straight hair, and are altogether destitute of wool. The Pig (Arab, khamir), which was regarded by the ancient Egyptians as the emblem of Typhon, and is considered unclean by the Arabs, can hardly be called one of the domestic animals of Egypt, but it is kept by the Greek tavern-keepers. The Dog (Arab, kelb) throughout the whole of the East is a masterless and half-wild animal. The. usual breed resembles the jackal type, its colour being of a light rusty tint. Every canine family has its regular beat, from which intruders are rigorously excluded. Most of the Egyptian dogs feed on street refuse. The Cat (Arab, kott, kotleh), which was one of the sacred animals of the ancient Egyptians (comp. p. 136), is now domesticated in almost every Egyptian and Beduin family. The Weasel (mustela semipalmata; Arab, 'ersa, or aim 'ariis), is occa- sionally kept, like the cat, for the purpose of keeping in check the mice of numerous kinds with which the country is infested. It. is chiefly met with in a half-wild condition in Central and Lower Egypt, in the towns, farm-buildings, warehouses, and deserted dwellings. Foremost among the various kinds of poultry kept by the Egyptians is the domestic Hen (Arab, farkha; cock, dik), the usual breeds of which are of small size. The artificial hatching establishments in Egypt are of very ancient origin. . The Turkey (Arab, farkha rUmi) is imported. The domestic Goose (Arab, wuzzeh) is chiefly met with in Lower and Central Egypt, but nowhere in large numbers. The Egyptian Domestic Pigeon (Arab, ha in dm) is very common throughout the Nile Valley. The peasants erect large dovecots for these pigeons, which they keep soleiy for the sake of the manure they yield. II. Wilii Animals. As there are no game-laws in Egypt, any one provided with a license from the police to carry fire-arms is at liberty to si I anywhere and at any season, provided enclosed gardens be not entered, and growing crops respected. Permission to shoot on Lake Menzaleh , however, must be obtained from the farmer of the fishings, an introduction to whom may easily be procured from the traveller's consul at Cairo. Tolerable guns and other requirements for the chasse may be pur- chased at Cairo (p. 235), but gunpowder is bad and dear. Sportsmen who bring their own r guns will find it very troublesome to clear them at the custom-house. One of the favourite objects of the chase is the Arabian Mountain Goat (Ibex beden; Arab, beden or wa'al) , which still frequents the mountains between the Nile and the Red Sea. Another inhabitant of the mountains is the 'Matted Sheep" 1 (Ovis tvage- laphus; Arab, kebsh el-md, or kebsh el-gebel), which is occasionally met with among the rocky hills near Minyeh and in the neighbourhood of the Fayum. A denizen of the plains between Cairo and Suez, and of the sand- hills and heights which bound the valley of the Nile and the oases, is the Dorcas Gazelle (Antilope dorcas; Arab, ghazdl), particularly during the dry and hot season. On the Libyan side of the Nile , in the region of the Natron Lakes and the Fayum , and the tract extending thence to the oases, occur also the 'Spear Antelope' (Antilope leptoceros; Arab, abu-'l liardb) and the Addax Antelope (Antilope addax; Arab, a'kas. or bakar el-ieahsh), besides which the Arabs mention a kind of '•Cow Antelope' 1 (perhaps the Antilope bubalis). The Wild Boar (Arab, halli'if) now occurs in a few districts only in the Delta and the Fayum. In similar localities the sportsman will also meet with the Marsli Lynx (Felis chaus; Arab, lifah), the small-footed Wild Cat (Felis inanicu- 80 ANIMAL KINGDOM. lata; irab. kott), the Egyptian Wolf (Cants variegatus; Aral), dtb), and the /.-/>,?. ,.-//,-■-/ "i //. ,-y.,-.-/. .-.- ichintimuii ; Arab, ni, us), which last, hi rdens and the neighbourhood of farm'; and villages. Genet i Viverra genetta; Arab, kott zeb&d) is said to be met with a I-'. 1 j pt. \ in-ii" the beasts of p» l in the lower part of the Nile Vallej we may also mention the various species of Foxes and Ja< ' '• "" s itself. <>n the banks of the Nib', and particularly in Upper Egypt, the bus; Arab, arnab) \< frequentlj mel with. It ' tracts which are overgrown with tamarinds. Among the mountains of Sinai we frequently observe the Daman, or syriacus; \rab. toabr), which lives in troops mi the cliffs and stony slopes, and often lies basking in the sun on overhanging rocks, noon. W'ibl fowl abound in Egypt, and frequently come within ran nan's gun. Among thi Oanga or Sand tatus, and in Uppei Arab, kata), and the Red Partridt rdia Heyi; Arab. /,«,|it. and in the region of the Natron Lake am .ii in the I'. water fowl, inclu i, r .n an. i p ich breed in i he Fayum, an' the superb '■Sultan Bird'' (Porphyrio smaragdonotus ; Arab, dikmeh) and the beautiful t/iynchaea I. a iiy we musl iim'hi i ie largest and Ii n nich ..in I n 'th lit' thirty feet. Although gradually disappearit march of modern civilisation, ii i till sometimes to be found in th ab. .vi' Oirgeh. an. i in.;-, frequentlj between the nan and ill. W.iii Malta, while occasionally, bavin,: lost it- waj during the in- ANIMAL KINGDOM. 81 initiation, it descends to the vicinity of the Delta. Crocodiles are some- times seen fast asleep, often with widely opened jaws, hasking in the sun on flat sandhanks or on the ends of low islands, to which they most frequently resort after cool nights. In Egypt, however, where it is oftener hunted than in more southern regions, the crocodile is generally too wary to be caught napping, though it sometimes becomes entangled in tin 1 , nets and falls a prey to the fishermen. The Arabs of the Sudan, who eat the. ilesh of the reptile and prepare a kind of musk from its glands, frequently angle for it with large hooks baited with meat. It is seldom worth while to fire at crocodiles when swimming, as they usually disappear in the turbid water, even when mortally wounded. Tiie sportsman should therefore endeavour to get within range of one of these monster saurians when on shore. As they always keep within easy reach of the water, they are occasionally observed on the banks of the river by the traveller navigating the Nile, in which case they should be approached in a small boat as noiselessly as possible. Success is most likely to be achieved in cases where the haunt of the reptile is known, so that the sportsman may lie in ambush at some convenient spot in the vicinity. Unless, as rarely happens, the first bullet kills the animal on the spot, it generally contrives to find its way back to the water, and thus effects its escape. Another saurian of great power, and extremely rapid in its move- ments, is the Monitor (Arab, tearari), which attains a length of 4-5 ft., and derives its name from its supposed habit of giving warning of the ap- proach of a crocodile. 111. Other Mammalia and Birds. Although not indigenous to Egypt, several varieties of Apes, which are imported from the S. and W. provinces, are seen in the larger towns. Among these are the Cynoce- phalus hamadryas and G. anubis (both called jcird by the Arabs), the Inuus ecaudatus (Arab, nisnds), the Cercopithecus' ruber, C. gviseo-viridis, ami, more, rarely, the ' '. pyrrhonotus. The Nile Valley and the neighbouring desert, hills are largely iu- by Bats (Arab, watwdt), The commonest kinds are the Kalong (Pteropus), the Long-eared Bat'(Plecotus, Vespertilio, Taphozous, Nyctinomus), and the /Spectre I'mi (Rliinolaphus, Hfycteris, Rhinopoma). Besides the beasts of prey already enumerated (p. 79), we may also mention the Mustela Africana, several kinds of Hedgehog ( Erinaceus ; Arab, konfud), and the Shrew (Arab, umm stsi). Egypt contains numerous species of the Rodentia. The fields, dwel- ling-houses, and sailing-vessels are often infested with Mice and Rats (Mus, Acomys), and in the Sinai Peninsula is found the Dormouse (Eliomys me- lanurus), all of which are. called far by the Arabs. The Jumping Mouse (Dipus; Arab. yerbU'a) and the Sand 3/ouse (Meriones; Arab, gebeli) live in the desert, and the '■Fat RaV (Psammomys obesus) in the sand-hills around Alexandria. Besides the Birds indigenous to Egypt, there are, as already men- tioned, a great number which winter there, while others merely pass through the country when on their way to other regions. About 360 dif- ferent species have been ascertained to occur in Egypt, but we shall merely enumerate a few of the most important of thw.se which remain permanently in the country. The commonest Birds of Prey are the Golden Vulture (Gypa&tus meri- dionalis; Arab. t>i. 6d*,). Several species of the European //«/■- /■/,r are more common than these la^t . Ti. row breeds in every part of Egypt, and probably the Castrel Sauk (Falco cenchris) also. The Oabar (.Visas gabar) is Baid to be sometimes met with in Upper Egypt. The commonest Owls are the sub-tropical Church Owl (Athene nir.; Arab, unim ktk) ami the Eagle Owl (Bnbu ascalaphus; Arab. Mm, or The family of Goatsuckers is represented in Egypt by the peculiar Caprimulgus aegyptiacus. A small /Sun/* (Oypselus parvus), the chief representative of its family, frequents the regions planted with the dum palm. The Swallows (khottdf, or e asfAr el-penneh) most frequently seen are the red-breasted Ilirinuh, cahirica, which remains permanently in the country, and a kind of Rock Swallow (Cotile obsoleta). Of the Fishing Birds the most common is the Kingfisher (CeryU rudis), which frequents the banks of everj part of the Nile. The Bee Eaters are represented 1>> the Merops apiaster, the U '. aegyp- tiacus, and the M. eiridissimus, ;ill of which breed in Egypt; but the last only, which is called shehagh by the natives, and chiefly occurs in Cen- tral and Upper Egypt, remains throughout the year. The most numerous of the Thin-iilled Birds are the Hoopoes (Arab. hudhud), and to the Promeropides belongs the pretty, lustrous Honey- Hi- the frontiers oi Opper Egj pt. Singing Birds ('asfUr) are not numerous in Egypt, with the exception of numi of Larks ats. V7e may next mention the Drymoeca, or Drymoecus gracilis, the Oisticola cursilans, the Tree Nightin- \gdon galaclodes), the Acrocephalus stentc u kfrican Water- (Molacilla vidua), tin' Wedgetail (Argia aeaeiai \, ami the Bulbul (Pycnonolus ArsinoS , found in the Fayflm ami N. Nubia, while a the /'. xanthopygius occurs in Arabia Petrsea ami the valley of tin/ Jordan i. There are no Flycatchers peculiar to Egypt. Among the Butcher-birds we may mention the 'Masked Shrike 1 (Lanius nubicus), ami among the Ravens (ghurdb), the Short-tailed Raven (Corvus a/finis) ami the Desert Raven | i •)■ The lofty mountain-; of the Sinai Peninsula are the haunt of the Red-legged Crow (FregiUu graculus); ami among the tamarisk bushes ami on the rock] margins of the valleys of Arabia Petraea ocean the Starling (Amydrus TristramU), Among the Finches peculiar to Africa i- the l Desert Trumpeter* | 'ithagineus). On the upper part of the Nile, beyond the Wadi Haifa, occur everal species of a more tropica] character, such as the Fire-fineti ctes franciscana), the Steel-finch (Hypochera nitens), Hie ■ Lance taiV is), ami the Dwarf Bloodfinch (Lagonosticla minium). Woodpeckers are not met witb on the Lower Nile. The Wryneck ami grej Cuckoo occur as birds of pa gage, ami the Spurred Cuckoo (Centropus aegyptiacus; Arab, abu burbur) as ;i denizen of the Delta. The Jay(Coc- cysti s glandarius) is more widelj diffused throughout the country. Anion.' the native Running Birds we maj mention the /'> (Cursorius isabellinus). the Ston> Curleu ft ■ pitans; Arab, ker- nun), the Crocodile-Watch \rai>. t£r et-titns&h), and irightlj Spurred Plover (Hoplopter us spinosus; Arab, siksak). The commonest of the Herons are the l Cow Heron' (Ardea Ibis;'Anb. abu \) and the white '•(Ureal Heron 1 (Ardea alba and Ardea gareetta). Near the Wadi Haifa occurs the Abdim Blorl Ibdimii; Arab. tinbileh). To the family of the Ardeidae belong the rare Ibis Tantalus and the Sacred H'is (Ibis aethiopica; Arab, na'ayeh hertz, or abu mingal). Bl lides the European aquatic and oilier birds already enumerated. which frequent th lakes, and marshes (p. 81), we mi mention thi d Pelican (Pelecani I of N. Nubia; the . (Rhynchops flavirostris ; Arab, abu tnok&s) and the Fox dims,' | tegypliacusi Irab. unit), which are found throughout the whole f the Nile Valley, the former especiallj in summer: and the ANIMAL KINGDOM. 83 Brown Booby (Sulci fiber : Aral), shomei), several peculiar species of Gulls and Sea Swallows (Larus leucophthalmus, Larus gelastes, Larus Hemprichii. Sterna media. Sterna Bergii, Sterna albigena, Sterna infuscata, and Anous stolidus), and the singular-looking Dromas (Arab, hankdr), on the shores df the Red Sea. The Flamingo (Pheenicopterus antiquorum; Arab, bdsha rash) haunts the Red Sea and the lagoons of the Delta throughout the whole year, usually congregating in enormous flights, and breeds in the region to the E. of Lake Menzaleh. IV. Reptiles. Of this class of animals there are but few species peculiar to Egypt. The Salamanders and Balrachians (Arab, dufda'a) are but scantily represented. There are about twenty species of Shakes (Arab. 1,,'htni). including the Horned Viper (Cerastes; Aral), mokdrenek) which appears in the ancient inscriptions as a hieroglyphic, the Echis (Arab, gha- ribeh or dashshdsha), the Cobra da Capello, Hooded, or Spectacle Snake (Naja Haje; Arab, ndsher), the Telescopus (Arab, abu ( ayHn), the Psam- mophis (Arab, abu riyfir), the Tropidonotus, the Periops (Arab, arkam), the Zamenis (Arab, gidari), and the Ery.r (Arab, dassds). The horned viper. the echis, and the hooded snake are highly venomous, and their bite is often fatal ; the other snakes are not venomous, but Iheir bite is sometimes dangerous. The Egyptian snake-charmers (Arab. /unci), all of whom be- long to a gipsy tribe (ghagar), usually exhibit a number of cobras, the teeth in which the venom is secreted having been extracted (comp. p. 81). To the order of the Saurians belong the Crocodile (Crocodilus vulgaris ; Arab. timsdh), of which there are several varieties, and the Monitor (Va- ran us niloticus; Arab, waran), both of which have been already mentioned (pp. 80, 81). Other species occurring in Egypt are the Ablepharus, the Gon- gylus, the Plestiodon, the Evprepes, the Scincus (Aral), sakankflr), the Ophiops, the Eremias and Acanthodactylus (Arab. sehltyeK), the' Psammo- sawus griieus (Arab, waran, a name also applied to the monitor), the Vromastix spinipes (Arab, dab), the Uromastix riridis, the Stellio vulgaris (Arab. hardiin). several kinds of Agama, the Chameleon (Arab, herb&yeh), and numerous Ascalabotes (Arab, abu burs). To the Turtle Family belong the Nile Turtle (Trionyx aegyptiaca; Arab. Ursa) and a small Tortoise (Testudo marginata; Arab, zelh&feh), while in the Red Sea occur six varieties of Chelonia (Arab, bis'a or sakar), several of which yield excellent tortoise-shell (Arab, bagha). V. Fish op the Nile (by Dr. C. B. Klunzinger). The finny inhabi- tants of the Nile are in keeping with the palms growing on its banks, being of a tropieal and African type. They are generally the same as those found in the Senegal and other African rivers, while European species are very rare. There are in all about 70-80 varieties. The fol- lowing sketch is merely designed to afford an idea of the commonest species, particularly of those brought to market. Many of them are re- presented and described in the 'Description de TEgypte 1 (p. 'JOO). The fish of the Nile are most abundant during the time of the in- undation, when a number of varieties, not found at other seasons, are brought down from the higher regions to Lower Egypt. At these seasons the canals yield abundant spoil, especially after the subsidence of the water. The flesh is generally soft, watery, and insipid, but the mode of cooking it is perhaps partly in fault. The colours are wanting in var- iety, white with a dark-coloured back predominating. To the Perch Family (scaly fish with serrated head-bones) belongs the Keshr, and to the Carp Family (scaly fish without teeth) belong the Lebis, Or Debs, and the Binni, with a thorn in its dorsal fin. The various kinds of Siluridae are very abundant (fish without scales, with barbels, and generally with an adipose fin). Among these are the Shilbeh (a fish with a high neck, a short dorsal fin near the head, and without the adipose fin), which is of three kinds, the shilbeh 'arabi, the shilbeh sheri/iyeh, and the shilbeh wudni (the first two with, the last without a spinous ray in its dorsal fin). The Shdl, called kurkdr in Upper Egypt owing to the sound which they emit, is easily recognised by the bony armour cover- ing its head and its fringed barbels. The varieties are the shdl beledi, the shdl senin or sheildn, and the shdl kamari or batn sdda, the last of 6* 84 ANIMAL KINGDOM. which has a blackish stomach. The shdl karafsheh, or samr, has a layer of bone over its neck. The shdl abu riydl more nearly resembles the following varieties. The Bay&d and the Dokmdk, provided with verj long barbels, and generallj of targe size, are abundant. Another important member of the Siluridaa is the long and large KarmM, with its long dor- sal ami posterior tins. Tin' Iftiriuiil hulcli lias an adipose I'm. while the 'arabi has none. To the same family i i the famous Ra'dd, or electric eel (with one adipose fin on its back, and Mack spots on its skin). The following families are peculiar to the tropics. The Characini (salmon of the Nile) are scalj and provided with an adipose fin. Among re the high-backed and almost rhombic Kamr el-Bahr ; the oblong Han. with its small and somewhat Hal teeth; the Roshdl, or Kilb el-Bahr (river-dog), with strong, conical teeth protruding from its mouth; and the Nefdsh, with its small, narrow, and closelj et teeth with double points, .•mil somewhat high shoulders. To the family of the Chromides (seal) fish with spinous fins and sides of irregular shape] belongs the Bolti. A family occurring in Africa only is thai of the Uormyrides, or lish with remarkably small mouths, and heads covered with a thick and bare skin. Among the members of this family is the well-known Sfor- myrus oxyrrhynchus (Kantima, or Khashm el-Bandt), with its long nout turned downward-, which was so frequently represented by the ancient ! ;yptians; then the blunt mouthed Banes, including the Kashua and Wm&ra. or 'Ersat el-Bahr, the lust of which has an almost muzzle. An interesting, but not common, fish is the Finny Pih (Polypterus; Arab, abu bishir), with its numerous dorsal lins and rhomboids! scales covered with enamel, forming one of the few surviving members of the abundant antediluvian Ganoids. The Ball Fish (Tetrodon; Arab, fakdka), whii'li is not an edible variety, is frequently offered for sale, either fresh or stuffed (p. 236), on account of its curious shape and its singular facultj of puffing itself ou1 like a bladder. It differs from the common ball D b of the Bed Sea in having seven brown or blackish oblique stripes on its sides. The Red Sea contains many fish of a simitar kind, but tfa not known to exist in the mediterranean. From the latter sea the Har- der iMirili. luh-i. or Qhardna, frequently ascend the Nile, where thej form the herrings of the Arabs (festkh). The same remark applies to the (sabUgha), a fish resembling the herring, which occurs in man] of i of Europe. The Eel of the Nile (trfbdn el-bahr) "it differ from that of European waters. vi. Insects. Butterflies are verj rare in Egypt, but Moths are much more numerous. Among the not verj numerous Beetles we may mention the Ateuchus sacer, the celebrated Scarabaeus (p, 125) of the ancient was believed to be of the male sex only, and its act of rolling the clayballs contaii i was suppo tanner of propagating its species (Plutarch de [side, 1. x 74). The Egyptians accordinglj con ibaeus to Ptah, the origin and creation, who it oft< n i on the monuments with a sca- in place of a human head, imong other varieties occur the Bit- prestis, the Oicindela or sand-beetle, the Bister, the Dermestes, and nu- WaU r Bi ' ties. The various kinds of Wasps in Egypt attain a verj Beet are not often Kepi bj thi native rhe so-called black hone;, eaten bj the lo treacle. The white honey, which is the if bees, is imported from Vrabia. coi nest of the Orthoptera are Grasshoppers and Cockroaches! and hi lb. Jfewoptera we maj mention the Ephemera or daj Qi h coloured Dragon-fly, and the WhiU Ant\ Among the Diptera are the troublesome House-fly, and the Mosquito. ii of all kinds abound, acb a Fleas, Bugs, Lia . Scorpions, Tarantulas, and 1 1 ntipedi s. 85 III. Outline of the History of Egypt. Chronological Table. Introduction. There is no people in the world whose history is traceahle to so remote a period as that of the Egyptians. Other nations may possibly have understood the art of writing as early as they, hut no specimens of it have been preserved; whereas the Egyp- tian records, hewn in stone, burned in clay, or written on leather or on scrolls of papyrus, have survived the ravages of thousands of years. The preservation of these memorials , however, is mainly due to the dryness of the air in the rainless valley of the Nile, and to the property possessed by the hot sand of the desert of hermetic- ally sealing everything committed to its keeping. The remote dates with which Egyptian chronology deals seem my- thical when judged by the standards of Jewish and Christian chrono- graphers, and particularly when compared with the supposed date of the creation of the world ; but they are derived from the lists given by Manetho, which have been confirmed by the monuments themselves. The priest M \nktiio (Egypt. Mai en Thot, i.e. 'beloved of Thoth 1 ) of Se- bennytus I Hie modern Semennud, p. 445), being acquainted with the Greek language, was employed by King Ptolemy II. Philadelphus (B.C. 284-246) to translate the ancient historical works preserved in the temples. This 'Egyptian History 1 of Manetho enjoyed a high reputation at a later period, lnil « as subsequently Inst, with the exception of his lists of kings and their i i which have been transmitted to us partly by Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian (1st cent. A.D.), and partly by Christian historians. The monuments and inscriptions in some cases confirm, and in others supplement, the records transcribed by Manetho for the Ptolemies, our information being derived from the series of kings' names inscribed on tablets found at Abydus, Karnak, and Sakkara, from papyrus scrolls, particularly one in the Museum of Turin, and lastly from historical and genealogical notices on the walls of tem- ples and tombs, on statues, implements, and trinkets. A method- ical mode of utilising these fragmentary historical records was first taught by the learned Prof. Lepsius (d. 18n the coast of the Delta, which at this remote period was most probably a very swampy district, densely overgrown with marsh vegetation, and which was first brought under cultivation in the neighbourhood of This . and afterwards around Jlemphis, the towns of Tanis and Heracleopolis Parva had been founded at a very early epoch by seafaring peoples of Semitic origin. They thence penetrated into the interior of the country, where they came into collision with the Egyptians coming from the south, whose culture they adopted. At the same time, however, they retained their independence under kings of their own, who during the period of the 6th, 7th, and Sth Dynasties formed the 9th and luth contemporaneous Dynasties of Heracleopolites, from the year 2691 onwards, and who ruled over the Delta and perhaps the whole of Lower Egypt. The 11th Dynasty, which put an end to the sway of the Heracleopolites, is called Diospolite, or Theban, but. in the estimation of the Egyptians was not a strictly legiti- mate line. Middle Monarchy. NIL DYNASTY (Diospolites; pp. 160, 164, 334, 453). Amencmha I. (Gr. Ammenemes). Usertesen I. (Gr. Sesonchosis ; pp. 334, 459 ). Amencmha II. (Gr. Ammanemes). Usertesen II. ( Gr. Sesostris; p. 491 |. Usertesen III. ( Gr. Lachares). Amencmha III. (Gr. Ameres ; pp. 457, 461, 522). Amencmha IV. (Gr. Amenemes~). Sebek-nefru (Gr. Skcmiophris). i Heracleopolis, or City of Hercules. The Phoenician god Melkart was called by the Greeks Heracles, as he is said to have performed sim- ilar prodigies of strength. Brugsch identifies the Heracleopolitan with the Sethroitic nome (the capital of which was Pithom or Pi-Tum) ; see p. 412. HISTORY. Dnder this Dynasty the sceptres of Upper and Lower Egypt were united. All the kings were powerful and pros- perous, .'iiid art again flourished. TheSun Temple at I! p. 33 i l was magnificentl) i md in the Fayuro the practice of building pyramids was revived p, L59 et seg.). During this perio were erected on the N.E. frontier of the kingdom which appear to have extended across the whole of the present tsthm Sue/, (p. L54 |. The Hyksos Period i pp. 298, 373, 453, 479). In the L2th Dynast) we already hear of Semitic families applying for admission to I pper Egyptt, and in the L3th Dynast) these immigrations became more frequent. The newcomers met with kinsmen in the seaports of the Delta, allied with whom and with Arabian tribes they at length became so powerful as to d< irmies of the Pharaohs and ohtain possession of the whole of Lower Egypt. Thej made Canis their capital, and under the name of Hyksos ruled over .Y Eg) pi for five centuries, while the exiled family was compelled to retire to UpperEgypt. (The n of 'Hyksos', according to Josephus, Manetho, and other.-. is derived from hyk, a king, and son. a shepherd, and thus signifies 'shepherd kings' ; some modern authorities, how- ever, derive it, from hah shasu, signifying 'Robber Kings'.) The Hyksos soon conformed to the ancient culture of the valley of the Nile The) applied the name of the Egyptian ei to their ovi n gods Be r alii dnxes preserved at Tanis with the portrait-heads ^\' their kings (p. 298) prove that the ptian artists into their ser- vice, and perhaps themselves acquired a knowledge of the Egyptian plastic art (p. 162). A.t the same time they adopt- ed all the tiller. Of the Pharaohs and the whole Of the court ceremonies of the legitimate monarchs of Egypt, tt XIII. DYNAST! (Diospolites). + III Hie I.. Mill Of Semitic chief, with his family and atl i I oaching i : asion was perha p i 1 liat dij '•>•■':■ I braham cord of forma i he earliest notici of Eg irpl to be found in the Bible. ph came to i : pt at the 1 1 pi riod . be found on the throne a mom dred to his own, though conformin at ■■i | ^- i-. \ famine mentioned in a tomb at E] Kab is per- haps identical with the one which brought Jacob and his family to , i part in the expulsion of the Hyksos about four the Ex- i be in cripl -Wlin many itj corn duri mine''. HISTORY. 89 XIV. DYNASTY (Khoites, from Khois, situated to the N.E. of Sais). XV. DYNASTY (Hyksos). XVI. DYNASTY (Hyksos). XVII. DYNASTY (Diospolites). We learn from a papyrus in the British Museum that the Hyksos monarch Apepi demanded the cession of an import- ant well from Rasekenen , the king of Upper Egypt (17th dyn. ). This incident gave rise to the outbreak of a war of independence which lasted for eighty years. XVIII. DYNASTY ( Diospolites; pp. 446, 479"). Aahmes I. (Amosis, or Amasis; p. 302) captured Abaris (Ha-war| after a long siege by land and by water. The Hyksos (numbering, according to Manetho, '24,000 men capable of bearing arms) were obliged to retreat and to seek a new territory, and most of them accordingly settled in S. Palestine. The successors of Aahmes penetrated far into Asia, subjugated one nation after another, exacted heavy tribute from the vanquished, and embellished Thebes, their capital, with magnificent edifices. Amenhotep I. (Gr. Amenophthis). Tutmps | Thothmes) I. ( Gr. Amensisy Tutm.es II. (Gr. Misaphris ) and Ramaka, Iris sister and wife. Tutmes III. (Gr. Misphragmuthosis ; pp. 298, 363, 522] extended his conquests as far as the vicinity of the Tigris. Tutmes IV. (Gr. Tuthmosls). Amenhotep III. (Gr. Amenophis ; pp. 385, 106) not only continued to exact tribute from the Oriental nations as far as Mesopotamia, but succeeded in extending his dominions towards the south. He was also remarkable for his extra- ordinary building enterprise. Amenhotep IV. (Gr. Horns) returned to the earlier and ruder religion of worshipping the sun. For his name Ame- nophis ( 'peace of Amnion') he therefore substituted Khu- en-aten ( 'reflection of the sun's disk' ). Ramses I. (Rhamesses; pp. 127, 135, 453). XIX. DYNASTY (Diospolites, pp. L62, 427, 453). Setil. ( pp. 3 13, 427, 435, 453 ) undertook several campaigns against the Aramaic tribes, who had formed a league under the hegemony of the powerful Kheta (or Khittim, the Hittites of the Bible) , and penetrated as far as the Orontes. He erected the Memnonium atAbydus, and caused a sepulchre to be hewn for himself in the rock at Thebes. He caused Ramses, his son and successor, to be educated along with other young Egyptian nobles, and it is possible that .Muses formed one of the number (Exod. ii. 10). Seti devot- ed special attention to the Delta and to Tanis, the ancient 90 HISTORY. capital of the Hyksos, where he erected extensive buildings with the aid of the Semites, among whom the Israelites must also be included. During this reign a great canal was completed in Goshen (see p. 411), leading from the Nile to the E. frontier of the kingdom, and probably thenoe through the Bitter Lakes to the Bed Sea, but chiefly destined for the irrigation of the land of Goshen. Ramses II. the Sesostria of the Greeks | pp. 313, 374, HO, i i:>. 127, L53, 'i.l ), with a view to vindicate his supremacy over the nations subjugated by his ancestors, undertook cam- paigns towards the 8. to Donkola, towards the N. to Asia Minor, and towards the E. to the Tigris, to commemorate which he erected monuments of victory in various parts of the conquered countries. Be exhibited great zeal as a builder, and was a patron of art and science. He erected the Ramesseum at Dhebes, and presented it with a library. Pentaur, A.menem- apt, and other poets flourished during this reign. Ramses II. was the Pharaoh who oppressed the Israelites I Exod. i. 11). Merenptah (Gr. Amenephthes), the 'Pharaoh of the Exodus' i pp. 316, 453, T s l I. During his reign (in the year 1325, according to Brandis) the termination of a Sothis period* was celebrated. A conflict which broke out between this monarch and the Israelites settled in Goshen resulted in bis discomfiture | Exod. \iv. ). The New Empire. XX. DYNASTY [Diospolites; p. 479). Ramses III. (the Rhampsinitus of Herodotus , ii. I -I also pp. 334, L08), though successful Ln his campaign against the Libyans and in other warlike enterprises, could no! vie with his ancestors in military glory, but endeavoured to surpass them in the magnificence of bis buildings. His monument at Biban el-Muluk , near Thebes, is one of the finest now in existence. Most of the rock-tombs in this city of royal mausoles were founded by bis successors of the same Dynasty, all of whom also bore the name of Ramses I i\ XIII.). " Sothis, or the dog-star, afforded the Egyptians a ana taining the true astronomical year. The; began their i'm-m year with th ri ing of this star, at the beginning of the inundation i i Thoth). The Egyptian BOlar war. being six hours too Bhort. a the Sothis year by a quarter of 8 day. This ,j Km became verj perceptible, uter 10 years the end of the solar [] bj L0 days, and after 400 years by LOO days, short of the end of the el festivals recurred at seasons to which the] did not proper!] belong. \t Length, after 365X4 years, the error corrected itself, and tin beginning ot the new year again coincided with the rise of Sothis. in a period of L460 fixed, or L461 variable, years t lie error in the p| i.-ui call inlar u b - rectified, HISTORY. 91 XXI. DYNASTY (Tanites, from Tanis, in the N.E. part of the Delta ; pp. 373, 452). The throne of the Raniessides was now usurped by ambitious hierarchs of Tanis, headed by llerhor, the chief prophet of Amnion ; and Thebes was thu? deprived of her ancient pre- eminence. This dynasty of priest-kings reigned ingloriously. Being unable to exact obedience from their Asiatic vassals by force, they endeavoured to maintain their suzerainty by a conciliatory policy. ( See also the relations of Solomon with Egypt : i Kings Hi. 1 ; ix. 16; x. 28.) XXII. DYNASTY (Bubustites, from the Bubastis of the Greeks , the Pibeseth of the Bible , the Pibast of the Egyptian monuments, the modern Tell Basta in the Delta ; pp. 163, 410, 457). Sheshenk I. (the Sesonchis of the Greeks , the Shishak of the Bible; p. 454) assisted Jeroboam against Rehoboam, and besieged and captured Jerusalem. Osorkon ( Gr. Osorthon , the Zerah of the Bible, 2 Chron. xiv. 9; xvi. 8; see p. 457) invaded Palestine, but was signally defeated by Asa. XXIII. DYNASTY (Tanites; p. 453). Tcfnekht, prince of Sa'is and Memphis, attempted to possess himself of the sovereignty of Lower Egypt, but was defeated l)> Piankhi, King of Ethiopia, who captured Memphis, but afterwards returned to his own country (see p. 299). XXIV. DYNASTY (Saites, from Sai's, the modern Sa el- Hager; p. 445). Bek-en-ranf (Gr. Bocchoris) vainly endeavoured by a new legislation to arrest the decline of the empire. In 716 Egypt fell into the hands of the Ethiopians. — Interregnum. XXV. DTNASTY (Ethiopians). Shabako (Gr. Sabacon) con- quered Upper Egypt, and resided at Thebes, but made no alteration in the religion or the constitution of the coun- try. His sister Ameneritis (p. 297) became the wife of King Ra-men-kheper Piankhi, and their daughter Shep-en- apet married Psammetikh I. (see below). Shabataka ( Gr. Sebichos) led an army to the assistance of the Jewish king Hezekiah, but was defeated at Altaku by Sennacherib. King of Assyria. Taharka ( Gr. Tearco ; the Tirhakah of the Bible, the Tarku-u of the Assyrian monuments ; pp. 299, 303) formed an alli- ance with the kings of Phoenicia and Cyprus against Assy- ria, but was defeated in Egypt by Esarhaddon, the son and successor of Sennacherib , and driven back to Ethiopia. The Assyrians then plundered Thebes and divided the coun- try among twenty princes, among whom Nekho (the Nechoh 92 HISTORY. of the Bible), prince of Sai's, became the most prominent, After Esarhaddon's death Taharka endeavoured to shake off tyrian yoke, but was defeated and driven out of Egypt I \8urbanipal (Sardanapalus), Esarhaddon's son and suc- cessor. The yassa] princes assisted TahaTka, but were par- doned by \ssnrb;uiipal and reinstated in their provinces on i Bolemn vow of future obedience. V«t- Amen (Assyr. Drdamanf) captured Memphis and won back tin' whole of I. own- Egypt, but was in his turn defeated by Sardanapalus, who again invaded Egypt. After tiio departure of the Assyrians and the decline of their power under the successors of Sardanapalus, the petty Egyptian princes attained complete independence and es- tablished the so-called 'Dodekarchy'. An end. however, was put to this by Psammetikh, son ofNekho, and prince ofSa'is and Memphis, with the aid of Ionian and Carian mercen- aries. \s the nephew (by marriage) of Shabako (p. 91) Psammetikh was the legitimate heir of the Ethiopian dy- nasty, and he accordingly ascended the throne of Egypt founded the — KXVI. DYNAST'S (Saites ; pp. L63, 427, 446). Psammetikh I. ( Eg) pt. Psemtek, Gr. Psammetichus ; p. 385 I. in order to consolidate his empire, assigned dwellings to the mercenaries in the fertile region of Bubastis, and fa- voured foreigners in many ways. The warrior caste ofEgypt, trighl) offended al this proceeding, emigrated to Ethiopia, and (here founded the kingdom of the Sembrides. Profiting by the decline of the power of Assyria, Psammetikh made war against the wealthy Phoenician seaports, but was stoutly opposed hy the Philistines. Nekho (Grk. Vecfcos, Egypt. Nekau; p. 427), the son of Psammetikh, was more concerned for the domestic welfare of the country than for military glory. During his reign the S. extremity of .tfrica was circumnavigated for the first time ( Herod. Lv. 12). Nekho began to Construct a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea, bul discontinued the work on being informed hy an oracle that it would onlj benefit 'strangers. 1 Hearing of the camp he Mode- and Babylonians againsl the be also marched against Assyria, and defeated Josiah, King of Judah, the allj of the Vssyrians, who ed him atJMegiddo. Meanwhile, however, Nineveh had \ - rian i mpi re been divided by Cya King of Media, and Nabopolassar , King of Babylon; and Nekho's farther progress was arrested hy Nebuchadnezzar, King ofBabylon and son of Nabopolassar, who defeated him al Karkemi8h (Circesium). Nekho thus lost his | i and Pale HISTORY. 93 Psammetikh II. (Psammis, or Psammuthis). Uahbra ( Gr. Apries or Uaphris ; the Hophrah of the Bible), observing that the Babylonians were encroach- ing on Palestine , fitted out an army and fleet , cap- tured Sidon , defeated the Cyprians and the Tyrians in a naval battle, and marched to the relief of Zedekiah, King of Judah, who was besieged in Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. That city having been again besieged by Nebuchadnezzar and captured, Uaphris accorded an asylum to its exiled inhabitants. He afterwards sustained a defeat from Bat- tus 11., King of Cyrene, in consequence of winch his army rebelled against him. Aahmes, *who had been dispatched by him to treat with the insurgents, was then proclaimed kinv. and he himself was dethroned. Aahmes II. (Gr. Amasis;^. 386) succeeded in securing his supremacy by alliances with Gyrene , with the tyrant Polyerates of Samos, and with the Greeks. He assigned land to foreign colonists, granting them religious toleration, and diverted the stream of commerce from the semi-Phoenicia n cities of the Delta (Tanis, Mendes, and Bubastis) towards the Greek city of Naucratis (see p 207 ). During his reign the country enjoyed peace and prosperity, but the balance of power among the great nations of that era underwent a con- siderable change. Cyrus had meanwhile founded the vastPer- sian empire, and consolidated it by means of the conquest of the Babylonian andLydian kingdoms. His son Cambyses next inarched against Egypt, the only great power which still rivalled Persia. Having advanced to Pelusium with a large army, he Wiere defeated Psammetikh III., son of Amasis, who was now dead (p. 374) , captured Memphis , and took the king prisoner. Psammetikh was afterwards executed for attempting to organise an insurrection to shake off the foreign yoke. The Persian Domination. XXVII. DYNASTY (Persians). Cambyses (Pers. Kambuziyall., Egypt. Kembut ; pp. 374, 386, 446) at first behaved with great moderation. He tolerated the Egyptian religion, and to his own name he added the Egyptian agnomen oillamesut, or 'child of the sun'. After, however, he had failed in several rash enter- prises, such as his campaigns against the inhabitants of the oasis of Amnion and against the Ethiopians, his temper became soured, and his conduct violent and cruel. He died at Acbatana in Syria , while marching to Persia against Gaumata, a usurper who personated Bardiya [Gr. Smerdis), 94 HISTORY. the deceased brother of Cambyses, who had been assassinated Tore this period by order of the kin.i: himself. Darius I. QPers. Daryavus), son ofllystaspes (Vistaspa), became king of the Persian empire on the dethronement of the usurper Gaumata (the personator of Smonlis). His policy consisted in modifying his rule over each part of bis territory in accordance with its own special requirements. He endeavoured to promote the prosperity of Kgypt in every possible way. lie established new commercial routes from Koptos in Upper Egypt to the Red Sea, and from Siut and A i > n < 1 1 j s. to the Sudan; lie resumed the construction of the canal from the Nile to the Red Sea (p. 428); he improved the roads of Egypt ; he sent a stron»; garrison to the oasis of Khargeh I \>. 63), ami erected a temple to Amnion there; he coined money for the use of the Egyptians, whose cur- rency had hitherto consisted of stamped riuirs ami weights; and he appointed Amasis . a scion of the 26th Dynasty, his satrap in Egypt. Hearing that the Persians had been de- feated by the Greeks (in 492 and 490), the Egyptians revolted against the Persian yoke under the leadership of Khabbash, a descendant of the family of Psammetikh. The insurrection, however, was soon quelled by — Xerxes I. (lVrs. Khshayarshd) , son of Darius; Khabbash disappeared, and Achalmenes , the king's brother, was ap- poined satrap. Artaxerxes I. QPers. Artakhshathra), surnamed Makrocheir, or Longimanus, next ascended the Persian throne. During his reign the Egyptians again revolted. Prince I minis i,f Marea, aided bj the Athenians, defeated A.chaimenes, the Persian satrap , hut tin' allied Egyptians ami Greeks were in their turn defeated by the Persian general Megabyzus near Prosopitis, an island in tin' Nile, and Inarus was crucified. Amyrtaeus, a scion of a princely Egyptian family, and a parti/an of inarUS, 'Inn 30Ugh( an asylum in the marshy coast district, wheie he succeeded in maintaining his independence. II, rodotus travels in Kgypt. Darius II. ( I'ers. Daryavus), surnamed Ybtftos, or the Bastard. The Egyptians now- revolted for the third time. Pausiris, son of the Amyrtaeus above mentioned, hid anwhile been succeeded by a second Amyrtaeus, who still maintained the independent position of bis predecessor in the Delta. This Amyrtfflus beaded the new insurrection, which became genera] Ln404; and he wa> soon ceoognised as king of tin' whole of Egypt. He founded the '-'< s th Dynasty, v hich. however, lasted for six years only. Vaif&urut (Ne- HISTORY. 95 pherites) of Mendes at length succeeded in completely throwing off the Persian yoke , and hecarae the founder of the 29th Dynasty. His chief endeavour was to secure the friendship of the Greeks, with a view to strengthen himself against the Persians. Artaxerxes II., surnamed Mnemon. The Persian king endeavoured to recover Egypt, but Akhoris, the successor of Naifaurut, threw obstacles in his way by supporting his enemies, particularly Euagoras, the tyrant of Salamis in Cyprus, and by improving the defences of his country. Psamut ( Psammuthis ) and — Naifaurut (Nepherites) II., the successors of Akhoris, reigned for short periods only. Nekht-hor-heb (Nectanebus I.), however, the next native monarch, a Sebennytic prince, the founder of the 30th Dynasty, completed the warlike preparations of the Egyp- tians, and entrusted the chief command of his troops to Chabrias , an Athenian general, who signally defeated Pharnabazus, the Persian general, at Mendes. Artaxerxes III., Ochus. Tachos or Teos, who succeeded Nekht-hor-heb, invaded Persian Phoenicia, supported by a body of Greek allies. During his absence, his nephew Nekht-nebf (Nectanebus II.) usurped the Egyptian crown , but was defeated by Arta- xerxes III. and driven into Ethiopia. Egypt now surrendered to Artaxerxes, and again became a Persian satrapy (345). Darius III., Codomannus. Alexander the Great, after having defeated Darius on the Granicus (334), and at Issus (333), and captured the Phil- istine town of Gaza, marched to Pelusium, and was received with open arms by the Egyptians, who regarded him as their deliverer from the Persian yoke. He tolerated the native religion, visited the Oasis of Amnion, and founded Alexan- dria (p. 207 ), which, under the Ptolemies, became the great centre of Greek culture and of the commerce of the whole world. In the lists of the Pharaohs we find the 28th, 29th, and 30th Dynasties mentioned as contemporaneous with the 27th or Persian Dynasty. XXVIII. Dynasty (Saiies): Amyrtaeus (Amen. nil). XXIX. Dynasty (Mendesites , from Mendes, in the Delta; see p. 442): — 399-393 Nepherites I. 393-383 Akhoris. 383-382 Psammuthis. 382-37S Nepherites II. XXX. Dynasty (Sebemiytes. from Sebennvtus. the modern Semen- nud, in the Delta;' p. 445): — 9fi HISTORY. 164. FeJcht-hor-heb i /.). 361 345. Nekht-nebf (Nectanebus II.). Period of the Ptolemies. Ptolemy I. Soter (]i. 212), son of Lagus, and one of* Alex- ander's generals, now became Macedonian governor of Egypt. He defeated Antigonus and Perdi d the independence of his province, and in 305, after the ae ination of Alexander II. /Egus, the son of Alexander the Great, be assumed the title of King of Egypt, inconse- quence of the foundation of the Alexandrian Museum i p 212) for the reception of learned men, as well as of litt treasures, Alexandria soon superseded Athens as the chief nurserj of Greek literature. Two years before his d< which look place in 284, Ptolemy I. abdicated in favour of his son, Ptolemy II. Philadelphus (pp. 85, 212, i i I !. Ptolemy III. Euergetes I. (p. 212, 3J i ), in the com two campaigns, conquered the empire of the Seleucides and Cilicia in Asia Minor. The power of Egypt abroad was now at its zenith. Ptolemy IV. Philopator. Under this king and liis suc- cessors, a series of degenerate monarchs, the great empire of the Ptolemies hastened to its destruction, lie defeated Antiochus the Great of Syria, who had marched towards the Egyptian frontier, at the Battle of Raphia, but concluded a dishonourable peace with him. Ptolemy V. Epiphanes (p. i ded the throne. when live years of age, under the guardianship of Agathocles and CEnathe, the mother of the hitter. In consequent ts at Alexandria and Lycopolis, and an attack h\ Antiochus the Greal of Syria, his guardians were obliged to resign their office in favour of the Boman Senate, bj whom Ooele Palestine i d to Antiochus, whileEgyp! continued to be independent. Ptolemy V., hav- ing been pri of full age in 196 . married i r;i I., daughter of Antiochus the Great. This alii not only secured peace abroad, but caused a portion of the revenues of Coelesyria , Phoenicia, and Judaea again to flow into the treasury of Alexandria. The intern if the country, however, fell into a state of deplorable confusion; one rebellion succeeded another, and anarchy prevailed here. Ptolemj V. w as poisoned. Ptolemy VI. Eupator, hi< son, died the same year. Ptolemy VII. Philometor , the second son of Ptolemy V. HISTORY. 97 (p. 408), when six years of age, ascended the throne under the protectorate of his mother Cleopatra I. Battle of Pelusium. Philometor is taken prisoner, and Mem- phis captured, hy Antiochus IV. of Syria. Ptolemy VIII. was now placed on the throne, hut was im- mediately assassinated by Ptolemy IX. Euergetes II. (nick- named Physcon, or 'big belly'). Ptolemy VII. Philometor and Ptolemy IX. Physcon, having become reconciled, reign jointly. The brothers quarrel ; Philometor flies to Rome , is rein- stated by the Roman senate , and thenceforth reigns alone ; while Euergetes , by command of the Roman senate , reigns at Cyrene. Philometor dies. Ptolemy Physcon besieges Alexandria, and becomes the guardian of the heir-apparent, a minor. He is overthrown by a revolution, and retires to Cyprus. He regains possession of the throne. Physcon dies. Cleopatra III. Cocce , his niece and widow, and her son Ptolemy X. Soter II. Philometor II. (Lathyrus) reign jointly. Lathyrus is banished, and his brother Ptolemy XI. Alexan- der I. becomes co-regent in his stead. Alexander is exiled by insurgents. Alexander is slain in a naval battle, and Lathyrus is recalled. Thebes rebels and is destroyed. Lathyrus .dies. Alexander marries Berenice III. , with whom he reigns jointly , under the name of Ptolemy XII. Alexander II. He assassinates his wife, and is himself slain. Ptolemy XIII. Neos Dionysos (or Auletes , the 'flute- player'), an illegitimate son of Lathyrus, ascends the throne, and is formally recognised by Rome (59). Diodorus visits Egypt. Auletes flies from Alexandria to Rome, but is reinstated by Gabinius. Auletes dies, leaving a will by which he appoints his eldest children — ■ Cleopatra VII. (pp. 428, 213) and Ptolemy XIV. Dio- nysos II. his joint heirs, commands them to marry each other, and nominates the Roman senate their guardian. Pompey is appointed to that office. Ptolemy XIV. banishes Cleopatra. Pompey , having been defeated by Caesar at the Battle of Pharsalia, seeks an asylum in the territory of his wards, but on landing in Egypt is slain at the instigation of Ptolemy. edeker's Egypt I. 2nd Ed. 7 98 HISTORY. Caesar lands at Alexandria, takes the part of the banished Cleopatra, and defeats the rebellions Ptolemy. Ptolemy XIV. is drowned iu the Nile. Caesar, having meanwhile become dictator of Home , ap- points Ptolemy XV. , the brother of Cleopatra VII. , a boy of eleven, co-regent. Ptolemy XV. is assassinated at the instigation of Cleopatra, and Ptolemy X VI. Caesarion, her son byCa-sar, is appointed co-regent. Caesar is murdered. Antony, having summoned Cleopatra to Tarsus to answer for the conduct of her general Allicnus, who contrary to her wishes had aided the army of Brutus andCassius at Philippi, is captivated by her beauty and talent. After having spent years of debauchery with the Egyptian queen, he is at length declared by the Roman senate to be an enemy of bis country. Octavianus marches against him , defeats him at Actium, and captures Alexandria. Antony commits suicide, and Cleopatra is said to have also caused her own death by the bite of an asp. Egypt now became a Roman province, and was governed by prefects down to A.D. 362. Roman Period. Caesar Octavianus, under the title of Augustus, becomes sole ruler of the vast Roman empire ( p. 213 ). The Egyptian priesthood accord to the Roman emperors the privileges en- joyed by their own ancient monarchs, and in their temple- inscriptions style them autocrator (absolute sovereign). The Ethiopians, under their queen Candaoe, invade Egypt. Slrabo travels in Kgypt. Tiberius erects the Sebasteum at Alexandria. Germanicus visits Egypt. Caligula. A persecution of the Jews takes place, to which we are indebted for the valuable treatise of JoBephus in answer to Apion, who had written against the .lews. Claudius. Rights of citizenship guaranteed to the .lews. Lake Moeris gradually dries up. Nero. Egypt acquires a new source of wealth as a com- mercial station between India. Arabia, and Koine. Annianus, first bishop of Alexandria Galba. Oiho Vitelliu . Vespasian! p. 213 I visits Alexandria. From thi* cit) Titus on bit i pedition against Palestine, which terminates with the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 10. Domitian (p. 443) encourages the worship of Isis and Serapis a1 Rome. HISTORY. 99 Trajan (p. 428). The canal connecting the Nile with the Red Sea is re-opened (Amnis Trajanus). Rebellion of the Jews at Alexandria. Hadrian (p. 213) visits Egypt (twice according to some accounts). His letter to Servianus (p. 216). Termination of a Sothis period ( comp. 90). Marcus Aurelius. Rebellion of the Bucolians , or cowherds of Semitic origin who had long been settled among the marshes of the Delta, quelled by Avidins Cassius. Avidius Cassius is proclaimed emperor by the Egyptian legions, but is assassinated in Syria. Marcus Aurelius visits Alexandria (p. 213). Demetrius, first patriarch of Alexandria. Commodus. Septimius Severus. The philosopher Ammonius Saccas founds the Neo-Pl atonic School. Severus visits Egypt. Edict prohibiting Roman subjects from embracing Chris- tianity. The Delta at this period is thickly studded with Christian communities. Schools of Catechists flourish at Alexandria (Pantamus, Clement, Origen). Caracalla (y>. 213) visits Egypt. Massacre at Alexandria. Caracalla is assassinated by the prefect of his guards — Macrinus , who is proclaimed emperor by the Egyptians. After his death a series of contests for the possession of the throne take place at Alexandria. Decius (p. 214). Persecution of the Christians under Decius. Beginning of the anchorite and monastic system, perhaps in imitation of the hermit life led by the devotees of Serapis (p. 384). The history of these Christian ascetics (comp. pp. 385, 480) soon to came be embellished with myths of every kind. Valerianus. Persecution of the Christians (p. 214). Gallienus accords religious toleration to the Christians. Plague in Egypt. Rebellion of Macrianus , who is recognised as emperor by the Egyptians. He marches into Illyria against Domitian, the general of Gallienus. JEmilianus (Alexander) is proclaimed emperor by the army at Alexandria and recognised by the people, but is defeated and put to death by the Roman legions. Egypt invaded by an army of Queen Zenobia of Palmyra. Claudius II. Aurelian. Renewed invasion of the Palmyrenes. Zenobia recognised as Queen of Egypt. 1 # 100 HISTORY. Zcnobia dethroned. Insurrection of Firmus, a Syrian (p. 214). Invasions of the Blenunyes. Firmus defeated. Probus obtains the purple at Alexandria (p. 214). His successful campaign against the Blcmmyes. Diocletian (pp. 214, 218). Rebellion in Upper Egypt. Insurrection of the Alexandrians. Diocletian takes Alexandria and marches to Upper Egypt. Erection of Pompey's Column (p. 218). Persecution of the Christians. Maximinus. Beginning of the Arian controversies. Constantine the Great, first Christian emperor. Council of Nice. The doctrine of the presbyter Arius of Alex- andria (p. 214) that Christ was begotten by God before all time, and was godlike, but not very God, is condemned; while the teaching of Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, to the effect t lia t Father and Son are homoitlioi. or of the same nature, is sanctioned, chiefly owing to the powerful eloquence of his deacon Athanasius, who accompanied him to the Council. Constantine founds Constantinople as a new metropolis of Greek art and science. Death of Constantine. Constantius favours Arianism. Athanasius is deposed, and Georgius , who is made bishop of Alexandria , opposes the followers of Athanasius with the sword. Athanasius dies, after having spent the last years of his life in the midst of his flock. Theodosius I. the Great. He formally declares Chris- tianity to be the religion of the empire. Persecution of the Allans and heathens (pp. 214, 374). Partition of the Roman empire, Arcadius being emperor of the East, and Honorius of the West. The Byzantines. Arcadius permits Theophilus, the bigoted patriarch of Alexandria fj>. -111. to exterminate with lire and sword the opponents of the doctrine that God must be considered to have a human form. Theodosius II. Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, dies, and is succeeded by Cyril (p. 214). Tlir vi.-w of the patriarch Cyril, thai Christ ami the Virgin (as rj Seotoxoi;) possess a double nature, prevails over thai "i thi patriarch of Constantinople at the third oecumenical Council, held ;it Ephesus. I »eath of Cyril. Marcianus fp. 214). \i iIk fourth oecumenical Council, thai of Chalcedon, the doc- trine of tii' 1 archimandrite Entyches of Constantinople, i" the i effect that Christ possessed a double nature before iii. j incarnation, HISTORY. 101 but that this human nature was aftei'wards absorbed by his di- vine, is condemned, chiefly through the influence of Pope Leo the Great. At the same time the doctrine that Christ possesses two natures, aouy^uTcuc and errpiirTUK, but at the same time dtStaiplxox; and axSiiU, for its carpets, Akhmim for its straw mats and leather-work, and Talio for its pottery. The chief export at that [period, as in ancient times, was corn, which was chielly sent to the Hijaz. The Tulunides are put to death by the r Abbaside Khalif Muktafi, who marched with an army to Egypt. The Shilte Fdtimites , who had gained possession of the supreme power at Tunis, commanded by 'Obedallah, attack Egypt, but are defeated. Mohammed el-Ikhshtd, a Turk, and governor of Egypt, takes possession of the throne. Kufur, a black slave, who had for a time conducted the government for the second son of El-Ikhshid, usurps the throne, and recognises the suzerainty of the 'Abbasides. Gohar conquers Fostat for his master, the Fatimite Mu'izz, great-grandson of 'Obedallah. Mu'izz (p. 242) assumes the title of khalif and transfers his seat of government to Egypt, after having founded the city of Masr el-Kahira (Cairo) as a residence for himself near Fostat (p. 242"). Egypt now becomes the most important part of the territory of the I'atiinites. Fatimite sovereigns of Fgypt. The earlier of these govern- ed the country admirably. The population increased with wonderful rapidity, and the whole of the commerce of India, as well as that of the interior of Africa, flowed to Egypt. Mu'izz dies. 'Aziz, his son, distinguishes himself by his tolerance and his love of science (p. 287). Hakim (pp. 242, 279), son of r Aziz, a fanatic, declares himself to be an incarnation of Ali, and becomes the foun- der of the sect of the Druses (see Baedeker's Palestine and Syria, p. 100). Zahir, Hakim's son, rules with sagacity. Abu Tamim el-Mustansir, a weak and incapable prince. Tin- country is ravaged by a pestilence. Jirdr el-Jem&li, governor of Damascus, is summoned to Egypt to act as chief vizier. Mustali, son of Muatansir, conquers — HISTORY 103 Jerusalem and the towns on the Syrian coast , hut is de- prived of his conquests by the army of the First Crusade. King Baldwin of Jerusalem attacks Egypt unsuccessfully. r Adid Ledinallah, the last Fatimite. Contests for the office of vizier take place during this reign between Shower and Dargham. The former, being exiled, obtains an asylum with Xureddtn, the ruler of Aleppo, who assists him to regain his office with Kurd mercenary troops, commanded by the brave generals Shirkuh and Salaheddin (Saladin). Shawer, quarrelling with the Kurds, invokes the aid of Amalarich /., King of Jerusalem (1162-73), who comes to Egypt and expels the Kurds. A second army of Kurds, which was about to invade Egypt, is driven back in the same way, whereupon Amalarich himself endeavours to obtain possession of Egypt. Shawer next invokes the aid of his enemy Nureddin, whose Kurdish troops expel Amalarich. Egypt thus falls into the hands of the Kurds Shirkuh and Salaheddin. Shawer is executed. Shirkuh becomes chief vizier, and on his death Salaheddin rules in the name of the incapable khalif. On the death of the latter Salaheddin be- comes sole ruler of Egypt, and founds the dynasty of the — Eyyubides. Salaheddin (pp. 242, 262, 266, 443, 519), being a Sun- nite, abolishes the Skrite doctrines and forms of worship. After Nureddin's death lie gains possession of the whole of that sovereign's Syrian dominions. By the victory of Hittin he overthrows the Christian king- dom in Palestine. Death of Salaheddin. Melik el- r Aziz (p. 353), his brother and successor, pre- serves intact the dominions bequeathed to him ; but the em- pire is dismembered at his death, and Egypt falls to the share of his son — Melik el-Kamil (p. 439 ), in whose reign the country began to play a prominent part in the history of the Crusades. Damietta (Dumyat) is captured by the army of the Fifth Crusade, but is compelled to surrender in 1221 (p. 443). While the sons of the last sultan are fighting with each other and with other members of the family for the throne of Egypt, the Mameluke — Melik es-Saleh usurps the supreme power, and founds the Mameluke Dynasty. + His power being somewhat kept in + The Mamelukes were slaves (as the word niamluk imports), pur- chased by the sultans and trained as soldiers, for the purpose of forming their body-guard and the nucleus of their army. They placed Melik es- Saleh on the throne, hoping to govern him without difficulty. But when the new sultan found his authority sufficiently well established, he dis- missed them from his service, and formed a new body-guard of the 104 HISTORY. check by his body-guard of Bahrite Mamelukes, he endea- vours to extend his supremacy abroad. He attacks his uncle [small, the ruler of Damascus. The latter allies himself with other Syrian princes and with the Christians of Pale- stine, but is defeated by Melik es-Saleh . whose army has been reinforced by the Turkish mercenaries of the prince of Kharezmia. The Egyptians take Jerusalem, Damascus, Ti- berias, and Ascalon. Louis IX., the Saint, of France, roused by the loss of Jeru- salem, and with a view to prevent the Egyptians from further encroaching on the Holy Land, undertakes a cam- paign against Egypt, takes Damietta (p. 443), but while marching to Cairo is captured along with his army at Man- sura, and is only released on payment of a heavy ransom. Bahbite Mameluke Sultans. The first of these monarchs was Mu'izz Eibeg. Bebars, who had risen from being a slave to the position of leader of the Mamelukes, was one of the ablest of this dynasty. In the course of four campaigns he annihilates the last remnants of the kingdom of Jerusalem, and rules with sagacity, moderation, and justice. lie brings to Cairo the last representative of the 'Abbaside khalifs, who had recent- ly been dethroned by the Mongols, recognises his authority, and permits him nominally to occupy the throne. Kalaun (Kilawun, p. 275) successfully opposes the Mon- gols, and conquers Tripoli. El-Ashraf Khalil ( pp. 255, 278, 282), captures r Akka, the last place in the Holy Land held by the Christians. Hasan, the builder of the finest mosque at Cairo (p. 260). Circassian Mamklukk Sultans (Burgitcs). The founder Of this dynasty was — Barkiik ( pp. 242, 282), who overthrew the Bahrite Mame- lukes. The reigns of these sultans present a series of revo- lutions and atrocities (see p. 242 ). Bursbey (Berisbai, p. 285) conquers Cyprus. Kait Bey (pp. 268, 286). El-Ghrlri (p. 274). Tum'in Hi ti ( pp. 243, 272) is dethroned by the Osman Sultan Selim I. of Constantinople (pp. 243, 333). Cairo is taken by storm. Egypt thenceforth becomes a Turkish Pashalic. Selim compels Mutawakkil, the last aoion of the family of the 'Abbaside khalifs, who had resided at Cairo in obscurity since the time of Bebars, to convey to him his Bahrite Mamelukes (who were so called from the fact that their barracks were situated in the Island of Etod.a in the Nile or Bahr). Ere long, how- ever, the ii'". icceeded in gaining po ■ ion bi almost the whole nl tin' supreme power. HISTORY. 105 nominal supremacy, and thus claims a legal title to the of- fice of Khallf, the spiritual and temporal sovereign of all the professors of El-Islam. + The authority of the Osman sultans soon declined , and with it that of their governors. The Egyptian pashas were now obliged, before passing any new measure, to obtain the consent of the 24 Mameluke Beys (or princes) who governed the different provinces, and who merely paid tribute to the pasha. The most distinguished of these beys was — ' Ali Bey , originally a slave, who raised himself to the dignity of an independent sultan of Egypt by taking ad- vantage of the difficulties of the Turks , who were involved in war with Russia. He conquers Syria and Arabia, but on his return to Egypt is imprisoned by order of his own son-in-law Abu Dab ad, and dies a few days afterwards. Abu Dabad obtains a ratification of his authority from the Turkish sultan. After his death, the beys — Murdd and Ibrahim share the supremacy, and render them- selves almost independent of Turkey. The French Occupation. Napoleon Bonaparte (pp. "243, 429) arrives at Alexan- dria, hoping to destroy the English trade in the Mediter- ranean, and, by occupying Egypt, to neutralise the power of England in India. Storming of Alexandria. The Mameluke Bey Murad defeated. Battle of the Pyramids. Destruction of the French fleet at Abukir by the English fleet commanded by Nelson (p. 447). Insurrection at Cairo quelled. Central and Upper Egypt conquered. Defeat of the Turks at Abukir. Napoleon returns from Alexandria to France , leaving General Kleber in Egypt. Kleber defeats the Turks at Matariyeh (p. 333). Kleber is assassinated at Cairo (p. 243 ). The French are compelled by an English army to capitulate in Cairo and Alexandria, and to evacuate Egypt. t The Turkish Khalifs, however, have never been recognised by the Shiltes, as not being descended from f Ali. Most of the Sunnites also, especially among the learned Arabs, regard them merely as temporal mon- archs. Relying on an ancient tradition, they maintain that none but de- scendants of the Koreishites, the family to which Mohammed belonged, can attain the office of Imam, or spiritual superior. They accordingly re- gard the great Sherif of Mecca as their true Imam. [06 HISTORY. Mohammed Ali and his Successors. In the year L803 the French consul Matthieu de L mmissioned by his government to seek for Bome suit- able man to counteract the Influence of the English and the Mamelukes in Egypt, and lie accordingly recommended for the purpose Mohammed 'Ali, who was born at Kavala in Etoumelia in L769, and who was at that period colonel (bimbashi) of an Albanian corps of 1000 men in Egypt. Mohammed 'Ali, having succeeded in removing most of his enemies, is appointed Pasha of Egypt. In 1807 he frustrates an attempt of the English to take possession of Egypt, and on 1st March, L81 1, causes the Mameluke beys, -who prevented the progress of the country, to be treacherous! \ assassinated, together with their followers (470 in number). Mis son. Tusun Pasha, wages a successful war against the Wah- haliites in Arabia, and deprives them of Mecca and Medina. Mohammed improves the agriculture of Egypt b\ introducing the cotton-plant, and by restoring the canals and embank- ments, appoints Frenchmen and other Europeans to various public offices, and sends young Egyptians to Paris to be ted. During the Greek war of independence he sends '2 1,000 men to the aid of the sultan, as a reward for which he is presented with the island of Candia a of the war. In L831, aiming at complete independence, he makes war against the Porte. Ills son Ibrahim invades Syria, and cap- tures r Akka i i7i li May. 1832), Damasous (8th July), and Haleb (21st Dec), destroys the Turkish Eleel at Konyeh (Icordum), and threatens Constantinople il elf. His no- torious career, however, was terminated by the intervention of Russia and France. Syria is secured to Mohammed by the peace of Kutdhyeh , but he is obliged to recognise the suzerainty ofthePorte. At the instigation of the English, Sul- tan Mahmud renews hostilities with Egypt, but is decisively ted l>> Ibrahim at Nisibi on 24th June, L839. In con- sequence of the armed intervention of England and Austria, however, Ibrahim is compelled to quit Syria entirely, and Mohammed is obliged to yield to the Porte a second time, so-called firman of Investiture in ISi 1 Sultan Abdu I- ' secured the hereditary sovereignty of Egypt to the family of Mohammed 'Ali, the pasha renouncing his provin- Syria, Candia, and the Hijaz, and binding himself to iual tribute of 60,000 purses faboul 306,000i.) to the Porte and to reduce his army to 18,000 men. During the last years of his life Mohammed fell into a state of im- becility, and died on 2nd A.ug. L849 in his palaoe at Shubra. HISTORY. 107 Ibrahim Pasha , Mohammed r Ali's adopted son , had al- ready taken the reins of government , in consequence of Mohammed's incapacity, in January 1848, hut he died in November of the same year, and before his adoptive father. 'Abbas Pasha, a son of Tusun Pasha and grandson of Mohammed r Ali, has generally been described by Europeans as a brutal, vicious, and rapacious prince. This, however, would seem to be a somewhat distorted view of his character, arising from the fact that he had inherited from his Arab mother a certain amount of ferocity and even cruelty, coupled with the dislike of a true son of the desert for European in- novations. He, however, maintained the strictest discipline among his officials, and the public security in Egypt was never greater than during his reign. His death is attributed to assassination. Said Pasha , his successor, was Mohammed r Ali's third son. Thanks to his enlightened government and his taste for European civilisation, Egypt made considerable progress during his reign, although her finances were far from being in a satisfactory condition. He equalised the incidence of taxation, abolished monopolies, improved the canals, com- pleted the railways from Cairo to Alexandria and to Suez, and, above all, zealously supported the scheme of M. Fer- dinand de Lesseps for constructing a canal through the Isth- mus of Suez, which was opened in 1869 under his successor. During the Crimean war he was obliged to send an auxiliary army and considerable sums of money to the aid of the Porte. He died on 18th Jan. 1863, and was succeeded by his nephew — Ismail Pasha, the second son of Ibrahim Pasha, who was born on 3ist Dec. 1830. He had received the greater part of his education in France and had there acquired the strong preference for European institutions which characterised him throughout his reign. Unfortunately, however, he com- bined with this enlightenment a profound egotism and a tendency to duplicity and cunning, which in the end, in spite of his natural talents, proved his ruin. Most of his innovations, such as the foundation of manufactories and the construction of canals, railways, bridges, and telegraphs, were planned mainly in his own interest, though of course the country shared in the advantage, while even in the es- tablishment of schools , the reorganisation of the system of justice (p. 6), and the like, he acted rather with an eye to produce an impression in Europe than from real concern for the needs of his subjects. As time went on he succeeded in appropriating for his own use about one-fifth of the cul- tivable land of Egypt. In 1866. in consideration of a large 108 msTORY. sum of money, he obtained the sanction of the Porte to a new order of succession based on the law of primogeniture, and in L867 be was raised to the rank of Khedive, or viceroy, having previously borne the title of wait, or governor of a province only. In 1873 the Khedive obtained a new firman confirming and extending his privileges (independence of administration and judiciaries; right of concluding treaties wit], foreign countries; right of coining money, right of borrowing money; permission to increase his army and navy ). The annual tribute payable to the Porte was at the same time raised to 133,635 purses (about 681,5381.). With re- gard to the warlike successes of the Khedive and the ex- tension of his dominions , see pp. 29, 30. — The burden of the public debt had now increased to upwards of 100 mil- lion pounds, one loan after another having been negotiated by the finance minister Ismail Siddik, who Anally became so powerful that the Khedive deposed him in 1878 and caus- ed liim to be privately put to death. The Powers now brought such a pressure to bear on the Khedive, that he was com- pelled to resign his private and family estates to the state and to accept a ministry under the presidency of Nubar Pasha , with the portfolio of public works entrusted to M. Blignieres and that of finance to Mr. Rivers AVilson. This coalition, however, soon proved unworkable; Nubar Pasha quitted the ministry in consequence of the Khedive's encour- agement of a rising among the disbanded officers of the army, and early in 1879 the whole cabinet was replaced by a na- tive ministry under Sherif Pasha. The patience of the Great Powers was now at an end ; and on the initiative of Germany they demanded from the Porte the deposition of Isma'il, which accordingly took place on June 26th. Ismail was succeeded by his son Tewfik (pronounced Tevfik) or Taufik, under whom the government was carried on in a more rational spirit, especially after Riaz Pasha be- oame the head of the ministry. The debts were regulated, an international commission of liquidation was appointed, in extensive scheme of reform was undertaken. In Sept.. 1881, however, a military revolution broke out in Cairo, which had for its objects the dismissal of the ministry, the grant of a constitution, and above all the emancipation of from European influences. The Khedive was besieged in his palace and had to yield; he appointed Sherif president of a new ministry and arranged for an election of Notables, or representatives. As the latter espoused the 'national' cause, Sherif resigned in Feb., 1882, and Mahmud Pasha formed a new ministry, the programme of which tallied tlj with the demands of the national party. The new HISTORY. 109 cabinet, the soul of which was Arabi Bey, the energetic min- ister of war, at once proceeded, without receiving the con- sent of the Khedive, to pass several measures intended to diminish the European influence in the political and finan- cial administration of the country. The consuls general were assured that no danger threatened the Europeans, but were also told that any foreign intervention in the internal affairs of Egypt would be resisted by force. The Khedive, to whom both France and England had promised protection, declared that he would offer a determined resistance to the measures of the cabinet. At the end of May the British and French fleets made their appearance before Alexandria. In the middle of June serious disturbances broke out in that town , In the course of which many Europeans were killed, while the others found refuge on board the ships. On July 11th and 12th Alexandria was bombarded by the British fleet, and on Sept. 13th the fortified camp of Arabi at Tell el-Kebir was stormed by a British force under Sir Garnet Wolseley. Arabi and his associates were captured and sent as exiles to Ceylon. Since these events English influence has been paramount in Egypt. In the autumn of 1883 a wide-spread rebellion broke out among the Nubian tribes of the Sudan under the leadership of Mohammed Ahmed, the so-called 'Mahdi' (p. 153), which threatened to be fatal to the Egyptian supremacy in the Sudan. An Egyptian army of 10,000 men under an Englishman named Hicks Pasha was annihilated in Nov., 1883, by theMahdi's forces, and a second expedition of 3500 regular troops of the Egyp- tian army, led by Baker Pasha, was also completely defeated at Tokar in February, 1884. On the 18th of the same month General Gordon , after a perilous ride across the desert, en- tered Khartum , which he had untertaken to save from the Mahdi ; while on Mar. 1st and Mar. 13th the rebel tribes under the Mahdi's lieutenant Osman Digna were defeated at El-Teb and Tamanleb by the British troops under Graham. The Mahdi himself, however, still maintained his position near Khartum, and towards the close of the year a second British expedition (of 7000 men) was sent out under Wol- seley to rescue Gordon. "Wolseley selected the Nile route for this expedition in preference to the shorter but more dangerous desert route from Souakin to Berber, but the ascent of the river proved a very tedious operation and it was not till the beginning of 1885 that he was able to concentrate his troops at Korti, between the third and fourth cataracts (a little above Ed- Dabbe on the Map at p. 30). The Nile here makes an enorm- ous bend, and a detachment of 1500 men was now sent on 110 HIEROGLYPHICS. in advance to cut off this bend and open communication with Khartum from Shendy, while the main body continued its laborious ascent of the Nile. The advanced brigade under ral Stewart accomplished its march across the Baydda Desert (see Map , p. 30) -with complete success , gaining sevi rely contested victories over large bodies of the Mahdi'a followers at Abu Klea (Jan. 17th) and at a point near Me- temmeh (Jan. 19th). Stewart, however, was mortally wound- ed at the latter engagement. The British reached the Nile at Gubat, just above Metemmeh, on the evening of Jan. l'.lth, and on Jan. 24th a small body of men under Sir Chas. Wil-nn set out for Khartum in two steamboats which Gordon had sent to meet them. Sir Charles reached Khartum on the 28th, but found that it had already fallen on the 26th, ap- parently through treachery, and that Gordon was either dead or in the hands of the Mahdi. Upon the news of the fall of Khartum the British government, after consultation with General Wolseley, decided that it was necessary to arrest the progress of the Mahdi, and determined to dispatch reinforce- ments of 1 1.1,000 men to Souakin, to co-operate with Wolseley from that base. The construction of a railway from Souakin to Berber was also resolved upon. At the time the Hand- book went to press the plan of Wolseley's farther operations was not definitely known; but the loss of Khartum and the approach of the hot season had greatly complicated his task, and the advanced brigade had been recalled to join the main body. Though an absolutely trustworthy account of the fate of General Gordon has not yet been received, there is almost no room to doubt that he perished at the capture of Khartum. IV. Hieroglyphics. IUj Professor G. Ebers of Leipsic. The ancient Egyptians used three kinds of writing, the Hieroglyphic, the Hieratic, and the Demotie, to which, within the Christian era, was added the Coptic. The ftrsl ■a\i\ earliest is the pure Hieroglyphic writing, which consists of figures of material ob- ject- from every sphere of nature and art, together with certain mathematical and arbitrary symbols. Thus VCS. owl, a snail, J axe. D square, Uy ? scnti. This Ls the monumental writing, which is oftener found engraved on stone than written with a pen. For the speedier execution of long records the Egyptian- next developed the Hieratic writing, in which the owl ( \. i.e. ,\\ al -i ',.,., - to be recognisable, and In which we possess literary HIEROGLYPHICS. Ill works of every kind except dramas. The most ancient hieratic papyrus now extant was written in the third millennium before Christ. The language used in the hieroglyphic and hieratic writ- ings alike was the ancient sacred dialect of the priests. The Demotic writing, which was first employed in the 9th century before Christ, diverges so widely from the hieroglyphic that in some of the symbols the original sign from which they were deriv- ed is either not traceable, or can only be recognised with difficulty. The sign of the owl, for example, was curtailed to ^ . This writing was chiefly used in social and commercial intercourse ; as, for example, in contracts and letters, whenceitwas sometimes termed the 'letter character' by the Greeks. The more the spoken language diverged from the sacred dialect, which assumed a fixed form at a very early period, the more urgent became the want of a new mode of writing appropriate to the living language. Thus arose the demotic style, and lastly, in the 3rd century after Christ, the Coptic, in which the language spoken at that time by the Christian Egyptians was written, the characters being Greek, with a few supplementary symbols borrowed from the demotic (such as UJ $h, q / > ^ c/t, «> b, arp (Coptic Hpn, erp) means wine, and is associated with the general determinative & , i. e. the jars in which the juice of the grape used to he kept. In the second form of the sentence the syllahic writing is omitted, and the plural, instead of being denoted by three strokes, is expressed by the repe- tition of the special determinative. This leaves no doubt as to what is meant, while the first form gives us the actual words. We now give the most important symbols of sound of the an- cient Egyptian writing, and also a few syllabic signs. Hieroglyphic Alphabet. 8. \\ i. 11. J5 q or k. 12. _g^ I. L3. 14. /www 15. D P- ■V* 16. A q- 17. HIEROGLYPHICS. 115 is. P- 23. "1 t (z). 19. C=SZ 20. o t. (sh). » (tli). 24. V£\ , (3 u. 25- © , T X Ckb)- Important Syllables in Annexed List of Zings. 1. l'"""l »lf«. 111. Ilor (the god Horus). I nofet: 3. © rd. 4. Q *ft«. 5. ] I k(l or -=> d-a, d. 20. V .. V met: 3. | •/■<■ i: 7. TT <««. ■1 Ihepet: "7 «e&. ^ ?>< 'ftj Amen (the god Ammon). 28. KW Plah (the god Ptah). 15. [H mes. 29. 6a. I Mi 30. ,- , '.<■ 31. ? — L me and mi r. HIEROGLYPHICS. 43. -r- «»tft. •-'! 33. II an (On, Heliopolis 34. <«. 35. 1 nulcr. 3G. i nsefO (Isis). 38. [j*] *a. 39. fj Net (goddess Neith). 40. X waft. 41. ij ah and «/<<<. 42. ^ to. 'f 49. U sen. fata. 51. /^J *»«. 52. ^c *«*? {««• 53. f™*! nub. 54. c=^7 mad. 55. <&-g-^ se&ei. 5G . ^ ftem. The form of the hieroglyphic signs is not invariable. Dur- ing the primaeval monarchy they were simple and large, while under the new empire they diminished in size hut increased in number. The writing of the reigns of Thothmes III. and of Seti I. ( L8th and l'Jth dynasties) is remarkably good. In the 20th and fol- lowing dynasties the hieroglyphics show symptoms of decadence. The writing of the 24-26th dynasties is distinct and elegant, but has not the boldness peculiar to the primaeval monarchy. Under the Ptolemies the symbols acquired characteristics peculiar to this period alone, while many new hieroglyphics were added to the old; the individual Letters are, as a rule, beautifully executed, but the eye is offended by their somewhat overladen and cramped style. The method of writing, too, is changed. The phonetic element makes large concessions to the ideographic, and acrophony HIEROGLYPHICS. 117 becomes very predominant : i. e., a number of symbols are used to stand for the first letter only of the word they represent. Thus the syllabic symbol Mfl ser ('the prince') is used for the letter s alone; nehem ('the lotus-bud') for n alone ; and so on. The frames within which the groups of hieroglyphics are en- closed ( > are termed 'cartouches'. Where they occur, the in- scription generally records the names of kings, and occasionally, but very rarely, those of gods. Above them usually stands the group suten sekhet , i. e. 'king of Upper and Lower Egypt', or neb taui , 'sovereign of both lands', or s. y j^. neb khd-u, 'lord of the diadems'. "When the name of a king is to be deciphered, the alphabetical signs must first be noted, and then the syllabic symbols. The fol- lowing examples will illustrate this. The builder of the great pyramids is named — i. e. Khufu; ^ (25) being kh; (5) /■; and ^ (24) u. The builder of the second pyramid was Khafra. Here O is the 3rd syllabic sign ro; S , the 4th syl- labic sign kha; * — the letter f. This would give us rd-khd-f; but it is to be read khd-f-rd, or Khafra, as the syllable ra, where- ever it occurs in the name of a king, is always placed first without regard to its proper place in the structure of the word. This was done out of respect for the holy name of Ita, the god of the sun, to which the Egyptians thus piously gave precedence. On the same principle the name of the builder of the Third Pyramid, O (3), i '""" i (1), and J_J (5), or ra-men-ka, is to be read Menkara or Menkera. — Several celebrated kings'of the 18th Dynasty are termed ( a ^2^ (nil I • ^ ow &J^- * s tne ^k syllabic sign tehuti or ihut, [fi the loth syllabic sign mes, and [j the 18th alphabetical letter, which is added as a phonetic complement to mes. The name is therefore to be read Tahut-mes or Thut-mes , the Greek form of which was Tuthmosis (commonly known as Thothmes). 118 VI. Frequently recurring Names of Egyptian Kings, t Selection by Prof. Ebers in Leipsic. Khufu Khut'ra Men- Tat-ka- Mena. (Menes). i. Snefru 4. O r~\ S Teta. 6. \ U (Cheops) (Che- I™™ phren)4. r inus) 4. (Tanche- Assa. 5. re?) 5. o o r^ o O 1! Ill, Rameri. . „ Nefer- Antef 0. Pe P l - 6 - kara. 6. 11. f7\ o> ^ Usertesen I. 12. Amenemha II. 12. Usertesen II. 12. Usertesen III. 12. Amenemha I. 12. ■ — \r~^ ^ D V I Amenemha III. 12. Amenemha IV. 12. ^ \-2 AA/WV\ V_^ /WWV\ Sebek- hotep. 13. -J*?* Apepa. Shalati. „ , * Hyksos. Hyksos. (Salatis). (Aphobis). 9 Hil a 1 t The numbers placed after the names are those of the different dynasties. NAMES OF KINGS. 119 bo Rasqe- Aahmes (Amo- Amenhotep (Ame- Tutmes (Tuth- nen. sis). 18. nophis) I. 18. mosis) I. 18. A /wwv\ /W\A/V\ u % l\ x^^h ^ D r~\ v^ O (ft V I Hatasu. 18. Tutmes III. 18. Amenhotep II. 18. Amenhotep III. 18. Hor-em-heb (Horus) Amenhotep IV. 18. Seti I. (favourite of Ptah) (Khu-en-aten) 18. „ ^ ^ - ^ Ramses I. 19. 19. k-2 (1 III ^v L o Ramses II., favourite of Ammon, and his father Seti I., the Sesostris of the Greeks. u © 7=1 IN (° IP \\\ IS] A Q Sesetsu (Sesostris.) C P >°H 1 £ 120 NAMES OF KINGS. Mcrenptah I. (Mcnephthcs). 19. /www v^ T=X ^J. Seti II. (Merenptah). 19. 111 AAAAAA <^ J\ ll.iuiM'i IV. 20. Ramses V. 20. Ramses VI. 20. Ramses VII. 20. Ramses XII. (Leps. Sheshenk (Sesonc his) I. 2 2. 20. f , ^ v NWW,^ O i Q B AAAAAA ^_J Osorkon I. 22. f ft =i f( (J AAAAA" Sheshenk IV. 2 3. Bokenranf (Uocchoris). 24. 6 Takel.it (Tiglath) I. 22. Sh&bak (Sabaeo). 25. <2r53C^^i] NAMES OF KINGS. 121 Taharka. 25. ra A Queen Ameniritis. 3 AAAAAA Piankhi. °fll 1 D Psammetikh I. 26. Nekho26. Psammetikh 11.26 o UVJV,^ v J Kheshe- Uahphrahet (Ua- Kambatet Ktariush rish phris. Hophrah). AahmesII. (Ama- (Cambyses) (Darius). Darius. (Xerxes). 26. sis). 26. 27. 27. 27. 27. r~^ I J^J L^LV v^ MA !w! H o 2T3 11 Ainenrut Nekht-nebf (Amyrtffius). 93. (Nectanebus). 30. I AAAAAA Ptolemy II. Philadelphus I. 33. V^ I I l/wwv\ J\ Alexander I. Philip- ptoimis (Ptolemy I. qo pus An- * 6Z - dteus. 32. Soter). 33. (StiEM) Queen Arsinoe. 33. w a 122 NAMES OF KINGS. Ptolemy HI. Euerge- Q uee . n Ptolemy IV. Philopa- tes I. 33. n 33- tor I. 33. m °a _®^ x\ \ >v I J1 /WWW ^ o ^j. v, a y Ptolemy V. Epi- phanes. 33. 1 — I VJ LI iTp G Ptolemy IX. Euerge- tes II. (Physcon). 33. Seven Ptole- *^. ft V I _2^ 11 ^ I Ptolemy X. Soter II or Pliilomctor II. usually known as La- thyrus. 33. Cleopa- tra VI., mistress of Cae- sar and Anto- ny- 33. A ft D ^ \-J. NAMES OF KINGS. 123 Cleopatra VI., with Csesarion, her son by Ceesar, and nominal co-regent. 33. A <=> The famous Cleopatra and her son Csesarion. ^J. Ah ^ ligula. 34. "^ v_^ A © 0' T=T v^ e> (3 £ _ @ Si _&& ft Cleopatra and her son Csesarion, her co-regent. Autocrator (abso- lute monarch) and Kisaros (Caesar). Epithets of all the emperors. 34. "V2 A v I Caius Ca- Claudius. (Tibe- Nero. Vespasian, rius). 34. 34 A (3 c± D \\ ^ ^ Caesar Au- Tiberius, gustus 34. 34. Q ^ y; D » — i v I v i h Domi- Traian. tian. 34. 34. \^J. \^L 121 NAMES OF KINGS. Hadrian. Antoni- Aurelius. Comino- Sevcrus. Antoninus. Geta. De dus. 34. A a \7 O Do W Q (Caracalla), o» 34. AAAAM D O AA/W\A Q w o r v^v^ fc ^ o v^ VI. Religion of the Ancient Egyptians. The difficulty of thoroughly comprehending the fundamental ideas which underlay the religion of the ancient Egyptians is increased by two important circumstances. The first of these is, that the hier- archy of Egypt studiously endeavoured to obscure their dogmas by the use of symbolical and mysterious language; and the second is, that each nome possessed its own local divinity and colleges of priests, and invented its own cosmological and metaphysical allegories. This accounts for the differences of doctrine in a number of forms ill worship bearing the same name, and for the frequency with which the attributes of one god trench on those of another. The primitive religion, moreover, underwent great changes as the capa- city of the hierarchy for more profound speculation increased, until at length the relations of the divinities to each other and to the fundamental ideas represented grew into a complicated system, understood by the limited circle of the initiated alone. This was styled the Esoteric Doctrine t , the leading idea of which was, that matter, though liable to perpetual modifications, was eternal and fundamentally immutable, incapable of increase or decrease, but endowed with intelligence and creative power. In the opinion + Esoteric (from dotuTepixo's, inner, hidden) is a term applied to a mys- terious doctrine, known to the initiated only, the antithesis of which is the exoteric doctrine (from £;u)Tepixo'c, external, popular). RELIGION. 125 Cleofthose who held this doctrine there could he no original act of ation , and no plurality of gods ; hut a metaphysical conception difficult of apprehension could not he propounded to the great ^dy of the people. For the use of such persons it was, therefore, amplified, and clothed with allegorical forms, through the medium * which they might heholditas through a veil, somewhat ohscured, 4at at the same time emhellished and shorn of its terrors. This onstituted the Exoteric Doctrine, with which was connected the theogony , or theory of the origin and descent of the divinities who represented the various forces and phenomena of nature. These gods, however, though not existent from all eternity, were neither created nor hegotten, hut were regarded as having heen self-created in the womhs of their own mothers, and are therefore spoken of as 'their own fathers', 'their own sons', and the 'hushands of their mothers'. The deities accordingly are seldom spoken of as single individuals, hutin triads, asfather, mother, and son (comp. p. 130). The primary source from which all life proceeds, the first cause of all things, was clothed with a personal form , called Nun. The principle of light, and the creative power of nature, which implants in matter the germs of existence and light, was Khepera, or the scarahseus with the sun's disk, whose emhlem was the beetle (scctra- baeus sacer). As that insect rolls up into a hall the eggs which produce its offspring, and was supposed to have no female, so this deity was helieved to have concealed within the glohe of the world the germs of organic life. Ptah. is the greatest of the gods , and is the embodiment of the organising and motive power developed from moisture (Nun). It is he who imparts form to the germs sown hy Khepera, and under the name of Sekhem Nefer breaks the hall rolled along by the scarabaeus, or in other words the egg of the universe, from which emerge his children, the elements and the forms of heaven and earth. Ra , a deity who bears seventy-five different forms , at first appears in the Nun under the name of Turn , or the evening sun ; during his passage through the lower hemisphere, that of night , he is known as Khnum , and is born anew on the next morning of the creation , bursting forth in the form of a child (Harmachis) from a lotus-flower floating on the Nun. Evening and night precede the morning and day; and Amenthes, or the infernal regions, were believed to have existed before the upper regions which formed the scene of human life. After the breaking of the egg of the world, the universe is re- solved into three empires : — (1) The heavenly Nut, represented as a woman fjl, bending over the earth, on whose back float the vessel of the sun, the planets, and the constellations. (2) Seb, or the earth, which possesses the power of eternal rejuvenescence, and was regarded by the Egyptians as the symbol of eternity, a deity somewhat resembling the Greek Chronos. (3) The Infernal Regions, which are presided over by Ptah , the power productive of 126 RELIGION. !u\\ forms, the germinating principle of seeds, and god of light and li lines represented in the shape of a deformed child), and. after him, by Ha, who appears from the inscription on the royal tombs at Thebes to have been a purely pantheistic conception, the 'frame of the universe' and 'the universe', and whose sphere there- fore embraced the lower as. well as the upper regions. (See also Ha and Amnion.) The Sacred Animals and the Mixed Forms, which generally consist of human bodies with the heads of animals, frequently re- cur as companions of the gods, or are used as emblems of the deities themselves. In each case those animals were selected whose inherent dispositions and habits corresponded to the power or phenomenon of nature personified in the god. Specimens of these animals were kept in and near the temples, and the finest of them were embalmed after death and revered in the form of mummies. Thus, the maternal divinities were appropriately represented by the cow, the patient mother and nurse ; the goddess of love, the bride of Ptah, was represented with the head of a fierce lion or a cat ; the crocodile was sacred to Sebek, the god who caused the waters of the Nile to rise; and the hawk, which soars towards heaven like the sun, was dedicated to Ra. The symbol of Ptah was the black Apis bull , whose great power of generation seemed analogous to the never ceasing creative energy of the black soil of Egypt. The Egyptian Gods. The chief of the gods , as we have already mentioned, was Ptah, the Greek Hephaestus. He was the ancient god of Memphis, who delivered to Ra the germs of creation, and was assisted in his labours by the seven Khnumu or architects. As from him were supposed to emanate the laws and conditions of existence, he is also styled 'lord of truth'. He is represented in the form of a mummy, but with his hands protruding from the bandages, and grasping the symbol of life •¥", that of stability f(, and the sceptre . The neck-ornament called 'menat' is generally attached to his back, and on his head he usually wears a smith's cap. He Bometimes occurs with a scarabteus instead of a head. In view of his connection with the doctrine of immortality and with the Infernal regions, he sometimes appears in the inscriptions as Ptah- Sokar-Osiris, who prescribes to the sun that has set, as well as to the mummies of the dead, the conditions under which they may rise again and enter on a new life. The 'primaeval Ptah' is also is the head of the solar gods, and also occasionally as the from which, according to an older myth, the sun and the moon fame forth. Thence, too, is derived his name, which BignifLea 'the opener'. By his side are often placed the goddess Sekhei I Pasht), and his son Imhotep (iEsculapius). His sacred animal was the Apis bull, which was the offspring RELIGION. 127 of a white cow impregnated by a moonbeam. In order to represent Apis worthily, a bull had to be sought which possessed a black hide, a white triangle on his forehead, alight spot on his back in the form of an eagle, and under his tongue an excrescence shaped like the sacred scarabzeus. After his death the representative of Apis was embalmed and preserved in a sarcophagus of stone (p. 386). He was the symbol of the constantly operative fashioning power of the deity , and is on that account represented as the son of the moon, which, though never changing, appears to re- fashion itself every hour. The era of time named after Apis was a lunar period, containing 309 mean synodic months , which almost exactly corre- sponded with 25 Egyptian years. Ra, the great god of Heliopolis (On) in Lower Egypt , as the king of gods and men, ranks next to Ptah, and is, from the exoteric point of view, the sun who illumines the world with the light of his eyes, and the awakener of life. He rises as a child, under the name of Harmachis (Har-em-khuti), at midday he is called Ra , and at sunset he is re- presented as Turn, an old man subduing the enemies of Ra, who obstruct his entrance to the Ptah. lower regions which he traverses at night. During his course through the nether world he becomes the ram-headed Khnum (p. 129), or the nocturnal link between Turn and Har- machis, or evening and morning. As man in the region of the shades has to undergo many trials , so the ship of the sun , as soon as he has crossed the western horizon, no longer sails along the blue back of the goddess Nut. but along the sinuosities of the serpent Apep, the enemy of the setting sun, who is subdued and held in bondage by the companions of Ra. In rising Ra is born, and in setting he dies; but his life is daily renewed by an act of self-procreation taking place daily in the bosom of nature, which was termed Is is, Muth, or Hathor. This goddess is frequently called the ruler of the nether regions, and is represented with the head of a cow, or in the form of a cow, which every morning gives birth to the young sun. Twelve human figures, each bearing the orb of the sun or a star on his head, represent the hours of the day and night. The animals specially sacred to Ra were the hawk; the Upper Egyptian light-coloured Mnevis bull, which also belonged at a later period to Ammon Ra, and a specimen of which had even before that time been kept in the temple of the sun at Heliopolis ; and, lastly, lions with light skins. The Phoenix, or bird from the land of palms, called by the Egyptians bennu, which, I -2s RELIGION. according to the well known myth, awakes to new life after being burned, and brings its ashes to Ileliopolis once every five hundred years, was also associated with the worship of Ka. As Apis is associated with Ptah , so this bird by the side of Ka is a symbol of the soul of Osiris. — Ka is generally re- presented with the head of a hawk, and co- loured red. He holds in his hands the sym- bols of life and sovereignty, and wears on his head a disk with the Uranis serpent, or basilisk. According to tlie esoteric and pan- theistic construction of the inscriptions on the tombs of the kings, Ra is the great Uni- verse (to Ttfiv), and the gods themselves are merely so many impersonations of his various attributes (see Ammon Ra, p. 138). Turn, ox Atum, a manifestation ofBa, whose name is perhaps akin to temt, signi- fying the universe, was tirst worshipped in Lower Egypt, particularly at Heliopolis and at the city of Pa-tum , that is, 'the place of Turn', the Pithom of Scripture. His rites were also celebrated in Upper Egypt at an early period. He is one of the oldest of the gods, having existed 'on the waters' in the dark chaos of the embryonic world, prior to the first sunrise, or birth of Harmachis from the lotus flower. According to the later ex- oteric views he was the setting sun, the harbinger of the coolness of evening. Under his guidance mankind was created by Khnum , and he was the dispenser of the welcome northerly breezes. He was also the approved warrior against the dark powers of the infernal regions which obstruct the progress of the sun"s bark, and is repre- sented as a bearded man with a combined Upper and Lower Egyptian crown , or the orb of the sun, on his head, and the emblems of sovereignty and life in his hands. As the creator he sometimes has a scarabseus for a head; as Nefer-Tum he has the head of a lion, surmounted by a hawk crowned with lotus flowers, and holds an ut'a eye ^j2>" Turn of Heliopolis, lord '" llis hand - As representing the setting of of the world, the sun preparatory to its rising again, he Ilarmachis, the great god. RELIGION. 129 is also regarded as the god of the resurrection, as the hawk on his head indicates. Khnum (Greek Chnubis, Knuphis, or Knepli), one of the most ancient of the gods, who, while retaining his own at- tributes , was often blended with Am- nion, was chiefly worshipped in the region of the cataracts and in the oases of the Libyan desert. Being regarded as a link between the setting and the rising sun, he receives the sceptre of Ra beyond the western horizon (in which direction also lay the oases), and takes the place of that god during the progress of the sun through the nether world. Khnum ('khnem', the uniting) was also the power which united the days of sterility with those of fecundity, and was there- fore specially revered in the island of Elephantine , near the first cataract, where the fertilising Nile first enters Egypt, as the god of the inundation and the dispenser of the gift of water. By his side usually stand the goddesses Anukeh and Sati. Khnum is one of the cosmic gods, who created the inhabitants of heaven. He and his assistants are associated with Ptah, and he is sometimes represented as mould- ing the egg of the world on a potter's wheel out of matter furnished by Ptah, and fashioning mankind. He is generally represented with the head of a ram , and coloured green. He occurs as often sitting as standing, wears the dtef crown on his head , and wields the sceptre and the symbol of life ; while from his hips, proceeding from his girdle, depends a generative organ resemb- ling a tail, which is appended to the most ancient form of his apron. Ma, the goddess of truth and justice, is the radiant daughter of the god of the sun. She is easily recognised by the ostrich feather on her head, while in her hands she grasps the flower-sceptre and the symbol of life. In the more recent form of the ancient language she is termed T-mei (with the article), Baedeker's Egypt I. 2nd Ed. Khnuin. Ma, daughter of Ea. 9 130 RELIGION. from which name an attempt has been made to derive that of the Greek goddess Themis, like whom Ma is represented as blind, or at least with bandaged eyes. (ions of the Osiris and Isis Order. We owe to Plutarch a fit-tailed account of this myth, which has been uniformly corroborat- ed l»y the monuments, and which may be briefly told as follows. Isis and Osiris were the children of Rhea and Ohronos, that is, of Nut, the goddess of space, and of Seb, the god of the earth, which, owing to its eternal rejuvenescence and im- perishableness, symbolis- es time. While still in the womb of their mother, that is. in the bosom of space, the children became unit- ed, and from their union sprang Horus. Typhonand Nephthys, children of the same parents, likewise married each other. Osiris and Isis reigned as a happy royal pair, bestowing on Egypt the blessings of wealth and prosperity. Typhon conspired against Osiris, and at a banquet persuaded him to enter a cunningly wrought chest, which he and his seventy-two accomplices then closed and threw into the Nile. The river carried the chest northwards, and so down to the sea by way of the estuary of Tanis ; and the waves at length washed it ashore near the Phoe- nician Byblus. Meanwhile Isis roamed in distress throughout the country, seeking her lost husband; and she at length succeeded in discovering his coffin , which she carried to a sequestered spot and concealed. She then set out to visit her son J lotus, who was being educated at Buto. During her absence Typhon, while engaged in a boai-hunt, found the body of the god, cut it into fourteen pieces, and scattered them in every direction. As soon as Isis learned what bad happened, she collected the fragments, and wherever one had been found erected a monument on the spot to its memory; and this ac- counts for the numerous tombs of Osiris mentioned as existing in Egypt and elsewhere. Osiris, however, was not dead, lie had con- tinued bis i id his reign in the lowerregions, and after his burial he visited his son Horus, whom he armed and trained for battle. •ung god soon began a war against Typhon, and was at length victorious, although he did not succeed in totally destroying his enemy. The mythological Trinity or Triad. Osiris. Horus. Isis. RELIGION. 131 Osiris is the principle of light , while Typhon is that of darkness, which Osiris defeats and banishes to the infernal regions. IsisHathor mourns over his disappear- ance, follows him towards the West , where she gives birth to Horus, who annihilates darkness and restores his father to his lost position. When Ra is termed the soul of Osiris, the meaning is that he renders visible the hidden principle of light (Osiris). When , on the other hand, Osiris is regarded as emblem- atical of the principle of moisture , the most perfect embodiment of which is the godHapi, or the Nile, Typhon and his seventy-two com- panions represent the days of drought. Like the dead body of Osiris, the water flows to- wards the North, and the lan- guishing Isis , that is , the Osiris, prince of eternity. fruit-bearing earth, mourns over the loss of the fertilising power ; but this is for a short period only, for Horus soon vanquishes Ty- phon in the southern districts, and the rising Nile again begins to impregnate the black soil with abundant fertility. Lastly, when Osiris is regarded as the principle of life , Isis , the earth, is the scene of the operation of that principle, while Typhon represents death, and Horus the resurrection. If we regard Osiris, as the monuments so frequently do , as a pure and perfect being , the principle of the good and the beautiful, in which case he receives the surname of Un-Nefer, we recognise in Typhon the discords with which life is so replete, but which seem to be permitted only in order that the purity of the harmonies into which they are resolved through the intervention of Horus may be the more thoroughly appreciated. Osiris, according to the exoteric doctrine, is also the sovereign of the lower regions and the judge of souls, which, if found pure, are permitted to unite with his. The dead, therefore, do not merely go to Osiris, but actually become Osiris. Osiris is always represented with a human head. He either sits as a king on his throne, or ap- pears in the form of a mummy. He always wields the scourge and crook, and sometimes other emblems also. The crown of Upper Egypt which he wears on his head is usually garnished before and behind with the ostrich feathers of truth. Beside him, even in very ancient representations, stands a kind of thyrsus or entwined 9* 132 i:l I l(il(>\. rod, to which a panther-skin, tin- garb of his priests, is attached. In consequence of his function of promoting vegetable life, his wanderings, and perhaps also on account of this staff and skin, he was termed Dionysoa (or Bacchus) by the Greeks. Typhon-Seth. The name Typhon is most probably of Greek' origin. The Egyptians named him Seth, or Sutekh, and represented him as a fabulous animal %J- or with the head of this animal and subsequently as an ass, an animal which was sacred to him, or with an ass's head. His name is met with in the most remote pe- riod, but he appears originally to have been worshipped merely as a god of war and the tutelary deity of foreigners. He is usually styled the brother of Ilorus, and the two are called the Rehehui, or hostile twins, who wounded each other in the battle above describ- ed. At a later period, after the god of battles and of foreigners had shown himself permanently unfavourable to the Egyptians, they ceased to render service to him, and erased his name from the monuments on which it occurred, and even from the cartouches most highly extolled kings. With regard to his connection with the myth of Osiris and Isis, see p. 130. Nephthys, the wife of Seth, was called by the Greeks Aphrodite or Nike (Victory), probably on account of her being the wife of the god of war. Her proper sphere was the nether world. In the upper world she occurs as the nurse or instructress of the youthful Horus, and she appears with Isis, mourning and heating her forehead, at the funeral rites of Osiris. whom she had loved, and to whom, being mis- taken by him in the dark for Isis, she had borne Anubis. She is also associated with Osiris and Isis, with the youthful Horns and Isis, and even, as one of a tetrad, with Osiris, Isis, and Horus. She is usually represented with the sym- e. neb-hat, mistress of the house) on her head . which is adorned with the vulture cap, and grasping in her hands the flower- sceptre and the symbol of life. Anubis was the guide of the dead to the infernal regions and the guardian of Hades, of which he is termed the master. In the form of a jackal , or with the load of a jackal , he. presides over funeral rites and guards the kingdom of the w Horus, who occurs in many different forms, invariably represents the upper world or region of light, and also regeneration, resur- ■ "id the ultimate triumph of good over evil, of life over death, of light over darkness, and of truth over falsehood. J I La b.qjo. RELIGION. 133 constantly called the 'avenger of his father'; and detailed illustra- tions of his contest -with Typhon, dating chiefly from the period Anubis. Horus. of the Ptolemies , have been handed down to us. In the form of a winged disk of the sun he opposed Typhon and his com- panions, being aided by the Uraeus serpents entwined on the disk. As the god of light (Har- ^« machis, i.e. Horus on the ho- ^ZW/fflMmilMWl rizon) he merges into Ra, as he personifies the resurrection of the young light from darkness. The 'young Horus' springs in the form of a naked child with the lock of infancy from the lotus flower. Under the name of Hor-hut (Horus , the wing-expander) he overthrows Seth and his asso- ciates in behalf of Ra Harmachis, who, as a god of light, is con- sidered equal to Osiris. Ra is equivalent to the Helios of the Greeks, and the young Horus and Hor-hut to Apollo. The hawk, with whose head he is represented, is the animal sacred to him its back sometimes and the bird itself with a scourge o stands for him. Thoth (Egyptian Tahuti, Greek Hermes) is primarily revered as the god of the moon, and in this capacity often takes the place of Khunsu (_p. 138). As the phases of the moon formed the 134 RELIGION. of the earliest reckoning of time, Thot was regarded as the dispenser of time and the god of measures, numbers, and indeed of everything subject to fixed laws. Lastly he -was also regarded as tlic mediator by whose aid human intelligence manifests itself, as the god of writing, of the sciences, of libraries, and of all the arts which tend to refine life. In the infernal regions he records the re- sult of the weighing of hearts, keeps a register of the trials of the dead, and i eir souls to return to the radiant spirit of the universe. He is represented as an ibis on a standard , or with the head of an ibis, and frequently crowned with the disk of the moon and the ostrich-feather of truth. In his hands are a reed and a writing tablet, or, instead of the latter, a palette. He sometimes appears with a crown and sceptre, but very rarely has a human head. The animals sacred to him are the dog-headed ape and the ibis. I'" b T.iiii. Safekh. Safekh. A goddess who is associated with Thoth, but whose unknown, is always designated as Safekhu, i.e. down her horns, as she bears these appendages re- ■ over her forehead. She is the tutelary deity of libraries, of -acred writings and lists, and therefore of history also. She holds in her left hand a |i.-i I m- branch with Innumerable notches marking the flight of time, and with her r i ir 1 1 1 she inscribes on the leaves of rsea tree all name- worthy of being perpetuated. RELIGION. 135 Isis. Muth. Hathor. These three goddesses, although extern- ally regarded as separate, were really different modifications of the same fundamental idea. As a counterpart of the male generative principle , they all represent the female element, the conceiving and gestative principle, or the receptacle in which the regeneration of the self-creating god takes place. Muth, whose name signifies mother, is represented as a vulture, or with a vulture's head. She is the great birth-giver , who protects Osiris and Pharaoh with her outspread wings, and she guards the cradle of the Nile, whose mysterious source is defended by a serpent. The functions of Isis (j>. 130), who endows everything that is capable of life on earth with the good and the beautiful, have already been mentioned. She wears on her head the vulture cap, cow's horns, and the disk of the moon, or the throne n, or all four combined represented with a scorpion As Isis Selk, she is hovering over her head , as Isis Neith, who is also equivalent to Muth, usually with a weaver's shuttle :=CZK , while as Isis Sothis, or the dog-star, she sails in a boat. She is also represented as suckling the infant Horus in her lap. Her sacred animal is the cow , which belongs also to Isis Hathor. The name Hathor signifies 'house of Horus', for within 1*1 1 1 ■ .■■■■■"■ I Muth. Isis and Horus. the bosom of this goddess the young god gave himself new life. She is the goddess of love, the great mother, who accords her divine protection to all earthly mothers, the dispenser of all the 136 RELIGION. iga of life, the beautiful goddess who fills heaven and earth with her beneficence, and whose names are innumerable. At a later period she was regarded as the muse of the dance, the song, the jest, and even of the wine-oup. The cord and tambourine in her hand denote the fettering power of love and the joys of the festivals [818 Hathor. llathor. Hathor. over which she presided. Her sacred animal was the cow, and she generally appears in the form of a youthful woman with a cow's head, bearing the disk between her horns; and she is even Bpoken of as t lie mother of the sun (p. 127). Hathor also plays an important part i ress el i lie nether world, where she is usually called Mer-S, kh I. Sekhet. Bast (or PasM). These goddesses likewise coincid Oi Less with the many-named Hathor ; but the lion or cat- headed deity known by these and main other names possesses several characteristics entirely peculiar to herself. She is called the daughter of Ra and the bride of Ptah, and personi lies Bexual sion. Represented as a Draeus basilisk of the crown of Ra , she is a Bymbol of the scorching heat of the orb of day ; in the nether Bhe fights against the serpent Apep , and in the form of a lion-headed woman or a cat, brandishing a knife, she chastises the guilty, But she also possesses kindly characteristics. 'As Sekhet, we are informed by an inscription at Phil*, 'she is terrible, and is kind.' The cat, her sacred animal, was long an object of veneration. She wears on her head the disk with the Incus Berpent, and holds in her hands the sceptre and the symbol of life. Sebek, a god who also appears in union with Ra as Sebek RELIGION. 137 Ra , is represented with the head of a crocodile , and was chiefly revered in the region of the cataracts at Silsili, Kom-Ombu, and in the Fayum (p. 457). At K6rn-Omhu Sebek forms a triad in con- junction with Hathor and Khunsu. His crocodile head is crowned with the disk, the Uncus basilisks, and the double feather. He grasps the sceptre and the symbol of life in his hands , and is coloured green. His sacred animal, the crocodile, was kept in his honour, but a certain Typhonic character was attributed to the reptile, as the sacred lists omit those nomes where it was worshipped. Sekliet Bast. Sebek. Khem Amun. Ammon-Ba. Ra (p. 127), with whose worship the rites of many other divinities were combined, and whose attributes were frequently merged in those of Osiris, reigned, according to the later inscrip- tions, as the great monarch of the gods, but Amnion, who was revealed to the exoterics as a son of Ptah, obtained possession of the throne of this world , while Ra continued his sovereignty in Amenthes, or the nether regions. Amnion, whose name signifies 'the hidden one', is a deity of comparatively late origin, having been at first merely the local god of Thebes ; but after the valley of the Nile had been delivered from the Hyksos under his auspices, and after Upper Egypt and Thebes had gained the supremacy over Lower Egypt and Memphis, he was raised to the rank of king of all the gods. The attributes of almost the entire Pantheon of Egypt were soon absorbed by this highly revered deity. He reposes as a hidden power in Nun, or the primordial waters, and during RELIGION. of his self-procreation he is termed Khem. As soon as he has manifested himself, he, as 'the living Osiris', animates and spiritualises all creation, which through him enters npon a higher ace. On the human beings fashioned by Turn he operates mysteriously, disposing them to a love of discipline and ml to an abhorrence of all that is irregular, evil, and unsightly. Justice, which punishes and rewards, is subject to him, and even ids 'prostrate themselves before him', acknowledging the majesty of the great Inscrutable. Every other god now came to be li .I as little else than a personification of some attribute of the mysterious Amnion, god of the gods, standing in the same relation to him aB models of parts of a figure to the perfect whole. The raonn- Anunon-Ba, King of the gods. a1 Ihebes represent him enthroned or standing, coloured blue or black, generally adorned with the long feather head-dress termed shuti, sometimes with the crown of Upper Egypt alone 4 or with that of Upper and Lower Egypt, and sometimes with a helmet or diadem on his head. In his hands he wields all kinds such as the sceptre, the scourge, the crook, and ,ll( ' Bymbol of life. When represented with a ram's head he is termed Ammon-Khnum, Knuphis, or Kneph (p. L20). Beside him in the greai triad of Thebes stand Muth. the maternal principle Cp> l'''i md Khunsu or Khom, who represents the operation of • in the external world, and particularly in its RELIGTON. 1 39 relation to human affairs. He is the 'destroyer of enemies', hi mankind in the battle of life, and he heals the sick. To his head the moon is attached by the infantine lock. From his wanderings as the god of the moon, and from the vigour with which he destroyed evil spirits, he was identified with Heracles by the Greeks. Doctrine of Immortality. From the account of the worship of Isis and Osiris it is obvious that the Egyptians believed in the im- mortality of the soul (whence arose the prevalent worship of ancestors), in amoral responsibility, and in a future state of rewards and punishments. The doctrine with regard to the life of the soul after death was not, however, at all times and in all places the same. According to the Egyptian belief, every human bring con- sisted of three distinct parts , which during the period of life were closely united: (1) the body, a portion of matter ; (2) the t sahu', or soul, which belonged to the nether world and ultimately re- turned thither; and (3) the 'fcftw', an emanation of the divine intelligence. Each of these elements could be separated from the others , but whatever changes it underwent, it was immutable in quantity and quality. As the god of the sun is always the same and yet hourly different, being at first Horus, then Ra, next Turn, and filially Khnum, so it was with the soul and the. in- telligence which fills and illuminates it , and which , as soon as the gates of the tomb are opened for its reception , speaks and acts for it. Once within the gates of Amenthes, the soul had to undergo many trials. Ferocious beasts had to be conquered , demons to be subdued , and castles to be stormed , and all this was to be done with the aid of texts and hymns written on papyrus and scarabau, ufa eyes, and other amulets swathed in the bandage of the mummy. At length the soul reached the hall of double justice , where the heart in its vase was placed in one scale and the goddess of truth in the other. Horus and a cynocephalus conducted the process of weighing, Anubis superintended, Thoth recorded the result, and Osiris with forty-two counsellors pronounced sentence. If the heart was found too light, the soul was condemned so suffer the torments of hell, or to continue, its existence in the bodies of animals, within a certain period after which it returned to its original body to begin life anew, and had afterwards to undergo another trial by the judges of Hades. If the heart was found sufficiently heavy, Osiris restored it to the soul; the 'sahu' might then return to its mummy ; its intelligence, after a period of purification in the regions of the blessed, might unite with the divinity from which it had emanated, and, merged in Horus, Osiris, etc., might traverse the heavens in the boat of the sun , or walk anew among the living in any form it pleased. Finally both the 'sahu' and the intelligence were re- united to the dead body they had quitted, which its mummification had preserved from decay, and which awaited the return of the soul from Amenthes or from its sojourn in the bodies of animals. I III DOCTK!Nl> OF EL-ISLAM. Index to the Egyptian Deities. Ammon-Ra, page 137. Anubis, 132. Anukeh, 129. t, L27. Apis, 126. I.Hi. achis, 127. 133. Hathor, Bonis, 130. 132. Imhotep, 126. Immortality . doctrine Infernal regions, 125. — Neith, 135. — Selk, 135. iothis, page 135. Khem, 138. 125. Khnum K In EhonS, <>r Khunsi Ma. 129. 3ekhet(Hatbor)jl36. Muth, 135. Neb-hat, or — Nephithys, 130, L32. Turn. 1-38. 135.' Nun, 125. Nut. 125. 130. I'asht, 136. Phoenix, page 127. I 'iab. 125, 126. Ra, 125. 127. 133. Sacred animals, 126. Safekh. 134. Sati. 129. Seb, 125. Sebek, 136. Sekhem Nefer, 125. ■Sekbct. 136. 126. Seth (Typhon). 132. Sokar-Osiris, 126. Sutekh, 132. Thoth (Tahuti), 133. Turn, 125. '127. 128. Typhon, 130. 132. VII. Doctrines of El-Islam. Manners and Customs of the Mohammedans. (By Prof. Socin, vf Tubingen.) Mohammed*, as a religious teacher, took up a position hostile to the 'age of ignorance and folly', as he called heathenism. The revelation which he believed it was his mission to impart was, as he declared, nothing new. His religion was of the most remote antiquity, all men being supposed by him to be born Muslims, though surrounding circumstances might subsequently cause them to fall away from the true religion. Even in the Jewish and Chris- tian scriptures (the Tkorah, Psalms, and Gospels), he maintained, were passages referring to himself and El-Islam, but these res had been suppressed, altered, or misinterpreted. So far as Mohammed was acquainted with Judaism and Christianity, he disapproved of the rigour of their ethics, which were apt to -;- Mohammed ['the praised', or 'to be praised') was a scion on the paternal side of the famirj of ila-iiini , a loss Important branch of the noble family ofKureish, who were Bottled at Mecca, and were custodians of tin.' K.YI..-1. I f is father 'Abdullah dud shortly before Lis birth tn lii-- .'i\iii year his mother Amina t.iuk him on a journej to Medina, but died on her way home, Phe boj was then educated bj his grandfather 'Abd el-Muttalib, and, after the deatb of the latter two years later, by hi- uncle Abu Talib. For several years Mohammed tended II' afterwards undertook commercial journeys, at first in company le, and then, when about twenty-five years of age, in the Khadija, who became his ftrsl wife. <>n one of these . said to Law become acquainted with the Christian monk i that period a reaction in the n : if the Vrabs had and when Mohammed was about nity of idolatry. He suffered from epilepsy, and during he received revelations from heaven. He can scarcely, therefon . be calli d an inij'o- i..r in the ordinarj ense. \ dream Which it i in tin in- t impulse, ami he soon DOCTRINES OF EL-ISLAM. 141 degenerate into a body of mere empty forms, while he also rejected their dogmatic teaching as utterly false. Above all he repudiated whatever seemed to him to savour of polytheism, including the doctrine of the Trinity, as 'assigning partners' to the one and only God. Every human being who possesses a capacity for belief he considered bound to accept the new revelation of El-Islam, and every Muslim is bound to promulgate this faith. Practically, however , this stringency was afterwards relaxed , as the Muslims found themselves obliged to enter into pacific treaties with nations beyond the confines of Arabia. A distinction was also drawn be- tween peoples who were already in possession of a revelation, such as Jews, Christians, and Sabians, and idolaters, the last of whom weTe to be rigorously persecuted. The Muslim creed is embodied in the words : 'There is no God but God (Allah +1, and Mohammed is the prophet of God' (la il&ha ilV Allah, wa Muhammedu-rrasfd- Allah). This formula, however, contains the most important doctrine only ; for the Muslim is bound to believe in three cardinal points : (1 ) God and the angels , (2) written revelation and the prophets, and (3) the resurrection, judg- ment, eternal life, and predestination. (1). God and the Angels. According to comparatively modern inscriptions ('Syrie Centrale', pp. 9, 10) it would appear that the emphatic assertion of the unity of God is by no means peculiar to Mohammedanism. As God is a Spirit, embracing all perfection within Himself, ninety-nine of his different attributes were after- wards gathered from the Koran, each of which is represented by a bead of the Muslim rosary. Great importance is also attached to the fact that the creation of the world was effected by a simple effort of the divine will. (God said 'Let there be', and there was. J The story of the creation in the Koran is taken from the Bible, with variations from Rabbinical, Persian, and other sources. God first created his throne ; beneath the throne there was water ; the began with ardent enthusiasm to promulgate monotheism, and to warn his hearers against incurring the pains of hell. It is uncertain whether Mohammed himself could read and write. His new doctrine was called Islam, or subjection to God. At first he made converts in his own family only, and the 'Muslims' were persecuted by the Meccans. Many of them, and' at length Mohammed himself (622), accordingly emigrated to Medina, where the new religion made great progress. After the death ofKhadija, Mohammed took several other wives, partly from political motives. He now endeavoured to stir up the Meccans, and war broke out in consequence. He was victorious at Bedr, but lost the battle of the Thud. His military campaigns were thenceforth incessant. He obtained great influence over the Beduins , and succeeded in uniting them politically. In 630 the Muslims at length captured the town of Mecca, and the idols in it were destroyed. Mohammed's health, however, had been completely undermined by his unremitting exertions for about twenty-four years; he died on 8th June, 632, at Medina, and was interred there. t Allah is also the name of God used by the Jews and Christian! who speak Arabic. I \1 DOOTRIN] - OF BL-ISLAM. , : , r tl, ormed. I" order to keep the earth steady , God upported by an angel, placed on a huge rock, which in its turn reBts on the back and horns of the bull of the world. Ami thus tin- earth is kept in its proper position. Simultaneous -with the creation of the firmament was that of the iiinti [demons), beings occupying a middle rank between men an d ;n: them believing, others unbelieving. These ginn are frequently mentioned in the Koran, and at a latei period numerous I irding them were invented. To this day the belief in themisvery general. When the ginn became arrogant, an angel was ordered to banish them, and he accordingly drove them to the mountains of Kaf by which the earth is surrounded, whence iccasionally make incursions. Adam was then created, on the evening Of the sixth day, and the Muslims on that account observe Friday as their Sabbath. After the creation of Adam came the fall of the angel who conquered the ginn. As he refused to bow dovi u before Adam be was exiled, and thenceforward called Iblis, or the devil. Alter this, Adam himself fell, and became a solitary wan- derer, but was afterwards re-united to Eve at Mecca, where the sacred stone in the Ka'ba derives its black colour from Adam's tears. At Jidda, the harbour of Mecca, the tomb of Eve is pointed out to this day. Adam is regarded as the first orthodox Muslim; for God, from the earliest period, provided for a revelation. Besides the creative activity of God, his maintaining power is specially emphasised, as being constantly employed for the preser- vation of the world. His instruments for this purpose are the lie the bear L's throne, and execute his mds. They also act as mediators between God and men, being the constant attendants of the latter. When a Muslim prays I which he docs after the supposed fashion of the angels in heaven), it will he observed that he turns hisface at the conclusion first over his right and then over his left shoulder, lie thereby greets the ling angels who stand on each side of every believer, one on ' -lit to record his good, and one on the left to record his evil deeds. The traveller will also observe the two stones placed over i i a Muslim burial-ground. By these si< the two angels uniiie the deceased, and in order that the creed may not orj It is incessantly chanted by the conductor of the funeral. While tli inns of good angels, who differ in form, but rely ethereal in substance, there arc also innumerable sa- who seduce men to error and teach them sorcery. rour to pry into the secrets of heaven, to prevent which itli falling stars by the good angels. (This Last La a n..t i antiquity. 1 Whittbk Revelation and the Peophets. The necessity 'l mi the dogma of original sinlessuess, and DOCTRINES OF EL-ISLAM. 143 on the. natural inclination of every human being towards [slamiam. The earliest men were all believers, but they afterwards fell away from the true faith. A revelation therefore became necessary, and it is attained partly by meditation, and partly hy direct communi- cation. The prophets are very numerous, amounting in all, it is said, to 124,000; but their ranks are very various. Some of them have been sent to found new forms of religion, others to maintain those already existing. The prophets are free from all gross sins ; and they are endowed by God with power to work miracles, which power forms their credentials; nevertheless they are generally derided and disbelieved. The greater prophets are Adam , Noah, Abraham, Jesus, and Mohammed. Adam is regarded as a pattern of human perfection, and is therefore called the 'representative of God'. — Noah's history is told more than once in the Koran, where it is embellished with various additions , such as that he had a fourth, but disobedient son. The preaching of Noah and the occurrence of the Deluge are circumstantially recorded. The ark is said to have rested on Mt. Judi, nearMossul. The giant r Uj, son of 'Enak, survived the flood. He was of fabulous size, and traditions regarding him are still popularly current. Abraham (Ibrahim) is spoken of by Mohammed as a personage of the utmost importance, and in the Koran, as well as in the Bible he is styled the 'friend of God' (comp. James ii. 23). Mohammed professed to teach the 'religion of Abraham', and he attached special importance to that patriarch as having been the progenitor of the Arabs through Ishmael. Abraham was therefore represented as having built the Ka'ba, where his footprints are still shown. One of the most striking passages in the Koran is in Sureh vi. 76, where Abraham is represented as first acquiring a knowledge of the one true God. His father was a heathen , and Nimrod at the time of Abraham's birth had ordered all new-born children to be slain (a legend obviously borrowed from the Slaughter of the Innocents at Bethlehem) ; Abraham was therefore brought up in a cavern, which he quitted for the first time in his fifteenth year. 'And when night overshadowed him he beheld a star, and said — This is my Lord ; but when it set, he said — I love not those who disappear. And when he saw the moon rise, he said again — This is my Lord ; but when he saw it set, he exclaimed — Surely my Lord has not guided me hitherto that I might go astray with erring men. Now when he saw the sun rise, he spake again — That is my Lord ; he is greater. But when it likewise set, he exclaimed — people, I will have nothing to do with what ye idolatrously worship ; for 1 turn my face steadfastly towards Him who created heaven and earth out of nothing ; and I belong not to those who assign Him partners!' Besides the slightly altered Bible narratives, we find a story of I 1 1 DOCTRINES OF EL-ISLAM. Abraham li n \ i nir been oast into a furnace by Nimrod for having destroyed idols, and having escaped unhurt (probably borrowed from the miracle of the three men in the fiery furnace). The history of Moses , as given in the Koran, presents no features of special interest. He is called the 'speaker of God' ; he wrote the Thorah, and is very frequently mentioned. — In the story i Mohammed has perpetrated an absurd anachronism, Mary being confounded with Miriam, the sister of Moses. Jesus is call- ed 'Isa in the Koran ; but Isa is properly Esau, a name of reproach among the Jews ; and this affords us an indication of the source whence Mohammed derived most of his information. On the other hand, Jesus is styled the 'Word of God", as in the Gospel of St. John. A parallel is also drawn in the Koran between the creation of Adam and the nativity of Christ; like Adam, Jesus is said to have been a prophet from childhood, and to have wrought miracles which surpassed those of all other prophets, including even Mo- hammed himself. He proclaimed the Gospel, and thus confirmed the Thorah ; but in certain particulars the latter was abrogated by him. Another was crucified in his stead, but God caused Jesus also to die for a few hours before taking him up into heaven. Modern investigation shows with increasing clearness how little originality these stories possess, and how Mohammed merely repeat- ed what he had learned from very mixed sources ( first .Jewish , and afterwards Christian also), sometimes entirely misunderstanding the information thus acquired. The same is the case With the numerous narratives about other so-called prophets. Even Alexan- der the Great is raised to the rank of a prophet, and his campaign in India is represented as having been undertaken in the interests of monotheism. Alexander is also associated with the Khid/r, or animating power of nature, which is sometimes identified with Elijah and St. George. The only other matter of interest connected irith Mohammed's religious system is the position which he himself occupies in it. Moses and Christ prophesied his advent, but the passages concerning him in the Thorah and Gospels have been sup- pressed. He is the promised Paraclete, the Comforter (St. John xiv. 16), the last and greatest of the prophets; but he does not 3 to be entirely free from minor sins. He confirms previous revelations, but his appearance has superseded them. His whole doctrine is a miracle, and it therefore does not require to be confirmed by special miracles. After his death, however, a number of miracles were attributed to him. and although he was not exactly deitied. the position assigned to him is that of the principal mediator 'i God and man. The apotheosis of human beings is, more- i Idea foreign to (he Semitic mind, and it was the Persians who iirst el. rated Ali and the imams (literally reciters of prayers) who succeeded him to the rank of supernatural beings. I he koi!\N Itself was early believed to be of entirely super- DOCTRINES OF EL-ISLAM. 145 natural origin. The name signifies 'rehearsal', or 'reading', and the book is divided into parts called Surehs. The first revelation vouchsafed to the Prophet took place in the 'blessed night' in the year 609. With many interruptions, the 'sending down' of the Koran extended over twenty-three years, until the. whole book, which had already existed on 'well-preserved tables' in heaven, was in the prophet's possession. During the time of the r Abbaside khalifs it was a matter of the keenest controversy whether the Koran was created or uncreated. (The Oriental Christians have likewise always manifested a great taste for subtle dogmatic questions, such as the Procession of the Holy Ghost.") The earlier, or Meccan Surehs, which on account of their brevity are placed at the end of the book, are characterised by great freshness and vigour of style. They are in rhyme, but only partially poetic in form. In the longer Surehs of a later period the style is more studied and the narrative often tedious. The Koran is nevertheless regarded as the greatest master- piece of Arabic literature. The prayers of the Muslims consist almost exclusively of passages from this work , although they are entirely ignorant of its real meaning. Even by the early commentators much of the Koran was imperfectly understood, for Mohammed, although extremely proud of his 'Arabic Book' , was very partial to the use of all kinds of foreign words. The translation of the Koran being prohibited, Persian, Turkish, and Indian children learn it entirely by rote. The Koran has been translated into English, French, German, Italian, and Latin. The best English translations are those of Sale (1734; with a 'preliminary discourse 1 and copious notes ; published in a cheap form by Messrs Warne & Co., London) and Rodwell (London, 1861). (3). Future State and Predestination. The doctrine of the resurrection has been grossly corrupted by the Koran and by sub- sequent tradition ; but its main features have doubtless been bor- rowed from the Christians, as has also the appearance of Antichrist, and the part to be played by Christ at the Last Day. On that day Christ will establish El-Islam as the religion of the world. With him will re-appear El-Mahdi, the twelfth Imam (p. 153), and the beast of the earth (p. 14'2), while the peoples of Gog and Magog will burst the barrier beyond which they were banished by Alexander the Great (p. 144). The end of all things will be ushered in by the trumpet-blasts of the angel Asrafil ; the first of these blasts will kill every living being ; a second will awaken the dead. Then follows the Judgment; the righteous cross to Paradise by a bridge of a hair's breadth, while the wicked fall from the bridge into the abyss of hell. Some Muslims believe in a kind of limbo, like that of the Hebrews and Greeks , while others maintain that the souls of the dead proceed directly to the gates of Paradise. At the Judgment every man is judged according to the books of the recording angels (p. 142). The good have the book placed in their right hands, but it is placed in the left hands of the wicked, bound behind Baedeker's Egypt I. 2nd Ed. 10 146 DOCTRINES OF EL-ISLAM. their backs. The scales in which good and evil deeds are weighed play an important part in deciding the soul's fate, a detail which gave rise to the subsequent doctrine of the efficacy of works. This doctrine is carried so far that works of supererogation are believed to be placed to the credit of the believer. The demons and animals. too, must be judged. Hell, as well as heaven, has different regions ; and El-Mam also assumes the existence of a purgatory, from which 16 is possible. Paradise is depicted by Mohammed, in con- sonance with his thoroughly sensual character, as a place of entirely material delights. I he course of all events, including the salvation or perdition of every individual, is, according to the strict interpretation of the Koran, absolutely predestined; although several later sects have endeavoured to modify this terrible doctrine. It is these views, however, which give rise to the pride of the Muslims. By virtue of their faith they regard themselves as certainly elect, and as a rule they make no attempt to convert others, as they have no power to alter the irrevocable decrees of God. In the second place the Koran is considered to contain, not onl; a standard of ethics, but also the foundation of a complete code of law. The Mobality of El-Islam was specially adapted by its roundel to the character of the Arabs. Of duties to one's neighbour, charity is the most highly praised, and instances of its practice are not (infrequent. Hospitality is much practised by the Beduins, and by the peasantry also in those districts which are not overrun with travellers. Frugality is another virtue of the Arabs, though too apt with them to degenerate into avarice and cupidity. The law of debtor and creditor is lenient. Lending money at interest is forbidden by the Koran, but is nevertheless largely practised, the lowest rate in Syria being 12 per cent. The prohibition against eating unclean animals, such as swine, is older than El-Islam, and, like the pro- hibition of intoxicating drinks, is based on sanitary considerations. Wine, however, and even brandy, are largely consumed by the upper es, especially among the Turks. Although Polygamy is sanctioned, every Muslim being permit- ted to have four wives at a time, yet among the bulk of the popu- monogam) is Car more frequent, owing to the difficult) of providing for several wives ami families at once. The wives, more- over, are \ery apt to quarrel, to the utter destruction of domestic unless the husband can afford to assign them separate houses. ten remain unmarried. The treatment of women as mere chat- tels, which Le of very xemote Oriental origin, constitutes the greatest m of El-Islam, although the position of the female l«S M Oriental Christians and Jews is little better than tmong the probably owing to this low estimate of DOCTRINES OF EL-ISLAM. 147 women that the Muslims generally dislike to see them praying or occupying themselves with religion. The practice of wearing veils is not confined to the Muslim women, hut is universal in the East. An Oriental lady would, indeed, regard it as an affront to he per- mitted to mingle in society with the same freedom as European ladies. Even in the Christian churches , the place for women is often separated from the men's seats hy a railing. The peasant and Beduin women , on the other hand, are often seen unveiled. The ease with which El-Islam permits divorce is due to Mohammed's per- sonal proclivities. A single word from the husband suffices to banish the wife from his house , but she retains the marriage-portion which she has received from her husband. The children are brought up in great subjection to their parents, often showing more fear than love for them. The repetition of Prayers five times daily forms one of the chief occupations of faithful Muslims. The hours of prayer (addn) are proclaimed by the mueddins (or muezzins) from the minarets of the mosques : ( 1 ) Maghrib^ a little after sunset; (2) 'Asha, night- fall, about l'/o hour after sunset; (3) Subh, daybreak; (4) Buhr, midday; (5) r Asr, afternoon, about I'/^h- 0111 before sunset. These periods of prayer also serve to mark the divisions of the day. The day i< also divided into two periods of 12 hours each, beginning from sunset, so that where clocks and watches are used they require to be set daily. Most people however content themselves with the sonorous call of the mueddin : Alldhu dkbar (three times); ashhadu an la ilaha ill' Alldlt; ashhadu anna Muhammeda rrasidulldh ( twice ) ; heyya 'ala-ssalah | twice ) ; heyya 'ala'l-faldh (twice), Alldhu dkbar (twice), Id ildha ill'alldh; i. e. 'Allah is great; I testify that there is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is the pro- phet of Allah ; come to prayer ; come to worship ; Allah is great ; there is no God but Allah'. This call to prayer sometimes also reverberates thrillingly through the stillness of night, to incite to devotion the faithful who are still awake. — The duty of washing before prayer is a sanitary institution, and tanks are pro- vided for the purpose in the court of every mosque. In the desert, where water is scarce and precious, the faithful are permitted to use sand for this religious ablution. The person praying; must remove his shoes or sandals and turn his face towards Mecca, as the Jews and some of the Christian sects turn towards Jerusalem ortowards the East, life worshipper begins by putting his hands to the lobes of his ears, and then holds them a little below his girdle ; and he intersperses his recitations from the Koran with certain prostrations performed in a given order. On Fridays the midday recital of prayer takes place three quarters of an hour earlier than usual, and is followed by a sermon, preached from the Mambar (p. 184) by a respectable, but unlearned layman, whose audience sits on the ground in rows before him. Friday is not, 10* 148 DOCTRINES OF EL-ISLAM. however, regarded as a day of rest, business being transacted as on other days. It has, however, of late become customary to close the courts of justice in imitation of the Christian practice of keeping Sunday. Tlu- .Muslims frequently recite as a prayer the first Siireh of the Koran, one of the shortest, which is used as we employ the Lord's prayer. It is called el-fatha ('the commencing'), and is to the follow- ing effect : — 'In the name of God, the merciful and gracious. Praise be to Cod, the Lord of creatures, the merciful and gracious, the Prince of the day of judgment; we serve Thee, and we pray to Thee for help ; lead us in the right way of those to whom thou hast shown mercy , upon whom no wrath resteth , and who go not astray. Amen'. Another important duty of the believer is to observe the Fast of the month ttamaddn. From daybreak to sunset throughout the month eating and drinUing are absolutely prohibited, and the devout even scrupulously avoid swallowing their saliva. The fast is for the a it ri porously observed, but prolonged repasts during the night afford some compensation. Many shops and offices are entirely closed during this month. As the Arabic year is lunar, and therefore eleven days shorter than ours , the fast of Ramadan runs through all the seasons In the course of thirty-three years, and its observance is most y felt in summer, when much suffering is caused by thirst. The I'im.kimagk to Mecca t, which every Muslim is bound to t Thi u. hut of (I,,, caravan, with tlie gifts presented to the town rt, and other items, costs the Egyptian government KJOi ' annually. DOCTRINES OF EL-ISLAM. 149 undertake once in Lis life, is also deserving of mention. Most of the pilgrims now perform tlio greater part of the distance by water. On approaching Mecca the pilgrims undress , laying aside cvon their headgear, and put on aprons and a piece of cloth over the left shoulder. They then perform the circuit of the Ka'ba , kiss the black stone, hear the sermon on Mt. 'Arafat near Mecca, pelt Satan with stones in the valley ofMina, and conclude their pil- grimage with a great sacrificial feast. On the day when this takes place at Mecca, sheep are slaughtered and a festival called the Great Beiram (el-'td ei-A;e6?rJobserved throughout the whole of the Moham- medan countries. (The 'Lesser Beiram', Arab, el-'id es-sughayyir, follows Ramadan.) The month of the pilgrimage is called Dhul- higgeh (that 'of the pilgrimage'), and forms the close of the Muslim year. For an account of the feast in connection with the pilgrim- age see p. 236. — In order approximately to convert a year of our era into one of the Muslim era, subtract 6*22, divide the remainder by 33, and add the quotient to the dividend. Conversely , a year of the Mohammedan era is converted into one of the Christian era by dividing it by 33, subtracting the quotient from it, and adding 622 to the remainder. On 21st October, 1884, began the Muslim year 1302. The Gregorian calendar has recently been introduced into Egypt, but is used by government in the finance department only. Most of the Arabic Literature is connected with the Koran. Commentaries were written at an early period to explain the ob- scure passages in it , and there gradually sprang up a series of e\- egetical writings dwelling with elaborate minuteness upon every possible shade of interpretation. Grammar, too, was at first studied solely in connection with the Koran, and a prodigious mass of legal literature was founded exclusively upon the sacred volume. Of late years, however, some attempts have been made to super- sede the ancient law, and to introduce a modern European system. The Beduins still have their peculiar customary law. With regard to theological, legal, and still more to ritualistic questions, El-lslam has not always been free from dissension. There are in the first place four Orthodox sects, the Hanefites, the Shdf e- 'ites, the Malekites, and the Hambalites , who are named after their respective founders. In addition to these must be mentioned the schools of Free Thinkers, who sprang up at an early period, partly owing to the influence of Greek philosophy. The orthodox party, however, triumphed , not only over these heretics, but also in its struggle against the voluptuousness and luxury of the most glorious period of the khalifs. Ascetism and fanaticism were also largely developed among professors of El-Islam, and another phase of religious thought was pure Mysticism, which arose chiefly in Persia. The mystics (sUfi) in- terpret many texts of the Koran allegorically, and their system there- I.".it DOCTRINES OF EL-ISLAM. fore frequently degenerated into Pantheism. It was by mystics who still remained within the pale of El-Islam (such as the famous Ibn el-'Arabi, born in I H'4| that the Orders of Dervishes wore founded. Dbktishbs (darwtsh, plur. dardwish). The love of mysticism which characterises Mohammedans is due partly to the nature of El-Islam itself, and partly to external circumstances. That earthly life is worthless, that it is a delusion, and at best a period of pro- bation, arc sentiments of frequent recurrence in the Koran. This pessimist vievi of life has been confirmed by Mohammed's concep- tion of tin' Supreme Being, on whose awe-inspiring attributes lie ieflj dwelt, thus tilling his adherents with a profound dread of their Creator. The result of this doctrine was to induce devout etire altogether from the wicked world, the scene of vanity and disappointment, and to devote themselves to the prae- if ascetic exercises, with a view to ensure their happiness in a future state. The fundamental aim of this asceticism was to strive after a know ledge of God by cultivating a kind of half-eonsciou> and ecstatic exaltation of mind. A mystic love of Cod was deemed the great passport which enabled the worshipper to fall into this ecstatic trance, and to lose himself so completely in contemplation as to destroy his own individuality (fund) and blend it with that of the \s iii Europe the monastic system and the mendi- cant orders sprang from the example of penitents and hermits who bad renounced the world, so in the Mohammedan world asceticism was rapidly developed into an organised system of mendicancy. although in the Koran Mohammed had expressed his strong disap- I of the Christian monastic system. At an early period many noble thinkers (such as the Persians Sa'di and ll.ili/j and talented poets enrolled themselves in the ranks of the ascetics, hut the der- vishes who represent the sect at the present day have entirely lost the spirit of their prototypes, and have retained nothing but the mere physical capacity for throwing themselves into a mechanical -tat.- of ecstasy and rendering themselves proof against external following are the principal orders of dervish dwish) .1 : — Hie Rif&'iy i'%), an order founded bj Seyyid Ahmed .1 monaster; near the mosque of Sultan He an ble bj their black Qags and black or dark blue t" b b of this order are the Aul&d 'Ilwdn, • ir '//.< ithes, and the Ba'diyeh Dervishei. The former are ir extraordinary performances at festivals, Bach as thrusting i into their eyes and anus, breaki i I their m Heir backs on the ground, and swallowing burning lass. The Sa'diyeh, who osuallj carry (p. '.'I i. and "ii the Fridaj on which the »-irtLcii„,j fiery ithet. The dancing dervishes arc called ifevlewis after the fonnderof their order, the ffOla ... ilkli in Persia (who flourished about A.I). i. ' i; Turkish form for molawi, or adherent of the Udla ini their zikr within a circular space about iosed by a railing. With slow, measured tread the ghSkh i a dervish, and takes his seat on a carpet ; he other dervishes next enter the circle one after wearing long gowns and conical hats. .alk solemnly up to their superior, make him a profound oh i kiss the hem of his robe, and take up their position to his left. From heard a rude and weird kind of music, consist- I lour of a stringed instrument accompanied by and a tinman voice rising and falling in cadences. Time is beaten trine, with varying rapidity and vigour. The singer recites a hymn the most ardent love of God. As soon as the singing the dervishes rise, and walk in procession three times round the circle, headed by the shekh. Each of them, including the shekh himself, makes a low bow in passing the spot from which the shekh has just risen. then resume their seats, and the shekh, with closed eyes, and in a pnlcliial voice, begins to murmur a prayer, in which tie Allah alone is audible. When the prayer is over the dervishes divest IveS Of their gowns, under which they wear a long, loose, light- coloured skirt or kilt, reaching down to their ankles, and a more closely fitting vest. They then present themselves before the shekh, each in his turn, make him a profound obeisance, and begin to move slowly round in a circle. They turn on the left foot, propelling themselves by touching the waxed floor from time to time with the right. Most of them make rations per minute, but some of them accomplish sixty and even llie whole of the zikr is performed by the dervishes noiselessly, with closed eyes, and outstretched arms, the palm of one hand being turned upwards and the other downwards, and their heads either thrown back or leaning on one side. During the dance soft strains of music are heard, while the beat of the tambourine gradually accelerates, and the skirts of the performers fly out in a wide circle. The tones of the flute become shriller and shriller, until on a signal given by the shekh the ceases, the dancers stop, cross their arms over their chests, and tlnir seats. The dance is performed three times by all except the superior. The latter, however, walks several times noiselessly through i ,i the dancers, who, although their eyes are closed, touch neither him mo- another. The whole zikr occupies about an hour. The howling or shouting dervishes perform their zikr in a kn Or crouching posture, with their heads and chests bent downwards. In this attitude they s etimes remain for hours, incessantly shouting the . of faith — 'IS ilaha 1 , etc., until they at length attain the ecstatic condition, and finish by repeating the word ftd, i. e. 'he' 'in il ccasion of great festivals some of them fall Into a kiiol convulsion, and foam at the mouth; but no notice is taken of them, and tlo\ are bit to recover without, assistance. It need hardly be added that the. European traveller will find these performances onpleasing and painful. WuiiMiir in- Saints and Martyrs was inculcated in con- i with El-Islam at an early period. The faithful undertook pilgrimages to the graves of the departed in the belief that death did not interrupt the possibility of communication with them. Thus the tomb of Mohammed at Medina, and that of his grandson II •' Kerbela, became particularly fatuous, and every little town 600n boasted of the tomb of its particular saint. In many DOCTRINES OF EL-ISLAM. 153 of the villages of Syria the traveller will observe small dome- covered buildings, with grated windows, and surmounted by the crescent. These are the so-called Welis, mausolea of saints, or tombs of shekbs. In the interior there is usually a block of stone, hewn in the shape of a sarcophagus and covered with a green or red cloth, on which texts from the Koran are embroidered in gold or silver. The walls are generally embellished with paintings representing the sacred cities of El-Islam, and executed in an amusingly primitive style. Suspended from the ceiling by cords and threads are little boats, ostrich eggs , and numerous paper bags filled with sacred earth from Mecca. In one corner are a thick wax candle and a heap of bones of all kinds. The tomb is usually surrounded by a burial-ground, where certain persons have the privilege of being interred. Schools are also frequently connect- ed with these weli's. Shreds of cloth are often seen suspended from the railings of these tombs , or on certain trees which are consi- dered sacred , having been placed there by devout persons. This curious custom is of ancient origin. About the end of the 18th century a reaction against the abuses of El-Islam sprang up in Central Arabia. The Wahhabites, or Wahliabees , named after their founder c Abd el-Wahhab, endeav- oured to restore the religion to its original purity ; they destroyed all tombs of saints, including even those of Mohammed and Husen, as objects of superstitious reverence, and sought to restore the primitive simplicity of the prophet's code of morals ; and they even forbade the smoking of tobacco as being intoxicating. They soon became a great political power, and had not Mohammed ' Ali deemed it his interest to suppress them , their influence would have been far more widely extended than it now is. — As to the Senusi order, see p. 67. We have hitherto spoken of the doctrines of tbe Sunnitcs (from sunna, 'tradition' ), who form one great sect of El-Islam. At an early period the Shi'ites (from shi'a , 'sect') seceded from the Sunnites. They assigned to 'Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed, a rank equal or even superior to that of the prophet himself; they regarded him as an incarnation of the Deity , and believed in the divine mission of the imams descended from him. El-Mahdi , the last of these, is believed by them not to have died, but to be awaiting in concealment the coming of the last day. The Persians are all Sluites. Towards the West also Shiltism was widely disseminated at an early period, particularly in Egypt under the re'gime of the Fatimite sovereigns. The Shiltes are extremely fanatical, refus- ing even to eat in the society of persons of a different creed. The other sects, which are chiefly confined to Syria (the Mctnw'deh, the Isma'Uiyeh, the Nosairiyeh, the Druses, etc.), are noticed in Baedeker's Syria and Palestine. 15 I M» Ml WIMII'W CI 8T0MS. Remarks on Mohammedan Customs. . child is celebrated on the seventh day of its life stival, attended by the kadi or some learned theo- solves in bia mouth a piece of sugar-candy presented to him by the hosl and drops a little of his sweetened saliva into ttic infant's month, as if to give it a sweet foretaste of the world's gifts, and also for the purpose of 'giving it a name out of his mouth'. Muslims, it is well Known, are usually named by their pronomens only. If a more precise o" ired, the name of the father is placed after the pronomen , with or without the word ion r i placed between the names. Nicknames, such as 'the . are also not uncommon. When the child is forty days old the mother takes it to the bath, and causes forty bowls of water (thirty-nine in the case of a girl ) to be poured over its head. This bath forms the purification of both mother and child. The rite of circumcision is performed on boys up to the age of six or seven, or even later, the ceremony being attended with pomj). The child is previously conducted through the streets in holiday attire, the procession being frequently united with some bridal party, in order to diminish the expense of the proceedings. The boy gener- ally wears a turban of red cashmere, girls' clothes of the richest possible description, and conspicuous female ornaments, which are attract attention, and thus avert the evil eye from his n. A handsomely caparisoned horse is borrowed to carry him ; he half covers his face with an embroidered handkerchief; and the barber who performs the operation and a noisy troop of musicians head the procession. The first personage in the procession is usually the barber's boy, carrying the l heml\ or barber's sign, a kind of cupboard made of wood, in the form of a half-cylinder, with four Bhort legs. The flat front of the heml is adorned with pi> looking-glass and embossed brass, while the back is covered with a curtain. Twoor more boys are often thus paraded together, being usually driven in a carriage and attended by music. Girl rally married in their L2th or L3th, ami some- time- as early as their 10th year. A man in search of a bride \ices of a relative, or of a professional female 1 . r. and he never has an opportunity of seeing his bride until the wedding-day, except when the parties belong to the iverything is arranged, the affianced bride- i bridal-portion fmahr) amounting to about 25i., more being paid when the bride is a spinster than if she is a widow. ig, about two-thirds of the sum, the amount of which always tonus a subject of lively discussion, is paid ettled upon the wife, being payable on ind, or on his divorciii • nst her will. MOHAMMEDAN CUSTOMS. 155 The marriage-contract is now complete. Before the wedding the hride is conducted in gala attire and with great ceremony to the bath. This procession is called 'Zeffet et Hammam', Ii is headed by several musicians with hauthois and drums; these are followed by several married friends and relations of the bride in pair after these come a number of young girls. The bride is entirely con- cealed by the clothing she wears, being usually enveloped from head to foot in a cashmere shawl, and wearing on her head a small cap, or crown, of pasteboard. The procession moves very slowly, and another body of musicians brings up the rear. The hideous shrieks of joy which women of the lower classes utter on the occurrence of any sen- sational event are called zagh&rit. The bride is afterwards conducted with the same formalities to the house of her husband. The ceremonies observed at funerals are not less remarkable than those which attend weddings. If the death occurs in the morn- ing, the funeral takes place the same day; but if in the evening. it is postponed till next day. The body is washed and mourned over by the family and the professional mourning women (nedda- behs ; a custom prohibited by Mohammed, but one dating from the remotest antiquity) ; the fikih, or schoolmaster, reads several Surehs of the Koran by its side; after this, it is wrapped in its winding sheet, placed on the bier, covered with a red or green cloth, and then carried forth in solemn procession. The foremost persons in the cortege are usually six or more poor, and generally blind, men, who walk in twos or threes at a slow pace, chanting the creed — 'There is no God but God; Mohammed is the ambassador of God ; God be gracious to him and preserve him !' These are followed by several male relatives of the deceased, and sometimes by a number of dervishes with the flags of their order, and then by three or more schoolboys, one of whom carries a copy of the Koran, or of parts of it, on a stand made of palm-branches, covered with a cloth. The. boys usually chant in a loud and shrill voice several passages from the 'Hashrlycli, a poem describing the last judgment. The bier, with the head of the deceased foremost, comes next, being borne by three or four of his friends, who are relieved from time to time by others. After the bier come the relations and friends in their everyday attire, and the female relatives, with dishevelled hair, sobbing aloud, and frequently accompanied by professional mourn- ing women, whose business it is to extol the merits of the deceased. If the deceased was the husband or father of the family, one of the cries is — '0 thou camel of my house', the camel being the emblem of the bread-winner of the household. The body is first carried into that mosque for whose patron saints the relatives entertain the greatest veneration, and prayers are there offered on its behalf. After the bier has been placed in front of the tomb of the saint, and prayers and chants have again been recited, the procession is formed anew and moves towards the 156 MOB WIMII'W CUSTOMS. oemetery, where the body is let down a perpendicular shaft to a al( excavated on one side of it, and there placed in sucii a position thai Lta face is turned towards Mecca. The entrance lateral vault is then walled up, and during this long process the n cite the words: — L AU"ihu mughfvr cl-mwlimin wal-mualim&t, el-mtiminin tiui'l-»ifimin'it' (God pardons the Muslim int'ii and the .Muslim women, the faithful men and the faithful women). A Khatib, Imam, or other person then addresses a few j ped words to the deceased, informing him how he is to r the two examining angels who are to question him during the ensuing night (p. I I'm. A fAtha having again been whispered, and the perpendicular shaft tilled up, while the mourners incessantly repeat the words — l bi$millah er-rahtmir ruhtn'ini' (in the name of God, the merciful), the bystanders shake hands, and the male mourners disperse. The women, howover, who have stood a little on one Bide during the ceremony, now come forward and inspect the tomb. Another custom peculiar to the Muslims is that the separation of the sexes is as strict after death as during life. In family vaults one -ide is set apart for the men, the other for the women exclu- sively. Between these vaults is the entrance to the tomb, which is usually covered with a single large slab. The vaults are high enough to admit of the deceased sitting upright in them when he is being examined by the angels Munkar and Nekir on the first night after his interment [seep. 155); for, according to the belief of the Mo- hammedans, the soul of the departed remains with his body for a night after his burial. For particulars regarding the tombs, see p. 185. The Religious and Popular Festivals of the Egyptians may til In- Been to the best advantage at Cairo. For farther particulars, si a p. 236, Fair at Tanta, see p. 226. 157 VIII. Historical Notice of Egyptian Art. In the ancient Egyptian poem which extols the achievements of Ramses the temples in the valley of the Nile are called 'everlasting stones'; and the works of Egyptian art do indeed seem to lay claim to perpetuity. Some of the monuments have existed for forty or even fifty centuries, so that, compared with them, the works of all other nations appear recent and modern ; and a still greater marvel is that the skill displayed in the execution of these monuments must have been the growth of many antecedent ages, all memorials of which are now buried in the obscurity of the remotest antiquity. The Egyptian people belonged to the so-called Chamite race, and, like the Semites and, the Indo-Germanians, had their original home in Asia (comp. pp. 37, 38). Whether they brought any of their arts to the Valley of the Nile, or whether their taste for art and their imagination were awakened for the first time by the Father of Rivers, must of course remain for ever unknown. Some of the very earliest of the products of Egyptian art are indeed more akin to those of Asia than the later, but Egyptian art as a whole presents so peculiar and unique a character that its origin was most probably local. The question might indeed be settled if we were in a position to compare early Egyptian art with that of the Oriental nations of the same period ; but of the latter we can now find no trace. The only sources from which we can form any opinion regarding the original condition and the earliest develop- ment of Egyptian art are the technical execution of the oldest known monuments and the forms and style of decoration employed in them. Thus the ceiling-painting in the pyramidal tombs reveals its indebtedness to the textile handicraft ; for it is in the art of weaving alone that the margins and seams there represented have any use or significance. Again, the walls of the most ancient tomb- chambers contain horizontal and vertical bands and convex mould- ings, the design of which has obviously been borrowed from a system of building in wood. The sloping ridges of the pyramids point to an original style of building with crude brick, as walls of that material required to be tapering in form to ensure their durability. We thus gather that the Egyptians of a very remote period were weavers and potters, familiar with the arts of building in wood and in brick. If we go a little farther, and venture to draw inferences from the subjects and forms of their earliest works of art, we find that the Egyptians of the remotest traceable period must have been a cheerful and contented people, free from that taste for the mystic and the symbolical which afterwards characterised all their exertions in the sphere of art , and endowed with a love of life and nature which they zealously manifested in the earliest products of their imagination. An attempt to gather a history of Egyptian art from the in- 158 BIST0R1 OF ART. format ' '- toe various dynasties of the Egyptian mouarchs lias led to the following results, which, however, may be much Bimplifiedor modified by future discoveries. The first period of tie " art closes with the sixth dynasty, and the monuments of Memphis are the most important, the onlj structures of the early dynasties. Some of these (such as the pyramid of Oochome p. 382 i are supposed to date as far back as the time of the fourth king ; and there is reason to believe that they were originally built of sun-dried bricks encrusted with instead of, as subsequently, in solid stone. This would also account tor the mode of construction observed in the stone pyramids, which consist of repeated incrustations of tapering courses of in a- nc'el i f eh ■ Form of pyramids). '<. Pyramid of Dahshur, with bent sides, c. Step-pyramid of Sakkara. BOnry. According to the well-known hypothesis of J>r. 1. opsins, the famous German Egyptologist, these different layers or crusts, like the in the trunk of a tree, perhaps corresponded to the number of years during which the deceased monarch reigned. Besides amids of the usual regular form [Fig. [. a), there are others rith sides forming an obtuse angle, and others again with si ■■amid w ithbent sides i here is an example at Dahshur i the pyramid in Bteps one at Sakkara l fig. I. c). or Btep, form seems, however, to have been uniformly i all the pj ram ids up to the apex I which was probably tapered |. Of them the angles formed by the steps were afterwards ie. There can now be no reasonable doubt that ■ ■ nded to form the inaccessible tombs of great mon&ri bicb their courtiers and magnates erected mortuary , HISTORY OF ART. 159 chapels for themselves (Mastaba) in the form of blunted pyramids, in order, as it were, to pay homage to the memory of their illustrious masters. The pictorial decorations of these temples, as well as the plastic works of the same period, serve most impressively to com- plete the artistic effect of the pyramids. While their marvellously perfect execution alone indicates a high state of artistic development, our admiration is specially aroused by the striking fidelity to nature and expressiveness of the sculptures. The unfavourable criticisms on Egyptian sculpture formerly current may indeed now be regarded as entirely refuted. Even in European museums an opportunity is afforded to the traveller of becoming acquainted with the noble style by which the early Egyptian art alone is characterised. What visitor to the Louvre, for example, can fail to remember the striking impression produced by the statue of the "Writer?' The expressive eyes are formed of dark quartz containing a transparent pupil of rock crystal fixed with a small knob of metal, while the attitude is re- markable for its lifelike fidelity and strong individuality. This statue dates from the fifth or sixth dynasty, and the museum atBulak con- tains other plastic works of the same period in which an almost over- drawn realism is still more apparent. The limestone statue of Ra- Nefer, a priest of Ptah-Sokar at Memphis, and the wooden figure of the 'village shekh' (p. 305), which the Paris Exhibition of 1867 has brought into so favourable notice, are the best-known specimens of a style of art of 'which the very existence was unsuspected a few de- cades ago, and the discovery of which has tended greatly to modify the old supposition that the Egyptian sculptors executed their works in mere mechanical accordance with a prescribed canon. The chief merit of the earliest Egyptian sculpture is the faithfulness of the portraiture, which is such that the identity of the person represented by two different statues may often be determined by the similarity of the features, even when executed at different periods of the per- son's life. In this way have been identified eight statues of Khafra, the third king of the fourth dynasty, although all differing in meas- urement, material, and the age represented (comp. pp. 305, 307 ). Observation of nature in the case of these earliest works has evi- dently been carried into the minutest details. The race of men re- presented is uniformly of the same character, somewhat resembling that of the modern fellahin ; the figures are of a powerful, thickset type, and their muscles are faithfully represented, occasionally to exaggeration. These early sculptors, however, were incapable of producing works of a more complex character, where excellence of general effect required to be superadded to accuracy of detail, and in this respect they were far surpassed by their successors. Even the reliefs in the tomb-chambers of Memphis are executed in a singularly fresh and unsophisticated style, and the spectator will hardly regret the absence of the mystic symbolism of the later period. After the sixth dynasty there occurs a sudden falling away from (60 HlStOft'S <>F AftT. tins ■. : bi isiohed perhaps by political dissensions, i. - i i.ly by a change of religious convictions. It was not until the rise of the Eleventh Dynasty that the state of uiitry became more settled, and that art began to revive. The new style, however, differed materially from the obi. As the ancient ila of Memphis and This now began to yield precedence to Thebes, the new centre of the kingdom, and as the system of writing, the laws, and the constitution, had all undergone material alteration. so. too. it may rather be said that the cultivation of art began anew than that the style then practised was a development of that of the fourth and sixth dynasties. Of this second efflorescence of art no great monuments have been handed down to us, the most important works being the obelisks of Heliopolis and the Fayum and several colossi dug up at Tanis and Abydus. The rock tombs of 1'eni ITasan are also Interesting relics of the period of the Twelfth Dynasty. In these we find a reversion to the rock-building style, which, ac- cording to I. opsins , is nearly identical with that of the grotto architecture, and owed its origin to the prevalence of ancestor- worship, and to the popular desire, arising from the Egyptian doctrine of immortality, for the preservation of the bodies of the dead. The rock-tomb was safe from t lie overflow of theNile, while its equable temperature arrested the decay of the corpse , and a chapel con- uected with it afforded the relations an opportunity of paying homage and presenting offerings to the deceased. The division of the tomb into a series of chambers, leading at length to the sepulchre , soon led to their being architecturally decor- ated. \\ lnro there were several chambers, one behind the other, it itural that openings should be made in the walls for the sake of admitting light. The next step was to convert the remaining portions of wall into pillars for the support of the roof, and to plane off their corners, partofthe pillar being, however, left square at the top so as to blend the octagonal column with the roof. In the 'he octagonal pillar was sometimes converted into one of sixteen sides, so as to resemble a column , and in some cases tlu- flat surfaces were grooved or fluted, a sharp angle being thus ach "(them. Polygonal columns of this character, which occur in the first tomb of Beni Hasan, have been called ■Doric or Egyptd-Doric by Champollion and Falkener, from tloir resemblance to the Doric columns of the Greeks) Pig. II ). The if resemblance are the marked fluting, the tapering, and the ■ buf the Proto-Doric differs from the Greek Doric In being destitute of the 'echinus', a member resembling an over- hanging wTeathofl idfoTming the capital ofthe Doric column. I i re is the still greater difference that the Proto- ;i nnfluted, the surfaces being left smooth for the Ion of coloured inscriptions. In such cases the column loses Its structural significance, being degraded to a mere surface for HISTORY OF ART. 161 inscriptions, and presents a marked contrast to the Doric, where each memher and each line fulfils a 'definite requirement of the building. The architects of the toinbs of Beni Hasan, however, were not unacquainted with a light and elegant mode of building above ground, which cannot have originated in the grotto architecture II. Section of the N. Tomb and Columns of Beni Hasan. This is proved by their use of the lotus-column (Fig. Ill) , the prototype of which is a group of four lotus-stalks bound together and secured at the top by rings or ligatures, the capital being formed by the blossoms. These columns, which contrast strongly with the massive Proto-Doric, suggest a light style of garden architecture in wood. While the architecture of the eleventh and twelfth dynasties bears some slight resemblance to the earlier style, the sculpture of the same period presents an almost total deviation from the ancient traditions. The primitive, lifelike realism to which we have al- ready alluded is displaced by the rigorous sway of the Canon, by which all proportions are determined by Axed rules, and all forms Baedeker's Egypt I. 2ml Ed. 11 162 HISTORY <)l" ART. are nee Breotyped. There seems, however, to have been no i in point of technical skill; for, as in the time of the hardest materials still became compliant, and the dif- ficulties of the minutest detail were still successfully overcome b\ the Bculptors of the Pharaohs. Another considerable break now took place in the progress of [an art. This dreary interval began with the invasion of the Byksos or Shepherds , and lasted throughout the whole of their domination. To them tributed the destruction of the older monuments, and they themselves have left no architectural re- mains behind them. They were not, • however, entirely insensible to the charms of art, and after the lirst, terrors of the invasion were over, they did not prevent the Egyptian artists from prose- cuting their calling. As the Normans in Sicily adopted the culture of the conquered Arabs, so the Hyksos turned to account the knowledge of art and the technical skill possessed by the Egyp- tians. The sculptures excavated at Tanis, the cap- ital of the Hyksos (four sphinxes and particu- larly a group of river-gods in granite), are of Egyptian workmanship, and there is nothing to betray their origin in the Hyksos period except the type of the features, the bushy beards, and the thick tufts of hair. With the expulsion of the llyksos begins a new period, in the history of art as well as in that of politics. The warlike and victorious monarchs of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties, in particular, have perpetuated their memory by LStonishingly numerous monuments. The compulsory labour of captive enemies afforded the architects an opportunity of carrying out their most gigantic designs, while the achievements of their sovereigns, such as the campaigns of Thothmes, Amenophis, and 3, supplied the sculptors with an inexhaustible theme for tlu> decoration of the facades of their temples. To this period of ■ empire belong most of the Theban monuments. The taste lor the great and the colossal, and for symmetry of proportion had attained Its culminating point, but the stagnation of the lifesprings "' art . the dependence of the drawing and colouring on formal ""I the over-loading of the ornamentation with symbolical 'uch as tii. id the Hat b.01 masks | become unpleas- ipparent. It can hardly, however, be Baid thai the decline gun ; for this period Lasted so Long 8* ve n thai the Egyptians bad never pot ud entirely to obliterate the recollection of the III. Lotus Column. HISTORY OF APT. 163 more ancient and materially different period of development. At the same time a careful inspection of the monuments of this period will convince the observer that no farther development could be ex- pected afterwards to take place on the basis of a system so lifeless and entirely mechanical. Shortly before the conquest of the country by the Persians, however, a slight improvement in artistic taste appears to have taken place. While the monuments of the Twenty- second and following Dynasties are unattractive , being mere reproductions of earlier works, the sculptures of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty ^such as the alabaster statue of Queen Ameniritis of the XXV. Dynasty) exhibit a considerable degree of elegance and refinement. But this revival was of brief duration. After the establishment of the Ptolemtean dynasty the native art became entirely extinct, though for a time a semblance of life was artifici- ally maintained. Political interests required the restoration of the temples, and numerous artists were employed for the purpose ; the traditional style continued to be practised, and every branch of art was liberally patronised. The style of this period, however, had well-nigh degenerated into mere mannerism, and therefore does not possess the historical interest attaching to the earlier stages of Egyptian art. The art of the Ptolemaean era, moreover, in spite of all its richness and apparent vigour, not only shows manifest symptoms- of decline , but was threatened with the loss of its originality and independence owing to foreign influences. As soon as Hellas came into contact with Egypt, the innate charms of Hellenic art, which even remote India was unable to resist, began to affect the hitherto strongly conservative and self-satisfied Egyptians. Having thus given a slight chronological outline of the pro- gress of Egyptian art, we must now endeavour to supplement it by a description of the chief characteristics of each period. Our attention will be chiefly directed to the monuments of the new empire, owing to their great number and extent. The Column in Egypt, as elsewhere, constitutes the most im- portant of all architectural members. Its absence indicates a very elementary stage of the art of building, when artistic development has yet to begin. The column imparts to the edifice an appearance of organic life, it lightens and breaks the outline of its different masses, and affords strength and upport: When compared with the Greek columnar orders, the Egyptian column is of a very imperfect character. Its decoration and its form do not immediate- ly and exclusively express its proper office, as is the case with the Greek column, and the Doric in particular. Its dependence on its natural prototype, the wreath-crowned canopy-support, still continues apparent, and its proportions, though not altogether independent of rule, still appear too arbitrary. Lastly, the height and thickness of the columns do not stand in an appropriate 11* If, I HISTORY OF Mil. :it thej have to bear. Jt must, nevertheless, be admitted that the eye is delighted with the brilliance of their ring and the perfection of their execution, pt possesses a considerable number of different orders of columns. Some of those occur in the old empire only, while others -iml for the first time in monuments of the new empire, without, however, belonging to a higher grade of art. In the tombs of Beni-Hasan (Ml. Dynasty) we have become acquainted with the polygonal or I'roto-Doric column, and also with that with the biid- oapital. The latter was perhaps suggested by a form of pillar which occurs in the tombs of the VI. Dynasty near Antinoe [the modern El-Bersheh). The surfaces of the pillars are hollowed out, and in tin- hollows rise lotus stalks, crowned with a hunch of buds or i blossoms (Fig. IV). Akin to the lotus columns of Beni : a b v. Papyrus Columns. is an order of column of the new empire, which was adorned partly with sculpture and partly with painting, and which afterwards gradually adopted the conventional form. This column tiere ii is encircled with a Blight wreath of reed ; I Upwards, anil ill BOme cases presents a sli;i " : th horizontal bands and hieroglyphics, ami in other.- a shaft grooved so as to imitate the stalks of a plant (the HISTORY OF ART. 165 papyrus) which are bound together at the top with a ligature. The capitals, somewhat simple in form , and tapering upwards , are sometimes decorated on the lower part with a wreath of upright reed leaves, and sometimes, like the shafts, are treated as surfaces for painting, in which case their origin in the vegetable kingdom is indicated by a few painted buds only (Fig. V. a, b). i VI. Calyx Capitals. While the columns hitherto described performed the structural function in temples and tombs of supporting massive stone roofs , the order of columns with Calyx Capitals was chiefly used for the decorative purpose of enclosing the processional approach in the anterior halls of the temples, and was re- quired to support but little weight. The shafts of these columns rest on round bases resembling discs, they taper downwards, and are treated as surfaces for painting. The flowers and leaves on the capitals sometimes seem to be attached super- ficially only (Fig. VI. a) , while in other cases the leaves appear to form a wreath, growing out of a columnar stem, and leaning slightly out- wards so as to assume the calyx form. Of this style the papyrus (Fig. VI. 6) and the palm (Fig. VI. c) formed the natural prototypes , and even at a late period several other very pleasing types were added. Another kind of column, which seems to have been much in vogue during the latest period of independent Egyptian art , is of inferior im- portance and artistic merit. It has a shaft ter- minating at the top in masks attached to four sides , usually representing the goddess Hathor with the cow's ears, and above these are placed miniature temple facades, forming a kind of abacus. Both in this case and in that of the Osiris pillars (Fig. VII), where the figure of the god, n. Osiris pillar. M / 1 66 HISTOR"! OF AIM witli the crook in his left hand and the scourge in his right, stands quite com the pillar, and hears no part of the weight, the ral function has been treated as a matter of very subordinate importance. immediately connected with the columns are the beams above them. The inner apartments of the temples were ceiled with stone beams exclusively, extending from the abacus (or crowning slab) column to that of another; and the rectangular spaces th us i were filled with slabs of stone, adorned sometimes with astronomical designs. The chief characteristics of the outer p arts of the beams are, that the architrave rests immediately on the aba- ind that there is a furrow hollowed out above it, foT ming a deep shadow. The architrave is generally inscribed with hiero- glyphics, so that its structural office is rendered less apparent; but the concave moulding above it presents the appearance of a proper crowning cornice (Fig. VIII, 5), thus serving to counterbalance the A Villa. Entablature from the Tombs of Beni Hasan. VTII6. Entablature with hollowed cornice. Bffecl nf the inwardly sloping walls, and giving the building an appropriate finish. The hollowed cornice is usually embellished with upright leaves orstaves; and, when it crowns a portal, a winged sun-disc generally hovers over the centre. The architectural idea embodied in the entablature of the tombs of Beni Hasan is matcri- fferent. A.hOve the arc hit rave lies a straight projecting slab, which presents the appearance of being borne by a series of beams VIII, a). The resemblance here to cognate Oriental modes of building is verj apparent, while the entablature above described \B peculiar n art. The crowning of the walls with the ■ I frame-like embellishment of roll-moulding, te chief articulation of the edifice; hut, this would have afforded insufficient relief had it nol been supplemented with 111 cold surface of the walls was covered with •ling that of a gorgeous carpet. In Order thai the traveller may thoroughly understand and ap- architecture, he should make himself acquainted, HISTORY OF ART. 167 not merely with the different modes of building and their details, but with the peculiarities of the national religious rites. The costly stone edifices of the ancient Egyptians were used exclusively fox' religious purposes. It is an error to suppose that the temples con- tained the royal residences within their precincts ; the nature of the climate alone would have rendered them uninhabitable. The kings' palaces, as we learn from the representations of them in tombs, were edifices of a very light and airy description, adorned with balconies, colonnades , and bowers, and surrounded by gardens and ponds. They were built of brick and wood, and, as the sole object of the architects was to provide a convenient and. pleasant dwelling, they were richly decorated with colouring. With regard to the architecture of the temples, it is important to keep in view the fact, that they were neither destined for the reception of a congregation like Christian churches, nor, like the Greek temples, erected as mere receptacles for the image of the god. The Egyptian worshippers approached the temple precincts in solemn procession, and the profane remained outside, while the ini- tiated and the ordained penetrated to different parts of the interior in accordance with the degree of their knowledge of the divine mysteries, the high priest alone being privileged to enter the innermost sanctuary. The multitude would first arrive in their festively decorated boats by the great highway of the Nile, and they would then traverse the avenue leading to the temple, which was flanked by sphinxes on each side. The sphinxes consist of a lion's body witli the head of a man (Androsphinx), or that of a ram (Kriosphinx), and according to an inscription at Edfu they were intended to sym- bolise the conflict of Horus with Typhon-Seth. The sphinx avenue led to the precincts of the temple proper, the Temenos of the Greeks, which were completely enclosed by a wall, built of bricks of the Nile clay, or, as at Edfu, of solid stone. The sacred lakes, generally two in number, and the sacred grove were usually the only accessories of the temple which lay without the precincts. At the end of the avenue the eye is confronted by two huge towers with the entrance between them, called the Pylons, which are in the form of truncated pyramids, with walls divided into sections by round staves, and affording admirable surfaces for plastic or pictorial de- coration. The pylons and the portal between them are both crowned with the usual hollowed cornice. Under ordinary circumstances these pylons present a very imposing appearance, but their grandeur must have been much enhanced when they were festively decorated (as in Fig. IX) on solemn occasions, and when gaily hung with flags to welcome the arrival of the worshippers. Within the pylons, in the larger temples, lay a large open court (Peristyle), flanked on two or three sides with colonnades, and beyond it a large hall borne by columns (Hypostyle), of which those in the 1GS HISTOR"! Of \i;r centre differing in Bize and form of capital, marked out the route followed by the procession. In many of the temples a smaller columnar hall, and chambers of Bmallei Bize and decreasing height, all lying in the line of the processional route (and together called IX. Decorated Portal and Pylons. the Prosecus) separated the hypostyle from the small, dark, and secluded sanctuary, called the Adytum or Secus, sometimes con- le huge hollowed block ofstone, where behind rich curtains lay the symbol of a god and a sacred animal. The sanctuary was surrounded by a number of chambers of various Bizes, and Btaircases led to the roof and to other apartments which either served as dwellings for the custodians and receptacles foi the temple furniture, or for the celebration of sacred rites. Baving thus glanced a1 t he internal arrangements of the temple, we may now retrace our steps and rejoin the devout processioTi. of the people i the 'Pasu' l. forming the great buli of the procession, were not permitted to advance beyond the sacred irtyard, where on certain days they offered The 'Patu', or lowest grade of the instructed, the 'Rekhiu', who were initiated Into the sacred mysteries, and the 'Animiu, or enlightened, advanced into the great hall, and from HISTORY OF ART. 169 the portal of the Prosekos, or hall 'of the manifestation of majesty', they were permitted to behold from afar the sacred emblem of divinity. These worshippers were now passed by the king and the officiating priests, who ascended in solemn procession to the roof, while the high priest entered the small and sombre chamber of the god. The annexed ground-plan of the S. temple at Karnak will render the foregoing description more intelligible (Fig. X), and analogous arrangements might easily be pointed out in the temples* of other nations, such as those of Semitic race. The erection of obelisks or colossi (or both) in front of the pylons is also suscep- tible of easy explanation. The obelisks, the form of which was well adapted to break the monotonous outline of the walls, record in X. Ground Plan of the S. Temple at Karnak. hieroglyphic inscriptions the victorious power bestowed on the Pharaohs by the god , while the royal statues remind beholders of the duty of monarchs to show their gratitude by erecting temples to the gods. The winged disk of the sun with the heads of the Uraeua serpent over every entrance has also a noteworthy signification. It symbolises the victory of Horus over Typhon, and the triumph of good over evil ; and an inscription at Edfu informs us that, after the victory of Horus, Thoth (reason) commanded this symbol to be placed over all entrances. On the other hand the way in which architecture is constantly made subservient to painting, for the purpose of obtaining surfaces for symbols and inscriptions , is unpleasing. Every column, every pillar, every roof-beam, and every wall is embellished with raised or engraved figures and characters, all of which are painted. The scenes which portray the victories of the Pharaohs, and their intercourse with the gods, are always ac- companied by explanatory inscriptions, and even the simplest orna- ments used under the new empire have some symbolical signification. The form of temple above described sometimes required to be varied in consequence of the nature of the site. In Lower Nubia the sandstone rocks approach so near the Nile that the temples had to be partially or wholly excavated in their sides. At Girgeh, for example (Fig. XI), the pylons and the colonnaded courtyard were built in the open air in front of the temple, while the hypostyle and ITii HISTOR"? OF \i:r. . were excavated Lnthe rock. Tbe larger temple of Abn Simbel, on the other hand, including the pj Ions and the colossi, is entirely excavated in the rock. During the Ptolemsean era other de- is from the traditional ae into vogue. Differences in XI. Ground rian Girgeh. rms of the capitals, in the ornamentation, and other details, a< well as a more arbitrary disposition of tin- temple arrangements now clearly betray the invasion of Greek influences. eral of these late buildings, entirely enclosed by columns, with intervening walls rising to half the height of the columns, or even higher, so strongly resemble the Greek peripteral temples externally, that some internal similarity is involuntarily expected. The probable object of some of these edifices, namely to serve as enclos ures for sacred animals, proves them to be of purely Egyptian origin; but, owing to the abnormal disposition of the different memb difficult to conceive them to be products of purely. native art. Besides the temples in the island ofPhilse, the im- Edfu ( Apollinopolis Magna i. K.6m Ombu| Ombos), I'.sneli | l.atopoiis i. Tentyris (Dendera), and Erment (Hermonthis), ample opportunities lor the study of the Ptolemaean Btyle of architecture, the impression produced by which is apt to procure ptian art a less favourable general verdict than it strictly While the edifices dedicated to the service of the gods belong period of the new empire, there still exist Mor- rin Of which may be traced had, to iii iods of the ancient empire. The oldest of these temples imp. p. 379), and contained a chapel for the mlchral i well as a tomb. The kings, ■ I with a monument in which their were united . hut adjacent to their i which sacrifices were to be offered for an some pillar-structure of granite HISTORY OF AP.T. 171 and alabaster near the great Sphinx appears to have been a temple of this kind in connection with the pyramid of Chefren. Under the new empire also the kings constructed their actual burial-places at a distance from the monuments dedicated to their memory. The deep rock vaults in the ravines of the royal tombs were the resting- places of their remains, while the great 'Memnonia' ('which are placed exclusively on the W. bank of the Nile at Thebes) were the temples where rites were celebrated in their memory. The most inter- esting feature of the moTtuary temples is their pictorial decoration. The subjects of those in the memnonia are of course the power and prosperity, the -victories and achievements, of the monarchs, while the private chapels contained scenes from the domestic life of the deceased. The memnonia sometimes covered a very extensive area, like that of Ramses II., which contained a library and a school. Most of them have pylons and large colonnaded halls, but it cannot now be ascertained whether they were uniform in their arrangements. By far the greater number of Egyptian sculptures are in im- mediate connection with architectural works. Colossal statues mount guard over pylons and pillars, and every available surface is adorned with reliefs. If these plastic works are to be fairly judged, they must be regarded as component parts of the building they adorned. Speaking of the colossal statues, Dr. Lepsius justly remarks : — 'The features of these statues, which even received divine, honours, and were enthroned in, or in front of, temples in a commanding position, either as structural supports, or detached from the pillars behind them, wear the same character of monu- mental repose as the statues of the gods themselves, ami yet without the possibility of their human individuality being confounded with the universally typical features of the divine images'. — This is chiefly the case with the colossal sitting statues, whose position (with their legs bent at a right angle, their arms firmly pressed against their sides, and their heads looking in a perfectly straight direction) may well be called still', but not properly conventional. Many peculiarities of Egyptian art, especially during the earlier period, are apt to be attributed to the imperative requirements of sacerdotal authority, but they are perhaps rather to be accounted for by the imperfection of artistic development. The sculptors exhibit great skill in detail. but they seem incapable of making their skill subserve the general effect of their works. They have obviously striven to represent each member of the body with the utmost fidelity, but they were inca- pable of combining them harmonionsly. Thus, we generally see reliefs with the faces in profile, the chest nearly facing us, and the legs again in profile, a peculiarity which recurs in the works of other Oriental nations, and even in those of the Greeks of the early period. This defect was at length overcome by the Greeks, but of the Egyptian artists it continued permanently characteristic. 172 BISTORT OF ART. - their heroes invariably retain the primitive distinction of ; in much Larger proportions than other persons. Hampered by these immutable rules as to proportion (which were modified twice only in the course of several thousand years), Egyp- I fl» 15 -i--y^ - tian art appears to have been seriously checked in its growth, and to have entered, after a brief period of efflorescence, on a long era of what may be termed Byzantinism, — and yet in many respects the Egyptian sculptures merit our highest admiration. The artistic capable of being produced in any given material, such as granite, were always calculated with the nicest discrimination; nothing capable of achievement is left undone, and beyond this nothing is attempted. The sculptors are notable foi their knowledge of anatomy, for their accuracy in the delineation of muscle, for their skill in portraiture, and for their fidelity in representing animal life. Of all the Egyptian works the figures of the gods are perhaps the least happy. To us they seem to exhibit a want of taste and Intelligence ; but this is perhaps to be accounted for by the fact that they were intended to be worshipped only, and not admired. was very highly developed in Egypt is proved rely by the greal extent to which the division of labour was . but by the fact that the artists understood the process of <>>j>> i nir figures by dividing them into squares and calculating their able to reduce or enlarge them at plea Is 'ill authorities, however, concur in pronouncing the Egyptian in poinl of technical skill, it would be superfluous tris branch of the subject, the painting fptian plastic works, another pe- culiarity is the incision of the reliefs, which recede from the surface .Hove it. These 'crjBlanoglyphs', or 'relief-, en .i resemble pieces of embroidery, produce. ls paintings. Their object is the same, and i . and artistic execution arc nearly HISTORY OF ART. 173 identical. No attention whatever was paid to tastefulness in group- ing or uniformity of arrangement, the separate scenes being merelj placed beside or over each other; but, individually, these arc re- markable for distinctness and excellence of execution, and thej afford us a far more vivid picture of the life of the ancienl Egypt- ians, their customs, their wars, and their religious rites, than any written chronicle could have afforded. In artistic finish, on the other hand, these scenes are defective, and the colouring has no in- dependent value , being merely used to make the figures stand out more distinctly, and imitating nature in the crudest possible manner. In the province of artistic conception we find Egyptian im- agination fettered by traditional bonds which it made no effort to break; but in the practice of the handicrafts Egypt was perfect. The goldsmiths and workers in metal in particular had attained the most complete mastery of their craft ; they thoroughly understood all its ancillary arts, such as enamelling and Damascene work, and they were thus able to produce works of a degree of finish such as a highly civilised nation alone could execute and appreciate. The traveller should note the signification of some of the SYm- bols and Signs most commonly used in the ornamentation of the columns and other parts of the Egyptian temples. Thus, | is the crook or shepherd's staff, the emblem of the leader or monarch ; J\ a scourge, the symbol of kingly power. When both are in the hand of the same figure they perhaps import the power of restraining and of urging onwards. Then ■¥" a seal , the symbol of life; If Nilometer the symbol of steadfastness; \J the red 11 A W C/tf crown of Lower Egypt ; f) the white crown of Upper Egypt ; ZJ V <=^ or V the united crown of Upper and Lower Egypt ; l/_ and the I casus serpent. On diadems and suns was placed the emblem iOs. The Uncus serpent, possessing the power of life and death, was the emblem of kingly power. The sceptre, ~| user, denoted author- ity of various kinds, power, wealth, and victorious strength. The sceptre T, which is read its, tfam, or ouab, indicates the name of the Theban nomos ; N — s , a basket, signifies a master; ML/, a decorated basket, a festival, or solemn assembly, at which offerings were made in such receptacles ; [\ man, an ostrich-feather, truth and justice ; CZ>, ran, the frame surrounding the names of kings, IT 1 BUILDINGS OF THE MOHAMMEDANS. i - i In name ; >vf Icheper, the scarabaeus or beetle, the prin- ' and regeneration. The precise meaning of the V is unknown, but it is read 8am, and signifies union. It is frequently observed at the foot of statues, entwined with aquatic 3, where it is symbolical of the union of Upper and Lower . and perhaps of the union of this world with the next. The lock f on the temple of a figure marks ii as a child, generally the ing of the gods or of the kings. IX. Buildings of the Mohammedans. Mosques. Dwelling Houses. i airo. The .Mohammedan style of architecture in the valley of the Nile was not, as might perhaps be expected, the immediate successor Egyptian, hut was separated from it by that of the early Ian epoch, a period of six or seven centuries. This new style i of native growth, but was imported from abroad, being of Arabian origin, considerably modified by the forms of art which the victorious Arabs lound in vogue among the Byzantines, and by of Persian art of the era of the Sassanides. Different as the Arabian buildings at Baghdad and Cairo may appear from those at Tunis and in Spain, they all possess certain features in common. The fundamental idea of all Mohammedan architecture originated in the nomadic life of the Arabs. The tent was the prototype, alike of the house and of the temple. The walls in particular, with their carpet-like decoration, and their extensive, unrelieved sur- remind one of this origin. This style of architecture is that of tlio fickle children of the desert, whose edifices, even after they had hecome a settled and stationary nation, continue to convey an idea of nnsubstantiality, and who never attained to a clear per- ception of the proportion to be observed between the support and the burden to be borne. This defect is less apparent in cases where the Arabian builders were brought under the influence of more civilised nation-., where the) employed columns, entablatures, and other fragments of ruined edifices which they found available, or Lmes happened, thej were aided i>> Byzantine or other dan in purely Arabian edifices like the Alhambra in "pain: hut in every case the national characteristic : tinctly traceable. most immediately connected with the national tradifn Ubmgiotjs Edifices, the leading feature of -which i al Mecca, which dates from ;i peril irlier thau that of .Mohammed himself. The walls BUILDINGS OF THE MOHAMMEDANS. 1 75 of the court, indeed, lost their primitive simplicity after their designers had been brought into contact with the colonnaded courts of Egypt and the Syrian regions, and the Columnar Court was thus developed ; but the Arabian builders avoided using or imitating Egyptian columns. They preferred the columns or remains of col- umns of the Alexandrian and Roman period, as the massive pro- portions of those of the Egyptian style were less appropriate to a light and open structure than the columns of the richly decorated Corinthian order. They borrowed their cornicings, which they employed but spar- ingly, and their mosaic ornamentation, such as arabesques, from the Byzantine models which they found in Syria and in the oldest Byzantine-Christian edifices of Egypt, and their pointed arch' domes chiefly from the region of the Euphrates. At the same time they contrived to impart to their works a certain individuality of character, partly by the elegance of their forms and the preference given to superficial over architectural decoration, and still more so by the peculiar character of their ornamentation, resembling the patterns of textile fabrics , and obviously imitated from wall- tapestry. Similar patterns appear also in their latticed windows. their carved doors, and their diapered balconies. The Exterior of these buildings is generally plain, consisting of a lofty, rectangular enclosing wall of quadrangular plan, but not entirely without relief in the form of projections and indentations. In the mosques there are usually minarets and domes projecting beyond this general outline, and this is still more commonly the case with the public fountains (sebil) and the mosque schools (medreseh ) above them. The portal, on the other hand, and certain perpendicular sections of the building of various widths, generally recede a little, the latter a few inches only, being again brought forward immediately below the cornicing to the level of the facade by means of a 'stalactite' corbelling. In these last also the windows are often inserted with little regard to symmetry. In the corners of the projections thus formed, as well as in the other angles of the building, we frequently find columns of marble inserted, or columns hewn out of the material of the building, and detached to the extent of three-fourths of their thickness. The whole plan of the stone facades, which is not devoid of a certain degree of grandeur, reminds us of those of the ancient Egyptian temples, although the Muslims were generally scrupulously careful to avoid every resem- blance to the pagan buildings. The portal is generally the richest part of the edifice. The windows are simpler, and less importance is given to the principal cornice than the height and other dimen- sions of the building would seem to demand. The Portals consist of rectangular niches, of such depth as to allow room on the left and right outside the door for the mastabas, or stone-benches used by the doorkeeper (JjawwabJ. This door- I7C mil DINGS OF Till- MOB U4MEDANS. niche in the mosques rises nearly to the full height of the facade, and terminates at the top either in a sphere, or in a polygonal half- dome, partly ribbed, and partly embellished with pendentives or ctites'. The two perpendicular mural pillars of the niche approach each other towards the top, either in curved or in straight >t an acute angle. In neither case, however, do they actually meet, the niche terminating above in a hemispherical dome, springs from the converging lines. The form of the entrance varies considerably. In some cases it terminates above in an archi- trave, in others in a round or pointed arch, while fantastically or broken-arch forms are also not uncommon. The commonest Btyle in the mosques is the architrave form with segmental relieving arches. A favourite practice was to pave the threshold with an an- cient block of red or black granite, even if covered with hiero- glyphics, and in many cases these venerable inscriptions are still traceable. In the mosques, on the resting-place in front of the door, is a low railing which marks the boundary to which the visitor may penetrate without removing his shoes or sandals, t The Windows are more commonly rectangular than arched, and are sometimes grouped in twos and threes, in which case they are often tastefully adorned with round, oval, or star-shaped ro- settes in plaster, perforated, and filled wTth coloured glass. This arrangement has many points of resemblance to the Byzantine and Romanesque styles. The window in the facades are frequently surrounded with scrolls in low relief, and with flat bands or roll- mouldings. On the inside they are usually adorned with friezes in plaster with arabesques. Special importance was attached to the principal doors of mon- umental buildings, which as a rule were massively mounted with iron or bronze, or were constructed of pieces of wood of different colours, ingeniously fitted together. The portals of some of the mosques are embellished with bronze decorations, beautifully embossed and chased. The doors in the interior of the buildings are often richly inlaid with ebony and ivory. The Dome, a very salient feature in Mohammedan buildings, especially in the mosques and mausolca, varies much in form; the base Of the structure projects beyond the square ground- plan of the i d the summit rises above the enclosing wall. The dome, which tapers upwards in an elliptical form and is ! with knobs and crescents, is blended with the quadrangular interior of the mausoleum by means of pendentives; while, ex- ternally, the union of the *-\\\iv w tth the sphere is somewhat masked gonal base of tin' dome. In some cases the transition i* of gradations resembling steps, each of which is ■ ft mosques the en todiarj ipperi for BUILDINGS OF THE MOHAMMEDANS. 177 crowned with a half-pyramidal excrescence of the height of the stnep These excrescences might he regarded as external prolongations o. the pendentives of the interior, hut do not correspond with them if position. The architects, however, doubtless intended to suggest some such connection between the internal and external orna- mentation. The domes are constructed partly of stone and partly of brick, the pendents being of stone, or of plaster and lath-work, and they are sometimes of considerable length. The finest arc probably those of the Khalifs' Tombs. The greatly elongated domes of the Mameluke tombs have a second dome structure in their in- terior. The latter, lying much lower, supports walls placed in a radiating form, which bear the upper dome. One of these dilapi- dated tombs (p. 327) affords a good opportunity of examining this mode of construction. Near it there is also a dome with a lantern, a form quite foreign to the customary style of Arabian dome building. It is a mistake to suppose that the joints are not cut in a straight direction, but were formed in curved or broken lines which re- quired each stone to be an exact counterpart of its neighbour. This arrangement is occasionally seen in the case of straight or fiat segment-shaped plinths, but even there this kind of con- struction is often merely simulated by means of inlaid marble of different coloi. . The Minarets (from the Arabic mendreh, 'a signal' or 'signal- post') are generally square at the base, tapering upwards, story by story, until the form at length changes to that of an octagon or cylinder. On these towers the architects have expended their utmost skill, and the spectator will not fail to be struck by their graceful proportions. The highest story is sometimes formed of pilasters, or columns, which bear a roof, either consisting of one or more dome-shaped protuberances with the symbol of El-Islam, or of a simple conical point. They are generally built of substantial ma- sonry , and contain Winding Staircases of stone leading to the galleries of the different stories and to the balconies between them. From these last the mueddins summon the faithful to prayer (p. 147). The galleries are borne by projecting cornices, and the balconies by brackets of similar construction. The wooden rods and hooks at the top of the minarets are used for hanging up the lamps during the fasting month of Ramadan. The mosques were also formerly provided with external platforms (called mabkharas), on which incense used to be burned on high festivals, so as to diffuse sweet perfumes throughout the whole neighbourhood. The mosque of El-Hakim is now the only one which still possesses platforms of this kind. The Public Fountains (sebils), with the Mosque Schools (medresehs) on the first floor, are frequently included within the rectangular pre- cincts of the mosques, but they sometimes project from them in a circular form. The exterior of these buildings, and also of the open Baedeker's Egypt I. 2nd Ed. 12 17s BUILDINGS OF Till. MOHAMMEDANS. colonnades used for scholastic purposes, is frequently adorned with detached columns, which is not the case with the. religious edifices. The Interiors of the mosques, on the other hand, are freely embellished with columns, the court being usually bordered by a colonnade, which is doubled or trebled on the side next the prayer- niche (labia). ( iiro presents no example of a distinct Arabian order of column, and hardly a single Arabian capital, those actually executed by Arabs (such as those adjoining the prayer-recess of the mosques) being imperfectly developed, and copied from Byzantine and Ptolemaean models. The form of capital which seems peculiar to Cairo is very simple and is also used as a base. Proceeding from the four corners of the abacus in curved lines are four surfaces which unite below with the ligature of the round or octagonal column. The numerous columns which adorn the mosques and private houses originally belonged, almost without exception, to Roman or Ptolemaean struc- tures, and sometimes to Christian churches. The Mohammedans did not, however, employ columns belonging to the ancient Egyptian temples unless they had already been remodelled and used in Greek or Roman structures. Thus the Roman pedestals with remains of hieroglyphics occasionally seen in the mosques must originally have belonged to Egyptian temples. The architects of the mosques col- lected the columns they required for their purpose with little regard to their dimensions. If they were too short, a pedestal, or a revers- ed capital was placed beneath them, regardless of the order to which it belonged. Tonic and Corinthian columns are mingled pro- miscuously, and a certain degree of uniformity in the architecture is only observed when the abacus is reached. On this last lies a second abacus of sycamore wood secured by a wooden bar, from which lamps are frequently suspended. The arches of the Arcades are almost invariably pointed, being at first round, while their sides go off at a tangent near the top ; or they gradually assume the keel-shape, being slightly curved inwards bi low in the shape of a horseshoe. There are also other forms which approach still more nearly to the Gothic pointed arch ; and there seems little doubt that this form, so early and so generally employed iro, was exported thence to Sicily, and became the type which afterwards extended to Northern Europe. Beyond this resemblance in the form of the arch, however, and in some of the details of the windows, the pointed style possesses nothing in common with ibian. The Gothic gateway of marble between the mosques of Kala&n and Barkukiyeh (p. 278) in the Derb el-Nahhasin must, therefore, be regarded as a work executed under European in- fluence. Die popular account of it is that it was brought from boine island. The arcades of the mosques and other spacious halls are covered with a flat Ceiling of open-work, of almost uniform height. The BUILDINGS OF THE MOHAMMEDANS. 179 junction of the walls and ceiling is generally masked by a pendent cornice, or a cornice with a frieze for inscriptions. The heams used in the construction of the ceilings are generally square at both ends to a length of 3-5 ft. , beyond which they are rounded below, and frequently carved. The interstices between the beams are sometimes divided into 'coffers'; and proper coffered ceilings also occur, as in the mosque Salaheddin Yusuf in the citadel (p. 264 I. In the corners of the apartments, as well as under the principal architraves, pendents are generally placed to conceal the angles. The earliest ceilings appear to have consisted of palm-trunks, and then covered with boards of sycamore wood, which were often richly carved. The space immediately in front of the kibla (prayer niche) usually terminated in a dome borne by columns. Spherical and groined vaulting was used for smaller chambers only; but the arcades of theBarkuk mosque (p. 282), with their depressed spher- ical brick vaulting, form an exception to this rule. In secular buildings the use of vaulting is much more frequent, as in the case of the city-gate Bab en-Nasr (p. 280) and other arched pas- sages. The entire ground-floors of palaces are also sometimes vaulted, and bridges and aqueducts were usually executed in barrel vaulting, or with pointed arches. The Decorations generally consist of panelling or flat paintings, destitute of structural meaning, while pilasters, cornices, and other architectural embellishments are rare. This species of ornamenta- tion was doubtless originally suggested by the carpets , fringes, and mats, used by the Arabs for covering their walls. The stalactite corbellings, on the other hand, which mask the union of the vertical with the horizontal parts of the building, and take the place of the vaulting used in western architecture , are of a more structural character; but even these perform no real architectural function, and form a mere fantastic decoration of the angles of the domes. The panel and frieze decorations are either foliage, geometrical figures, or written characters. The Foliage is usually shaped in rectangular relief, with a few incisions to divide the broader surfaces. The moulding is generally more or less in conformity with the spirit of the classical style, but in the conventional arabesques the leaves and other parts of plants of a southern climate are recognisable. The Geometrical Figures consist either of a kaleidoscopic arrangement of constantly recurring fantastic forms , or of a series of intertwined and broken lines. Lastly, the Arabic Written Characters with which the friezes are often decorated, and more particularly the Cufic and Sullus characters, are peculiarly well adapted for ornamental purposes, as they resemble decorative foliage, although destitute of its strictly sym- metrical and continuous character. When the writing is em- ployed for lengthy inscriptions in low relief, the ground on which it is placed is generally covered with slightly raised arabesques. 12* I vi) BUILDINGS OF THE MOB \MMKI> Wv - or friezes bearing inscriptions of this character produce a mtv ri.h and pleasing appearance. When viewed from a moderate distance, especially if enhanced by colouring, the broad characters stand out with great effect. The ground then resembles a network of lace, the delicate lines of the arabesques being indistinguish- able except on close inspection. Sultan Basan'a mosque (p. 260) contains a remarkably handsome frieze of this description. The rod bold characters mi the mosques or private houses which strike the eye of the traveller are almost invariably texts from the Koran, while historical notices in a small running character are often inscribed on marble slabs over the entrances and the lattice-" work ofthesebils, where they are sometimes carved in wood. Similar inscriptions also occasionally occur in the halls of the interior. The ohsemr can scarcely fail to be struck with the apparent! > capricious wayin which this ornamentation is distributed, theartisl having sometimes lavished the whole richness of his arabesques upon certain spots to the neglect of others. When this peculiarity- is more clorative inscriptions is frequently deep bine, while the letters are usually gilded. On the whole, however, painting was never so highly developed here as in Spain, where the artists showed a certain appreciation of perspective by painting parts of theil Walls With dark colours and gradually Bhading them upwards with lighter and more brilliant tints. In their c - well as in their ornamental reliefs, it is obvious in artists aimed at producing effect by contrasts. - ofthe richest marble mosaic, for the part in dark colours, the walls are generally pain n d, and the cornice BUILDINGS OF THE MOHAMMEDANS. 181 and ceiling richly coloured and gilded. In the more important private houses we sometimes find the walls covered with majolica. The traveller will also be struck with the beautiful effects of colour produced by the Inlaid Work in the kiblas of certain mosques tombs of Kalaim, Tulun, and Kait Bey), where marble, porphyry, mother-of-pearl, and Venetian enamel have been combined. In the case of Cabinet Work the colours used for inlaying are dark brown, black (ebony), white (ivory ), and bronze. Externally the dark yellowish stone of which the buildings were constructed produced a naturally pleasing effect, which the architects oc- casionally endeavoured to enhance by colouring every alternate course red or black; while important paTts were adorned with marble mosaic, majolicas, panelling, and gilding. Owing to the mildness of the climate of Egypt much of the original colouring has been preserved, but it must not be confounded with the rude and staring painting of stone facades and marble ornaments exe- cuted on the occasion of the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. The secular edifices , like the sacred , and particularly the Dwelling Houses, have also their characteristic peculiarities. The ordinary town-houses are constructed of stone on the ground-floor, and generally have an overhanging upper story. The projecting parts sometimes rest on pillars, but more commonly on beautifully carved brackets of peculiar form, and are provided with a kind of bow-window, which serves the double purpose of ventilating the house and of affording a view of the street to the women concealed behind the lattice-work. The small perforated and generally octa- gonal balconies, with round holes at the bottom, are used for cooling the drinking-water in porous vessels (kullehs), whence they derive their name of Mushrebiyehs (from shar&b, a draught). These bal- conies are rectangular in shape, but their sides are sometimes arched, and the lattice-work round them, composed of turned pieces of wood, often forms an ingenious and elaborate pattern. The roofs of these mushrebiyehs usually project in a tent-like form , and instead of cornices they have pendent friezes cut out of boards. The union of these projections with the surface of the wall below is generally masked by means of richly carved and elegantly waved mouldings with tasteful rosettes. Above the mushrebiyehs, which rarely extend to the height of the apartment within, there are usually introduced upper windows, with stucco frames, rilled with stained glass. — The Cornices of the houses project but slightly, curving a little outwards when pendeutives are not employed; and they are almost always crowned with pinnacles, which are often most elaborately executed. We may also mention the curious form of cornice seen in the Mameluke Tombs, where the projecting ends of the roof-beams are serrated. While bestowing their full meed of praise on the wonderfully rich Ornamentation and other details of Arabian architecture, one I si Bl [LDINQfl OF THE MOHAMMEDANS. cannot help feeling that H die re give entire {esthetic satisfaction. Want of symmetry in plan, poverty of articulation, insufficiency of plastic decoration, and an incongruous mingling of stone and wood, are the imperfections which strike most northern critics. The architects, in fact, bestowed the whole of their attention decoration of surfaces; and down to the present day the Arabian artists have always displayed far greater ability in tracing elegant outline-;, and designing the most complicated ornaments and geometrical figures on plane surfaces, than in the treatment and proportioning of masses. Although we occasionally see diffi- culties of construction well overcome, as in the ease of the interior of the Bab en-Nasr , these instances seem rather to be successful experiments than the result of scientific workmanship. The real lence of the Arabian architects lay in their skill in masking abrupt angles by the use of 'stalactites' or brackets. If we enquire into the causes of these defects in the develop- ment of art we shall find that the climate is one of the principal. Irs remarkable mildness and the rareness of rain have enabled ar- chitects to dispense with much that appears essential to the inhab- itant of more northern latitudes; and hence the imperfect de- velopment and frequent absence of cornices. The extraordinary durability of wood in Egypt, again, has led to its being used in the construction of walls, and in connection with stone, in a man- ner which would never occur to northern architects. Another circumstance unfavourable to the development of native art lias doubtless been the ease with which the architects obtained abun- dance of pillars and capitals in ancient buildings ready to their hand. There were also political obstacles to the progress of art, Buch as frequent intestine struggles and dissensions, and the sway of despotic rulers and their servile officers; and, lastly, the characteristic Egyptian tenacity and veneration for tradition and religious precept have not been without their influence. The ori- ginal design ofthe mosque, forexample, was borrowed from Mecca, and no deviation could be made from its plan; and this accounts for the invariable recurrence ofthe same forms in the mosques of In a few instances architects ventured to introduce in- novations, but they never failed to Tevert sooner or later to the establi The external architecture of private houses, < i\ being unfettered by religious considerations, might have ased more favourably btit forthe powerful influence of super- stition and fear. An external display of wealth, according to the popular notion, drew upon its possessor the 'evil eye' ofthe cove- tous, the consequence of which was misfortune or death, while, on the other band, ii afforded the government a pretext for extorting the occupant. It therefore became customary "'i*' 1 the I ptian to restrict any appearance of luxury to the Interior of their harems, where it is exhibited in the sumptuous BUILDINGS OF THE MOHAMMEDANS. 183 furniture and hangings, and in the jewellery of the women. These indications of wealth are never seen except by the proprietor's nearest relations and the female friends of his wives , and are effectually concealed from the view of the government and of the general public. With regard to Sculpture and Painting it will strike the tra- veller that the modern Egyptian chisel and brush have been reserv- ed exclusively for the decoration of wall surfaces. Representations of animals occur rarely , while those of the human figure were prohibited by the Koran (comp. p. 218). The latter, however, are occasionally met with. One of the Tulunides, for example, caused a festal hall to be adorned with painted wooden statues of himself, his wives , and his favourite dancers ; and at Cairo there was even a famous manufactory of figures of men and animals at that period. In the 11th. cent., as we are informed, there were two cel- ebrated painters at Cairo who vied with each other in the execu- tion of relief pictures. One of them painted a dancer, who seemed to be disappearing into the wall, while his rival painted another who seemed to be coming out from it. El-Kitami's picture of Joseph in the pit was also a far-famed work. On the whole, how- ever, these branches of art were but little developed, the Egyp- tians resembling the Israelites in this respect. The Arabs were more successful, however, in the prosecution of artistic handicrafts, and excelled in the embellishment of all kinds of implements in metal-work, enamel , inlaying , engraving , etc. Their decorative ingenuity, developed by these arts quite as much as by the wall decorations, and applied to textile fabrics also, has attained so wide a celebrity , that the word 'Arabesque' is now nearly syno- nymous with 'ornament'. The word 'Grotesque' was once similarly applied to the western style of decoration borrowed by Raphael and Giovanni da Udine from the 'Grottoes' of the Baths of Titus at Rome, and employed by them with singular success in the loggie of the Vatican, but this word has long since lost its original meaning. The Mosques are divided, in accordance with their religious importance, into two kinds: (1) those in which the sermon (khutbeh) is preached on Fridays, called Garni'; (2) those in which prayer only is offered daily except on Fridays, named Mesgid^r, or Zdwiya. The name mesgid, which has been imported from Constantinople, is less frequently used than Zawiya, which de- notes a small mosque, consisting of one chamber only. t It is from this word mesgid (which means a place for prostration), that we derive the word mosque, through the Spanish mezquita and the French mosquie. is I i'.i il.MNf.s OF THE MOHAMMEDANS. The Muslims also repeat their prayers at the grated windows of the „, their saints (jshikh, oxweli; see p. 152), behind which is visible a catafalque, covered with bright coloured. carpets, but by no means invariabl) containing the remains of the holy man. These weli's, or tombs of shekhs, occur in every part of the coun- try, being frequently built into the houses, and are easily recognis- , ,1 by their cubic form and their domes. They are rarely more than 4-6 yds. square, and are generally whitewashed. The interior is empty and infested with scorpions and vermin. Ever] Garni lias a court of considerable size, generally uncov- ered, called the Fasha, oiSahn el-Qdmi', in the centre of which is the Hdneftyeh, or fountain for religious ablution. On the, E. side the court is adjoined by the IAw&n, covered with carpets or mats (Haslreh), where the sacred vessels are kept. Between the Liwan and the court there often runs a mushrebiyeh railing which sepa- rates the holy place of the Garni' from the court. In the Liwan we observe: |1) the Kibla or Mihrab, the prayer-niche turned towards Mecca; (2) the Mambtir, or pulpit, to the right ofthe Kibla. from which the Khattb or Imam addresses the faithful; [3) the Kursi (pi. Kerdsi), or reading-desk, on which the Koran (which is kept at other times in a cabinet of its own) lies open during divine service; (4) the Dikkeh, a podium borne by col- umns, and surrounded by a low railing, from which the Moballigh (assistants of the Khatib) repeat the words of the Koran, which is read at the Kibla, for the benefit of the people at a distance ; (5) the various lamps and lanterns | Kin dtl and 1-Vm Q,s ). By thfl side of the Sahn el-Gami r is another small court with a basin of water and other conveniences* which bhe faithful almost Invariably visit before entering the sacred precincts. Adjoining the Liwan is usually placed the mausoleum of the rounder ofthe mosque, called Maksdra, and farther distant, by the principal entrance, is the Sebtl I fountain) with the Medreseh (^school). Under the Sebil is a cistern. which is tilled during the inundation of the Nile. These fountains are often richly adorned with marble and bronze railings. They are a very projecting roof, and above them is the more or less ome school hall. The railings whence the water is distributed nally approached by several steps. The interior of the Sebil ge chamber, the pavement of which is aboul 3 ft. beiov the level of the surrounding soil, and Lb it the water urawn from the cistern is placed in vessels for distribution at the railing lj to are sometimes placed troughs foi watering animals. The water stored in these cisterns is generally in June, when the Nile water becomes unwhole- iming a green colour caused by the presence of myriads of mic ill plants. The Medreseh usually consists of with a Btore-Toom for Its simple furniture, tsidered with respecl to their ground-plans, the mosqui BUILDINGS OF THE MOHAMMEDANS. 185 classed in two leading groups : (1) those of rectangular plan, with hypaethral columns orpilasters round the open court (see plan of the mosques of f Amr, p. 324, and Barkuk, p. 282); and 1 2) those which have & rectangular or cruciform court surrounded by closed rooms, like the mosque of Sultan Hasan and most of the tomb mosques, or those where the tomb is of large size compared wit] Sahn el-Gami r . The Tombs of the Muslims (comp. also p. 155) are generally situated on high ground, uninfluenced by the moisture of the river, and sometimes in the desert. The chambers are destitute of d> tion. Within is a catafalque of stone resting on a more or less deco- rated pedestal, and bearing two upright columns (Shdhid) of marble or other stone, one of which, placed immediately over the head of the deceased, bears his name and age, with texts from the Koran. At the top of the shahid is represented the turban of the deceased, i he form of which indicates his rank. Over the catafalques of persons of distinction are erected dome-shaped canopies, resting on four columns or pilasters, or their tombs have the closed form of those of the shekhs already mentioned. On festivals the catafalques and hollow parts of the pedestals are covered with palm-branches, flowers, and basilicum. On these occasions the friends, and especi- ally the female relatives, of the deceased often spend, whole days by the tomb , engaged in prayer and almsgiving. For these mour- ners it was necessary to provide accommodation, and the result is that a complete mausoleum , with its rooms for the family , sebil, school, stables, custodian's residence , etc. . is often nearly as ex- tensive as the mosques themselves, while some of them are so large as almost to present the appearance of a small deserted town. To buildings of this kind the name of Hosh is applied. One of the most imposing of these is the tomb-mosque of Sultan Barkuk. The Dwelling - Houses , which rarely have more than two stories, are built in very various styles, but the following rules are generally observed in their construction : — (1) The principal rooms, particularly those of the Harem (p. 187), look into the court or garden, if there be one. (2) The windows looking to the street are small, placed very high, and strongly barred, while those of the upper floors are closed, with mushrebiyeh (p. 181), which, however, are gradually being superseded by glass-windows with shutters. (3) The entrance-door (PL I, 1), behind which is the seat {Mastaba, PL I, 2) of the doorkeeper, is generally low and narrow, and the passage (PL I, 3) leading from the street ti court is built in the form of an angle, to prevent people from seeing into the court. (4) The court (Hosh, PL 1 , 4) is planted with trees and unpaved, and contains a well of water that has filtered through from the Nile. This water, however, is generally more or less brackish. and is used only for washing purposes and for the cattle. (5) By the entrance to the court, and on the same level, is the Mandara [86 l'.l [LDINGS OF THE MOHAMMEDANS. I l-l i, 7 i. or reception-room of the proprietor, with at least one Khazn ibinet (PL I, 15), and other conveniences. The Mandara of the best class is of symmetrical construction, and the dddle of one of the sides. The central part of this hall, called the Durk&'a, which is paved -with marble mosaic and contains a fountain (Fasktyeh) , is one step lower than the sides on the right and left. The ground-plan is generally the same as that of the Ka'a (PL 1, 14). Opposite the entrance of the dnika'a there lerally a 8uffeh, or kind of stand in stone or marble, on which are placed the household utensils for washing, drinking, etc. The more elevated sides of the Mandara , called the Llwan, are sd with carpets and mats, thus forming a kind of couch, and are never stepped upon except with shoeless feet. Visitors leave their si ie Durka'a. Along the walls are often placed cup- boards, richly decorated with inlaid work and majolica. The ceil- ings are generally tastefully ornamented. Adjoining the court there ally another hall , situated a little above its level , adorned Plan 1. Ground Floor. - '■ 1 i ' l — ' -- - ; 1 | ' " " ! L ! - •i i — i , ii- i i ■ . M at (Mastaba) for the doorkeeper. 8. Cor- ''.'" r '• Court. 6. a kind of bower (Huk r ad) in which visitors ax 8 i ountain. i\ Quest-chamber. 8. Servants' 9. Donkey-stable. 10. Sad. i Room for fodder. 12. Doorlea tmenl i Bab i I Harim). i:t. Staircase leading to the propriej Ii. Principal saloon (el-Ka f a). 15. Khazneb, >urt, I J. Kitchen. I Bake hous*e, 19. Privy. BUILDINGS OF THE MOHAMMEDANS. 187 with a column , and open towards the north. This is called the Taklita Bosh , and is used in temperate weather for the same purposes as the Mandara. Lastly the Muk'ad ( PL 1, "> ), where the proprietor receives visits in summer, is usually raised, like the TakhtaBosh, half the height of the ground-floor above the level of the court, and is adorned with several columns , while below it are small chambers used as store-rooms and for various other pur- poses, and frequently the well with its drawing apparatus. The principal part of the Harem (women's apartments), which in smaller houses is accessible from the court only by the Bab d- Harim (PL I, 12 ; II, 3), is the Ka'a (PL I. 14). The ceiling of the Durka'a is higher than that of the Liwan, and has a dome in the centre with mushrebiyeh openings. The walls of the Liwan are 1. Open hall (Taklita Bosh). 2. Cabinet. 3. Door of the Harem. 4. Rooms of the Harem with mushrebiyehs. 5. Magazine. G. Open courts. 7. Guest-chambers. frequently lined with rows of shelves, with valuable porcelain, crystal, or plate. In the larger houses a separate staircase for the women-servants ascends from the ground-floor to the upper stories. On its way it passes the intervening floor forming their dwelling, which is built over the less important rooms of the ground-floo i 138 ARABIC LANGUAGE. . usually Leads direct from the apartments of the pro- mt., the harem (PI. T, 3). At the hack of the building are s, and frequently a mill also. — Jn the country, and even at Cairo, the entrance-door is sometimes painted with very rude figures of camels , lions, steamboats, etc., which i ended to thai the owner Lias performed the pil- :.■ to Mecca I p. 148 I. X. The Arabic Language. Arabic belongs to the Semitic group of languages, and has no onship with the tongues of Europe. A knowledge of Hebrew, • r. will materially facilitate the learning of Arabic. The golden ibic literature is coeval with the introduction of El-Islam, and the Koran in the dialect of the Kureish (the family of Mohamm Lll regarded as an unrivalled model of •id language. As El-Islam spread from its narrow home over -i territories that gradually acknowledged the Crescent, Arabic lost many of its older and fuller forms and was greatly simplified for daily use. Ln this way arose the vulgar dialects "(Arabic of which that spoken in Egypt is one. In writing, however, an at- tempt was made to retain the older forms, and the written lan- of the present day, known as Middle Arabic, occupies a po- sition midway between the original classical tongue and the popular ts. Egypl was conquered by the Arabs in the 19th year of gira (640 A. D.) and the Coptic language was replaced by- Arabic. The dialect of the latter developed in the valley of the Nile differs considerably in the pronunciation of the consoc accent from the ordinary Arabic dialects of Syria sewhere. Thus the letter -r is pronounced hard in Egypt and soft in p. L90). The variations, however, are not so great - . rians and Egyptians being mutually intelligible. A sharply defined and exact pronunciation of the consonants is Arabic and is absolutely essential to any sati language. The learner should endeavour at ome to the pronunciation of the more difficult Arabic consonants. - j~. _b, £, 0°. and 'J"°, so as, for example, to he able : a distinct difference between bit (house] and bid (j ids have no representatives in English. Owing to ig intercourse be! ween t he native Eg) ptians and Europe, of late adopted man;, words from other ;'i and L. and 21, which are sometimes called 'emphatic', are very peculiar, and modify the vowels connected with them : thus after them a and u approach the sound of o, and i that of e. The sounds of the French u and cu (German ii and 6) are rare in colloquial Arabic. I '.III M: M'.ic LANG! \« I . Elif Alef Ba Ta Tlia 1 I b o t o th O" b Z J ll z kh Z d J> dh r ; z ) U" s u^ sh LP s LP d i: t Jb z 6 e gh US f v3 k a* k J 1 r m ii O 8 li J w L5 y Consonants. ccompanies an initial vowel, and is not pronounced except as a hiatus in the middle of a word. as in English. as th in' thing' , but generally pronounced tors. I in Syria and Arabia like the French./ I J- times also like the English .;'), but pro- nounced g (hardj in 1 a peculiar guttural h, pronounced with em- pha lis at the back of the palate, like ch in the Scotch word 'loch', or the harsh Swiss German ch. as in English. as Win 'the 1 , but generally pronounced d or .. like the French or German /•. Clin P EM Dal DliAl Re Ze, Zen Sin Shin Sad Dad Ta Za En Ghen IV KM KM Lam Mini Nun \U- Wan Ye ^-ocbnti mi"n. [f .1 word terminates with a. long syllable finding in a consonant [indicated by a circumflex accent over the , as in English. emphasised s. !both emphasised by pressing the to firmly against the palate. an emphatic z, now pronounced like No. II or No. 15. a strong and very peculiar guttural. a guttural resembling a strong French or German )•. as in En emphasised guttural i, replaced by the na- tives of lower Egypt, and particularly by the Cairenes, by a kind of hiatal or • ion of the voice. in Engli ii ARABIC LANGUAGE. 191 vowel"), or with a syllable ending in a double consonant, the accent is placed on the last syllable (as in maghn&tis, bddingan, afmdz, ketebt, taghtdmm, each of which has the stress on the last syllable). If the last syllable has any other form, i. e. if it terminates in a vowel only, or in a consonant preceded by a short vowel, the accent in the case of a dissyllable is on the first syllable (as in gezmeh, bvrnux, fursha, redi), and in the case of a trisyllable or polysyllable on the third syllable from the end (as mdrmala, mdhbara, mddeneli), ex- cept when the penultimate is a long syllable (as in sibdnikK), in which case the accent is on that syllable. Address. The inhabitants of towns use the 2nd person plural in ad- dressing a person , or a periphrasis , such as gen&bak (your honour), lia- dretak (your presence), or to a patriarch ghubtatkum, to a pasha sa'dt/etak. Yd sidi (O sir) is also frequently used, and to Europeans, ya khawdgeh. Possessives. These are expressed by means of affixes. Thus, binli, my daughter; bintak (ik when the person addressed is feminine), thy daughter; binlu, his daughter; binthd, or bintahd, her daughter; bintnd or bintind, our daughter; bintkum or bintukum, your (pi. 1) daughter; bin- tuhum, their daughter. The idea of possession is colloquially expressed by the. use of the word beta' ('property''), as el-'abd betd'i, my slave ('the slave my property'). Article. The definite article el or al is assimilated before dentals, sibilants, and the letters n and r: thus, esh-shems, the sun, etc. Demonstratives. In Egypt the word 'this' is rendered by de, fern. di; as er-rdgil de, this man; el-bint di, this girl. The Beduins use the old Arabic and Syrian hdda. 'These 1 , d6l. 'That', dikha, duk/ia, dukhauwa, dikliaiya; plural dukhamma. Relative : elli, omitted after substantives used in a general sense. Interrogatives. Who, min; what, eh, Ssh, Declension. The substantive is not declinable. The genitive of a substantive is formed by simply placing it immediately after the sub- stantive to be qualified , the latter being deprived of its article : thus, ibn el-bdsha, the son of the pasha. The feminine terminations a, e, i are in such cases changed into at, et, it: thus mara, wife; maral el-kadi, the wife of the judge. Dual. The dual termination is en, fern, elen: thus seneh , year; senetSn, two years ; rigl, foot ; riglen, two feet. Plural. In the masculine the termination is in (as felldhin, peas- ants); in the feminine at (as hdra, town, quarter, etc., pi. hdrdl). The plural is, however, usually formed by a radical change of the vowel sounds of the singular, the change being effected in thirty or forty dif- ferent ways, so that it becomes necessary for the learner to note carefully the plural form of every substantive: thus, 'ain, spring, pi. 'uyihi; t&gvr, merchant, pi. tuggdr; gebel, mountain, pi. gibdl; kabileh, tribe of Beduins, pi. kabdil. Verbs. Many of the verbs consist of slightly differing cognate roots, connected somewhat in the same manner as the English verbs lay and lie. Each verb consists of a perfect and present imperfect tense , an imperative, a participle, and an infinitive. The above remarks are made merely in order to afford a slight idea of the structure of the language . the difficulties of which are such that few persons will venture to encounter them, unless they make a prolonged stay in the country. We should, however, re- commend the traveller to commit to memory the following words and phrases of everyday occurrence, a knowledge of which will often prove useful. 192 vih u;i lary; Arabic Vocabulary. it-iii . wahdeh ; the fl kha six sitteh, <', (/, eight temdnyeh nine fi ten — 'ashara, 1 1 hadctsher ■her 13 — telatdsher 15 — khamstdsher Hi sittd 18 — 19 — tt« r a& 20 — 'ishrtn 30 — Iclatln iir'm in I'll i -/'/?/» 70 — — hi' it : nrbif ;* khams ; sitt; seV a ; tisa ; the second the third the fourth the ftfth the sixth el-dwwel, fem. el- auwaleh or el-Ma. t'mi, fem. t&n — t'det, — rSbe, — khdmis, — sddis,\ the seventh — sabc , t he eighth — tdmin, tdlleh ral'i eh sddseh sdb' eh tdmnt h tds ' It 'dshra 90 tis in — marra wahdeh, m or ndba mat i thrice / nmrri'it four t i 1 1 1 • a •(/■//(/' mi Qve tin icAanu (khamas) marrdi siti 1 1- 'it seven times >e/i\rh enth an eighth a ninth a tenth — khums suds - .-^/ eft til inn - tuseh - u.
.sif; vulture, rakham. On Arrival. For how much will you take me ashore? (to the ship?) Tetalla'ni (il-barr bikdm? Tenezzllni fil-merkeb bikdm? For five francs, Bikhamas ferankdt; bikhamseh ferank. Too much ; I will give you one. Kettr, a'dik waked, bess. You shall take me alone ; or I will give you nothing. Tdkhudni (or teivaddini) wahdi, willa md ba'dikshi hdgeh. There are three of us. Ehna teldteh. Four piastres each. Kullu wdhed bi arba' kurilzh. Put this box (these boxes) into the boat. Nezzil es-sanduk-deh (cs-sanadtk-dol) fil feliike. At the Custom-House (OumrukJ. Open this box. Iftah es- sandiik. I have nothing in it. Md fish hdgeh, md fihdsh hdgeh. Give me your passport.^ Hdt et-tezkereh (bassdborto). Here is my passport. Alio el-bassdburto betd'i. I have no passport. Md 'andlsh tezkereh. I am under the protection of the English (American) consul. Ana fi hemdyet (or ana tahte) konsul el-Ingiltzi (el-Amerikdni). At a Cafe (p. 17). Boy, bring me a cup of coffee. Hdt fingdn kaliwa, ya weled Qcahwa bisukkar, with sugar; mingher sukkar, or sdde, without sugar). Bring me a chair. Hat kursi. Bring me water. Hdt li moyeh. Bring me a water-pipe. Hdt shisheh (nargUeh). Iking me a live coal. Hdt loil'a (bassat ndr, basso ). 19S VOCABULARY. Change the pipe (i.e. bring a newly rilled bowl). Oheyyar en-nefes. At thi; Bath (p. 21). Fil Hammam. Bring the wooden shoes. Hat el-kabk&b. — Take me in. Waddtni yuu-wa. — Leave me for a little. Khallini shwaiyeh. — 1 do not perspire yet. Mdntsh 'arkan lissa. — Hub me well. Keyyisni tayyib (melih). — It is not necessary to rub me. Mush Idzim tekcyyimi. — Wash me with soap. Ghassiini bisdbUn. — Enough; it is sufficient. Bess ; yike/'fi ; bikeffi. — Bring me cold water. Jl'd mdyeh bdrideh. — Bring some more. Hat Unman. — We will go out. Nitla' harm. — • Bring me a sheet (shirts). ILlt futa (fuwat). — Bring me water, coffee, a nargileh. Hat moych. kahwa, nargileh. — Where are my clothes? Fen hu- ilt'uni; Jiudumi fen? — Bring my boots. Hat el-gezmeh. — Here is your fee. TChud bakshtshak ,' ddi el-bakshish betd'ak. Washing. Take the clothes to be washed. Waddi el-hudum lil-ghasil. (The articles should be counted in the presence of the washerman. ) — How much does the washing cost? Kam (kdddi e) temen el-ghasil? On the Journey. When will you start? Emta tesdferu? — We will start to-morrow at sunrise. Nesdfer bukra, ma' ash shems ; an hour before sunrise, sua kabl esh-shems ; two hours after sun- rise, sa'i t'n ha'd esh-shems. — Do not come too late. Mdtit'akh- kharshe. — Is everything ready? Kull she hdder? — Pack; load (the camel). Sheyyilu; sheddu. — Hold the stirrup. Imsik er-rikah. — Wait a little. Istanna (istenna) shwaiyeh. What is the name of this village, mountain, valley, tree, spring? E l nr 'r: To God's protection. F! Hltih. Or: Now let us go on. Jalla Una. — Generally speak- ing, the person leaving says nothing, unless when about to start on a long journey, in which case he says: Peace be ■with you. Ma'as- 8aldma. On the route: Welcome. Aldan wasahlan, oimarhaba. Answer: ,s, 'Iconic. Marhabtin. 1 beg you (to enter, to eat, to take something). Tafaddal (tefaddal, itfaddal) ; fern tafadddli (itfadddli); plur. tafadddlu (itfuihb'ilu. tefadddlu). — Will you not join us (in eating)".' Bi8- millah (literally -in God's name). Answer: May it agree with you, Bilh&na. Take care; beware. Uka (ti'a); fem. tiki (u'i). I am under your protection ; save me. Fa'rdak (p.'ardak). — My house is thy house. Bett betak (p. 24) — Be so good. E'mel ma'ruf. What God pleases ('happens 1 , understood). MdshaUah (an exclamation of surprise ). — As God pleases. Inshallah. — By God. Wallah , or walldhi. — By thy head. Wahydt rdsak. — By the lite of the prophet. Wahydt en-neb i. — God forbid. Istaghfir Mirth! XL Works on Egypt. The traveller who desires more than a mere superficial acquain- tance with the land of the Pharaohs, the history of which is the most ancient and in some respects the most interesting in the world, should of course before leaving home read some of the standard works on the subject, and also select a number of others for reference or entertainment during the journey. This is all the more necessary if the traveller is entirely ignorant of the ancient and modern languages of the country, in which case he will find it ilt, if not impossible, to institute independent enquiries as to its manners, literature, and art. From the appended list, which might easily be extended, the traveller may make a selection in accordance with his individual taste. Those indicated by asterisks are among the most indispensable. Before enumerating the works which most English travellers will read, we may mention a few of the leading foreign authorities ■ |it. Foremost among these are Eepsius's 'Denkmalex aua 'ii uinl .Ethiopian', Champollion's 'Monuments de l'figypte et de la Nubie', Rosellini's 'Monument! dell' Egitto e della Ni and the 'Description de l'Egypte' published by the members of the French expedition. Schnaase, Kugler, Lubke, Erbkam, andReber ritten valuable works on the history of Egyptian art; Foxskal, LITERATURE. 201 Schenk, Unger, Schweinfurth, Ascherson, and Roissier, on botany ; and Brehm, Hartmann, Fraas, Pruner, and Klunzinger on natural history and medicine. With regard to the Greek and Roman writers on Egypt, see p. 344. The Arabian historians are mere chroniclers, who narrate a series of facts and traditions, and are entirely deficient in method and the faculty of criticism. The following are the most important writers on the general history of Egypt : — El-Mns'udi (&. 956), of Fostat; Ibn el-Athh (A. 1232), of Mossul in Syria; Ibn KhaldAn (d. 1406), one of the most learned of Arabian authors, a philo- sophical historian, and chiefly famous for the preface to his history, which was printed at Bulak, in four volumes, in 1868 ; Abulfidd (d. 1331), prince of Hama in Syria. The following are authors of important works on limited epochs of Egyptian history and of valuable descriptive works: — El-Makrtzi (d. 1442, at Cairo), the author of a geographical, physical, historical, and political de- scription of Egypt, and of Cairo in particular, printed at Bulak in 1854; Abul-Mahdsin (d. 1469), the author of a detailed history of Egypt from the Arabian conquest nearly down to the time of his death; Es-Siyiiti (d. 1506), of Siut in Upper Egypt ; El-Man&fi ( (1. L624 ) ; Abu Shdma | d. 1224 ), who wrote the history of Nilreddin and Salaheddin ; BalidedcUn [A. 1234), who for many years was a follower of Saladin ; ' Abdellatlf (d. 1232), a physician at Baghdad, the author of a very important and interesting description of Egypt. Historical, Descriptive, and Scientific Works. Birch, Dr. 5., Egypt, down to B.C. 300; London, 18T5. Birch, Dr. S., Sir Gardner Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians ; London, 1877. ' Brngsch, Histoire d'Egypte, 2nd ed. ; Leipzig, 1874. ■Brugsch, L'Exode et les Monuments Egyptiens; Leipzig, 1S75. Bunsen, Egypt's Place in Universal History; London, 1867. Ebers, Egypt, Descriptive, Historical, and Picturesque, translated from the German by Clara Bell and furnished with notes by Dr. Sam. Birch ; 800 illustrations ; London, 1882. Lane, Modern Egyptians; new ed., London, 1871. Leon, E. de, The Khedive's Egypt, London, 187 f. 'Lepsius, Letters from Egypt, ./Ethiopia, etc.; London, 1S52. Marielte, Apereu de PHistoire Ancienne d'Egypte :_ Paris, 1807. Mavietle, Monuments of Upper Egypt; London. 1877. Maspero, Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l'Orient; Paris. ■M-Conn, Egypt as it is; London, 1877. Merval, Du Barry de, Architecture Egyptienne; Paris, 1873. Osbum, Monumental History of Egypt; London, L854. Palmer, Egyptian Chronicles ; London, 1861. Palon, Egyptian Revolution, from the Period of the Mamelukes to the death of Mohammed r Ali ; London, 1S70. Per ring, The Pyramids of Gizeh; London, i539. Perrot d- Chipiez, History of Art in Ancient Egypt, translated from the French by W. Armstrong ; London, 1883. Poole, Egvpt, in Sampson Low's series of manuals of Foreign Countries. Records of the Past, Translations of Egyptian inscriptions by Dr. Birch and others. Rikarl, Carl von, Menes and Cheops identified in History: London. L869. 202 LITERATURE. 1 Sharp--. History of Egypt; new ed., London, 1S7G (most useful for the Ptolemsean, Etonian, and Byzantine periods). Sharp,. Hieroglyphics: London, i Handbook of the Birds of Egypt; London, 1ST'.'. \\fi. The Pyramids of Gizeh; London, 1840. t. Political, Financial, and Strategical. Wallace, Egypt and the Egyptian (Question; London, 1883. Wilkii ■. The Ancient Egyptians (new edition by Dr. Birch, see above). Zmeki . Egypt of the Pharaohs and the Khedive; London, 1873. Works of a moke Popular Character, and Works of Fiction. About, Le Fellah; Paris, 1869. Arabian Nights, by Lane; London, 1841. The learned editor is of opinion that these popular tales were written in 1474-1526, being based mainly on earlier traditions, that they were probably compiled by an Egyptian, and that they afford an admirable picture of Arabian, ;niil particularly of Egyptian, life at that period. Bovet. Egypt, Palestine, and Phoenicia, translated from the French by Canon Lyttleton; London, 1883. Cooke, Leaves from my Sketchbook; Second Series; London, 1S7U. Curtis. Nile Notes of a Howadji, or The American in Egj pt. Ebers, Series of novels on Egyptian subjects, all of which have Keen translated into English. The Nile without a Dragoman; London, 1871. ■ t and Egyptian Obelisks; London, 1877. 1. Alexandria. Arrival. The perfectly flat N.E. coast of Egypt, and even Alexandria itself, are not visible to the steamboat passenger until very shortly be- fore the vessel enters the harbour. We first observe the lighthouse ris- ing conspicuously above the flat and colourless line of the coast, and then a row of windmills, light-coloured buildings, and the smoke of the steamboats in the harbour. On a hill to the left rises the chateau of the Khedive at Ramleh (p. 222), and on the coast, to the right, at the be- ginning of the entrance to the harbour, we perceive the so-called Bab el- Arab (Beduin Gate), the extremity of a line of fortifications extending between the sea and Lake Mareotis (p. 223). It was this western harbour only, the Eunostos, or harbour of those 'returning home in safety' of the Greeks, that European vessels were formerly permitted to enter, while they were rigorously excluded from the 'Great Harbour' on the E. side , which was described by Strabo (p. 208) , and is now errone- ously called the 'New Harbour 1 ." The latter, which Mohammed r Ali attempted again to utilise, but found too much choked up with sand, is now chiefly used by fishing-boats, but larger vessels sometimes enter it when compelled by stress of weather. Before passing Bab el- r Arab the steamer takes a pilot on board and is steered by him through a narrow, shallow, and rocky channel (Bdghaz) into the harbour. As the passage can only be effected by daylight, vessels arriving in the evening must ride at anchor outside until next morning. On the coast, to the right, we observe the grotesque half- ruined Chateau of Meks (p. 221), with its numerous domes and slender towers. It was erected by the viceroy Said Pasha (p. 107), who used to Plan of Alexandria. 1. Arsenal . . . D, 2 Railway Stations. 2. For Rosetta, Cairo, and Suez . . . G, 5 3. For Ramleh. . 11,3 4. Bains de Turin. F, 5 4a. Banque Impcriale Ottomane . . F, 4 Steamboat Offices. 5. Egyptian Mail Steamers . . . E, 3 6. Fraissinet & Co. G, 4 7. Austrian Lloyd . G, 4 8. Messageries Mari- times . . . . F, 4 9. Peninsular and Oriental Co. . F. 10. Rubattino &Co. F,G,4 11. Russian Steamers F, Consulates. 12. American . . . G, 13. Belgian. . . . F, 14. Danish . . . . F, 15. German . . . G, 16. British . . 17. French . . . 17a. Greek . . 18. Italian . . . 19. Dutch . . . 20. Austrian . . 21. Russian . . 22. Swedish . . 23. German Club . G, . G, . G, . G, • F , ■ G, . G, . G, F, • F, • *\ . G, F, 24. Custom House D, E Churches 25. English. . 26. Armenian . 27. Coptic . . 28. Greek Cath. 29. Greek Orthodox F, 30. St. Catherine (Rom. Cath.) 31. Lazarist . 32. Maronite . 33. Presbyterian 34. Protestant. 35. Equestrian Statue of Mohammed r AliF 36. Palais Zizinia . F, 37. Pompey's Column E,6 38. Porte de laColonne Pompee, or du Nil F,5 39. Porte de Moharrem Bey G, 5 — de Rosette . K, 4 41. Egypt. Post OfficeF,3 42. Quarantine . A, B, 7 43. Pas et-Tin, Palace B, 1,2 44. Roman Tower . H, 3 45. Telegraph Office, Egyptian . . F, 4 46. — British . F, G, 4 Theatres. 47. Rossini . . . . F, 3 . Zizinia. . . . G, 4 49. Poiitcama . . F, 4 50. Tribunal . Hotels. a. II. Khedivial b. — Abbat. . S. Synagogues F. 4 G, 4 F, 4 G,4 204 Route 1. ALEXANDRIA. Arrival. reside I nnded by his army, for a considerable part of the year. Ider palace, to the left, on the prominent RAs et-Tin (cape of figs, p. 219), and the Arsenal i iratively uninteresting, especially as . harbour itself now engros es the whole attention. The steamer .; 1 by numerous small hunts, the occupants of which ith animated gesticulations. As sunn as the brief inspection is over, the boatmen swarm wildly on deck like a piratical crew, eager to re, and reminding the traveller of a [•beer's Africaine. In the midst of this bustle and con- fusion the following Arabic words may be found useful: — la'dl, come; 'dttzak, I don't want you; mush l&zim, it is not .y : imshi or ri/h, begone. A supply of half-franc pieces and sous mess for the occasion. Earing sufficiently surveyed the novel and picturesque scene, the travelli a boatman to convey him and his luggage ashore, or, especially if holies are of the party (see below), he gets one of the hotel to manage everything for him. Before leaving the vessel he should e on his luggage, and see that the whole of it is placed in the boat which he himself is going to use. As soon as the boat is char of the steamer the Arab hoists his sail, for he never rows unless itely obliged, and steers for the custom-house. Any importunity as to the fare may be simply answered with — 'tayyib, valla, yalla' (all right, make haste). < in reaching the landing-stage of the Custom-House (PI. 24), the trav- eller is first conducted to the passport-office (to the left, in the passage), and gives up his passport, which is afterwards restored to him at the consulate at Alexandria, or he may have it sent after him to Cairo. Meanwhile the luggage has been landed, and the traveller, if alone, and with ordinary luggage, pays the boatman 2'/2-3 fr., or for 2 persons 4-5 fr., and for each additional person 1 fr. more. The porter who carries the luggage into the custom-house and afterwards to a cab expects 2oo. Ml these rates of payment are amply remunerative, akshish' (p. 1G) is invariably asked for. and the word will resound in the traveller's ears throughout the whole of his journeyings in the Bast, and even long afterwards. The custom-house examination is generally pretty rigorous, the ar- chiefly sought for being tobacco, weapons, and diamonds. No fee need be given to the officials. As already observed, it is preferable, especially when ladies are of the party, to secure the services of one of the hotel agents, who re- the traveller of all trouble, pays boatmen and porters, and assists in charing luggage at the custom-house. In addition to his outlay, he a i of '."/vfr. from a single traveller, or more in proportion party. The principal hotels now send their own boats to meet The traveller who wishes to ensure a comfortable larkatios may write beforehand to the hotel at 'which he means !" J mi i up, and desire a eommissionnaire, a boat, and a carriage to meet him. The usual charge in this case for a party of three persons is: — boat from the steamer to the custom-house 5 fr., luggage-boat 2 fr., porter and fee to custom-house officers 2fr. 75c, carriage to the hotel 4'/2fr., carriage of luggage 2fr., or I6fr. 25c. in all. At the egress of the custom-house a noisy and importunate crowd of ear. and donkey-boys lies in wait for new-comers. Neither nor riding is recommended to the traveller on his first arrival, and he had better drive straight to his hotel. Carriage to the hotels ' ; i M.) '." '-.or., or for 3-4 persons 3-4fr. ; donkey '/2f r - ; porter for each 1 '-.-fr. Hotels. 1 1 ,,, i,,. remarked here that all the hotels in the a fixed sum per day for board and lodging, exclusive of whether the traveller takes his meals in the house or not.) Hotel Kim.iuviai. (PI. a; 9,4), near the Cairo station, in the finest part town, with i cuisine; Hoi (PI. b; !•', i), in thePlace i Second class: Hotel Canal de Sue/., behind Consulates. ALEXANDRIA. /. Route. 205 the Palais Zizinia, close to the Place Mehe'met-Ali ; with good cuisine ; Hotel des Votageurs, in the street which leads from the statue in the Place Mehe'inet-Ali to the sea; Hotel des Etrangers, Rue Mosquee A Ma- rine (PI. F, 4). Cafe (comp. p. 17), in the European style: Paradiso, Rue de la-Poste Franeaise, on the coast. 'Cafe noir, in the European style, or 'cafe' fort 1 in the Arabian, 2 piastres current (25 c.) per cup. — Beer. Brasserie Fran- caise, next door to the Hotel des Voyageurs ; Brasserie Sphinx, Maury, Rup- nik, in a side-street near the Palais Zizinia; Stern, Place de LEglise (PI. F, 4) ; also at the Cafe' Paradiso (see above). Baths. European: at the Hdtel Abbat (see above); Bains de Turin (PI. 4; F, 5), Rue de la Colonne Pompee. Arabian (comp. p. 21): the be it are in the Rue Ras-et-Tin, opposite the Zabtiyeh (police-office). Sea Baths in the Port Neuf. Clubs. The Deutsche Verein (PI. 23), Rue de la Mosquee d'Atarine, has a good reading-room , to which admission is obtainable through a member. The Club Mohammed 'Ali resembles the Club Khe'divial at Cairo (p. 234). Cabs (in the European style). There is a tariff, but the Arab drivers invariably ignore it. The fare for a short drive in the town, without luggage, is on ordinary days 50c; to the steamboats, see above; to the railway station, see p. 223. Per hour, during the day, 2fi\, but more on holidaj^s, when the demand is greater. After the first hour each additional half-hour only should be charged for. Drives beyond the fortifications according to bargain. The usual charge for a whole day, in which case also a bargain should be made, is 20-25 fr. Donkeys (comp. p. 11). Per ride of l /i hr. 50 c. ; per hour H/2 fr. ; longer excursions according to bargain; whole day 5-6 fr. Commissionnaires (p. 13) , who are useful when time is limited, abound. They charge 5-7 fr. per day, but the fee should be fixed before- hand. Most of them offer to escort the traveller to Cairo and even up the Nile ; but such proposals should be disregarded, as the best dragomans are always to be found at Cairo in winter. For the mere journey to Cairo, and for the ascent of the Nile by steamer, no dragoman is ne- cessary. On arriving at the Cairo station (p. 231) travellers are met by the commissionnaires of the principal hotels, so that the services of any other attendant are unnecessary. Post Office (PI. 41; F, 3), open from 7 a.m. to 7.30 p.m., except for an hour after noon. Letter-boxes at the hotels and in several of the streets. France and Austria have post-offices of their own, but these will soon be clnsid, as Egypt has now joined the Postal Union. Telegraph Office (PI. 45; F, 4). The rate for telegrams within Egypt is 5 piastres tariff per ten words. — English Telegraph Office (PI. 46; F, G,4). The English wires may not be used for inland telegrams. Consulates (comp. p. 6). British (PI. 16 ; G, 4), Boul. de Ramie : consul- general, Sir Evelyn. Baring; vice-consul, Mr. Cookson. — American (PI. 12; G, 4), St. Mark's Buildings, Place Mehe'met-Ali : consul-general, Mr. Pom roy; consul, Baron de Menasci. — French (PI. 17; G, 4), Place Mehcmet-Ali : consul-general, M. Barrere ; consul, M. Monge. — German (PI. 15 ; G,4), B ue de la Porte Rosette : Hr. v. Derenthall ; vice-consul, Dr. Michadelles. — Austrian (PI. 20; G, 4), Rue de la Mosquee d'Atarine: Hr. v. Hoffenfels, consul-gene- ral; Hr. Osiller, consul. — Italian (PI. 18; G, 4), Boul. Ismail: Sign. G. de Martino; vice-consul, Sign. Machiavelli. — Belgian (PI. 13; F, 4), Okella Dimitri, Rue de la Porte Rosette : Baron de Vinck, consul-general; M. Fran- quel, consul. — Dutch (PI. 19; F, 4), Rue de la Citerne-du-Four 31 : Hr. Van der Does de Willebois. — Russian (PL 21; G, 4), Rue de LObelisque 97: M. de Hitrovo; vice-consul, M. Svihirich. — Spanish, Sen. de Ortega Morejon. — Swedish (PL 22 ; G, 4), Boulevard de Ramie : M. Heidenslamm. consul- general; Mr. Barker, vice-consul. — Danish (PI. 14; F. 3). okella Dum- reicher: M. d<- Dumreicher. — Greek (PL 17a; G, 4); M. Byzantios, consul- general; M. Buff des, consul. Steamboat Offices (fares, etc., see p. 10). Peninsular <£■ Oriental Co. 20(1 Route 1. \I.K\\M)i;iA. Churches. (PI. 9; F, ii : Messageries Maritime* (PI. 8; F, 4); Austrian Lloyd (PI. 7; Florio-Rubattino <('■ Go., Italian (PI. 10; (5,4); Frnissinet & Co., French (PI. II; (i, ii; Russian Steamers (PI. 11; G, 4); Egyptian Postal Steamers (PI. 5; E, oi: all in or near the Place Mehe'rnet-Ali. Kail-way Stations. The station for Cairo (p. 223), ifacz (p. 414), and • ip. 449) is outside the Porte Moharrem Bey, >/ 2 M. from the Place M<$hemet-Ali (PI. 2; G, 5). The station for Ramleh (PI. 3; H, 3) is at the Port Ni uf. Booksellers. The Stationers d- Booksellers Co. (formerly Robertson), St. Mark's Buildings, Place Me'hemet-Ali, chiefly for English hooks ; Li- brairie de la Bourse or Exchange Stationery Co., adjoining the Exchange (large stock uf photographs). — Several Newspapers (in French, English, and Italian) are published at Alexandria. Bankers. Banque Impiriale Ottomane (PI. 4 a), which has branches out the whole of the Turkish dominions; Bank of Egypt, Rue .Mc'lu niet-Tewfik; Anglo-Egyptian Banking Co., Rue Che'rif Pacha; Franco- Egyptienne,Houle\a,TA. de Ramie; Bank of Alexandria, Rue Che'rif Pacha; Cridit Lyonnais, Rue Che'rif Pacha. Physicians. Dr. Mackie, Dr. Waller, and Finney Bey, English ; Dr. Varerihorst Bey, Dr. Kulp, Dr. Schiess, Dr. Wallhcr (skin and ear diseases), German; Dr. lVeruzzos Bey, Dr. Kartullis, Greek; Dr. Zancarot. Dentist, Dr. Love. All the addresses may lie obtained at the apothecary Ruber's (see below). Chemist. Otto LTuber, Rue Che'rif Pacha. Hospitals. The Deaconnesses' Institute, Avenue de Moharrem Bey, is an admirable establishment, which may be commended to the liberality of travellers. European Hospital, Boulevard Ismail Pacha; Egyptian Hos- pital ,( Foundling Asyhim, near the Ramleh station; Greek Hospital. Shops for all kinds of European articles are to be found in the Place Mehe'met-Ali. Cordier, St. Mark's Buildings, near the English Church ; Chalons, near Cordier; A la Ville de Paris, below the Deutsche Verein (p. 205); Camoin. Ready-made clothing: Meyer d- Co., Stein, Ooldenberg, all in the Place Mehe'met-Ali. The Arabian bazaar presents no attraction. Churches. English (PI. 25), Place Me'hemet-Ali, Rev. E. J. Davis; service on Sundays at 11 and 3 o'clock. — Presbyterian (PI. 33), Rev. Mr. Eean ; service at 11. — Protestant Church (PI. 34), a handsome new building in the Rue de l'Eglise Anglaise ; German and French service on alternate Sundays at 10. — Roman Catholic: St. Catherine (PI. 30) and La/.arist Church (PI. 31). — Greek Orthodox (PI. 29). — Greek Catholic (PI. 28). — Ar- i PI. 20). — Maronite (PI. 32). — Coptic (PI. 27). — Several Synagogues, the largest of which is near the Ramleh Station, and the handsomest in the Rue de l'Okelle Neuve, 46. At. Alexandria there are eight different Freemasons' Lodges, which, r. possess two buildings only, called the Loge des Pyramids* or English Lodge (Boul. Ismail) and the Scotch Lodge (Okella Neuve, Place Me'hemet-Ali i. Theatres. The large Zizinia Theatre (PI. 48; G,4), in the Rue de la Porte opposite the German Consulate, is frequently closed, even in win- ter. — Italian operas are given in the Politeama (PI. 49), a wooden build- ing, elegantly lifted up, opposite the Italian Consulate (also used as a I. — Italian plays, and. occasionally operas, are performed in the aall Rossini Theatre (PI. 47; F, 3), Rue d'Anastasi. Disposition op Time. Unless the traveller desires to visit all the points of historical interest at Alexandria, he may easily, by taking a carriage, inspect the town with its few relics of antiquity in half-a-day ; toll 'l:i> u ill be required if the drive be extended to the new quays at Meks (p. 221) and along the Mahmudiyeh Canal. Those who have D Oriental town will be' interested in observing the street and the picturesque faces and costumes; but to travellers return- is presents an almost European appearance, and is on- attractive. Starting from the Place Mehcmet-Ali (p. 218), we may first drive to Pompey^s Column (p. 218). We then return to the Place '' ll !" ""•( Ali ami traverse the long Rue Rds-cl-Tin to the palace of that History. ALEXANDRIA. 1. Route. 207 name, after which we may drive to the new Quays at Melcs (p. 221). If lime permits, a drive may also be taken (best in the afternoon) along the Mahmildi ijeh Canal to the Palace Number Three (Nimreh Telateh) and the public "gardens of Ginenel en-Nuzha (p. 220), both situated on the canal. History. Alexandria was founded in B.C. 332 by Alexander the Great, forming a magnificent and lasting memorial of his Egyp- tian campaign. With the foundation of the city are associated a number of legends to the effect that the coast, opposite the island of Pharos, was specially pointed out by divine omens to the Mace- donian monarch as a suitable site for the foundation of a new seaport, t In the time of Alexander there were several harbours on the N. coast of Egypt. The most important were those of Naucratis, at the "W. ( Canopic ) mouth of the Nile, chiefly used by Greek vessels after the 26th Dynasty (p. 92), and Tanis and Pelusium on the N.E. side of the Delta, at the two embouchures bearing the same names , to which Egyptian and Phoenician vessels only seem to have been admitted. Alexander, who had overthrown the barriers which had hitherto separated the nations dwelling on the E. shores of the Mediterranean , conceived the plan of founding a new and splendid seaport town in Egypt, both to facilitate the flow of Egypt's wealth towards Greece and the Archipelago, and to connect the venerable kingdom of the Pharaohs with that widely extended Greek empire which it was his great ambition to found. The site chosen by the king was not, however, an entirely new one. On the coast opposite the island of Pharos (p. 208), as we learn from the monuments, had long stood the Egyptian village of Rhakotis, where, as Strabo records, a guard was posted to ensure the safety of the frontier. It seems strange at first sight that the new seaport should have been founded at the W. extremity of the coast of the Delta instead of on the old harbour of Pelusium at the E. end , which lay close to the Red Sea and to the caravan route between Egypt and Syria, and might easily have been extended so as to suit Alexander's requirements. The fact is, however, that the far-seeing founder really made a most judicious choice ; for it has been recently ascertained that a current in the Mediterranean, beginning at the Strait of Gibraltar, washes the whole of the N. African coast, and, when it meets the waters of the Nile, it carries the vast deposits of the river towards the E., and + A venerable old man is said to have appeared to the king in a dream and to have repeated to him the following lines from Homer (Od. iv. 54, 55) : 'One of the islands lies in the far-foaming waves of the sea, Opposite Egypt's river, and its name is Pharos*. The following incident was also regarded as a favourable omen. As Dino- crates, the king's architect, was marking out the plan of the town and the sites of the principal buildings , the white earth used for the pur- pose ran short, and he supplied its place with the flour belonging to his workmen. The Hour soon attracted numerous birds, by which it was speedily devoured, whereupon Aristander pronounced this incident to lie a prognostication of the future wealth and commercial prosperity of the city. 208 Route 1. A I, K X AND RIA. Topography of has thus filled the old harbour of Pelusium with mud. The action of tliis current also endangers the new harbour (Port Sa'id, p. 436), and on its way towards the N. it has already choked up the famous ancient ports of Ascalon, Sidon, and Tyre. Even Herodotus remarked that the Nile, mud rendered the water shallow off the coast of the Delta ; and it was doubtless a knowledge of these circumstances which led to the selection of a site for the city of Alexander on the W. side of the mouths of the Nile. Topogbafhy of Ancient Alexandria. The site selected for the new city, which the able architect Dinocrates laid out in the form of a Macedonian cloak (chlamys), was in every respect a favourable one. On the N. side it was washed by the Mediterranean, and on the S. side by Lake Mareotis, which was abundantly fed by numerous canals connected with tin Nile. The products of Egypt could be brought down by the i if\. and thence at once shipped to any part of the Mediter- island of Pharos lay opposite to the mainland. 'Now Pharos', [B.C. 66-24: Bk. xvii. c. 1, §6). who describes Alexandria in tip 1 1 tli Book of his Geography, -is a long-shaped island, almost connected with the mainland, where it forms a harbour with two entrances. For tin' two promontories thrown out by the shore form a bay. and between these lies the island by which the bay is closed. . . . The I-;, end of the island of Pharos is nearest to the mainland ami to the promontory called /."■•/lias, and makes the entrance to the harbour narrow. This strait is further narrowed by rocks, partly covered by the water, and partly above (he water, which cause the waves of the sea to break into surf as they enter. The extremity of the island itself is also a rock washed by the bearing a tower beautifully constructed of white stone with many stories, and named after the island. This tower was erected by Sostrato Of ('nidus'. — The tower mentioned by Strabo was the famous lighthouse built in the reign of Ptolemy PhiladelphuS, which was regarded by the ancients as one of the wonders of the world . and gave Its name of 'Pharos 1 to all lighthouses afterwards erected. It bore the inscription: fcos, the Cnidian, son of Dexiphanes, to the gods who protect mariners'. It is said by an Arabian historian to have stood at the E. end of the peninsula now called Bury ez-Zefer; and he describes its ruins of a square substructure 110 ells in height, an ocl si cond story of 6U ells, and a round superstructure of 63 ells, or 233 ells in all. while its original height is said to have been 400 ells (590 ft.). 'The W. entrance to the harbour', continues Strabo lib., §6), 'is also somewhat difficult of access, but does not demand so great caution as I lie other. It formS a second harbour, called EnnosiUS-i (or 'harbour of Hie happy return'), which lies outside of the artificial and enclosed harbour. ther, which has its entrance by the already mentioned tower of Pharos, is the Great Harbour (comp. p. 303). The others are separated from it by an embankment calbd the Heptastadium. and lie contiguous iii each other in the recess of the bay. The embankment forms a bridge Which extends from the ma inland to the western part Of the island, and has two passages, bridged over, and leading into the harbour Of EunOStuS. This street n re. besides forming a bridge to the island, served also as an aijneduct when the island was inhabited. But, as it tuok the side of the kings in the war against Alexandria, the island was laid waste by the divine Caesar.' The Heptastadium. b > I embankment of seven stadia in length (1400 yds.), as its name imports, was constructed by Ptolemy Soter. or his son PhHadelphus; and le thai period been artificially enlarged i from the ancient city, thrown into the Sea, as well as by natural iow attained a width of more than 1600 yds. The is Is the 'Old Port 1 which is almost exclusively used at the presenl day, ami where a number of handsome new buildings are being ■I (comp. p. 203). Ancient Alexandria. ALEXANDRIA. /. Route. 209 embankment now forms the site of a great part of the modern city, and on its W. side is situated the Custom House, when: the traveller first sets foot on Egyptian soil. 'To the right of the entrance to the Great Harbour', Strabo then goes on to say (ib., § 9), 'lies the island with the tower of Pharos, and on the side are the rocks and the promontory of Lochiasf, on which stands a royal castle. To the left of persons entering are the inner royal build- ings connected with Lochias, which comprise painted saloons and groves. Below these lies an artificial harbour, appropriated to the kings, and closed , and opposite to it is the small island of Antirrhodus , with a royal castle and another small harbour. The island was so named from being, as it were, a rival of Rhodes. Above it lies the theatre. Beyond this is the Poseidium , a curved promontory which runs out from the Emporium (or market-place), and to which Antony added an embankment projecting still more towards the middle of the harbour. At the end of this embankment he erected a royal residence which he called Timonium. This was his last work, when after his defeat at Actium, deserted by his friends . he crossed to Alexandria and determined for a time to lead the life of a Timon (or misanthrope). . . . Next follows the Csesarium (or Temple of Csesar), with the market-place and warehouses. Such are the surroundings of the Great Harbour. (§ 10) Immediately beyond the Heptastadium is the harbour of Eunostus, and above it the artificial harbour, sometimes called Cibotus (literally, the box), which also has docks. From this harbour runs a navigable canal to Lake Mareotis'. Among the Principal Quarters of the ancient city we may first mention the Necropolis, or city of the dead, at the extreme W. end, 'where there are many gardens, tombs, and establishments for embalming bodies' (Strabo, xvii. 10), and Rhakotis , 'the quarter of Alexandria situated above the ships' magazines' (Strabo , xvii. 6) , the most ancient part of the city, and chiefly inhabited by Egyptians. The Bruchium quarter, which was walled in, and contained the palaces and public buildings, lay on the mainland between Lochias and the Heptastadium, while the Jews' quarter was situated to the E. of Lochias, between the sea and the main street, the E. end of which was closed by the Canopic gate. Outside the gate lay the hippodrome, and farther to the E. was the suburb of Nicopolis , 30 stadia from Alexandria, which possessed an amphitheatre and a race-course, and where the quinquennial games were celebrated (Strabo, xvii. c. 1, § 10). With regard to the Streets of ancient Alexandria, Strabo (ib. § 8) has the following passage: 'The whole town, indeed, is intersected with streets practicable for waggons and riders, but the two broadest of them are more than a hundred feet in width and cross each other at a right angle.' — This statement has been confirmed and supplemented by the excavations of Mahmud-Bey, who has discovered traces of a rectangular network of streets, seven of them running lengthwise, from W.S.W. to E.N.E., and twelve breadthwise, from N.N.W. to S.S.E. He has also identified the two main streets mentioned by Strabo, the more important of which probably coincided with the modern Rue de la Porte Rosette, beginning at the Gate of Rosetta , the ancient Canopic gate, intersecting the town, and at its W. end deviating from the straight line. This street is still the most important in the town, and it is probably indebtedfor Us long existence to the conduit constructed under it at an early period, which still supplies the cisterns with Nile water. Of the buildings which once Hanked this street a few relics only now exist, but the excavations have brought to light distinct traces of the old pavement, which consisted of blocks of granite, and have established the fact that the street was about 45 ft. in width, or double that of the other streets. On each side of the causewav ran foot-pavements with arcades, of which, however, the traces are but scantv. — The important cross-street mentioned by Strabo has been discovered by 3Iahmud-Bey on the E. side of the town. t Now much reduced in extent, owing to the dilapidation of the breakwaters and the damage done by earthquakes. Baedeker's Egypt I. 2nd Ed. 14 210 Route 1. ALEXANDRIA. Topography of Here, between two causeways, each 20ft. in width, he found a deep band on which probably grew a row of trees; and this street was also led with a water-conduit. The side-streets, which were 23 ft. in width only, were generally about 300 yds. apart. <>t the PniNOrPAL Bl ti.i'iM.s of ancient Alexandria the relics arc now ntj thai ii is impossible to determine the character of the edifices tn which they belonged. (With regard to the so-called Cleopatra's Needle and Pompey's Pillar, see pp. 218, 232.) The locality least free from dmiiit iie of the Paneum, which according to Strabo (ib., § 10) was 'an artificial circular mound, resembling a rocky hill, to which a winding way ascends. From its summit one can survey the whole of the sur- rounding town in every direction'. This spot is doubtless identical with the modern Kom ed-Dik, the highest ground in the town, 112 ft. in height, where the reservoir of the waterworks (p. 216) is now situated. The Gymnasium, according to Prof. Kiepert, who has minutely examined the plans of Mahmud-Bey, and not the Sema and Museum, occupied the Site of the nlrl Herman consulate and its garden. 'The most beautiful building, however,' says Strabo (ib., § 8), 'is the Gymnasium, with its colonnades, which are more than a stadium in length. In the middle lie the courts of justice and groves'. The theatre, the Sema or Soma, and the Museum were situated in the quarter of the Royal Palaces (p. 209), which belonged to the Bruchium (p. 209), and occupied 'a fourth or even a third part of the whole extent of the city' (ib., § 8). This quarter must have lain to the N. of the great street leading to the Canopic Gate, and to the 8. of Lochias, and must have adjoined the harbour and 'all that lay beyond it'. The Alexandrian Theatre lay opposite the island of Antirrhodus (p. 209), in accordance with the custom that obtained at Greek seaports of placing theatres where they could command a view of the sea. Speaking of the Sema, Strabo (ib., § 8) describes it as 'another part of the royal buildings, an enclosed space, within which are the tombs of the kings and that of Alexander. For Ptolemy Lagi had taken away the body of the latter from Perdiccas, who had brought it from Babylon. ... Knw Ptolemy brought the body of Alexander to Alexandria and buried it where it now lies, though not in the same coffin. The present coffin is of hyalns or alabaster), but the former was of gold, which was carried off by Ptolemy .... surnamed Parisactus, son of Cocces' (probably Pto- lemy XI. Alexander I.). — A sarcophagus carried off by the French, and afterwards captured by the English and deposited in the British Museum, was once supposed to be that of Alexander, but, when the hieroglyphics upon it were deciphered, they were found to have no reference to him. The Museum, like the Sema, belonged to the quarter of the royal , and probably stood on the spot where some huge ruins, since described by Brugsch, were discovered in 1853 when a Greek school was built. These ruins lay on the S. side of the Place JIc'hcmet-Ali and t<> the W. of Cleopatra's Needle, a site which would correspond with the quarter of the palaces. The library undoubtedly was connected with the Musum, and it is noteworthy that among these ruins a hollowed stone was found bearing the inscription, 'Dioskorides, 3 vols.', though it can hardly have been used as a receptacle for scrolls. From these walls, now buried beneath the earth , once llowed a copious stream of knowledge, tie benefits of which continue to be traceable even at the present day. Strabo (ib., §8), the Museum contained 'a hall for walking, another ior sitting, and a large building with the dining-room of the scholars residing at the Museum. The society also possesses revenues in common, and the Museum is presided over by a priest, formerly appointed but now by the emperor'. This 'hall for walking' was an 1 ded with trees and provided with fountains and benches, while the hall fiir sitting was used for purposes of business and study, red colonnade, closed on one side, where the scholars ad where their pupils, thirsting for knowledge, listened to the pn ,r masters. Like all the Egyptian dining-halls, that of ilj bad a Hat roof, a polished pavement, and a balustrade Ancient Alexandria. ALEXANDRIA. 1. Route. 211 of short columns around it. The members of the Museum were arranged at their repasts according to the schools to which they belonged (Aristote- lians, Platonists, Stoics). Each department elected a president, and the body of presidents formed a council, whose deliberations were presided over by the 'neutral 1 priest appointed by government. With the vast and artistically embellished buildings of the Museum various other important establishments were connected, chief among which was doubtless the library, with copying and binding rooms, where the manuscripts were reproduced, adapted for use, and fitted with rollers and eases. Besides the revenues enjoyed by the Museum in its corporate capacity, a yearly salary was paid to each meinber from the time of Philadelphus downwards. Parthey estimates the members in the time of the first Ptolemies at one hundred at least, but it was probably much smaller at a later period. The Alexandrian School was chiefly celebrated for its distinguished professors of the exact sciences, including geography, astronomy, mathematics, mechanics, natural history, medicine, and anatomy. Among its most celebrated scholars were Eratos- thenes and Strabo , the geographers; Hipparchus and Ptolemseus, the astronomers ; Archimedes, the mechanician ; Euclid, the founder of geo- metry; and Herophilus and Erasistratus, the anatomists. The branch of learning most successfully cultivated by the members of the Museum, however, was grammar, or philology, as it would now be called. 'The task of transmitting to posterity in a pure form the whole of the knowledge and intellectual creations of an earlier period may perhaps be regarded as the noblest aim of philology, and this task was most ably performed by the philologists of Alexandria. It is to their critical labours that we owe the preservation of the Greek literature , which has exercised so great an influence on the culture of the West and on modern history gener- ally 1 . In these words Parthey sums up the result of the labours of the Alexandrian scholars, whose individual merits we cannot here discuss. The chief library at Alexandria, the nucleus of which consisted of the library left by Aristotle, belonged to the Museum, having been founded by Ptolemy Lagi with the assistance of Demetrius Phalereus. It was arranged in the reign of Philadelphus, and rendered accessible by being placed in the Museum. Zenodotus, Callimachus, and Eratosthenes were the first librarians. Callimachus provided the scrolls with titles. As to the number of volumes in the library our chief source of information is a scholium on Plautus, with RitschPs commentary. In the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus the number was about 400,000, which, by deducting duplicates, was reduced to 90,000. In Cfesar's time, when the library was burned, the number had probably risen to about 900,000. The Pergamenian collection of books, which Antony presented to Cleopatra, contained 200,000 scrolls. These treasures, collected in one place and easily accessible, enabled the members of the Museum to pursue the studies most congenial to them. A second library was placed in the apartments of the Serapeum. The site of the Serapeum, or great temple of Serapis, which Strabo mentions very briefly, may be approximately determined by the fact that it must have stood near Pompey's Pillar. The god to whom it was dedicated was introduced by the Ptolemies , in order that both Greeks and Egyptians might have a deity recognised by both, who might be worshipped in common. Ptolemy Soter is said to have caused the image of the god to be sent from Sinope on the Pontus, the inhabitants of which were most \inwilling to part with it. At length, after three years, the colossus is said himself to have entered the vessel and by a miracle to have arrived at Alexandria in three days. To the Greeks he was introduced as Pluto, while the Egyptian priests called him Osiris-Apis. They both regarded him as the god of the infernal regions, and as the Greeks associated him with Pluto, the Egyptians connected him with Ptah. The introduction of the new god was the more easily accomplished as it was favoured by the priesthood of both nations, their well-intentioned object being to attract worshippers of different races to the same shrine, and, at one spot at least, to blend the religious sentiments of the Greeks and Africans. After his arrival in Egypt Serapis was of course transformed into an entirely new divinity, and his rites were remodelled so as to suit 14* 212 Route J. ALEXANDRIA. History. the Greek, and more particularly the Egyptian, forms of worship. The place where the Apis bull was chiefly worshipped down to a very late period is ascertained to have been Memphis (p. 372). The Temple of Serapis, when completed, is said to have been surpassed in grandeur by no other building in the world except the Roman Capitol. It lay to the \Y of Alexandria, in the suburb of Ehakotis, and not far from the Necropolis, on an eminence ascended on one side by a carriage-road and and on the other by a flight of steps, widening towards the top and leading to a platform with a vaulted roof borne by four columns. Beyond this were colonnades containing chambers set apart for the worship of the god, and a number of lofty saloons which at the time of Philadelphia con- tained a library of 42,000 vols. This collection was afterwards much enlarg- ed, and is said to have comprised 300,000 vols, at a later period. There were also numerous subterranean chambers, used for various purposes, and a number of dependencies , as at the Serapeum of Memphis (p. 383). The interior of the colonnades was enriched with extraordinary magnificence. The walls were richly painted, and the ceilings and capitals of the col- umns gilded. Within the sanctuary stood the statue of the god, which probably consisted of a wooden figure overlaid with various precious metals. An opening ingeniously introduced in the sanctuary admitted rays of light falling on the mouth of the idol, 'as if kissing him'. Most of the extant images of Serapis are of dark stone. That of Alexandria, which is some- times said to have consisted of emerald, was probably coloured dark blue. On its head was the calathos, and at its feet lay Cerberus, with the heads of a wolf, a lion, and a dog, around which was entwined a serpent. After Alexander's death, when his empire was divided among his generals, Ptolemy, the son of Lagus (p. 96), came into possession of Egypt, and Alexandria became his capital. The population of the city increased greatly, and it attracted a large number of Jewish settlers, to whom Ptolemy assigned a suburb on the coast, towards the E. During his wise and upright reign Alexandria became a great resort of artists and scholars, including Demetrius Phalereus, the orator (p. 211), Apelles and Antiphilus, the painters, Euclid, the mathematician, and Erasistratus and Herophilus, the physicians, in whose society the king spent much of his time. A history of Alexander the Great written by Ptolemy himself has unfortunately been lost. Under his successor, Ptolemy II. Philadelphus (p. 96), the Museum (p. 210) attained its highest prosperity. Among its distinguished members were Sosibius and Zoilus, the grammarians ; Strato, the natural philosopher; Timochares and Aristarchus, the astronomers; Apollodorus, the physician; Hegesias, the philosopher ; Zenodotus, Theocritus, Callimachus, and Philetas, the poets ; and the versatile Timon. It was about this period that the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew into Greek, the new version being called the Septuagint from the tradition that seventy translators were engaged in the work. Under Ptolemy III. Euergetes (p. 96), Aristophanes of Byzantium, the grammarian and critic, became the director of the Museum, while the mathematical school was super- intended by Eratosthenes of Gyrene, the founder of the science of mathematical geography. At this period Alexandria was also the nee of the orator Lycon of Troas, of the poets Apollonius, the Rhodian, and Lycophron, and of the great astronomer Conon. Not- withstanding tin: continual dissensions among the Ptolemies with History. ALEXANDRIA. 1. Route. 213 regard to the succession to the throne (p. 96), which seriously disturbed the peace of the city, the fame of Alexandria, as the greatest centre of commerce in the world and the chief seat of Greek learning, steadily increased , and in F..C. 48, when the Romans interfered in the quarrels of Cleopatra VII. and her husband and brother Ptolemy XIV., had reached its zenith. After the murder of Pompey at Pelusium, Cfesar entered Alexandria in triumph (p. 98), but was attacked by the citizens and the army of Ptolemy XIV., and. had considerable difficulty in maintaining himself in the Bruchium p. 209). During the siege of the city occurred the irreparable (calamity ofthe burning of the Great Library of the Museum, but it was afterwards to some extent replaced by the Pergamenian col- lection, presented to Cleopatra by Antony. Caesar was afterwards conquered by the charms of the Egyptian queen, but Antony fell more fatally into her toils, and spent years of revelry with her at Alexandria (comp. p. 98). Augustus treated Alexandria with cle- mency, and enlarged it by the addition of the suburb of Nicopolis on the E. side of the city. Under the successors of Augustus, Alexandria was almost un- interruptedly the scene of sanguinary civil dissensions , caused chiefly by the Jews, who in the reign of Tiberius constituted one- third ofthe whole population. In A.D. 69 Vespasian was proclaimed emperor by the Alexandrians, Ms election having been to a great extent due to the influence of the philosophers Dion, Euphrates, Apollonius of Tyana, and others then resident at the Museum. Under the following emperors also the sciences continued to flourish at Alexandria. In the reign of Hadrian, Valerius Pollio and his son Diodorus , and Apollonius Dyscolus , the grammarians , Ptolemy Chcnnus , the mythographer, Appian, the historian, and Claudius Ptolemy, the astronomer, lived at Alexandria; and the emperor himself, who visited the city twice, held public disputations with the professors at the Museum. In A.D. 176 Marcus Aurelius came to Alexandria for the purpose of quelling an insurrection, but treated the citizens with great leniency, and attended the lectures of the grammarians Athenaus, Harpocration, Hephsestion, Julius Pollux, and others. Lucian also lived at Alexandria at this period, in the capacity of secretary to the prefect of Egypt. In the reign of Marcus Aurelius the Temple of Serapis was burned down, but the library escaped without injury, and the temple was soon rebuilt. In 199 Severus visited Alexandria, and established a senate and a new municipal constitution. The visit of Caracalla, whom the citizens had previously derided, was fraught with disaster. Having attracted the whole of the male population capable of bearing arms to one spot, he caused them to be massacred in cold blood. He closed the theatres and the public schools, and to prevent future rebellions he caused a wall fortified with towers to be erected between the Bruchium and the rest of the city. 211 Route I. U.KXANDUIA. History. The firsl great persecution of the Christians, which took place in the reign ofDeciusfJ250), was a terrible blow to the Alexandrians. The city had lor a considerable time been the seat of a bishop, and had since 190 possessed a theological school, presided over by Pantsenus and at the beginning of the 3rd cent, by Clement of Alexandria, who endeavoured to combine Christianity with the Neo-Platonism which sprang up about this period at Alexandria and was taught by Ammonius Saccas, Herennius, Plotinus, Por- phyrins, Jamblichus, and others. A second persecution took place in'257, during the reign of Valerian; and shortly afterwards, in the reign of Gallienus, the plague carried off a large portion of the population. The incessant revolts which broke out in Alexandria and other parts of Egypt led repeatedly to the elevation of usurpers and rival emperors to the throne. Thus, Firmns was proclaimed emperor at Alexandria as a rival of Aurelian, and Probus owed the purple mainly to the Egyptian legions. The Alexandrians after- wards revolted againstDiocletian and declared themselves ill favour of Achilleus ; but Diocletian besieged the city, took it by storm, and chastised the inhabitants with great severity. Christianity, however, still continued to gain ground, and Al- exandria was even regarded as the chief seat of Christian erudition and of the orthodox faith. The dogmatic dissensions between Arins, who tilled the office of presbyter, and Athanasius, who afterwards became a bishop, at length broke out, and were fraught with dis- astrous consequences. Alexandria was also soon obliged to yield to Constantinople its proud position as the centre of Greek thought and science. The sanguinary quarrels between the Athanasian party and the Arians under their unworthy bishop Georgius further contributed to the rapid decline of the city. On the accession of Julian to the purple the pagans of Alexandria again instituted a persecution of the Christians, and Georgius became one of their victims. In the reign of Theodosius, however, paganism received its deathblow, and Theophilus, the patriarch of Alexandria, displayed the utmost zeal in destroying the heathen temples and monuments. The famous statue of .Serapis was broken in pieces and burned in the amphitheatre amidst shouts of derision from a Christian crowd. The material prosperity of the city also fell off so greatly, that the municipality was no longer able to defray the cost of cleansing the Nile and keeping the canals open. After the death of Theophilus I iu i 111 | the revenues of Alexandria were still farther diminished by the proceedings of the new patriarch Cyril, who led the armed mob 1 the synagogues and expelled the .lews from the citj ; and in U5 the Learned and beautiful heathen Hypatia, daughter of the mathematician The was cruelly murdered by an infuriated crowd. I he reigns of Marcian, Lcol., and Justinian were also signalised b> new revolts, chiefly occasioned by religious dissensions. Under 1 usiiiii.in all the still existing heathen schools were llnally closed, History. ALEXANDRIA. I. Route. 215 and the few scholars of any eminence who had remained till then were obliged to leave the place. A new insurrection which broke out in the reign of Phocas was attended with greater success than previous revolts, for Heraclius, whom the Alexandrians now pro- claimed emperor, contrived in 610 to maintain his possession of the purple. The sway of the Eastern emperors in Egypt, however, soon came to an end. In 619 Alexandria was captured by Chosroes, King of Persia, but the Christians were left unmolested. Ten years later Heraclius succeeded in recovering possession of Egypt, but the troops of the Khalif 'Omar soon afterwards invaded the country and took Alexandria after a prolonged siege. In December, 641, Amr Ibn el- Asi, 'Omar's general , entered the city; but by order of his master, he treated the inhabitants with moderation. The decline of Alexandria now became still more marked, and about this period' Amr founded Fostat (p. 241), as a new capital and seat of government, free from Christian influences. The new town, which gradually developed itself into the modern Cairo, soon became an important and prosperous place at the expense of the famous ancient Greek city. During the middle ages Alexandria sank into insignificance. Its commerce received a deathblow by the discovery of the sea-route to India round the Cape of Good Hope, and the discovery of America entailed new losses. After the conquest of Egypt by the Turks (in 1517) the city languished under the infamous regime of the Mamelukes, the harbours became choked with sand, the population, which had once numbered half a million souls, dwindled down to 5000, and the environs were converted into a sterile and marshy wilderness. With regard to the history of the French invasion, see p. 105. The decay of the once powerful seaport was at length effectually arrested by the vigorous hand of Mohammed ' Ali, who improved the harbours and constructed several canals. The chief benefit he conferred on Alexandria was the construction of the Mahmiidlyeh Canal, which was so named after the reigning Sultan Mahmud. By means of this channel fresh water was conducted to the town from the Rosetta branch of the Nile, the adjoining fields were irri- gated anew, and Alexandria was again connected with the Nile and the rest of Egypt, the products of which had long found their only outlets through the Rosetta and Damietta mouths of the river. The enterprising pasha began the work in 1819, employing no fewer than 250,000 labourers, and completed it at a cost of 7 J / 2 million francs. He also improved the whole canal-system of the Delta, the works being chiefly superintended by the aged and eminent Littant de Belleville-Pasha, general director of public works, and other French engineers. The subsequent viceroys have also made great efforts to improve the prospects of the town ; and the Egyptian cotton-trade, which received a strong impulse from the American war, and found its chief outlet through Alexandria, has proved a 216 Route 1. ALEXANDRIA. Population. source of great profit to the citizens. Several regular steamboat services and two telegraphic cables now connect Alexandria with i e, while it communicates with the rest of Egypt by river, railway, and telegraph. The town suffered severely (luring Arabi's rising in 1882, and a great part of the European quarter was laid in ashes by the fanatical natives. Owing to the continued state of political uncertainty and the delay of the Egyptian government to pay an indemnity, little has been done to repair the mischief, and the spirit of enterprise seems for the time being completely Lamed. Gas and Watek. The city was provided with gas in 1865, and i aii o now well supplied with water. The old cisterns, the number of which is said still to exceed a thousand, and the situation of which enables as to determine the direction of the ancient streets, have been superseded by the modern waterworks, completed in 1860, which are supplied by the 5Ioharrem-Bey Canal, a branch of the Mahmudiyeh Canal. The reservoir, into which the water is pumped by steam , after having been filtered, is situated on the top of the Kom ed-Dik hill, the site of the Paneum of antiquity (p, 210), and is capable of Containing 10,000 cubic metres of water (about 360,000 cubic feet). The water-rate per cubic metre (36 cubic feet) is now I fr. only, while for the same quantity the old water- carriers used to receive 2fr. 25c. HAPBOUKS (eomp. pp. 203, 208). The maritime traffic Of Alexandria is of ci isiderable importance, although it is said to have decreased since the opening of the Suez Canal. The port is entered annually by about '2000 vessels. In 1883, which was commercially a somewhat dull year, the value of the imports was 7,500,000*., of the exports 12,150,000/., the former paying 135,000*. and the latter 520,000*. of duty. The most im- portant export is cotton, of which 2 , /2-2 3 /j million cwt. are annually dis- patched. Next in order are cotton-seed, grain, leguminous seeds, and onions; and lastly we may mention the not unimportant items of elephants' 1 tusks, ostrich feathers, and mother-of-pearl. England possesses the lion's share of the trade and shipping, next in order coming France, Germany, and Austria. Alexandria now contains a population of upwards of 200,000 souls, including at least n0,000 Europeans. In its palm) days it is said to have numbered more than half-a-million inhabitants, consisting of Egyptians, Greeks, Jews, Phoenicians, and Italians, all of whom were animated in common with the spirit of enterprise which attracted them to the recently founded city. The Greek ele- ment predominated at that period, next in importance to which was the Egyptian, while a numerous, but exclusive, Jewish com- munity was settled here as early as the 4th cent. B.C. According to tradition the Gospel was first preached to the Alexandrians by St. Mark, and it is an historical fact that the Christian community was already numerous in the time of Hadrian (2nd cent. ). In a letter to Servianus the emperor himself gives a very unfavourable, bu1 lianll;. accurate account of the Christians. 'Egypt, my dear Servianus 1 , writes Hadrian, 'which you extolled to bave found to be inhabited by a very frivolous and vacillating people . who are easily swayed by every passing rumour. Those who worship Serapis are the Christians, and men who call themselves bishops of Christ are nevertheless devoted to Serapis. There is not a single it of a Jewish synagogue, not a Bingle Samaritan, not a Christian pn byter thai is nol at the same time an astrologer, an inter- preter ■ 1 a quack. The patriarch himself, whenever he comes Sights. ALEXANDRIA. /. Route. 217 to Egypt, is compelled by one party to worship Serapis, and by another to worship Christ. They are a refractory, good-for-nothing, and slan- derous set of people. — The city (Alexandria) possesses treasures and resources in abundance. No one's hands here are idle. At one place glass is manufactured, at another paper, and at another linen. All these busy people seem to carry on some kind of handicraft. Men with gouty feet, blind persons, and even those with gouty hands, all find some oc- cupation. They all really recognise one god only (probably JIammon), the same who is worshipped by Christians, Jews, and all nations. It is a pity that the people are of so bad a disposition, as the importance of the city, even in point of size , makes it well worthy of being the capi- tal of the whole of Egypt. I made every possible concession to the city, restored its ancient privileges, and added so many new ones that the citizens came and thanked me in person; and yet as soon as I had left the place they calumniated my son Verus.' As at that period, so at the present day, the population of Alex- andria consists of members of every nation dwelling on the banks of the Mediterranean. The language most generally understood is Italian, which the Arabs, as well as other nations, learn readily. Sights. Unless the traveller proposes to make archaeological researches and to study the ancient topography of Alexandria, he will easily become acquainted with its principal points of interest in a single day (comp. p. 206"). Cairo affords a far better insight into Oriental life than its half-European seaport, while its delight- ful winter climate, notwithstanding the proximity of the two cities, is far superior to that of Alexandria. In summer the reverse is the case , as the heat at Alexandria is then tempered with cool sea- breezes, but even as early as April, especially when the S. or S.E. wind prevails, the atmosphere there also is often hot and dusty. The European should avoid any undue exertion, which may easily be followed by very prejudicial effects. The new-comer will nevertheless find it interesting to walk through the town, and particularly to observe the busy streets with their Oriental and European throng; and he will encounter, chieiiy beyond the precincts of the Frank quarter, a number of isolated relics of antiquity, in the shape of stumps of columns , blocks of stone, and heaps of broken pottery. It is not an easy matter to give the traveller distinct directions as to his route through the city, as only the principal streets have well-recognised names. Most of the new names given them by government are unfamiliar to Europeans and Arabs alike, and have practically superseded the older names in a few cases only. Some of the streets again are differently named by Europeans of different nationalities. If the traveller loses his way he will soon meet with a donkey-boy who will take him back to his hotel (comp. p. 2051. On the W. side of the city, and on the neck of land between the two harbours, the ancient Hepta- stadium , to the N. of the Place MeTie'met-Ali, the inhabitants are chiefly of Arabian extraction (p. 206), while the quarter which was once the island of Pharos, farther to the N., is occupied by the Turks. The streets here are somewhat broader than in the other quarters, and the houses are sometimes handsomely built and pro- 218 Route 1. \LK\ANDUIA. Pompey's Column. vided with gardens. Pompey's Column is easily found and forms a convenient landmark. The great centre of European life is the Place Mehemet Ali ( formerly Place des Consul*), which is embellished with plantations of trees and two fountains. It was the principal scene of destruc- tion in 1882. In the centre rises the Equestrian Statue of Mohammed 'Ali (PI. 35), the founder of the reigning dynasty of Egypt, designed by Jaquemard, and cast in Paris. The statue is 16 ft. in height, and stands on a pedestal of Tuscan marble 20ft. in height. As the Mohammedan religion forbids the pictorial or plastic representation of the human form , the erection of this monument was long op- posed by the 'Ulama, or chief professors of 'divine and legal learn- ing'. On the N.E. side stands the English Church (PI. 25), adjoined by St. Mark's Building and the International Tribunal (PI. 50), the only buildings which escaped the fury of the natives in 1882. The wooden booths and sheds which were erected after this period of devastation have now been removed, and their place has been taken by temporary shops and warehouses of a more substantial character. From the S.E. corner of the square we reach the triangular Place de VEglise, or Square Ibrahim, the former name being derived from the Roman Catholic church of St. Catharine (PI. 30) situated here. The Rue de la Colonne Pompe'e leads hence to the S. to the Porte de la Colonne Pompee, or Porte du Nil. Outside this gate wc pass a large Arabian cemetery, lying on the right, and soon reach an eminence covered with rubbish and fragments of ruins, on which rises *Pompey's Column (PI. 37; E, 6). The monument is composed of red granite from Assuan, which has withstood centuries of ex- posure to the elements ; and it is now the only important relic of antiquity in the city. The pedestal , composed of several blocks which once belonged to other buildings, was formerly covered by the earth and is much damaged. The height of the column, together with the disintegrated, or perhaps never quite completed, Corinthian capital, and the pedestal, is 104ft.; the shaft is 67ft. high, and is about 9 ft. in diameter below, and not quite 8 ft. at the top. The proportions produce an exceedingly harmonious effect. This handsome monument docs not derive its name from Pompey the Great, who was murdered on the Egyptian coast (p. 97) after the Buttle of Pharsalia, but from the Roman prefect Pompcins, who, accord- the inscription, erected it in honour of tin- unconquered Diocletian, the_ 'defender of the city of Alexandria^- There is no ground for sup- thai this column once bore the brazen horse which the citizens id to have erected as a token of gratitude to Diocletian. After t bad besieged Alexandria for eight months, and had I l 1 " waterworks, he at length took the city, anil slew the According to the popular story, ho then commanded his soldier] to massacre the seditious populace until their blood should t Tdv (oa)tu>Tortov autoxpetTopS, tom rcoXtooxov 'AXe€av6pe(ac AioxX^-tiavov tov avixirrov no(jMnji)o« Inap^us Aipirrou trov euepyif-Tjv.). Catacombs. ALEXANDRIA. I. Route. 219 reach his horse's knees. His horse soon afterwards stumbled over a dead body and wetted its knee in human blood, whereupon the emperor was pleased to regard this as a sign that the unhappy citizens had sufficiently chastised. Out of gratitude, particularly to the horse, they are said to have erected the brazen horse which was known as thai of Diocletian. That the horse did not, however, occupy the summit of the column is proved by an ancient illustrated plan of Alexandria, in which Pompey's Pillar is represented with the figure of a man on the top. The inscription, moreover, indicates that the column was erected by Pom- peius II., whose prefecture did not begin till A.D. 3U'2, whereas the defeat and death of Achilleus took place about 296. The column has, therefore, no connection with the story of the brazen horse, but was probably erected chiefly in commemoration of a gift of corn presented by Diocletian to the citizens during a period of scarcity. Near the extensive cemetery at the foot of the column are sev- eral fragments of columns which probably belonged to the Serapeum (p. 211). If we are to believe the accounts of Makrizi and'Abdell- atif, this temple -was encircled by a colonnade of 400 columns, and once contained the library which was burned by 'Omar. Following the road a little farther, and diverging to the right near a manufactory, we skirt the S. slope of a low plateau and soon reach the Catacombs (PI. D, 7), about VoM. from Alexandria. From this point to the vicinity of the Serapeum (see above) the slop- ing, rocky ground was honeycombed by a great number of subterranean passages and tomb-chambers, but as there is now a quarry here, all traces of the ancient constructions will soon be obliterated. Several ornamented sarcophagi are still seen lying about. The workmen offer coins, chiefly of the time of Constantine, for sale, and it is from that period that the construction of the catacombs probably dates. One only of the tomb-cham- bers, which was discovered in 1S58, is tolerably preserved, and it is now exposed to view owing to the fall of the stories above it. We enter by a « len gate, generally open, and descend by an ancient flight of steps on the W. side to a group of three chambers. On the left (X. side) we observe an apse with traces of paintings and Greek inscriptions (Christ between Peter and Andrew in the middle-, on each side a love-feast). The vault opposite the entrance, with remains of tasteful decoration in stucco, contains three recesses, the paintings in which represent |W. side) the Maries at the Sepulchre; (X. side) Christ, like the Egyptian god Horus, treading on serpents , with a quotation from Ps. xci. 13 ; and (E. side) the Ascension. On each side of the central recess is a large Greek cross with the inscription at the four corners IC XC XIKA (Jesus Christ conquers). These very rude frescoes probably date from about the 6th cent., being doubtless'a second restoration of the original, as we still find three lovers of plaster, one above the other, and each bearing traces of painting". The third vault, a long chamber on the E. side, con- tains sixteen recesses, which were once closed by means of upright slabs of stone. A flight of steps descending hence to the S., the outlet of which is now built up, led to a lower series of tombs. We now return to the Porte de la Colonne Pompee (PI. 38), and follow the Rue de la Colonne back to the {}{i hr.) Place Me'- he'met-Ali (p. 218), from the N.W. corner of which diverges the Rue Rds et-Tln, the longest street in Alexandria. This street describes a wide curve through the Arabian quarter situated on the ancient Heptastadium (p. 217") . traverses the Turkish quarter on what was formerly the island of Pharos (p. 217), some of the houses in which present a very handsome appearance, and leads to the Viceroyal Palace on the Ras et-Tin (PL 43), or 'promontory 220 BovUl. ALEXANDRIA. lias et-Tm. of figs-' This walk affords a good view of the street-traffic of the city, but the palace itself, which was built by Mohammed 'AH and restored by Ismail Pasha, is uninteresting, especially as the Diwan, or Council Chambers, were destroyed by a fire in 1870. The balcony, however, commands a fine view of the extensive harbour. (Ad- mission by ticket procured at the Consulate; but the hotel com- missionnaires sometimes obtain access by payment of a bakshish.") The Harem, a separate building, facing the sea , is built on the mode] of the seraglio at Constantinople. A visit to the neighbour- ing Lighthouse is very interesting, especially in the early morning, but admission is granted only to those provided with an order from the governor, which may be obtained through the English or Amer- ican consulate. The Arsenal (PI. 1) is not worth visiting. A drive (3 M. ; road very dusty ; carriage in the afternoon 10 fr. , or after 5 p.m. 5-7 fr. , fee 1 fr.) should also be taken to tlic (rititnrt en-Nuzha, or public garden (usually called the Jardin Pastre). Turning to the right outside the Porte de Rosette (PI. 40), leaving the European cemeteries to the left, and avoiding the road which leads in a straight direction to Ramleh, we pass the waterworks on the left, cross a small mound of ancient rubbish, and reach the Mahmudhjeh Canal (p. 215). We then turn to the left, drive for a short time along the canal , and soon reach the entrance to the gardens, where a band plays on Fridays and Sun- days from 4 to 6 p.m. Europeans will be interested by the pro- fusion of exotic plants which thrive here in the open air. A little higher up is a fine garden belonging to M. Antoniadis, a rich Greek merchant, who has liberally thrown it open to the public. On the days on which the band plays this part of the canal is the resort of the fashionable world of Alexandria. Retracing our steps, and following the bank of the canal, which lies on the left, we observe on the right a long succession of villas and gardens , including the viceroyal chateau Nimreh Teldteh (■Number Three'), with its handsome entrance, and the chateau and garden of Moharrcm-Bey. We may now re-enter the city by the Porte Moharrem-Bey, or by the Porte de la Colonne Pompe'e. Adjoining the W. side of the city is the site of the original Macedonian Necropolis, a reminiscence of which is preserved in the Arabic name Gabari (see below). No traces of the cemetery now remain, the ground being occupied by a dirty suburb intersected by \ery bad roads. Ahout 4 ! /. 2 M. farther W. are the Quarries of Meks i see below), which are hardly worthy of a visit (carriage there and back in 2-3 hrs., 10-12 fr. ). Starting from the Place Mehemct-Ali , we follow the new Rue Ibrdhtm (PI. E, I'. 4, 5), which has been constructed straight throngh an old Arabian quarter, and at the end of it cross the Mahmudiyeh (anal. We then turn to the left, crossing the rails which lead to the extensive new quay, and immediately after- ALEXANDRIA. I. Route. 221 wards proceed to the right by the Route du Meks (PI. A, B, 6), which skirts the coast. A little to the left of the road is the new Hippodrome, the race-course of Alexandria, sometimes known as the Gabari (see above). To the W. of it is an old palace with a mosque, recently converted into a Quarantine (PI. 42) or lazzaretto. In the friable limestone of the coast-hills are a number of tomb- chambers, the ceilings of which are borne by pillars of the rock left for the purpose ; but most of them have been destroyed by the inroads of the sea, and are now covered up. These chambers, which contain nothing interesting, have been styled the Baths of Cleo- patra. Farther on, to the left of the road, is the chateau of Sa'id Pasha (p. 203), and to the right, close to the sea, is the Bab el- 'Arab (p. 203). At Meks were established the works of Messrs Greenfield & Co. , an English firm which contracted for the construction of the im- posing new Harbour Works of Alexandria. These consist, in the first place, of an outer breakwater, beginning near the W. end of the island of Pharos (Ras et-Tin, p. 219), and extending to the S.W. towards Meks, forming an obtuse angle, and nearly 2 M. in length. This huge barrier, completed in Dec. 1873, is formed of a foundation of 26,000 solid masses of masonry, each 20 tons in weight , faced on the side next the sea with natural blocks , each 15-25 cwt. in weight. The horizontal surface is 19ft. in width, and, at low tide, 10 ft. above the level of the water. The admirably sheltered harbour thus formed is nearly 1800 acres in area, and 20-60 ft. in depth. A second pier, or Molo, nearly 1000 yds. in length . and connected by lines of rails with the old railway- station, protects the inner harbour, which is about 475 acres in area and on an average 27 ft. deep. From the beginning of this pier (near Gabari, at the S.W. extremity of the town) a series of new quays extends along the whole E. side of the old harbour to the Arsenal , whereby about 75 acres of very valuable land have been reclaimed. The whole length of the berthage thus obtained for large vessels, including the inside of the Molo, extends to nearly 2 M. No fewer than 30,000 artificial blocks, weighing 20 tons each, and 2 million tons of natural blocks of stone, manufactured and quarried respectively at Meks , were used in the construction of the harbour-works. To the E. of Meks, and to the S. of the road, lies the extensive Lake Mareotis (p. 223). Ramleh (Q l /-2 M. ; see below) is connected with Alexandria by two railways; the direct line, on which a train runs hourly to Ramleh in 20min. (fares 4pias. 20, 3pias. 20 paras, 2pias. tariff); and the Rosetta railway (station outside the Porte Moharrem-Bey ), which runs two trains daily to Ramleh in 27 min. (same fares). There is also a new carriage-road (carriage about 10 fr.J. which •222 Route 1. RAMLEH. will be preferred by those who -wish to inspect the fragments of statues and half-excavated ruins of buildings lying scattered about the fields. A few paces from the station of the direct or English line to Kam- leb, and close to the sea, rises the so-called Roman Tower (PI. 44), which, however, seems to be of Arabian origin. It was adjoined, down to March by the famous obelisk called Cleopatra's Needle, which vied willi Pompey's Column in general interest as a monument of antiquity. One of the last acts of the Khedive Isma'il was to present this obelisk to tbe city of New York. Both the native and foreign residents of Alexandria looked on with indignation while this interesting relic was raised by American machinery from the place it had occupied for 2000 years and removed to the specially constructed vessel that was to convey it to New York. Indeed it was only the public sympathy with the young Khedive Tewfik , who looked upon the presentation as a legacy of bis father's government, that prevented a popular outbreak over this piece of vandal- ism. The obelisk now forms one of the prominent features of the Cen- tral Park in New York, where, however, it is feared that it will rapidly become defaced by the severity of the climate. — A companion obelisk, that lay for centuries prone in the sand by the side of Cleopatra's Needle, now adorns the Thames Embankment at London. The direct local railway traverses the rubbish heaps of the ancient Nicopolis. Projecting into the sea, to the left, is the small Fort Silseleh. We here obtain a retrospective glimpse of the sickle- shaped S.E. side of the town. Nicopolis, situated beyond the Hippodrome (of which no trace is now left), about 30 stadia to the E. of the city, is said to have been 'no smaller than a town', and received its name , 'town of victory 1 , from Octavian (Augustus) in memory of the victory he gained here over Antony and his adherents. A small Temple, recently discovered close to the sea, and to the N.W. of the ruins of the Kasr el-Kayasereh (castle of Csesar), the ruined walls of which have been pulled down to afford material for the new palace of the Khedive (see below), was perhaps also erected by Octavian on the same occasion. To the right, skirting the Mahmudiyeh Canal, runs the Rosetta railway (p. 447). Near the station of (4 M.) Stdi Gaber, on a slight eminence to the left, and not far from the site of the old Roman castle above mentioned, is a new viceroyal palace, called Mustafa Pasha. The Catacombs situated to the N.E. of this point are almost entirely destroyed. The train now passes a series of villas and gardens full of luxuriant vegetation , the most attractive of which lie beyond the fourth of the five stations. 6Y2M. Ramleh (i.e. 'sand') is a modern place, consisting chiefly of numerous country-houses [Pensions Beausejour and Miramare, both good), some of which are occupied by Alexandrian families throughout the whole year. It possesses waterworks of its own, which greatly facilitate horticulture. On the way to the sea the traveller will observe a few relics of the Greek and Roman periods. From Alexandria to Ramleh by the Rosetta Railway, and thence via Abukir to Rosetta, see p. 447. 223 2. From Alexandria to Cairo. 128 M. Railway. Express train in 4'/:i hrs., fares 30'/., fr. (117 pias- tres), A»'/4 tr. (78 piastres); return-tickets, available till the first train on the second day after. 175 piastres 20 paras or 117 piastres tariff Ordinary trains in 5i/2-6hrs., fares 97, 65, 39 piastres. Each first-class passenger has 35 kilogrammes of luggage free, second 20, third 17 (or about 77,57, and 37 lbs. respectively). The first and second class carriages resemble those in France and Italy; the third are often excessively dirty. Five trains daily each way, starting at the same hours : express at 6 p.m., ordinary at 8 (from Cairo 8.30) a.m., 10 a.m., 2.45 p.m., and 10.30 p.m. — From stat. Bgnha via Zakazik direct to Suez at 1 p.m., reaching Zakazik at 2 p.m. and Suez at 6.30 p.m. (fares from Alexandria to Suez 169 arid 113 piastres tarifl). At Kafr ez-Zaiyat (p. 225) (here is a European restaurant. The only refreshments obtainable at the other stations are boiled eggs (bed), Arabian bread fesh), water (moyeh), and oranges (bortukan) and sugar- cane (kasabj in their seasons 0/2-2 copper piastres). The railway-station (PI. 2; G, 5) is not far from the hotels, but the traveller had better drive to it, starting from his hotel at least half-an- hour before the advertised time of departure. New-comers and travellers burdened with much luggage should engage the commissionnaire of the hotel or a valet-de-place (2s.) to assist in booking their luggage, an operation carried on by the employes with those alternations of apathetic indolence and violent hurry which arc so characteristic of Orientals. The Alexandria and Cairo line, the first railway constructed in the East, was made under Sa r id Pasha in 1855 and was to have been continued by another line from Cairo across the desert to Suez, but the latter project has been abandoned. The names of the stations are not called out. The Arabian villages (comp. p. 39) seen from the line present a very curious appearance, and the interior of their half-open mud-hovels is frequently visible. ' The dust is very annoying in hot weather , forcing its way into the carriages even when the windows are closed. The train first traverses gardens towards the N.E., and beyond Bidi (inker diverges to the right from the line to Rosetta (p. 447). To the left is the ruin of the Kasr el-Kaydsereh (p. 222), situated on the coast, with the chateau of Eamleh (p. 222) in the distance. It then crosses the MahmucUyeh Canal (p. 448) and skirts its S. bank nearly as far as stat. Damanhur (see below). To the left lies the Luke of Abukir (Beheret Ma'adlyeh) ; to the right is Lake Mareotis (Beheret Maryut) , the water of which washes the railway embank- ment at places during the period of the inundation, while in sum- mer it is a considerable distance from it. The Lake Mareotis, or Mareia, as it was also called in ancient times, bounds Alexandria on the S. side. In StrabO's time it was filled from the Nile by means of numerous canals, both from the S. and E., which brought great traffic to this inland harbour, while the sea-harbour was more important for the export trade. The lake, which lies 8 ft. below the sea-level, was once surrounded by a luxuriantly fertile tract of country, irrigated from the x?ile as early as the time of Herodotus. The banks once yielded excellent white wine , which has been extolled by Horace and Virgil, and is mentioned by Athenseus as having becu particularly wholesome. Egypt now produces very little wine , but reminiscences of its culture in the region of Lake Mareotis are still preserved in the name Kami (i.e. 'vineyard 1 , pi. kurum) , which the Arabs apply to some ancient ruins here , and in numerous wine-presses hewn in the rocks which still exist. Mahmiid-Bey and Professor Kiepert divide this coast region into four parallel zones: (I) The chain of sand-hills on the coast, where many old ruins are still observable; (2) The depression of the Wadi Maryut, a western prolongation of the lake, the water of which 224 Route 2. DAMANIlUli. From Alexandria covers the eastern and lower half of thai valley, while the western half of marshy ground with several islands, bearing ruins of ancient buildings; (3) The chain of hills to the S. of the lake, about 5 H. in width, and consisting of fertile land, with the ruins of about forty an- cient Tillages; (4) The Mareotic plain, stretching to, the margin of the and also containing many ruins. During the Arabian and Turkish regime the waters of the lake gradually suhsided, but in 1801, during the siege of Alexandria, the English cut through the neck of land between the lake and the the so-called liaison l ; arree, a little to the W. of Abukir, thus laying an extensive and fertile region under water and destroying about 150 \ il- 1 he present Es-Sett marks the .spot where the fatal Cutting was made and afterwards closed. Mohammed 'AH did all in his power to repair the damage and to improve the environs of Alexandria, but about 100,000 acres of cultivable land are said still to be covered by the sea water. The water is now evaporated for the sake of its salt, the right to manufacture which is farmed out by government for 4attle of the Py- ramids , and on the 25th he entered Cairo. In Nov., 1802, the Mamelukes here inflicted a signal defeat on the Turks. A large market is held at Damanhur on Sundays, and a smaller one on Fridays. (From Damanhur to Fum d-Bahr andiiosetto, sec p. i 18.) 55 M. Tell el-Bartid, a village with a large mound of ruins. I'uom Ti. i.i. el-BaBod to I'.ui.'\k ko-Dakkui! |p. 23() a direct railway >ur line with the I pp'ei Egyptian Railway, was opened in ■'"■ traveller bound for Cairo, however, will 'not care to take this route i ,!■.. the train leaves Alexandria at >i i Tell ei Barud a< 1.20 a. m. (halt of 10 min.), and arrives at (130M.) Bul&k ed-Dakrur at 7. 6 a.m.: it Btartf ag M and arrivi K.) 8iut at 6.45 p.m. — In the reverse direc- tion thi train ij at 8. 80s m. and arrives at Bul&k at r.5p.m.; 30 p.m., reachee Tell el-B&rud at 2 a.m., and Alexan- dria at [J par Q6 piagt . ,,, Si Q, i. 10 par., I in pi.-es. 20 paras.' to Cairo. TANTA. 2. Route. 225 As far as Bulak the train follows the W. bank of the Rosetta branch of the Nile , skirting the boundary between the Libyan desert ami the cultivated Delta of the Nile. The stations between Tell el-Barfid and Buliik are Kdm ffamddeh, Et-Taryek, Kafr Ddwud , El- Warddn , and El- Menashi. The station at Bulak is nearly l'/2 M. from the Muski. Car- riages not always to be had. The cultivated land becomes richer, and we pass villages, groups of trees, and even tamarisks. The train reaches the broad Rosetta arm of the Nile , crosses it by a long iron bridge (flue vjew to the left), and enters the station of (65 M. ) Kafr ez- Zaiyat (second station at which the express stops, 2 hrs. after leaving Alexandria; halt of 20min.; restaurant). The town, which carries on a busy trade in grain , cotton , and the other products of the Delta (p. 73), lies on the right bank of the river. Excursion to the ruined site of Sa'is, the modern S a el-Hager, see R. 8, d. T7te Delta in Winter. "The fields are still wet at places, and straight canals are seen in every direction. All the cereals grown in ancient times still flourish here , and the slender palm still rears its fruit-laden crown beside the less frequent sycamore, with its slender umbrageous foliage. The cotton-plants are successfully cultivated where the soil is well irrigated, and form extensive plantations of underwood , bearing a profusion of yel- low, red , and white blossoms , which somewhat resemble wild roses. Vineyards are rare, but they sometimes occur in the northern part of the Delta , the plants being trained on the trelliswork which we often see represented in the paintings ol the ancient Egyptian tombs. The water-wheels (sakiyeh) are turned by buffaloes and donkeys, and some- times by camels or by steam; and the water-pail (shaduf) , though less common than in Upper Egypt, is occasionally plied by slightly clad men and boys. The canals are flanked with embankments to protect the fields from inundation, and the paths on these banks are enlivened with strings of camels, donkeys with their riders, and men, women, and children on foot. From a distance the villages look like round, grey hillocks, full of openings , and around them rise dovecots and palm-trees. On closer examination we distinguish the mud-huts, huddled together on rising ground where they are safe from the inundation. Many of these hamlets are adorned with very handsome groups of palms, while the minarets which overtop the larger villages and towns seem to point as devoutly to heaven as our Gothic church-spires 1 . (Ebers. 'Goshen', etc.) 76M. Tanta (3 3 / 4 hrs. from Alexandria, l^hr. from Cairo). Opposite the station is an Inn kept by a Greek, which looks not uninviting. The Greek Restaurant on the Canal, near the Bazaar, is pa- tronised by European merchants from Cairo and Alexandria during the fair of Tanta. Consular Agents. British, Mr. Joyce ; German, Hr. Dahhdn; French, M. Athanasi. Tanta, the handsome capital of the province of Gharblych, which lies between the Rosetta and Damietta arms of the Nile, with a population estimated at 60, 000 souls, possesses large public buildings and an extensive palace of the Khedive. The bazaars present a very busy scene at the time of the fairs (see below). The Mosque of the Seyyid el-Bedawi, having been recently restored, presents a handsome appearance. The large court contains the basin for ablutions (pp. 147, 184). Seyyid Ahmed el-Bedawi is probably the most popular saint in Egypt, and the most frequently invoked. He is said to have been born in the 12th cent, at Fez , or according to others at Tunis , and to have settled Baedeker's Egypt I. 2nd Ed. 15 226 Route -J. ! AH ! \ From Alexandria at Tanta after a pilgrimage to Mecca, lie is credited with the possession of great personal strength, ami is therefore invoked in times of danger or exertion, and by women also who desire the blessing of children. Travellers may generally visit the mosque without an attendant, but most not omit to deposit their shoes at the door. During the fair, however, which attracts among other visitors a number of fanatical Mohammedans from countries rarely visited by Europeans, it is advisable to procure the escort of the shekh of the mosque, to whom an introduction may be obtained through the consular agent (fee 1-2 fr.). The catafalque of the saint is covered with red velvet richly adorned with embroidery, and is enclosed by a handsome bronze railing. The dome is still iinnnislied. One large and two small schools are connected with the mosque. The sebil, or tank, with the small medreseh (school) above it, situated in the space adjo'1117 ing the mosque, is an interesting old building. The most important of the three annual Faibs of Tanta is that of the 'inolid' (nativity) of the saint in August. The other two fairs are in January and April. Each fair lasts from one Friday to t lie following, presenting an interesting and picturesque scene , but too often marred by the licentiousness so prevalent among Orientals. In August upwards of half-a-million persons congregate here from all the Eastern countries bordering on the Mediterranean, and from the Moham- medan part of Africa. The Egyptian peasantry, who purchase cattle, implements, clothing, and trinkets at the fair, are always largely represent- ed, and a number of European merchants are also to be met with. The number of visitors to the April fair is said to average 200,000, and to the January fair 50,000. Upwards of a million head of cattle are sold. annually at these fairs. Beggars and pilgrims farther contribute to swell these vast crowds, and the merchants themselves usually combine a pious visit to the shrine of the saint with their commercial business; for the Prophet permits even the Mecca pilgrims to engage in trade, although he has imposed on them many unpleasant restrictions. In August ami Ip ii we also encounter here the greater number of the Ghawazi and r Awalim (comp. p. 20), of the singing and dancing and unveiled women, and of the jugglers and showmen of every kind who dwell on the banks of the Nile. The fair of Tanta may indeed almost be regarded as a modern reflex of the pilgrimage to Bubastis [p. 411) described by Herodotus. Women uttering the peculiar crowing sound which they use to express great emotion still approach the sacred shrine in boats as in the time of Herodotus, and license is everywhere prevalent. — Long processions of camels laden with chests and bales are seen converging towards the town, accompanied by crowds of men and large herds of cattle. The banks of the canal are thronged with persons washing themselves and drawing water. The streets teem with the most animated traffic, and are filled with long rows of boats, in many of which the occupants are seen plying their handicrafts. Dervishes with dishevelled hair and ragged clothes, cripples, and idiots, who are treated with great respect, are clamorous for bakshish; and pilgrims returning from Mecca are saluted with flags and symbols at the gate of the mosque. On the first Friday of each fair i concourse of visitors, headed by the chief authorities of the town, move In procession towards the mosque of the sainted Seyyid. In the large space set apart for shows, adjoining the horse-market, the ter usually attract a numerous audience. When they pronounce the name of Allah the whole of the assemblage seated around bow their heads with one accord. The gestures of terror and astonishment made by the childn □ and i roes at the performances of the jugglers are very amusing. Among the most popular exhibitions arc those of the obscene Karag; i performed by men in female dress I comp. p. 21). From Tanta to Mahallei B&h, Mansdra. and Damietta, see pp. U5, 139. A short branch-line runs from Tanta to the 8. to Shibin cl-Kih.i. a to Cairo. BENIIA. :>. Route. 227 small town on this side of the Rosetta branch of the Nile, in the MervQ,- fiyeh^ one of the most fertile regions in the Delta. Beyond Tanta the train traverses a fertile tract , and beyond (87 M.) Birket es-Sab'a crosses a small arm of the Nile. A number of cotton-cleaning mills afford an indication of the wealth of the country. A little farther on, near Benha, on the Damietta arm of the Nile, is a large viceroyal palace, where 'Abbas Pasha (p. 107"), Sa'id Pasha's predecessor, was murdered in 1854. The train cross- es the Damietta branch of the Nile by an iron bridge , and , im- mediately beyond it, reaches — 101 M. Benha ("reached from Alexandria in 3'/2hrs., from Cairo in 3 / 4 hr. ; railway to Zakazik , . Isma r iliya , and Suez , see p. 407), or Benha l-Asal, i.e. 'Benha of the honey', so called from a jar of honey which Makaukas, the Copt (p. 374), is said to have sent from this place to the Prophet. The red oranges and the 'Yusuf Efendi' mandarins of Benha are much esteemed at Cairo, and excellent grapes are also produced here. To the N.E. of Benha, not far from the town, and intersected by the railway, are the ruins of the ancient Athribis , the 'heart-city" of anti- quity, situated in the 10th Nomos of Lower Egypt, and named Kdm el- Atril by the natives of the village of Atrib or Elrib. The site of the an- cient town is still traceable, but the remains hardly repay a visit, and no inscriptions are now left." The heaps of rubbish begin near the Rosetta branch of the river and end by a small canal. A lion bearing the name Of Ramses II. , found here and carried to Europe , and the fact that the town and the deities belonging to it are mentioned in a few hieroglyphic inscriptions, indicate that it was founded in the time of the Pharaohs. A Roman-Egyptian necropolis was at a later period founded at the end of the long street on the remains of ancient buildings. Brugsch, who vis- ited the place in 1854, describes it thus : — 'The dead lay in their coffins in tomb-chambers which were situated immediately below the surface of the mound of rubbish and were constructed of black Nile-bricks dried in the sun. The chambers were vaulted and lay adjacent to each other. I sought in vain for inscriptions and paintings, but one of the chambers was coloured red. The coffins consist of square boxes of cedar-wood, the sides being about an inch in thickness. The mummies were admirably preserved and elaborately encased in their cerements. Neither they nor the coffins bore any trace of hieroglyphics , but on the lid of one of the latter I found the word I1ATPA2 and a date. Many statues and busts of the Grseco-Roman period have also been found here, which indicate that the town of Athribis was a place of considerable importance at this late epoch of Egyptian history 1 . Near (109 M.) Tukh the mountains enclosing the Nile higher up become visible in the distance, those on the E. (Arabian) side appearing lower than those on theW. (Libyan) side. About 5 min. later the outlines of the pyramids begin to loom in the distance towards the S.W., and near (120'/ 2 M.) Kalyub these stupendous structures become distinctly visible. About 3 M. to the W. of this point is the Barrage du Nil (p. 408), to which a disused branch-line diverges. Railway to Zakazik, Isma'iliya, and Suez, see R. 5. The Libyan chain becomes more distinctly visible, and we also observe the Mokattam range with the citadel, and the mosque of Mohammed 'Ali with its slender minarets. The scenery now 15* 228 Route 2. KAl.YUII. becomes more pleasing. The fields are enlivened with numerous trees, and gardens and villas come in sight. To the left lie the site of the ruins of Heliopolis (the obelisk of which is not seen from the. railway), and the garden of Matariyeh with its sycamores, and the large chateau of f Abbasiyeh , while on the right we perceive the beautiful avenue leading to Shubra (p. 330). The environs of the city become more and more prominent, and about 50 min. after leaving Benha the train enters the station of ( 128 M. I Cairo. 44n, ij ~? " f *' i • 7. ; ; .isBxu-> D,2 D,4,5 ci D,3 D.5 C,4 C,4,5 Fiala Market B,4 Earamedan F,G,2 Sultan Hasan F,2 Me'tie'me t Ali i Menshiyeh Ge- dideh) '. . . . F,G,2 Place de l'Opera C,4,5 Rumeleh F,2 Bond Point du Bab el-Louq D,5 de Faghalla B,5 de rHippodrome . . . C,5 du Caracul de Kasr en- NH '. '. . . D,6 du Jlouski C.3 de Nasrieh E.5 Streets. Abbaaieh, Route de 1' . . . A,B,2,5 Boulaq, Route de C,5,6 Boulevard 'Abdul 'Aziz . . CD. 4 — Clot Bev B,4,5 — Fumm el-Khalig G,H,6 — Kasr r Ali E.F.fj — Mohammed r Ali .... CD. E. 3.1 — Shekh Kihan E,3,6 — Soliman Pasha D,5,6 Derb el-Ahmar D.E.2 — El-Gam'amiz E,F,4 — El-Yahudi C,3 Gameliveb C,2 Garni' el-Benat, sikket . . C,D,3 Ghfiriyeh C,D,2 Habbaniyeh E,3,4 Hawala, Route de D,4 Kantarat <•pera ■ consul, M. Khalli. — Italian, in the Place de TOpera; consul, Sign. Venanzi. — Persian, in the Ezbekiyeh ; consul-general, Hadji Mohammed Khan; secretary, Mirza r Ali Etl'endi. — Russian; vice-consul, M. Gre"goire d'Elie. — Portuguese; M. Caprara. — Swedish; Hr. Borg. Carriages, generally good, and with two horses, abound at Cairo. The principal stand is to the right of the entrance to the Muski, and there are others in the Ezbekiyeh, near the Hotel d'Orient, and in the Place r Abidin, near the offices of the minister of finance. The new tariff of 1882 is never strictly adhered to. For a short drive the usual fare is l-l'/g fr. : for ' •_•■ 1 in-. 2 3 fr. : for a whole day 20 IV.. or for the better carriages 25 fr. — The following are the fares for the principal drives and excur- sions in a carriage and pair: — Destiiiatii.n francs fee I destination francs fee Kail. Station . . . I /, luiiini el Khalig . — with In: — Kasr en Nil (start- tation at Bu- lak ed-Uakrur . 8i ,. '•„■ int of Nile Steamers) . . . Citadel 2i ._, l M i iula \ i Mu eum i . 4-5 k :. r el ',iii 3 — Shubra Garden. . liS V* Old Cairo i Masr Shubra Avenue, as il ' Ltika, Island far as Kasr en- Of lloda) .... 5 '/« 5 '/•-• Atar en tTebj . . . 1 ■•_■ .... 5 i .. Kubbi b. lis i Pj ramids Hatariyeh ill. I'm Zeli. 2 persons . 15-20 l'/ 2 -2 poli . Vi Pj ramids of GW- Tree) 9-10 1 /. ii. I persons 2-2>/ 2 These fares include the return-journey, except in the case of the rail- way stations and the Kasr en-Nil. ' When, however, a' drive of anj length is contemplated, the traveller had better enquire of the landlord or inan; r of his hotel as to the Donkeys. CAIRO. 3. Route. 233 proper fare. On Sundays and holidays the fares rise considerably, and it is then often difficult to get a good vehicle. The sdis, or boy who runs before the carriage to clear the way in the crowded streets, is a very useful attendant (p. 247). His services are included in the carriage-fare, but he expects a small additional fee (2 piastres). Omnibuses ply from the Place de la Bourse (PLC, 4) to the railway stations and to the ministries, the Khan el-Khalili, and the Shubra-Allee. Fares, 1st class 1 piastre tariff, 2nd class 20 paras. 'Correspondences' at half fares. Donkeys (comp. p. 11) afford the best and most rapid mode of loco- motion in the narrow and crowded streets of Cairo , and they are to be met with, day and night, in every part of the town. The attendants often thrust them unceremoniously on the travellers notice by placing them directly in his path. These animals are to be found in great numbers at all the most frequented points, and if one is wanted in the middle of the night the word •hammar 1 (p. 11) shouted out immediately attracts a large assortment of them. The donkey-boys of Cairo have all the savoir vivre of denizens of a large city, and they often possess a considerable fund of humour, which they show most readily when well paid. They delight in excursions into the country (to Sakkara, for instance), which afford them a 'fantasiya', or special treat; and the European will be astonished at the smallness of their requirements and those of their beasts. The donkeys are particularly serviceable in the narrow streets of the Arabian quarter, which afford shade and coolness, but are not accessible to car- riages. For a short ride in the town the usual charge is 1-2 piastres tariff (25-50 c.)i for 1 hr., 1 fr. ; for a forenoon in the town, 2 x /2 fr. ; for excursions 4-6 fr. per day (ladies' saddle 1 fr. extra), and a bakshish of '/2" 3 A fr- to the boy, unless he has been uncivil. When a donkey is hir- ed to carry baggage, its attendant should be required to follow the same route as the travellers themselves, and always to remain in sight. Per- sons making a prolonged stay, as soon as they have found a good don- key with proper gear and a satisfactory attendant, had better secure its future services by the payment of an extra bakshish. Care should be taken to choose a donkey with sound fore-legs. Commissionnaires (comp. p. 13). The traveller who is pressed for time, and wishes to see as much as possible, cannot well dispense with a cicerone. The best guides (5-8 fr. per day) are to be had at the hotels. They often try to induce their employers to engage them for distant tours, such as that to Mt. Sinai, or the voyage up the Nile, but for such expeditions they are totally unfitted. As a rule, purchases should never be made in their presence. If, however, the traveller knows a few words of Arabic, and is not in a hurry, he will soon find his way through every part of the city and the environs with the aid of his donkey-buy alone. Dragomans (comp. pp. 13, 205). Information as to trustworthy dra- gomans may be obtained at the traveller's consulate, at the hotels, at Kauffmann's, the bookseller, or at Zigadii's, in the JIuski. The following may be recommended: Michael Shaija, a Syrian Christian; Muhammed Sdlim; Shall. Post Office (PI. 87; C, 4), on the E. side of the Ezbekiyeh, open daily from 7 a. m. to 6 p. m., and also for a short time after the arrival of the last mail train, or for a longer time when the British, Indian, and other important mails come in. Letter-boxes at most of the hotels, at Berti's (the confectioner), at the railway-stations, and in various other places. Telegraph Offices. Egyptian (PI. 97a ; C, 5), in the Quartier Isma'iliya ; British (PI. 97; C, 5), next door to the New Hotel. The Egyptian tele- graph only can be used for messages within Egypt. Telegrams for Upper Egypt must be in Arabic. Comp. p. 28. Theatres. Italian Opera (PI. 75; C, 4). The winter season depends, however, entirely on the subsidy of the Khedive, which is not always granted. — Summer Theatre in the Ezbekiyeh Garden, see p. 25S. Physicians. Dr. Grant-Bey, English ; Dr. Hess ; Dr. Wildt; Dr. Becker; Dr. Comanos, a Greek, who has studied in Germany. — Oculists : Dr. Tachau, Dr. Brugsch. — Dentists: Mr. Broadway and Mr. Waller, both English. — The addresses may be obtained at the hotels. 234 Route 3. CAIRO. Churches. Chemists. JSommer fa German), in the Ezbekiyeh and the Muski ii a lish and homeopathic prescriptions made up) : Ducrot fa Frenchman), i the Ezbekiyeh :, Nardi, in the Muski; Swiss Pharmacy of Dr. Hess, in the Ezbekiyeh; Pharmacie Cenlrale (Perrot), Boulevard Clot-Bey. Churches. English Church (PI. 8: C, 5), Route de Bonlaq, in the Is- ma'iliya quarter. — American Serrice in the American Mission (PI. I ; C, 5), near Shepheard's Hotel. — Protestant Church (PI. 10), in the Isma'iliya quarter; German service in the morning, French in the afternoon. — Roman Catholic Church (PI. 13; 0, 3), in a street off the Muski, opposite the street in which the Hotel du Nil is situated. Convent o Grande di Terra Santa, with 1* chaplains of different nationalities. Jest/it Church, in the liosetti i Franciscan Church, near the Boul. Clot Bey. Church of the Mission of Central Africa, under Mgr. Sogaro. — Orthodox Greek Church (PI. 11; C, 3), in the Hamzawi (p. 253). — Coptic Catholic Church (PI. (1: C3, E 4), at the back of the Roman Catholic Church; Coptic Jacobite Church (PI. 7; B, 4, 5), in a side street between the Boulevard Clot Bey and the Ezbe- kiyeh. These two sects have, in all, 32 churches at Cairo. — The Jews here are of two sects, the Talmudists and the Karaites, the former being by far the more numerous. They possess 13 synagogues, most of which nated in the Jewish quarter (Derb el-Yalnidi). The religious affairs of both sects are presided over by a chief rabbi. Schools. The new School of the American Mission (PI. 1), conducted by Messrs Lansing and Watson, whose sphere of operations is chiefly .in 3 (he Copts, adjoins the English Consulate in the Ezbekiyeh. — The Anglican Mission School is presided over by Miss Whateley. — The 0, rmaa School, managed by the Rev. Br. Graeber, is largely patronised by all nationalities and sects. — Besides these, there is a European OirW School {Mine. Castel and Fraul. Im Bof), an icole Gratuite, an Ecole des Soeurs du Sacri Cosur, a Pensionnat des Soeurs du Bon Pasteur, a College de la Ste. Fumille (school of the Jesuits), and an Ecole de Fi'tres. — Per- il to visit the Egyptian schools may be obtained at the office of the ;eni ral inspector, in the Derb el-Gamamiz (p. 2G9). Hospitals. The large Kasr el-' Ain (PL 28; G, 6), a hospital with a school of medicine, lies on 'the Nile, on the route to Old Cairo (p. 373). — The European Bo spit al (physician, Dr. Martini), in the 'Abbasiyeh, is admirably fitted up, and under the supervision of the consuls. The pa- tients are attended by sisters of mercy. The charges are 6-12 fr. per day, ing to the accommodation, and poor patients are also admitted at tower rates. — The large German Deaconnesses'' Institute (PI. 22; C,6), in the new Isma'iliya quarter, opened in 1884, is intended mainly fi rs in Cairo. — The new Austrian Hospital is also in the 'Abbasiyeh. Teachers of Arabic. Ibrahim Effendi Zin-eddin (address ascertained IV the porter of the Hotel du Nil); Serkis, a Syrian. Clubs. The Geographical Society (PI. 26; C, It, founded by Dr. Schireiu- )'in-th. the celebrated African traveller, possesses an extensive library and reading-room, which are open to visitors at certain hours. — The Club ■•' (PI. 17; C, 5), in the Ezbekiyeh, is fitted up in the I style, and is patronised by some of the highi r government officials among other members. Strangers are not admitted without difficulty. Exchange, with reading room and cafe, in the New Hotel. Baths (conip. p. 21). European Baths at the hotels, and in the l.'o- {Bagni Toti, kept by a native of Trieste). The best of the i Arabian /laths are those near the Bah esh-Sha c riyeh (PI. B, 3), ■'< Bfilak, and the Mandolfo Baths in the r AbbasSye1i (also with a European bath I. Bookseller: m, in the Muski, an old-established firm. Penas- both in tin; Ezbekiyeh. Photographs (see below) are also Writing and drawing materials are sold bj Kauff- . (he last in the .Muski. Visiting cards inay al ZollikoferU and at Boehm-Anderer's, in the Ezbekiyeh. Photographs. Schoefft, 'Abbasiyeh Streei (Place Faghalla), with a '•'"'"' ''- ii ■oiieetion of groups of natives-, : ""' !l l,u '' urn of which are very striking (various prices; Hairdressers. CAIRO. 3. Route. 235 a collection of 25, of small size, is sold for 25 fr.). Stromeyer <('• Heymann, in the Kantaret oil Dikke (PI. B, 5), with a charming garden and well- equipped studio. Laroche & Co., in the Ezbekiyeh Garden. Among the numerous photographs of Egyptian landscapes and temples the best are those by *Sebah of Constantinople, which may be purchased at his depot, adjoining the French consulate in the Ezbekiyeh, or at Kauil'mann's. Hr. E. Brugsch, the keeper of the Bulak Museum (p. 295), has caused a num- ber of the objects in the museum to be photographed. This collection, which costs 25 fr. (small size 15 fr.), may be purchased at the museum, or at Kauffmann''s, but is not sold by the photographers. European Wares. All the ordinary wants of the traveller may now be supplied at Cairo. Clothing and many other articles, chiefly for the use of travellers, are sold by Paschal „ih , '. In l'/i!-2 hrs. it reaches the Bumeleh (p. 262), the lai pen the citadel, from which last twelve cannon hots are Hon sweeps round Hie IJumeleli. and fin- ally em i i,. it,, i; :;i ,.| \\,/ir (i'i. i-;. 2). The departure of the pilgrim attended with similai remoni Religious Festivals. CAIRO. 3. Route. 237 The great festival of the 3Iolid en-Xebi. the birthday of the prophet, is celebrated at the beginning of Rabi' el-awwel. the third month. The preparations for it begin on the second day of the month, and the most important ceremonies take place on the evening of the eleventh. The city, and particularly the scene of the festival, is then illuminated by means of lamps hung on wooden stands made for the purpose. Proces- sions of dervishes (p. 150) parade the streets with flags by day, and with lamps hoisted on poles by night. On this evening the sellers of sweet- meats frequently exclaim — 'A grain of salt for the eye of him who will not bless the prophet!' The D6seh, or ceremony of riding over the der- vishes, also took place on the eleventh of this month. Some fifty der- vishes or more lay close together on the ground, and allowed the "shekh of the Sa'diyeh dervishes on horseback to ride over them. Accidents rarely happened, although the horse trod on every one of the pro- strate figures. During this ceremony the spectators shouted incessantly, L Allah-la-la-la-lah-lah ! ' This barbarous custom, was forbidden by the Khedive Tewlik. and the ceremonies are confined to the procession of the shekh and the reading of the Koran in the Khedive's tent. At night a great zikr is performed by the dervishes (p. 239). On this festival, as on all the other 'molids'', the jugglers, buffoons, and other ministers of amusement, ply their calling with great success (comp p. 150). In the fourth month, that of Rabi' el-AJehvr (et-tdni). occurs the pecu- liarly solemn festival of the birthday or Mdlid of Husen, the prophet's grandson, the principal scene of which is the mosque of Hasanen, where the head of Husen is said to be interred. This festival lasts fifteen days and fourteen nights, the most important day being always a Tuesday (yom et-teldt). On this occasion the 'Ihodniue/i Dervishes (p. 150) sometimes go through their hideous performance of chewing and swallowing burning charcoal and broken glass, and their wild dances. On the chief days of this festival, and on their eves, great crowds congregate in and around the mosque , and especially by the tomb of Sultan es-Saleh in the bazaar of the Nahhasin (p. 256). On these occasions the Koran is read aloud to the people, the streets adjoining the mosque are' illuminated, the shops are kept open, and story-tellers, jugglers, and others of the same class attract numerous patrons. In the middle of Regeb, the seventh month, is the Mdlid of Seiyideh Zenab ('Our Lady ZenaV), the grand-daughter of the prophet. The fes- tival, which lasts fourteen days, the most important being a Tuesday, is celebrated at the mosque of the Seiyideh Zenab (p. 268), where she is said to be buried. On the 27th of this month is the Lelet el-Mfrdg, or night of the as- cension of the prophet, the celebration of which takes place outside the Bab el- r Adawi, in the N. suburb of Cairo. On the first, or sometimes on the second, Wednesday of Sha'bdn, the eighth month, the Mdlid of Imam Shctfe'i is commemorated, the centre of attraction being the burial-place of El-Karafeh (p. 327). This festival is numerously attended, as most of the 'Cairenes belong to the sect of Imam Shafe'i (p. 149). The ceremonies are the same as those at the other molids. The month of Ramadan (p. 148), the ninth, is the month of fasting, which begins as soon as a Muslim declares that he has seen the new moon. The fast is strictly observed during the day, but the faithful in- demnify themselves by eating, drinking, and smoking throughout the greater part of the night. At dusk the streets begin to be thronged, the story-tellers at the cafe's attract large audiences, and many devotees as- semble at the mosques. The eve of the 27th of the month is considered peculiarly holy. It is called the Lelet el-Kadr, or 'night of value', owing to the tradition that the Koran was sent down to Mohammed on this night. During this sacred night the angels descend to mortals with bless- ings, and the portals of heaven stand open, affording certain admission to the prayers of the devout. On this night the traveller should visit the Hasanen mosque, or, especially if accompanied by ladies, that of Moham- med r Ali (p. 263 1 in the citadel, in order to see the great zikrs of the Route 3. CAIRO. Religious Festivals. whirling and howling dervishes, of whom some thirty or forty take part in the performanci ne is of an exciting, but somewhat painful character, particularly if any of the performers lie rum.' i melb6s\ a con- dition resembling that of epileptic convulsion (p. L52). The month Ramadan is succeeded by that of Shawto&l, on the first ii which is celebrated the first and minor festival of rejoieing, '> the \r.-iiis /.v-'/r/ es-Sughayyir (the lesser feast), lint better known by its Turkish name of ' Beirdm. The object of the festival is to iression to the general rejoieing at the termination of the fast: and. as at our Christmas, parents give presents to their Children, and to their servant: at this festive season. Friends embrace each other on meeting, and visits of ceremony are exchanged. During this fes- tival the Khedive also receives his principal officials, ambassadors, and other dignitaries. At this season the traveller may also pay a visit to the cemetery by i en-Nasr, or to one of the others, where numerous Cairenes assemble to place palm 'branches or basilicum (rihdn) on the graves of their deceased relatives, and to distribute dates, bread, and other gifts among the poor. A few days after the Beiram , the pieces of the Kisweh, or covering manufactured at Constantinople, at the cost of the Sultan, for the Ka'ba l the most sacred sanctuary in the interior of the temple at 3Iecca), whither it is annually carried by the pilgrims, are conveyed in procession to the citadel, where they arc sewn together and lined. The ceremonies which take place on this occasion are repeated on a grander scale towards the end of the month of Shuwwdl (generally the 23rd), when there is a ay procession of the escort which accompanies the pilgrimage, caravan to Mecca, and which takes charge of the Mahmal (p. 236). On this oc- i very true believer in the prophet, if he possibly can, spends the whole day in the streets. The women don their smartest attire. Many of the harem windows are opened, and the veiled inmates gaze into the streets. The chief scene of the ceremonies is the Rumeleh (PI. F, 2), at tin- foot of the citadel, where a sumptuous tent of red velvet and gold is ]. itched for the reception of the dignitaries. Tin' procession is headed with soldiers, who are followed by camels adorned with gaily coloured trappings, and bearing on their humps bunches of palm-branches with oranges attached. Each section of the cavalcade is preceded by an Arabian band of music. 1 1 1 - • largest section bring that which accompanies the Takht Uairdii. or litter of the Emir el-Hagg, and the next in order that of the Delil el-IIagij, or leader of the pilgrims, with his attendants. Next follow various detachments of pilgrims and dervishes with banners, and lastly t lie Main: i k. picturi que appearance is pri by the camp of the assembled pilgrims (Haggi) at tin' Birket el-IIagg (p. 33.">> for Mecca. tin tin' loth ni Vhul-higgeh. the twelfth month, begins the great fes- i El- Id el-KebPr, which resembles tin- lesser feast (eJ- r id cs-sug- hayyiri already mentioned. On this day, if on no other throughout the year, every faithful Muslim eats a piece of meat in memorj of the sacri- fice of Abraham, and the ] r are presented with meat for this purpose by the rich. The Muslims also celebrate the Christian Easter Week, although in a different manner, ami of course for different reasons from the christians. ( in Palm Sunday (had el-khus) the women bind palm twigs round their heads and fingers. ' >li the following day (Monday) it is customary to eat faktls (cucumbers) with cummin, tin tin' Tuesday the diet of the faithful obn- ' a kind of cheese-broth with onions, and the day is therefore call- ed yOm el-mish wnl-hn a oup-and-onion-day'). Wednesday is called arba' ByCb, or 'Jol day. On this day the ghubera herb addre Bed i>> Job tin' words — 'Wash thyself with my juice, ami ti bait recover', 1 1 .■ did so, ami recovered, ami to this daj thn win! , jrptian Muslims ws th gharghara in memory of the miracle. Maundy Thursday is the Pea-Thursday ..I tin' Muslims (khamit el-bisilla). Qood Friday is called gum'a cl-mafru- 1 'aturday is the sebl en-ntir or 'sabbath Dervishes. CAIRO. 3. Route. 239 of light' (so named from the sacred fire which on this day bursts forth from the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem). On this day it is customary for the Muslims to use a kind of eye-powder for the purpose of strengthening their eyes, to get themselves bled, and to eat coloured Easter eggs. On Easter Sunday ('id en-nusdra) the Mohammedans usually visit their Christian friends, and these visits are returned during the feast of Beiram. With the Rising of the Nile there are also connected several inter- esting festivals, closely resembling those of the ancient period of the Pharaohs, which even the Christian epoch was unable entirely to ob- literate. As, however, they take place in summer, few travellers will have an opportunity of witnessing them. As these festivals have refer- ence to a regularly recurring phenomenon of nature, their dates are ne- cessarily fixed in accordance with the Coptic solar reckoning of time, in- stead of the variable Arabian lunar year. — The night of the 11th of the Coptic month Ba'fina (17th June! is called Lelet en-Jfukta, i.e. the 'night of the drop', as it is believed that a drop from heaven (or a tear of Isis, according to the ancient Egyptian mythl falls into the Nile on this night and causes its rise. The astrologers profess to calculate precisely the hour of the fall of the sacred drop. The Cairenes spend this night on the banks of the Nile, either in the open air, or in the houses of friends near the river, and practise all kinds of superstitious customs. One of these consists in the placing of a piece of dough by each member of a family on the roof of the house; if the dough rises, happiness is in store for the person who placed it there, while its failure to rise is regarded as a bad omen. On 2ist June the river begins slowly to rise (comp. p. 57 1. On the 27th of the Coptic month Ba'iina (3rd July) the Mun&di en-Nil, or Nile-crier, is frequently heard in the morning, announcing to the citizens the number of inches that the river has risen. The munadi is accompanied by a boy, with whom he enters on a long religious dia- logue by way of preface to his statements, which, however, are generally inaccurate. The next important event is the Cutting of the Dam (injiu gebr el-bahr. or uom we/a el-bahv). which takes place between the 1st ami the 14th of the Coptic month of Misra (i.e. between 6th and 19th August), when the principal ceremonies are performed on and near the island of Roda (p. 31S). The Nile-crier, attended by boys carrying flags, announces the We/a en-Sil (the plenitude, or superfluity of the Nile), or period when the water has reached its normal height of sixteen ells (p. 58). The cut- ting through of the dam takes place amid general rejoicings and noisy festivities. It appears from inscriptions on columns found on the Nile near the Gebel Selseleh, that similar festivals connected with the rise of the river were celebrated as early as the 14th cent, before Christ. Dervishes (comp. p. 150). The 'Dancing Dervishes' perform their 'zikr n in the Tekiyet el-Maulawiyeh (p. 265) every Friday from 2 to 3 p.m. ; visitors walk in and take their seats outside the space enclosed by boards, no permission being necessary (bakshish of 1-2 piastres on leaving). A visit may be paid in the same way to the performances of the 'Howling Dervishes 1 , whose zikr takes place in the Garni 1, Kasr el- f Ain (p. 317), also on Fridays from 2 to 3 p.m. Both these curious scenes may be wit- nessed on the same day if the traveller goes early to one of them, leaves after 25 min., and then visits the other, thus seeing quite enough of each. Sights and Disposition of Time. The duration of the traveller's stay at Cairo depends of course on Ms own inclination and the objects he has in view. He may wish to devote his attention chiefly to the mosques, or to the street- scenes ; he may endeavour to And his way through the intricacies of the city alone, or with the assistance of a donkey-hoy, or he may prefer to hire a carriage and a commissionnaire. By carefully pre- paring a plan beforehand, and starting early every morning, the "210 Route 3. CAIRO. Disposition of Time. traveller may succeed in visiting all the chief objects of interest in six days, but it need hardly be said that a satisfactory insight into Oriental life can not be obtained without a stay of several weeks. Principal attractions when time is limited : — (a) In the Town. Street-scenes (p. 244); Ezbekiyeh Garden (p. 258); Citadel ( p. '262), either about sunset, or before 11 a.m.; Tombs of the Khalifa (p. 282) and Mamelukes (p. 327); the mosques of Sultan Hasan (p. 260), 'Ami (p. 324) at old Cairo, Ibn Tulun (p. 265), Kalaun (p. 275), Barkukiyek (p. 278), and El-Azhar (p. 287), the last being shown only by permission obtained through the traveller's consulate ; Bab en-Nasr (p. 280) ; Museum at Buliik (p. 295). — (b) In the Environs (by carriage). Pyramids of Gizeh (p. 340) ; Heliopolis (p. 333) ; Shubra Avenue (p. 330) ; Tombs of Apis and the Mastaba of Sakkara (p. 371). The above outline will serve as a guide to those who are pressed for time ; a more leisurely visit may be arranged as follows : — First Day. Forenoon (by carriage, or on donkey-back): *Citadel | p. '26'2 ). \\ itli :;: View of Cairo, and visit to the Garni' Mohammed 'Mi; Gami' Sultan Hasan (p. 260); Garni* ibn Tulun (p. 265); Bab ez-Zuwelek (p. 272); Garni' el-Muaiyad (p. 272); street and mosque ofEl-Ghuri (p. 274). — Afternoon: drive onthe'Abbasiyeh road to Kubbeh, Matariyeh, the Virgin's Tree, and Heliopolis (p.332). Second Day. Forenoon (on donkey-back) : Bazaars (to which a whole day may also be devoted on foot) ; Muristan Kalaun (p. 275) ; I ii-mosque of the sultan Mohammed en-Nasti ibn Kalaun (p. 277); Garni' Barkukiyeh (p. 278); Garni' el-Hakim (p.279); Bab en-Nasr (p. 280); Tombs of the Khalifs (p. 282). — After- noon (by carriage): Nile Bridge (p. 328; closed from 1 to 3 p. m.) ; garden and palace of Gezireh (p. 329 ; admission by tickets procured at the traveller's consulate). Tniiui Day. Forenoon: Museum of Bulak (p. 295). — After- noon (on donkey-back, starting early in winter): Moses' Spring and the smaller Petrified Forest (p. 337), returning by the Mo- kattam (view of Cairo by sunset), and past the Citadel (p. 336). Fourth Day. Forenoon: Mosques of El-Azhar (p. 287) and llasanen (p. 292), most conveniently visited in succession, as both are shown by special permission only, and with the escort of a kawwas. The same remark applies to the Gami' Seiyideh Zenab (p. 268), a visit to which, however, had perhaps better be omitted, as its situation is somewhat remote. The mosque of El-Azhar Bhould not be visited on a Friday, as there is no teaching on that day, and the traveller would thus miss one of the chief attractions. - AfU carriage): Old Cairo (p. 317) and the island of which we return by the quaxtet of the Tulunides (p. 265). History. CAIRO. 3. Route. 241 Fifth Day (by carriage") : Pyramids of Gizeh (p. 340 ; which may he seen in the course of a forenoon, if necessary); visit Shubra, if time remains , in the afternoon , with Cicolani's Gardens in the Shubra Avenue. Sixth Day (by railway and on donkey-back) : Memphis and Sakkara (p. 371). Seventh Day (by railway): Baths of Helwan (p. 403). and (on donkey-back) quarries of Tura and Ma'sara (p. 405). Eighth Day (by railway) : Barrage du Nil (p. 406). The above itinerary will on the whole be found the most con- venient, although some riders will perhaps consider several of the days somewhat too fatiguing. The following places deserve repeated visits : — the Museum atBulak; the Citadel, or the windmill-hill at the E. end of the Rue Neuve (prolongation of the Muski ), for the sake of the view of the Tombs of the Khalifs and the hills of Mokattam ; the Tombs of the Khalifs ; the Ezbekiyeh Garden ; the Shubra Avenue, on a Friday ; the Bazaars (and street-traffic), on a Thursday. Special permission is necessary for the following places : — (a) From the Wakf Office (p. 259), through the consulate, for all the mosques, including the Tombs of the Khalifs and the Mame- lukes (pp. 282, 327). Fridays and festivals are unsuitable days for a visit to the mosques. The kawwas of the consulate who escorts the visitors usually receives a fee of 5 fr. (b) From the minister of war, through the consulate, for the Gami r Salaheddin Yusuf (p. 264), the Garni' Suleman Pasha (p. 264), and the fortifications at the Barrage du Nil (p. 406). (c) From the master of the ceremonies, through the consulate, for the gardens and chateau of Gezireh (p. 328). (d) An introduction from the consulate is also requisite in order to procure admission to the house of the Shekh es-Sadad, the re- presentative of the descendants of Mohammed. History of Cairo. When Egypt was conquered by Cambyses (B.C. 525) the Babylonians are said to have founded New Babylon on the site now occupied by Old Cairo, and during the Roman period that city be- came the headquarters of one of the three legions stationed in Egypt. Remains of the Roman caslrum are still preserved here. In A.D. 638 New Babylon was captured by 'Amr ibn el-'Asi, the general of Khalif 'Omar-, and when he started on his victorious progress towards Alexan- dria, he commanded the tent (fostat) he had occupied during the siege to be taken down. As it was discovered, however, that a pigeon had built her nest upon it, Amr ordered the tent to be left standing until the young birds should take wing. After the capture of Alexandria, Amr requested the Khalif to allow him to take up his residence there, but 'Omar refused to accord permission, as Alexandria appeared to him to be rife with elements of discord, and, moreover, too far distant from the centre of the conquered country to be suitable for its capital. Amr accordingly returned to his tent, around which his adherents en- camped. A new city thus gradually sprang up, and the name of Fostat continued to be applied to it in memory of its origin. 'Amr afterwards erected a mosque (p. 324), and he is also said to have begun the con- Baedeker's Egypt I. 2nd Ed. 16 2-12 Uoute3. CAIRO. History. struction of the canal (K7ialig), which, leaving the Nile opposite the is- land of Roda, intersects the town, and is supposed to have been intended i cl the Nile with the Red Sea. The city was considerably ex- tended in the reign of the splendour-loving Ahmed ibn Tutiht, the I tier of the dynasty of the Tulunides, who erected the new quarter of El- Khatiya. to the S.W. of the present citadel. Among the buildings ascribed to him is the mosque (p. "205 ) which still bears his name. The town of Fostat was favoured by his successors also, and particularly by his son A" ha nitirii yeh , who erected a palace here; and at length, under the Fatimite Khalifs (p. L02), the modern city of Cairo was built adjacent to the old. The new city was founded by Jdhar, the general of the Fatimite Khalif Mttizz. to the N. of El-Khatiya, as a residence for the khalif. and as barracks for the soldiers commanded by him. At the hour when the foundation of the walls was laid, the planet Mars, which the Aral's call Kahir, or 'the victorious', crossed the meridian of the new city ; and Mu'izz accordingly named the place Masr el-K&hira, or K&hira. Masr, the name of Egypt or of its capital, seems'also already to have been applied to Fostat, which, to distinguish it from Masr el-Kahira, was now called Masr el-'Atika (the present Old Cairo). The new 'town extended rapidly. Bricks were' easily made of the Nile mud, the Mokattam hills afforded excellent stone, while the gigantic ruins of the ancient Memphis on the opposite bank of the river were also used as a quarry, as the foundations of the houses still show. In 973 the new city of Cairo was constituted the capital of Egypt, and for many centuries after that period the destinies of the country were determined here. In 1166 the citadel which still commands the city was erected by Salaheddin (Saladin) mi the slope of the Mokattam hills ; and the same sultan caused the whole town, together with the "citadel itself, to be enclosed by a wall, 29,000 ells in Under his luxurious and extravagant successors Cairo was greatly extended and magnificently embellished. According to the Arabian his- torians, the most enterprising of these sultans was Mohammed en-Nasir (d. L341), who constructed numerous handsome edifices both within and without the citadel, as well as canals and roads, thus converting the ruins and Band-hills in the environs into beautiful suburbs, with palaces and pleasure-grounds. At that period, however, Cairo was fearfully devastated by tlce plague, as it had been on two former occasions (in 1067 and 1295), and was also several times subsequently; and, according to Makrizi, no fewer than OUO.OuOt?) persons died in Old and New Cairo between Novem- 148, and January, 1319. The town suffered severely in other ways also, and indeed its whole history, so far as recorded, like that of the sultans and the Mamelukes themselves, seems to have presented an almost continuous succession of revolutions, rapine, and bloodshed. As i the Mameluke sultans who resided in tin' citadel died ;i violent death, so the reign of almost every new potentate began with bitter and sanguinary contests among the emirs for the office of vizier, while l"it few reigns were undisturbed by insurrections in the capital. During the third regime of Mohammed en-Nasir, who had been twice deposed, and n recovered his throne, a persecution of the christians took place at Cairo. The Christians, of whom great numbers resided in Cairo and throughout the whole of Egypt, were accused by the people of incen- (i. Their churches were accordingly closed or demolished, while tin \ themselves wen' so ill-treated and oppressed, especially in tie' r> in of Sultan Saleh (1351-54), that many of them are said to have embraced in. ' In 1366 and 1367, in the reign of Sultan Sha'bdn. sanguinary conflicts took place in the streets of Cairo between hostile parties of Mamelukes, and in 1377 Sha'ban himself was tortured and strangled in the citadel. Even greater disorders attended the dethronement of Sultan BarkCk (1389), whin the wildest anarchy prevailed at Cairo, the convicts I from their prisons, and in concert with the populace pin emirs and the public magazines. The following year iroke out among the Mamelukes, who stormed the citadel, in iio-ii Barkul regained possession of the and celebrated hi: triumphal entry into Cairo. Scarcely, li History. CAIRO. 3. Route. 243 had lie closed his eyes and been succeeded by Fai'ag, when the Mame- lukes again revolted, and renewed conflicts took place for possession of the citadel, during which the city was partly plundered. Similar scenes were repeated on almost every change of government. The turbulence of the Mamelukes, who were always treated with too much consideration by the sultans, now became more and more unbearable ; they robbed the people in the markets, assaulted citizens in the public streets, and grossly insulted respectable women. Hitherto the outrages committed by these troops had been chiefly connected with some political object, but from the middle of the 15th century downwards they were generally perpetrat- ed with a view to plunder. Thus in 1458, when fires repeatedly broke out at Cairo and Bulak, it was generally believed that the Mamelukes had caused them in order to obtain opportunities for robbery. In the course of the following year they forcibly entered the mosque of'Amr at Old Cairo on a Friday, and robbed the numerous women who were then attending divine service. In the sultanate of Khoshkadeui (1461-67) the Mamelukes plundered the bazaars of Old Cairo, and in the reign of Mo- hammed (1496-98), son of Kait-Bey, they roved through the streets at night, maltreated the police, and plundered various quarters of the city. In 1496, when rival emirs were almost daily fighting in the streets of Cairo, the Mamelukes of course utilised the opportunity for plunder. On 26th Jan. 1517, the Osman Sultan Selim I., after having gained a victory in the neighbourhood of Cairo, entered the city. Tuman Bey, the last Mameluke sultan, again gained possession of the ill-guarded town on 28th Jan., but was obliged to evacuate it on the following day, and was taken prisoner and executed (p. 272). Before Seliin returned to Con- stantinople , he caused the finest marble columns which adorned the palace in the citadel to be removed to his own capital. Thence- forward Cairo became a mere provincial capital, and its history is al- io .i.-t an entire blank down to the period of the French expedition. On 22nd July, 1798, after the Battle of the Pyramids, Cairo was occupied by Bonaparte, who established his headquarters here for several months, and who quelled with sanguinary severity an insurrection which broke out among the populace on 23rd-25th September. At the beginning of the year 1799 Bonaparte started from Cairo on his Syrian expedition, and on his return to France, Kleber was left as commander-in-chief of the French troops at Cairo, where he was assassinated on 14th June, 1800. In lsijl the French garrison under Belliard, being hard pressed by tbe grand vizier, was compelled to capitulate. On 3rd August, 1S05, Mohammed 'AH, as the recognised pasha of Egypt, took possession of the citadel, which for the last time witnessed a bloody scene on 1st March, 1811, when the Mameluke Beys were massacred by Mohammed's order. Since then nothing has interrupted the peaceful development of the city. Cairo, Kahira, or Masr el-Kahira ('Masr the victorious', Masr being the ancient Semitic name for Egypt; p. 30) , or symply Masr or Misr, is situated in 30° 6' N. latitude, and 31° 26' E. lon- gitude, on the right hank of the Nile, about 9 M. to the S. of the so-called 'cow's belly', the point where the stream divides into the Rosetta and Damietta arms, and has not inaptly been styled 'the diamond stud on the handle of the fan of the Delta'. On the E.side of the city, which covers an area of about 11 square miles, rise the barren, reddish cliffs of the Mokattam Hills (p. 335), about 650 ft. in height, which form the commencement of the eastern desert. The city has extended so much towards the west of late years that it now reaches the bank of the river and has entirely ab- sorbed Bulak (p. 293), which was formerly its harbour. Cairo is the largest city in Africa, as well as in the Arabian regions, and is the second city in the Turkish empire. It is the 16* 244 BouteS. CAIRO. Population. residence of the Khedive, and of the ministers and principal au- thorities, and is presided over by a governor of its own. Owing to the secluded habits of the Mohammedan families, and in consequence of the fact that a large section of the lower classes of the community have no fixed abode, it is a very difficult matter to ascertain the number of the inhabitants with even approximate precision. Judging from the average annual number of births in Egypt and at Cairo, the population of the city may be estimated ai LOO, 000 souls , although at the census of 1882 it was returned as 368, 108 only. The number of resident Europeans is about 21,000, including 7000 Italians, 4200 Greeks, 4000 French, 1600 English, 1600 Austrians, and 1200 Germans. Natives of all the principal Oriental states are also to be found at Cairo. The mass of the population consists of Egypto- Arabian townspeople (p. 48), Fellah settlers (p. 39), Copts (p. 42), Turks (p. 52), and Jews (p. 53), the last of whom number 7000 souls. Besides the natives and the European residents, the traveller will frequently encounter negroes of various races, Northern Africans, Beduins, Syrians, Persians, Indians, and other Oriental settlers. The Hospitals mentioned at p. 234 are fitted up in the European style, and so likewise is the Military School (Ecoles Militaires ; in the r Abbasiyeh), with its four departments (staff, artillery, ca- valry, and infantry), connected with which there is a Veterinary School. Cairo also possesses a Girls' School, maintained by govern- ment (founded through the exertions of Dr. Dor, a Swiss), and a Chemical-Pharmaceutical Laboratory, presided over by M. Gastinel, and possessing an excellent pharmaceutical collection. The medi- oinea required for all the hospitals in the country are prepared at the laboratory, and the yield of the 12 saltpetre manufactories of Egypt (about 1000 tons per annum) is tested here. The Pi dice Force (Zabtty eh, PI. SO), an admirably organised in- stitution, consists of about 300 officials, including a number of Kuro- peans (chiefly Italians), who are very obliging to strangers, and who preside so effectually over the public safety that the traveller maj explore the remotest and dirtiest purlieus of the city without apprehension of danger. If, however, he should have any cause for complaint, he should lay the matter before his consulate (p. 6). i In- "-Street Scenes presented by the city of the Khalifs afford an inexhaustible fund of amusement and delight, admirably Illustrating the whole world of Oriental fiction, and producing an Indelible impression on the uninitiated denizen of the West. 'What makes I airo so romantic and novel is the contrasts of bar- ind civilised scenes and incidents it presents, which forcibly strike and interest even the most utterly blase European, and which recur in every department and phase of life in this Arabian capital of tl and indeed throughout all Egypt. Cairo may be compared to a mosaic of the most fantastic and bizarre descrip- Street Scenes. CAIRO. 3. Route. 245 tion, in which all nations, customs, and epochs are represented, — a living museum of all imaginable and unimaginable phases of existence , of refinement and degeneracy , of civilisation and barbarism, of knowledge and ignorance, of paganism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism. In the Boulevards of Paris and on London Bridge I saw but the shadow, and at Alexandria the prelude only, of the Babel of Cairo, to which the Roman or the Venetian carnival is tame and commonplace. These marvellous scenes cannot fail to strike every one, and particularly the uninitiated new-comer, most forcibly. In order to enjoy them thoroughly, one cannot help wishing for eyes behind, as well as before , and for the steady power of forcing one's way possessed by the camel of burden'. (B. Goltz.) There is, however, no great difficulty in forcing one's way through the crowd in the Muski, although the chaotic, carnival-like scene which it presents can hardly be depicted in too bright colours. Most of the streets in the old part of the town are still un- paved and inaccessible to carriages, and they are too often excessively dirty. The Khedive, however, is annually increasing the number of carriage-ways by the demolition of old streets and the erection of buildings in the modern style. The lanes separat- ing the rows of houses in the Arabian quarter are so narrow that there is hardly room for two riders to pass , and the projecting balconies of the harems with their gratings often nearly meet. The new quarter on the W. side of the city possesses broad, shadeless streets, handsome avenues , and the beautiful Ezbekiyeh Garden (p. 258) ; but Oriental life seems to find this atmosphere uncon- genial, and it must therefore be sought for in the old quarters, and particularly in the Muski, the chief business thoroughfare. The busy traffic in this street often presents an 'interminable, ravelled, and twisted string of men, women, and animals, of walkers, riders, and carriages of every description. Add to this the cracking of the drivers' whips, the jingling of money at the table of the changers established at every corner of the street, the rattling of the brazen vessels of the water-carriers, the moaning of the camels, braying of donkeys, and barking of dogs, and you have a perfect pande- monium'. Europeans, and even ladies, may ride with perfect safety through the midst of all this confusion, and they will often have opportunities of observing most picturesque and amusing scenes. The denseness of the crowd sometimes seems to preclude the pos- sibility of farther progress, but the hammar, or donkey-boy, is pretty sure to elbow a passage without much difficulty. 'Having carefully learned the expressions ana 'awiz hum&r (I want a donkey) and bikam. kirsh deh (how many piastres), I yielded to the temp- tation of plunging recklessly into the thick of Arabian life, its conversation, and its equestrianism. I therefore pronounced the mystic words with the satisfaction of a child which utters articulate expressions for the first time; and when I was instantly so perfectly understood by a score of donkey- boys that they all offered me their donkeys at once (though perhaps they would have done so had I not spoken at all), I felt like a magician 21f> lit, ate 3. CAIKo. Street Scenes. who has succeeded in discovering an effectual formula of conjuration. After this display of my abilities, 1 vaulted into the saddle with as much il assurance as if Cairn had been my home. The donkey-boj next probably asked me — 'where to'? Whereupon, feeling that my stuck of Arabic phrases and cabalistic formulae was nearly exhausted, 1 replied in a very abbreviated style — kullo, kullo, that is, 'everything' (meaning that I wanted to see everything). The donkey-boy then nodded his tayyib ana are/ ('all right, I understand 1 ), and I now felt perfect confid in\ powers of speech. . . . My donkey now set off at a gallop and plunged into the midst of a labyrinth of lanes full of riders and walkers, but where I was going to, or how far, or why, I was unable to tell. That. however, was precisely the joke of the thing'. (Goltz.) Lovers of the picturesque will find such rides very enjoyable. When they have sufficiently explored the narrower streets, they may direct their attendant to return to the Muski ('lil Muski, ya hammar'), whence the hotels are easily reached. It is not, however, until the traveller has learned to distinguish the various individuals who throng the streets, and knows their different pursuits, that he can thoroughly appreciate his walks or rides. We may therefore give a brief description of some of the leading characteristics of the different members of the community. The traveller will probably first be struck with the differences of colour in the Turbans. From a very early period it has been cus- tomary for the Arabs to distinguish their different sects, families, and dynasties by the colour of their turbans. Green turbans form the badge of the 'Sherifs', or descendants of the prophet, and they are also frequently worn by the Mecca pilgrims, green being also the colour of the banner of the prophet. The 'Ulama, or clergy and scholars, usually wear a very wide and broad, evenly folded turban of light colour. The orthodox length of a believer's turban is seven times that of his head, being equivalent to the whole Length of his body, in order that the turban may afterwards be used as the wearer's winding sheet, and that this circumstance may familiarise him with the thought of death. The dress and turbans of the Copts, Jews, and other non-Muslim citizens, are generally of a dark colour, those of the Copts being blue, and those of the Jews yellow, in accordance with a decree issued in fcfie 11th century (jp. 242). Blue is also the colour indicative of mourning. The Women of the poorer and rustic classes wear no- thing but a blue gown and a veil. Their ornaments consist of silver or enpper bracelets, earrings, and ankle-rings, while their chins, anus, and chests are often tatooed with blue marks. In Upper nose-rings are also frequently seen. The women of the upper classes are never so handsomely dressed in the streets as ie. Their figures, in early life, are generally upright and graceful. The) colour their eyelashes and eyelids dark, ami their Anger and toe-nails with henna, which gives them a brownish tint. When equipped for riding or walking, most ladies wear a light-coloured silk cloak, with very wide sleeves (t6b or. mi: attire. They also don the burko', or veil, Street Scenes. CAIRO. 3. Route. 247 which consists of a long strip of muslin, covering the whole of the face except the eyes, and reaching nearly to the feet. Lastly they put on the habara, a kind of mantle, which in the case of mar- ried women consists of two breadths of glossy black silk. Thus disguised, they look unnaturally broad and unwieldy , and not unlike bats. The wealthier ladies, who drive in their carriages attended by eunuchs, usually veil their faces up to their eyes with thin gauze in accordance with the fashion of Constantinople. With regard to circumcision, weddings, and funerals, the ceremonies attending which are similar in all the Egyptian towns, see p. 153. Among other customs we may also mention the peculiar mode in which a woman carries her child, either astride her shoulder, or rest- ing on her hip. Amid this busy throng of men and ani- mals resound the various cries of street-ven- dors and other persons who transact their business in the open air, and the warning shouts of outrunners (sais), coachmen, don- key-attendants , and camel-drivers. The words most commonly heard are — l riglak\ 'shemdlak\ 'yerrunak\ 'guarda\ 'it'd, u , a\ As a rule, however, the Cairenes pay no attention to these warnings unless address- ed to them individually. Thus , 'riglak yd khawugcti ('your foot, sir', i.e. 'take care of your foot' ; kha-wdgeh is the usual title given to Europeans by the Arabs , and is said to have originally meant 'merchant' only) ; 1 shemdlakyd shekh'^'yonrleft side, chief); 'yeminak yd bint' ('your right side, girl 1 ) ; 'dahrik yd sitt' ('your back, lady'); '■yd 'aruseti ( bride); 'yd sherif (descendant of the prophet) ; 'yd efendi (Turkish official). — Beggars are very numerous at Cairo, most of them being blind. They endeavour to excite compassion by invoking the aid of Allah : 'yd Mohannin , yd RabV ('0 awakener of pity, Master') ; 'tdlib min alldh hakk lukmet 'esti ('I seek from my Lord the price of a morsel of bread') ; 'ana def Alldh wa'n-nebi' ('I am the guest of God and of the Prophet'). The usual answer of the passer-by is, ' Alldh yihannin 'alelc' ('God will have mercy on you'), or 'Alldh yoftik' ('God give thee'; comp. p. 16). 248 Route 3. CAIRO. Str< ' i 8c< nes. One of tlic most popular characters to be met with in the streets of Cairo is the Sakka, oi Watbb.-Cabb.ibb., with his goatskin of water, carried either by himself or by a donkey, who still plies his trade, although the new waterworks (p. 381") could easily supply every house in the city, as well as the public sebils ( p. 177), with water, and though on many of the houses there are brass tubes through which passers-by may take a draught from the main pipes. His usual cry is — 'yd 'auwad Allah'' ('may God recompense me'). The labour he undergoes during eight months in the year, when he brings his heavy load all the way from the Nile, is very severe and miserably underpaid; but during the four months when the river is rising he obtains his supply from the canal by which Cairo is intersected. The springs, being generally brackish, are not suitable for drinking. Many of the sakkas sell water to the people in the streets. These are known as 'sakka sharbeh', and they carry their supply of water cither in a skin or in a large earthen-ware vessel on their backs. They offer a draught to passers-by in a brazen saucer or in a kulleh (porous bottle), for which they receive a small copper coin, and sometimes no payment at all. On the occasion of festivals, and particularly on the ii i • > l i <1 s i birthdays) of saints, persons who desire to do a pious work frequently hire one of the sakkas to dispense- water gratuitously. The sakka then shouts in a singing tone. 'sebU Alldh yd'atshdn yd moych', thus in- viting all thirsty persons to drink gratuitously ; while he occasion- ally turns to his employer, who generally stands near him, with the words, 'God forgive thy sins, dispenser of the drink-offering', or 'God have mercy on thy parents', to which the persons who have partaken of the water reply, l amiri (amen), or 'Cod have mercy on them and on us". After numerous blessings of a similar kind have been Interchanged, the sakka hands the last cup of water to his employer, with the words, 'Hie remainder for the liberal man. and Paradise for the confessor of the Unity ! Cod bless thee, thou dispenser of the dri nk-oll'eri ng !' lie Hemali, who belong to one of the. orders of dervishes ( |e 151), are also engaged in selling water, which they fla- vour with orange-blossom (sahr), while others add a little brandy ■ grape-juice (zebib). There are also numerous itin— Street Scenes. CAIRO. 3. Route. 249 erant vendors of different kinds of sweetmeats, which to Europeans look very uninviting. Thus, sdhlab is a thin jelly made of wheat- starch and sugar, the sellers of which shout, 'haldweh, ydsukkar bimismdr yd haldwehP (confection, sugar, for a nail, con- fection !). These vendors, who resemble the rag and hone collectors of European towns, often barter their wares for nails or pieces of old iron, as their call indicates. Lastly, there are itinerant cooks, with portable kit- chens, who sell small meat puddings, fish, and other comestibles, and whose customers eat their dinners sitting cross-legged by the side of the street. This custom is no- ticed by the old German geographer Se- bastian Minister (d. 1552) , who says that 'the city of Cairo is said to be five times as large as Paris. There are few people, who, as with us, buy food to prepare at home ; but when they are hungry they buy from the cooks, of whom the city contains nearly thirty thousand'. The way in which fruit and vegetables are cried is particularly curious. The commonest expressions are perhaps the following : 1 Allah yehaitiwinheh yd It- mun ( 'God will make them light, lemons' ; i.e., he will make light, or empty the baskets containing the lemons); "asalyd burtukdn, 'asaV ('honey, oranges, honey'; i.e., sweet as ho- ney); l meded yd Embabeh meded! tirmis Embdbeh yaghlib el-l6z! } l yd mahld bunei cl-bahr'' ('help ! Embabeh, help! the lupins of Embabeh are better than almonds; Oh, how sweet is the little son of the river !'). The best lupins are grown at Embabeh, and they are called 'children of the river' from the fact that they re- quire to be soaked in Nile water for a considerable time before they are boiled. Other cries are l ya muselli'l-ghalban yd libb' ('0 comforter of those in distress, kernels', i.e., of the melon) ; or, more commonly, l el-mohammas ('roasted kernels') ; 'y a fustuk — .")<) Bout, ,{. CAIRO. Schools. gedid! | new pistachios); 'eMoard fcfira sWft mm 'rm/fc cn-nchi fettdh? I tlu' rose was a thorn; it blossomed from the sweat of the prophet'). This legend resembles that of the thorns at Subiaco among the Sabine Hills, which were converted into rose bushes by the blood of St. Francis. l Rawdyeh d-genneh yd temer henna' ('odours of Paradise, flowers of henna'). With regard to the henna plant, see p. 75. When the work of the day is over, the solemn and sonorous cry of the mueddin, summoning the faithful to prayer (see p. 147), reverberates from the tops of the minarets ; but much of the busy street-traffic goes on till nearly midnight , and during the month of Ramadan it even continues throughout the whole night, while the barking of hungry dogs and the braying of donkeys fre- quently form an additional interruption to repose. At a very early hour in the morning the same scenes recommence, and on leaving his hotel the traveller is tempted to believe that Cairo is celebrat- ing a never-ending Carnival. While perambulating the streets of the city the traveller will frequently have occasion to observe the Schools (kuttdb), which are open on the side next the street, and one of which is attached to almost every public fountain. He will find it very amusing to watch the efforts of the fikih, or schoolmaster, in teaching his pupils with the aid of admonitions and blows, while the boys themselves re- cite verses of the Koran with a swaying motion of their bodies, bending over their metal writing-tablets, and yet finding time for the same tricks as European schoolboys. Unless the visitor has an order of admission from the minister of public instruction, it is not advisable to watch the fikih too closely, as he is easily disconcerted and is then apt to be uncivil. These schools all have a purely religious character, and are exclusive- lions of El-Islam. The mere reading and recitation of verses from the Koran being in itself considered a meritorious act, the great, object of these schools is to teach the pupils to recite the Koran by heart. Ea is provided with a copj of the sacred book, if he can afford to buy one, an ink and pen case (daw&yeh), and a tablet of metal or of wood painted white. After learning the alphabet, the pronunciation and the values of numbers, be is then taught the ninety-nine 'beautiful names of Allah' contained in the Koran, a knowled ;e oi which is necessary to enable him to repeal the ninety nine prayer of the Mohammedan rosarj (sebha). loy is then made to writ it the Fdtha. or Brsl chapter (sur'eh) of the Koran, which be reads often enough to impress it perfectly on his memory, swaying his body to and fro the while, whereby, b imagines, bis memory is rendered more pliant. Alter learn chapter, he next proceeds to learn the last, the last but one, and the others in the same inverted order, until be reaches the second, the rea- son being thai the chapters gradually diminish in Length from the ■ ■ ' • 'i .N b I be Ian at e is often difficult and ob no explanatii a, o that thi boy who knows the whole hook i u ually understands lmi little of it. ! the boj has learned the tn Koran in this way. the completion ol ;. celebration of the Khatmeh, a family festival, to which is Invited. 'I h. -e maintained bj the private enterprise oi the school- Bazaars. CAIRO. 3. Route. 251 masters themselves, who exact payment of 1-2 piastres per week from each pupil. There are in all about 280 schools of this kind at Cairo, pre- sided over by 290 teachers, and attended by 8600 pupils ; at Old Cairo there are 26 schools with 30 masters and 909 boys ; and at Bulak 41 schools with 42 masters and 1320 boys. — The 11 higher government schools are attended by 1480 pupils, while the foreign settlers support 57 schools with 247 teachers and 4340 pupils. In walking through the bazaars (see below") and other streets, the traveller will be interested in observing how industriously and skilfully most of the artizans work with their very primitive tools. The Carpenters (naggar), for example, seem to ply their craft with very tolerable success, without bench, vice, rule, or drill. In order to steady the piece of wood on which they are working they make use of the weight of their bodies, and sometimes of their teeth and their toes. For a rule they substitute a piece of string or a palm-twig, and for boring holes they use an iron spike imbedded in a circular piece of wood, which they turn by means of an instrument resembling a fiddle-bow (p. 257). Their principal tool consists of a small axe, which serves many different purposes. A number of other primitive tools are described at pp. 256, 257. — After the closing of the shops in the evening it is customary for the porters or watchmen to place their beds (sertr) of palm- twigs outside the entrances , where they spend the night , thus presenting a very curious and characteristic phase of Egyptian out-of-door life. The Bazaars t of Cairo (comp. p. 23), though inferior to those of Damascus and Constantinople, present to the European traveller so many novel features, and so many interesting traits of Oriental character, that he should endeavour to pay them repeated visits, in order to become acquainted with their peculiarities. Most of the bazaars consist of narrow, and often dirty, lanes, generally covered over with an awning to shade them from the sun, and flanked with rooms of various sizes, open towards the street, and about 3 ft. above the level of the ground (comp. p. 24). These lanes usually enclose a massive building of considerable size (khan), consisting of two stories, and containing an inner court, around which are grouped a number of magazines for goods. Some of the older of these buildings, particularly those in the Gameliyeh (p. 257) and the Khan el-Khalili (p. 255), are architecturally in- teresting, and possess handsome mushrebiychs. A considerable number of these khans form separate quarters of the city (Kara), which were formerly closed by massive, iron-mounted gates, still in some cases preserved ; and they were carefully guarded at night by watchmen appointed for the purpose. No one was permitted to •;■ Bazar is properly speaking a Persian word, the Arabic equivalent for which is slik. The' magazines of the wholesale merchants, with their large courts, are called wakkaleh. which the Franks have corrupted to Uccalch, Occal, or Okella (pp. 257, 279). ■J.:>2 Route 3. CAIRO. Bazaars. pass through the gates without undergoing an examination by the custodian, and this custom still prevails at Damascus and in t lie towns of Upper Egypt, such as Sifit. In former times, during the prevalence of the -Mameluke conflicts, which were always attended with the pillaging and assassination of many peaceful citizens, the gates of the khans frequently remained closed for several days together, for the purpose of affording protection against the out- rages of these lawless mercenaries. The principal market-days are Monday and Thursday, when the traffic in the narrow streets is so great that it becomes difficult or impossible to traverse them ; but it is on these occasions that the most characteristic scenes of Oriental life are witnessed. Ped- lers are seen forcing their way through the crowd, shouting at the top of their voices, sometimes carrying a small table with them, and frequently selling their wares by auction. So, too, we ob- serve coffee-sellers, water-bearers, nargileh-hawkers, and others, elbowing their way, lauding their commodities, and escaping accidents almost by a miracle. One of the noisiest frequenters of the bazaars is the daU&l, or auctioneer, who carries on his head or shoulders the goods he is instructed to sell, and runs up and down the lanes shouting 'hardy, har&g\ and adding the amount of the last bid he has received. However great the confusion may be, his practised ear instantly detects each new bid issuing from one of the dukkans, and he immediately announces the new offer — l bi'ishrtn kirsh\ Wishrin u nus\ and so on. The seller of the goods always accompanies the dallal to give his consent to the conclusion of the transaction. It is hardly possible to give the traveller any idea of the prices of the various commodities, as they depend on the demand, which iter in winter than in summer, and also on the character of the seller and the demeanour of the purchaser. We may also mention that many so-called Oriental articles, particularly silks and woollen stuffs, are now manufactured of inferior materials by European firms, and exported to Egypt. Some articles again, such as rugs and hangings, please the eye amid their native surround- ings, but are rarely suitable for European rooms; while others are more advantageously purchased in most European capitals than from the Oriental merchants themselves, with whom bargaining null and troublesome. So-called antiquities are largely sold at the hotels at exorbitant prices, far exceeding their true value, and many of them are even specially manufactured for the purpose. Caution in making a purchase is far more requisite in the East than in Europe, as Orientals regard skill in cheating simply as a desirable accomplishment. Those who purpose making large purchases had defer doing bo until thej have gained a little experience of the national peculiarities, and they should hi no case rel) on the re- umendations or advice of oommissionnaires and persons of a Bazaars. CAIRO. 3. Route. 253 similar class (comp. p. 233). Natives of the country may often be consulted with advantage as to prices, but the traveller must be prepared to pay more than persons familiar with the language and customs. The following description of the city is so arranged that even a new- comer will have little difficulty in finding his way without any other guide. If, however, time be limited, the traveller is recommended to get a commissionnaire or local dragoman (p. 233), to show him the bazaars in the following order. The Muski , with its E. continuation the Rue Neuve , is the chief thoroughfare of Cairo , nearly 1 M. in length, and runs in a nearly straight direction from W. to E., from the Ezbekiyeh place to the tombs of the khalifs. This street, the beginning of which has frequently been sketched by European artists, has now to a great extent lost its Oriental characteristics, but it still presents many picturesque and attractive features (comp. p. 244). Among the shops, many of which present quite a European exterior, are nu- merous tobacco and cigar stores, emporiums of clothing, and stalls of fez-makers, with the peculiarly shaped iron they use in their trade. (The price of a fez or tarbush varies from 2 fr. to 15 fr. according to the material with which it is lined.) On entering the Muski we observe on the right, above us, an Arabian school (p. 250). We ascend the street to a small place called the Rond-Point (PI. C, 3). Immediately before this place is reached, we diverge to the right, and follow the first lane to the left (running parallel with the Muski), passing a red and yellow mosque on the right, and disregarding the attraction of the Euro- pean glass wares sold here. Pursuing a straight direction (i.e., as straight as the crooked lanes admit of), we pass the end of a nar- row lane on the right, through which we perceive the entrance to an uninteresting Greek church, and the covered entrance to a bazaar lately burned down, on the left. Turning to 'the right, we next enter the Sftk el-Hamzawi (PI. C, 2, 3), or bazaar of the Christian merchants (Syrians and Copts), who vie with their Mohammedan fellow-tradesmen in the exorbitance of their demands, and whose chief wares are European calico, porcelain, and drugs (which last are sold at all the bazaars). Near the end of this street, a little before its junction with the broader street El-Ghurhjeh (see below), we observe on the right the Suk el-'Attarin, or spice-market, which is easily distinguished by its aromatic odours. The perfumes of Arabia, genuine and adulterated, wax-candles, and drugs are the chief commodities here. Attar of roses is sold by weight at high prices. The small bottles into which it is put have very narrow necks, through which one drop at a time only can pass. Customers should of course see that the bottles are accurately weighed be- forehand. Beyond the r Attarin Bazaar (still keeping the El-Glniriyeh car- riage way on onr left) we next enter its continuation, the Suk el- 254 Route 3. CAIRO. Bazaars. Fahhami (literally, coal-market; PI. D, 2), the bazaai for wares from Tunis and Algiers. We first observe drug-stalls, and then of light-coloured woollen and other stuffs, which, how- ever, are imported from Nimes and other places in Southern France, being now seldom or never manufactured at Tunis. Pursuing the same direction, parallel with the El-Ghuriyeh street, and passing a number of shoemakers' stalls (bawabishi |. we come to a broader covered passage (exactly opposite which is a modern okella, presenting no attraction), which we follow in the right i '.'« paces, and then take the first lane to the left. At f. of this lane lies a more open spot where undressed wool is exposed for sale. Lower down, a little to the left, we reach the Sukkariyeh, or bazaar for sugar, dried fruits ( auk] ). and similar wares. Adjoin- ing it is the Q&mi' el-Muaiyad (p. 272), now undergoing restora- tion, while facing us, at the end of the street. vises the handsome Hah ez-ZuwUeh (see p. 272), or Mutawelli. Opposite the outside of the gate is a house with a large grated window, and in the cor- ner is a column built into the wall, at which executions by stran- gulation formerly took place. In a straight direction we next enter the Shoemakers' Bazaar, formerly a school, an interesting building, I lie lirst story of which overhangs the lower and is borne by large brackets. The, large gateway (on the right) is still preserved; part of the interior has been altered, while the rest of it is in a dilapid- ated condition. — The same street then passes the stalls of the tent and flag-makers, and leads to the Boulenu-d Mohammed' Alt (p. 260 ). at the W. end of which are the mosques of Sultan Hasan ( p, 260) and liifaiyeh (p. 260), the latter being still unfinished. On the left, before this last is reached, is the entrance to the once cel- ebrated Suk es-Sellaha (PI. E, 2), or bazaar of the armourers, now reduced to three or four miserable stalls, where European weapons are sold. Keeping to the left, we traverse several crooked bines and reach the Sebi] Mohammed r Ali (see below) in the Ghurlyeh This last digression, however, is uninteresting. We return from the Shoemakers' Bazaar to the Bah ez-Zuweleh, reaching which we pass the unattractive Saddlers' Bazaar ( Sfik es-Surilgtyeh), and a police-office at the corner to the right. We now follow a broader street, the first part of which is called i he Sukkariyeh (see above). Beyond the Sebil Mohammed r Ali this is named El-Ghuriyeh from the mosque erected by Sultan El-Ghuri (p. 274), the small minaret of which, with its domes. in I he middle of the street. We follow this street in a straight direction nearly as far as the post of the ( lower) sentry on the left, a little before reaching whom we turn to the right into the Suk es-Sudan, or bazaar lor wares from the Si'iil/ni, consisting of chests, gum, dum-palm nuts, ill- tanned tiger skins, etc. (seep. 23G). Farther on, in a straight direction are the stalls of the Booksellers and Bookbinders. Bazaars. CAIRO. 3. Route. 255 Most of the booksellers are also scholars, hut they are not so fanatical as their brethren of Damascus, who sometimes decline to sell their books to Christians. Seated on their mastabas are frequently to be found va- rious other members of the learned, or would-be learned, world, who spend whole days here in interminable colloquies. Some of the book- sellers sell those works only which they have themselves published, while others keep an assortment of books from the printing-offices of I3ulak and others (p. 294). As the prices vary greatly in accordance with the demand and other circumstances, and there is no such thing as a fixed publishing price, pvirchasers should always endeavour to ascertain beforehand the true value of any work they wish to buy. As in the case of many other wares, the line between new and second-hand books is not so strictly drawn in the East as in Europe. The booksellers gen- erally keep catalogues, several feet in length, to refresh their memories regarding the state of their stock. The Koran, which is shown very re- luctantly to non-Muslims , is generally kept under lock and key, or at least separate from the other books. The books are not arranged side by side as in European shops, but piled up in a very inconvenient fashion. Many of them are sold in loose sheets , in which case the purchaser should see that the work is complete, as gaps are of frequent occurrence. The bindings usually consist of leather and pasteboard. Valuable books are often kept in cases of red sheepskin, out of which they are drawn by means of a loop. — The workmanship of the bookbinders, who like other Oriental artizans work in the open street, is generally cheap and durable. Red is their favourite colour. At the point where the street expands a little, before reaching the handsome W. entrance of the El-Azhar mosque (p. 287), we observe several houses with picturesque mushrebiyehs (p. 181). The next lane to the left leads us across the Rue Neuve, the pro- longation of the Muski (passing a large new school at the corner to the right), towards the large new minaret of the Hasanen Mosque (p. 292). Opposite to it, on the left, is a gateway through which we enter the Kh&n el-Khalili (PI. C, 2), which once formed the centre of the commercial traffic of Cairo. This building, which is said to have been founded so early as the end of the 13th cent, on the site of ruined tombs of the Klialifs by El-Ashraf Salaheddin Khalil (1290-93), one of the Bahrite Mameluke sultans, forms a distinct quarter of the city, and is intersected by a main street and numerous cross-lanes, formed by long rows of stalls of tradesmen and artizans, all covered over. This is the headquarters of the silk and carpet merchants and the vendors of trinkets. The usual price of a light keffiyeh (shawl for the head) is 12-14 fr., and of one of heavier quality, with red and yellow stripes and interwoven with gold thread , 20-25 fr. The fringes are generally loosened and adjusted after the completion of the purchase. Many of the so-called Damascene silks, and particularly the lighter keffiyehs in pleasing co- lours, are manufactured at Lyons and Crefeld. The table-covers of red, blue, or black cloth, embroidered with coloured silk (35-100 fr.), are well worthy of notice. The letters with which they are adorned rarely have any meaning. The Khan Khalili contains two large Cap-pet Bazaars, one (the smaller) immediately to the right of the entrance (see above), and the other at the W. end, to the left, a little before we reach the broader and better lighted Suk en-Nahhasin (p. 256). The latter of these two bazaars, established in the court of a building 2,*i(> Route .3. CAIRO. Bazaars. in the early Arabian style, is a favourite subject with European artists. The prices of the carpets, like those of other Oriental goods, are liable to great fluctuation. Those of Baghdad and Brussa (in Asia Minor) .1 •(■ the most, sought after, but imitations, manufactured at Brussels, are said to be not uncommon. They are chiefly remarkable for the har- monious arrangement of their colours. As soon as a purchaser appears, alers spread their wares over the whole court fur his inspection. If the traveller is pressed for time he had better not attempt to make a purchase, as several hours must not unfrequently be spent in negociation before a satisfactory bargain is concluded. Leaving this court, we cross the Suk -en-Nahhasin (see below) in a somewhat oblique direction, and pass through a very insigni- ficant gate into the Suk es-Saigh (pi. Siyagh ), or bazaar of the gold and silversmiths, which consists of several crooked lanes, barely a yard in width, through which the traveller will sometimes find it difficult to thread his way. The occupants of these crowded alleys keep their wares in glass cases or under glass shades. Their stalls present a very poor appearance , but their filagree-work is some- times very good. Spurious gold and silver wares are not unfrequently sold as genuine. The bellows of the silversmith are generally of amusingly primitive construction, consisting of a conical bag of goatskin, open at one end, where it is provided with wooden handles, and terminating at the other end in a tube, usually an old gun-barrel, which runs under a small mound of clay to the fire. The finest ninety-carat silver, which is never sold except in its native condition, is frequently purchased with a view to the manufacture of plate and trinkets in the house of the purchaser himself and under his immediate supervision, in order that all possibility of fraud may be obviated. The finest quality manufactured at the shops is the eighty-carat silver, the workmanship bestowed on which is usually worth a quarter to a half the value of the raw material; the next quality is the seventy-live carat; and, lastly, there are inferior qualities containing fiftj per cent or less of pure silver. The silver manufactured at the shops ought to bear a govern- tamp, indicating the number of carats it contains. As BOOn a< a standard of price is agreed on, the article is paid for in accordance with its weight in dirhem (drachms), and with its assaj as slated bj the seller. The _. j 1 1 :i 1 i i % of the metal is then attested by a government official, who is always in attendance, and the article is taken to the customs-office, where a duty is exacted from the purchaser. The whole transaction is therefore Of B BOmewhat complicated character, and the formal attesta- tion by the official affords no guarantee whatever of the true quality of the metal. The only satisfactory plan is to purchase the raw material, and, like the natives of the country, get it manufactured under persona] supervision. In the Jewish quarter, to the W. of the Suk es-Saigh, are the booths of tin- Jeweller* (Qohargtyeh), where, however, there is nothing to see, as aow their wares to intending purchasers only. From th is labyrinth of lanes we return to the Suk en-Nahhasin, or market of the copper-smiths, immediately to the left of whieh are t lie imposing facades of several contiguous mosques, the tirst two of which contain the tombs of Sultan Kalaun and his son Mo- hammed en-Nasir | p. '277). This bazaar presents little attraction. hut - of the Wabian copper Ink-bottles (dawayeh; 4-10 IV., a rding to the style of the engraving with which they are Bazaars. CAIRO. 3. Route. 257 adorned) may be purchased as a souvenir. Several pipe- makers (shibukshi) are also established here. The chief occupation of the pipe-makers is the boring of pipe-stems. Their primitive apparatus consists of an instrument resembling a bow with which they turn a wooden cylinder terminating in an iron spike. The string of the bow is pressed against the wood, and the bow is moved to and fro, somewhat like that of a violin, so as to turn the borer. Not- withstanding the simplicity of this tool, and although they merely steady the stem with their hands , they execute their work with surprising ra- pidity and accuracy. — The same kind of implement is used by the turners. The wood on which they are working is secured on two nails in two parallel upright pieces of wood and turned with the bow with the right hand, while the work is done with a chisel held in the left. Leaving the bazaars for a short time, we may now turn to the right, and follow the broad, newly constructed street to the Bet el- Kadi { PI. 2), or 'House of the Judge'. The appointment of kadi is made by the government at Constantinople, and is usually bestowed on favourites, as it is said to be a very lucrative post. In the large court on the right is an open verandah , resting on columns witli early Arabian capitals (takhta bosh; p. 186). Part of the building still dates from the time of Saladin (1193). Within the building, the entrance to which consists of an open verandah, the kadi holds his court on Thursdays. This court was formerly the supreme tri- bunal of the country, but its jurisdiction is now limited to cases in which the law laid down by the Koran is to be administered, and particularly to actions between married persons. The large extent to which the court is patronised shows that polygamy is not parti- cularly conducive to domestic harmony. Crossing the court, and passing through the gate opposite, we next follow the windings of the narrow lane to the left as far as a sentry posted by the Garni' Yusuf Gamali. [To the right of this mosque begins the street called Gameliyeh, leading to the Bab en-Nasr (p. 280). It consists of a number of large warehouses (okellas ; p. 251), and is the headquarters of the Red Sea trade. The staple commodities here are gums, coffee, mother-of-pearl, tortoise- shell, skins, ostrich-feathers, wax, incense, attar of roses, and various essences, the ports from which they are brought being Jedda, Hodeda, 'Aden, Zela f , Berbera, 3Iasaua f , Souakin, and Koser. As we shall have to traverse the Gameliyeh on our way to the Tombs of the Kkalifs, we need not now visit it.] "Where the street divides, beyond the above-mentioned sentry, we keep to the left until we regain the Suk en-Nahhasin, near a fountain (Sebil 'Abder-Rahman Kikhya; p. 279). We then follow the bazaar-street to the right to the Bab el-Futuh (p. 280), and proceed thence to the left to the Rue Neuve (Muski, p. 253). The above-named bazaars are the most important at Cairo, the others being unattractive. We may, however, add the names of some of the other trades, as given by Mr. Lane : — Tdgir, cloth and stuff merchants ; khurdagi, dealers in iron goods and small wares; khaiydt, tailors; sabbdgh, dyers; reffa, stocking-makers; Baedeker's Egypt I. 2nd Ed. 17 258 Route 3. CAIRO. Ezbeklyeh. hdbbdk, embroiderers and silk-lace makers; 'alch'id, manufacturers of silk braid : 'ntt'tr. druggists and perfumers; dakhdkhni, tobac- conists; fdkihdni, fruiterers; zeiy&t, oil-merchants, who also sell butter, cheese, honey, etc.; khudari, vegetable dealers; gezzdr, butchers; farrdn, bakers; kahwegi, coffee-dealers; shammd'a, wax and candle-dealers ; simsdr, brokers; samkari, tinsmiths; hadddd, smiths; sd'dti, watchmakers: fatdtri, cake-sellers; sammdk, flsh- dealers; kharrdt, turners. The Ezbekhjclt and tlie New Isma'itiya Quarter. The central point of the Tsma'tltya Quarter (p. 258), which is intersected by broad and shadeless streets bearing French names, is the — Place Ezbekiyeh ( I'l. < . i. 5), or simply the Ezbektyeh, which is named after the heroic Emir l-'.zbek , the general of Sultan Kait Bey I p. '268"), who brought the general and son-in-law of Ba- jesid I. asa captive to Cairo. A mosque was erected here in honour of his victory ; and, though the building no longer exists, its name still attaches to the site. This was once the focus of the Oriental traffic of Cairo, but the native industries have gradually to a great extent been absorbed by Europeans. The principal hotels, several of the consulates, numerous cafe's, palatial dwelling-houses, hand- some shops, and the theatres are situated in this magnificent place. in the centre of which are Pleasure Grounds, with the luxuriant vegetation peculiar to the marvellous climate of Egypt. The gar- dens afford a delightful promenade, especially in the afternoon, and also present a very attractive appearance by gaslight. They were laid out in 1870 by M. Barillet (p. 76), formerly chief gardener to the city of Paris. They are octagonal in shape, and cover an area of 20'/2 acres; the walks are altogether 1-1/g M. in length. The gardens contain a variety of rare and beautiful trees and shrubs, and the open spaces are planted with the Lippia nodi- 10 supply the place of grass, which does not thrive in this dry climate. The grounds are open to the public in the forenoon, hut in the afternoon a charge of 10 paras silver I oo change given) is made for admission. An Egyptian band, which generally per- forms European music, plays here daily from 5 to about 8 p.m. Among the other attractions of the place are several cafes, a thea- i re where Italian comedies are performed in summer (p. 233), a French restaurant, where a good supper is procurable, and a pho- tographer's studio. An artificial hill with a belvedere commands a due view, and below it is a pretty grotto. The garden was at first I almost exclusively by Europeans, but it is gradually be- coming tin- fashion for Arabs to send their veiled wives and their children to promenade here, while the Europeans of the better • now treat it with unreasonable neglect. The trees, Bhrubs, and flowers thrive admirably, the greatest show of blossom being New Town. CAIRO. 3. Route. 259 in May and June. Invalids who spend the winter in Cairo for the sake of their health will find these beautiful grounds a very plea- sant resort, though they should he careful to leave them before sun- down, after which the air here is very damp. Similar gardens, but of smaller extent, have been laid out by M. Ba- rillet at Gezireh (p. 328), in the island of Roda fp. 31Sj , at Shubra (p. 331), at Kubbeb (p. 332), and at Gizeli (p. 341). The present superin- tendent of gardens is M. Delehevallerie. — Private gardens of M. Cicco- lani, see p. 331. The New Town of Isma'iliya was begun about the year 1865, when the Khedive presented sites here gratuitously to any one who would undertake to erect on each a house worth at least 30,000 fr. within eighteen months. Most of the houses are architecturally uninteresting, but there is a fair sprinkling of handsome buildings. At the end of the Muski, on the left, is the small place named Atab el-Kadra (PI. C, 3). It was formerly adorned with an eques- trian statue of Ibrahim Pasha, but this was removed during the re- volution of 1882 and is now in the magazine of the Bulak Museum. On the W. side of the place is the International Tribunal (PL 99, (' i ■; p. 7), beyond which is the Theatre Francais (PI. 98). On the S. side of the Ezbekiyeh is the Opera House (PI. 75), and to the right of it(W.) the ponderous New Hotel (PI. a). Opposite, on the W. side of the Ezbekiyeh, is a large house belonging to Sign. Ma- tatia, the banker, built in the Louis XV. style, and let out in quar- tiers. To the W. of the New Hotel are the German Church (PL 10) and the English Church (PL 8), which still lacks its spire. Still farther to the W. is the residence of M. Delort, the banker, in the early Arabian style, the interior of which, partly fitted up with relics from old Arabian houses, is worthy of a visit. The ministerial offices and several palaces of the Khedive, including the Palais 'Abidln (PL 76), built in the form of a horse-shoe, are also situated in this new quarter of the city. Opposite the Palais f Abidin is the D1u\m el-Wahf, or government office for mosques and other ec- clesiastical property. The consulates are also all in this neigh- bourhood ( comp. p. 232). Near the French consulate (PL 19 ; C, 5) is the house of Count St. Maurice, in the Arabian style, now occu- pied by the French consul-general. The palaces of the Egyptian grandees are generally enclosed by high walls, so that only the roofs are visible to passers-by. Some of them will be briefly mentioned when we have occasion to pass them (pp. 317, 341). It need hardly be added that the traveller in search of Oriental scenes will not care to devote much time to this modern and almost entirely European quarter, but will hasten to make acquaintance with the Arabian parts of the city. 17* 260 Route 3. CAIRO. GamV Saltan Hasan. S uthern Quarters. Boulevard Mohammed 'Ali. Odmi' Saltan Hasan. Citadel. Q&mV Mohammed 'Ali. Qdmf Baldheddin Tusuf and Sultmdn Pasha. Joseph's Well. Gdmi' ibn Tutun, h'ait Bey, and Seidiyeh Zenab. Yiceroyal Library at Derb el-Gamdmtz. Mon- astery '■/' Dervishes in the JIabbanhjeh. Bab ez-ZuwUeh. Cdati' el-Muaiyad. Gdmi' el-Ohuri. Starting from the Place Atab el-Kadra, between the Muski and the Ezbekiyeh (see above), the Boulevard Mohammed' Ali, 1860yds. in length, leads straight to the foot of the citadel. At the end. of this long street is the Place Sultan Hasan (PI. F, 2), with two large mosques. That on the left is the Garni' Rifa'iyeh (PI. 59 ). named after an order of dervishes (p. 150), and erected entirely at the expense of the mother of the ex-Khedive Isma'il, but still unfinished. On the right, adjoining the Place Rumeleh, rises the — **Ganii' Sultan Hasan | PI. 44), the 'superb mosque', and the finest existing monument of Arabian architecture. It was begun in the year 757 of the Hegira (A.D. 1356), and completed in three years by Melik en-Nasir Abu'l-Ma'ali Hasan ibn Kalaun, but is now in a neglected and dilapidated condition. Sultan Hasan, the sixth son of Sultan Xasir (p. 277), was still a minor when he ascended the throne in A.D. 1346. ' At the end of the vigorous reign of Nasir id. 1341), which lasted 43 years, the Mamelukes and emirs revalted, and the state of anarchy which now ensued was farther aggra- vated by the prevalence of the plague or 'black death 1 (1348-49), which exterminated whole families, whose property was immediately seized by the government. Makrizi (p. 242), with the usual exaggeration of Orientals, that no fewer than 15-20,000 persons died at Cairo in a single day. After having been dethroned in 1351, Hasan regained possession of his sceptre three years later, but in 1361 he was again dethroned and ass- assinated. The lofty walls with their shallow niches, pierced with six or seven windows one above the other, the huge gateway (see be- low), and the S. minaret which is still preserved, present a ma- jestic appearance, especially now that the incongruous additions of later date have been removed. The building is in the form of an irregular pentagon, on the E. side of which the minarets and the ileum (see below) form symmetrical projections. The windows in the side are disposed somewhat irregularly, and the wall termi- nates in a broad cornice. The angles of the edifice are embellished with columns built into the wall, with a wreath of pendentives or 'stalactites' at the top, forming to some extent a new order of capital. According to the legend, Sultan Hasan, after the completion of the work, ordered the architect's hands to be cut off, in order that he might not erect a second building of equal splendour. (Similar myths In various parts of Europe record that architects have been blinded from the same motive. ) The mosque of Hasan has always been the chief rallying point of the ringleaders of insurrections and all kinds of public demonstrations. One of the Minarets, as Makrizi informs us, was overthrow n by (rami' Sultan Hasan. CAIRO. 3. Route. 2G1 an earthquake, killing three hundred persons. The southernmost is the highest minaret in existence, measuring '280 ft. (that of Ei- Uhuri 213 ft., Kalaun 193 ft., Muaiyad 167 ft., El-Azhar 167 It.. Kait Bey and Barkuk 164 ft., Tulun 132 ft., 'Amr 105 ft.). The **Gateway on the N. side, in the Boulevard Mohammed r Ali, situated 10 ft. ahove the street, is unrivalled in its imposing dimensions. It forms a niche, 66 ft. high, with regular arabesques in sculptured stone, and the principal cornice is in the 'stalactite' form. An insignificant flight of steps ascends to the entrance. From the Entrance (PL 1) we first enter a Vestibule (PI. 2), with an interesting cupola and stone arabesques, where a black spot, said to be a blood-stain, is shown on the floor. We then turn to the left, then to the right, and afterwards to the left again, and thus reach the Inner Court (PI. 3 ; before entering which we must put on straw-shoes ; fee 1 piastre on leaving), 38 yds. in length, and 35 yds. in width, presenting a very interesting and picturesque appearance. In the centre is the Meda (PI. 4), or foun- 1 uin ttfirio'jKt 8 1. Chief Entrance (from the Boul. Mohammed r Ali). 2. Vestibule. 3. Hosh el -Garni'. 4. Meda, or Fountain for the ablutions of the Egyptians. 5. Hanefiyeh, or Fountain for the ablutions of the Turks. 6. Open chambers for prayer. 8. Dikkeh. 9. Kursi. 10. Sanctuary. 11. Mambar. 12. Kibla. 13. Entrance to the Mausoleum. 14. Maksiira. 15. Tomb of Sultan Hasan. 16. Kibla. 17. Minaret. 18. Fountain. 19. Schools. 20." Chambers for carpets. 21. Offices. 22. Sultan's Entrance. tain where Egyptian worshippers perform their ablutions, to the right of which is the Hanefiyeh (PL 5), or fountain for the Turks, who formerly kept entirely aloof from their fellow-worshippers. Notwithstanding their dilapidated condition, both these fountains 262 Routes. CAIRO. Citadel. arc very characteristic examples of Arabian architecture. Over the entrance to the principal dome is inscribed the dato 764 of the Hegira(A.D. 1363). The interior of the mosque is cruciform, and the four arms of the cross are roofed with lofty, pointed vaulting. In the S.E. arm is the Lhcan el-Gami (PI. 10), or Sanctuary, with a stone Mambar I 1*1. 111. from which the sultan sometimes addressed the people. The frieze is embellished with a finely executed Curie inscription. Numerous lamps hang from the ceiling. To the right of the mambar is the entrance (PI. 13) to the Makmra (PI. 14), an interesting and majestic structure, which has been recently restored ; it is cov- ered with a dome, 180 ft. in height, and contains the Tomb of Sultan Ilasan. The pendentives in the corners, which are still partly preserved, betray the influence of the classical stylo. Around the walls runs a frieze with texts from the Koran in large letters intertwined. On leaving this mosque, we proceed to the E. (right) to the circular Place Rumeleh, from which the Mecca pilgrimage starts (p. 238), and to the Place Mehemet Ali {Mensktyeh Gedldeh, or New Place), formerly called the Karumedan, on the S. side of the Rumeleh. From the E. side of the Rumeleh a broad carriage-road, passing two mosques (on the left: the Garni' Mahm&di, PI. 52, and beyond it the Gdmf 'Abderrdhmdn, PI. 41, with a decaying minaret), and affording a view of the Tombs of the Khalifs to the left, ascends in windings to the Citadel. A shorter and steeper route, which may be ascended on donkey-back, diverges to the right near the beginning of the carriage-road, passing through the Bab el-Azab, flanked witli its huge towers. It was in this narrow and crooked lane, enclosed by lofty walls, and formerly the chief approach to the citadel, that the massacre of the Mamelukes took place on 1st March, 1811, by order of Mohammed Ali (p. 106). Amin Bey, the only one who survived, effected his escape by making his horse leap into the moat, through a gap in the wall. The Citadel (El-Kal'a; PI. I'. G, 1. 2), which should be vis- ited repeatedly for the sake of the view, was erected in 1166 by Salaheddin I p. 242 I. with stones taken from the small pyramids at Gizeh, the site having: been selected, according to Arabian his- torians, owing to the fact that meat could be kept fresh here twice i as in any other part of Cairo. Although the fortress com- mands the city, its site is unfavourable in respect that it is itself completely commanded by the heights of the Mokat^am, rising i: immediately to the S. ; thus in 1805 Mohammed Ali was enabled, b of a batterj planted on the Gebel Giyflshi (p. 335), in compel Khuishid Pasha to surrender the Citadel We ciiicr the inner court ef the Citadel b\ the li&b tl-C Gate I an rig a walled passage, e on a terr.e . — Gdmi' Mohammed 'Ali. CAIRO. 3. Route. 263 *Gami r Mohammed 'Ali | PI. 53"), the 'Alabaster Mosque', whose lofty and graceful minarets are so conspicuous from a distance as to form one of the landmarks of Cairo. The building was be- gun by Mohammed f Ali, the founder of the present Egyptian dy- nasty, on the site of a palace which was blown up in 1824 ; and in 1857 it was partly completed in its present form by Sa'id Pasha (p. 107). In plan it re- sembles the Turkish mosques built on the model of the Hagia Sofia at Constantinople. The execution of the design displays but little ar- tistic taste , and the treatment of the ma- terial is somewhat un- satisfactory. The ala- baster used for the in- crustation of the ma- sonry consists partly of blocks, and partly of slabs, and was obtained from the quarries near Beni Suef, which were known in ancient times, but had long been dis- used and forgotten. The beautiful yellow tint of the stone soon fades when exposed to the sun. The alabaster in- crustation of the S. fa- cade, is, however, new and fresh. The Entrance (PI. 1 1. Entrance. 2. Kursi. 3. Mambar. 4. Kibla. 5. Grated space for the Sultan. 6. Tomb of Mo- where we put on straw bammed c Ali. 7. Sultan"-; Entrance. 8. Great „ „i„<.t, „i,™, . e^ a A Gallerv. 9. Entrance to the — 10. Sahn el- Or Cloth Shoes ; fee 1 Qgmir > n Hanefiyeh . 12 . Small Fountain. p.t.) is on the N. Side. 13. Ascent to the clock-tower. 14. Point of view. The interior, consisting of a large quadrangle, with domes resting on 4 huge pillars, pre- sents an imposing appearance ; and the ceiling is effectively painted. The Kursi, Mambar, and Kibla possess no particular attraction. At the S.E. angle is the Tomb of Mohammed 'Ali (A. 1849), en- closed by a handsome railing (PI. 6), opposite to which is a space set apart for the Sultan, also enclosed by a railing (PI. 5). 204 Route 3. CAIRO. Gdmi' Salaheddhi Tusuf. To the 8. of the last is the S\ a Christian in imitation of the Ka'k-i at upicd two jears. Contrary to the practice followed in the case of earlier mosques, the whole of the building was con- Btructed of entirely new materials. The walls consist of brick, coated with stucco. ■ 2 Hambar. :!. Dlkkeli. 'i. Kursi. 5. Railin liill ui which fell in 1875), separatin th I iwan el-Gami r (sanc- 6 Hanefiyeh. 1. Latrines. 8. Hinaret. 'J. SJkiyen. lo. faved path . Garni' ibn Tulun. CAIRO. 3. Route. 267 The Entrance (PI. a) to the mosque is on the E. side, and we reach the interior by traversing the S. part of the Liwan. The mosque originally had two entrances from each of the three outer courts (see Plan). The Sarin el-Gamv\ which we first enter, is a spacious quadrangle, 99 yds. square. The dome-covered structure (PI. 6) in the centre was destined to be the tomb of the founder; but, as he died in Syria (see p. 265), it was fitted up as a Hanefi- yeh, or basin for ablution before prayer, and still serves that purpose. On the N., W., and S. sides of the court of the mosque run arcades, which were at one time converted into cells for the recep- tion of paupers and cripples. The character of the building, which must once have presented a very imposing and harmonious ap- pearance, has thus been seriously injured. The Arabian historians Telate that Ahmed was so charmed with the edifice when completed that he presented the architect with 10,000 dinars, and he is said to have defrayed the whole of the cost of its construction out of one of the treasures found by him (p. 102). The pointed arches of the arcades are slightly depressed, and have a tendency towards the horseshoe form, a shape which is completely developed in the lower stories of the minaret (see below). Between the openings of the arcades are introduced pointed arches or niches, partly for purposes of support, and partly by way of ornament. The central pillars, which fell in 1814, once bore marble tablets with Curie inscriptions, recording the date of the building of the mosque, but these have since been destroyed. The Liwan, or Sanctuary, on the E. side, through which we have entered the building, contains five series of arcades, and in each of the other sides of the court there are two series. "With a ■view to exclude all sound of the outside world, the external wall of this chamber of prayer was separated from the street by a row of shops, and the three other sides were isolated by the introduction of outer courts beyond them, enclosed by lofty walls (see Plan). All the angles in the interior are filled with columns built into the walls, extending two-thirds of the way up, without bases, and with imperfectly defined capitals in plaster. At certain places in the pillars and the masonry longitudinal beams of wood have been introduced for the purpose of strengthening the building, but they are visible only where the external incrustation has fallen off. The perforated attics, the gratings of stucco, the ornamentation, and the Cufic inscriptions in stucco are all executed in strict conformity with the Byzantine- Arabian style. In the Kibla (PI. 1), however, we observe two marble columns with capitals of more pronounced Byzantine form. The upper part of the niche is adorned with gilded mosaic, and the lower part with inlaid marble, while above is a dome with stalactites. The *Mambar ( PI. 2), a masterpiece of wood- carving, was probably restored when the mosque was repaired by El-Melik el-Mansur in the year 690 of the 11* gira. 208 Route 3. CAIRO. Garni' Kait Bey. The roof, with its open timber-work and octagonal recesses, con- Btxucted of the trunks of date-palms and overlaid with sycamore wood, formerly rested on 158 rectangular pillars of brick, coated with stucco. The friezes, bearing Cuflc inscriptions, are also of sycamore wood. The outer court on the W. side contains a Sakiyeh (P. 9) and the singular Minaret (PI. 8), with Its external winding staircase, the design of which is said to have been suggested to Tulun by a strip of paper wound round his finger, and which is the only one of the kind except that of the Mabkhara of the GamT Hakim (p. 279). The minaret commands a good survey of the oldest build- ings of Cairo, but, owing to its ruinous condition, the ascent is now prohibited. (Fee to the attendant who shows theLiwan 1-2 piastres). Outside the entrance to the mosque we turn to the right, and then to the right again. Passing the S. side of the mosque, where we observe several handsome mushrebiyehs on the left side of the street, and turning a little to the left, we traverse several lanes and alleys, built on what was formerly the hill of Kal'at el-Kebsh (p. 265), and reach the small, but once handsome — Garni' Kait Bey (PI. 48), which, like most of the buildings of its period, long lay in a neglected condition, and was only lately saved from complete ruin. This mosque was erected in the 15th cent., and in plan resembles the Tomb of Kait Bey (p. 286). Kaid or Kait Bey (1468-96) was one of the last independent Manielnke sultans of Egypt. Both as a general and a diplomatist he successfully maintained his position against the Porte (Sultans Mohammed and Bajazid), ami even inflicted serious losses on the Turks; but the refractory Mame- lukes obstructed his undertakings, and in 1496 compelled him to abdicate in favour of his son Mohammed, a boy of fourteen. The door, with its bronze covering, is about 45 ft. in height. The mosque is about 26 yds. in length and 22 yds. in width. The attics have almost entirely fallen in, but a graceful minaret still exists. Opposite the Kibla is a gallery, serving as a dikkeh, which is accessible from the staircase to the minaret. The principal arches, Which approach the horseshoe shape, though distinctly pointed, are tastefully decorated. Tlic mambar is richly embellished with wood-carving. The mosaics on the pavement and the walls are also worthy of notice. Bakshish, l fa piastre for each person. In a small place on the Khalig, or canal traversing the city, about 550 yds. to theN.AV. of the mosque of Kait Bey, lies the Garni' es-Seiyideh Zenab (PI. 72; 1". <■. i ), which was begun at the close of last century, but not completed until after the Trench invasion (in the year of the Ilegira T216), and which has been recently en- larged. The mosque, richly embellished v< ith ancient columns. cOnt- lie tomb ef Zenab, daughter of [mam 'Ali, and granddaughter Tropin t (hernwTId, see p. 237), consisting of a sarcophagus, enclosed b\ a bronze railing, with a lofty dome above it (shown by special permission only). — Outside the mosque, to the right of the entrance. i 3 the sarcophagus of another Mohammedan saint. Library. CAIRO. 3. Route. 269 A long series of tortuous streets, called Derh el-Oamanvz ('sycamore street'), running not far from the canal, leads hence towards the N. to the Boulevard Mehemet Ali. After fully half-a- mile we come to a small open space by the canal, shaded by some fine acacias. The gate on the right leads to the viceroyal ^Library [Kutubkhaneh, PL 30), founded by the Khedive Isma'il on 24th March, 1870, in the left wing of the office of the minister of public worship. The collection consists of a number of books formerly preserved in various other institutions, and of others purchased or presented by the Khedive, and is dedicated to the use of the public. One of the finest presentations to the collection is the valuable library of Mustafa Pasha, which occupies a separate room. The whole library consists of about 25,000 vols., chiefly Arabic and Turkish works, and there is a small European department, prin- cipally containing scientific works in French, which is to be gradu- ally extended. The library is open to the public from 3 to 6 and from 7 to 10 o'clock by Arabian time, i.e. about three hours in the forenoon and three hours in the afternoon, and the officials are instructed to afford visitors all the information in their power. Rooks must be consulted in the reading-room, the use of which is accorded to persons provided with a permission from the ministry of public instruction or with a certificate from their consul , bear- ing their names, and available for a year. The library is closed on Fridays ; and during the month of Ramadan it is open in the afternoon only. The chief credit of arranging and increasing this tine collection of books belongs to two Germans, Dr. Stern and Dr. Spitta-Bey (d. 1883), but the present director is an Arab shekh, named Murad Effendi. The liberality with which the treasures of Muslim literature are thus thrown open to the European public is deserving of all praise. A spe- cial feature of the library, possessed by no other Oriental collection available to Franks, consists of the Masdhif, or copies of the Koran, collected fi-oni various mosques of Cairo, and now preserved from de- struction. They are remarkable for their large size, superb execution, and great age, and constitute the finest existing specimens of Arabian art. The oldest specimen of the Koran is one in the Cufic, or early Arabian, character, 12 inches in length, and 8 3 /4 inches in width. It contains one- half of the Koran only, and is in a very damaged condition, having, moreover, once been injured by fire. The titles of the surehs are bordered with gold, and the carefully written text illuminated with coloured letters. According to the testimony of a shekh who saw the 'noble book' in its perfect condition this Koran was written by Ga'/ar es-Sddik, son of Mohammed el-Bakir, son of' 'Ali Zen el- f Abidin, son of Husen, son of 'Ali, son of Abu Talib and son-in-law of the Prophet. This Ga'far was a great chemist and scholar, whose pupil Tartusi, according to Ibn Khallikau (1,147, ed. of Bulak), once stated that he had written about 500 different pamphlets. He lived in the years 80-148 of the Hegira, and this Koran would thus be about 1150 years old. There is considerable doubt'as to the accuracy of this story, but the MS. is certainly of very early date. The other fine large copies of the Koran, about twenty in all, are of later origin, most of them having been executed by order of the sultans of the Bahrite Mamelukes (.1260-1382) and of the Circassian Mamelukes (1382-1516), while a few of them date from the still later period of the Osman sultans. 270 Route 3. CAIRO. Library. One of the m ting of these is the d er-Razz&k, written by 'Abd er-R Abilfath in the year 590 ot th II. jira, and 'dedicated to the mosque of Husen. II 1 i by8 3 /* inches. This Koran is more remarkable than beauty. To the superscription of each sfti I both the number of verses and that of the words and l< tti traditional utterances of the Prophet connected with the chapl m, — a most laborious piece of work, resembling what has been done by Jewish scholars in preparing copies of the old Testa r copy, dating from 635 of the Hegira, l2?/i by lO'/s inches, which -I to the mosque of Husen, has its titles in gold, bul it is in a dam:, ;ed i ondition. Next in interest is a Koran of Sultan Mt KalaHn (1293-1341), 21 by '14 inches, written by Mined Ytt'suf, a Turk, in It is written entirely in gilded characters, aiel there a second copy of a similar description. Several other Korans date from the reign of .Sultan Sha'b&n 1 1363-77), grandson of the last named, to 5 were dedicated. Tie ti ig from 769, '.'7 ' '■< b; - has not its titles writ! laracter, and the headings 'in the name of God the all-merciful 1 are in gold. Of in.- date and similar size is the Koran of ETiondabaraka, mother an Sha'ban. The first t> written in gilded and co characters, blue being the prevailing colour, and are illuminated with the next two are in gold, embellished with faint [Ui ■ and the whole work is written in a bold and excellent Btyle. Another copy of Sultan Slia'lian. dating from ?70 ot the same width, but a liti 1 tains some beautiful workmanship on th The text is wider than thai of the last, and the hook is hound in two vol- Another and still larger copy, dating from the same year, met .'i'_' :i i by 21 inches. All these Last were destined \<>\- the school in the Khult et-Tabb&neh (street of the straw-sellers), founded by Khondabaraka, the sultan's mother. Lastly we may mention another copy written in i is. by order of fin' same prince, by 'Ali ibn Mo tfokaltib, and gilded by Ibr&htm el-Amedi, from which that these Korans were sometimes the work of several different hands. This copy measures 28 by 20'/i inches, and above each sureh i- recorded tin number of words and letters it contains. All these masahif are written on thick and strong paper, and vie with each other in in exhibit no great variety, but the^ are executed with the most els care and neatness. The text of 1h.se Korans is provided with red written above certain passages to indicate where the tone of tin- reader's is to he raise. 1. lowered, or prolonged. Collection contains three Korans of the reign of Sultan Jirtrki'ik Oldest Of Which, executed in 769, no a ore- 1 1 l.\ . order of Mohammed ibn Muhanimed. SUrnamed llm i I by'Abdervahmdn es-S&igh. with one pen in sixty days, and revised by Muham- med ibn Ahmed Lb'n 'AM, surnamed Elkufti. A second copy, of the same sul- tan's reign, and of similar size, has it- lir-t and I ■ ! in the same style as those of other copies, hut the modern workmanship is inferior to the ancient, a smaller Koran, of t lie year 801, measuring 23 by 19'/2 inches, is written entirely in' gilded characters. To Sultan i'm-H'j ( 13'.i!l- 1 112 1. the on of Barkuk, onci belonged a copy i to die library from t be i iiyad. It measures 37 b thes, and was also written bj 'Abderri me skilful penman who had been previously Barkuk, and the author hi a pamphlet, entitled l i el-Kit&b riting'), and now preserved in this library. Fi i a line copy. 3S1 ._. l,y 27 inches, written h\ Mi dni, surnam I tan '■.', kh el-MahmAdi M (1412-21). py which once belonged to Kait-Bep (1468-96), datin : than the last, and unfortunately in a very i .in in i he collection, mi To the p.ri,,d of' Hi'' I >sm niall Library. CAIRO. 3. Route. 271 mushaf of Safiya, mother of Sultan Mi hammed Khan, who caused fifty- two copies to be written by Mohammed ibn Ahmed el-Khalil el-Tebrizi. It dates from 988, and measures I'i by 9>/3 inches. In it. as in one of the other copies, a black line alternates with a gilded one. and the first few pages are very beautifully executed. A copy of Huseh-Bey Khemashdrgi, 2U/2 by 16 3 /4 inches, is written in a smaller character. The library also boasts of many other valuable Korans, chiefly written in the Persian character. One of these, 17i/ 2 by 15 inches, presented by an Indian hokmdar to the Khedive, has a Persian commentary written in red between the lines of the text, and is beautifully illuminated at the beginning and at the end. Another copy, presented by a prince of Bukhara, contains four commentaries, two in Arabic by Bedawi and Gelalen, and two in Per- sian. Another gift of the same donor was the prayer-book -Daldil el- Khairut\ written on a golden ground, and furnished with a Persian trans- lation. There is also a Koran about 9 inches only in length, illuminated with gilded flowers, and 'dating from the year 1109 of the Hegira. It was written by Mohammed Ruh Allah, and contains the thirty different parts of the Koran on thirty pages. Each line begins with an alif. the first letter of the Arabic alphabet — a most laborious performance. Another Koran, onee the property of the Sultan Elga Elyusfi, measuring 2U 1 i by 16 inches, is written in two different handwritings, the larger being named. Thuluthi, and the smaller Neshi. The highest efforts of Arabian calligraphy and illumination are also displayed in several Moghrebin MSS., and in a number of single leaves bearing texts from the Koran or sayings of the prophet. The ancient Muslims bestowed the utmost care on these precious copies of the Koran , and their descendants still entertain profound veneration for the sacred volume sent from heaven. The library possesses many other ancient and valuable MSS., but they are all entirely eclipsed by these Masahif. They possess, however, great interest for the Arabic scholar, to whom they are willingly exhibited, and form the first collec- tion of the kind in the world. The library is especially rich in numerous commentaries on the Koran and books containing traditions of the prophet, as well as works on the law of the four Muslim sects, particularly the Hanefites and Shafeltes. The library likewise contains a number of his- torical, grammatical, and astrological works, some of which are very ancient, not a few being in the handwriting of their authors. Among the poetical MSS. the most important is that of Mutanebbi, dating from 553 of the Hegira , with a commentary by Ibn Ginni , who also wrote a commentary on the Hamasa. A MS., entitled 'Poems of the Arabs', dates from the same year, and among the MSS. of the Hamasa is a Moghrebin or Algerian work, written -from the recitation of the best-informed persons', and dating from 597. There is also an old MS. of the commentary of Merzuki upon the collection of poems made by him. The fine MS. of Firdusi, embellished with many coloured illustrations, was presented by the Shah of Persia. The above enumeration will convey some idea of the valuable contents of the library, of which at present there is only an Arabic index, though a French catalogue is now in course of preparation. The printed books are less numerous than the MSS., and they are chiefly from the Bulak press. Some of the surplus copies derived from that source have been sold by the library. After visiting the library the traveller may inspect the neigh- bouring Dervish Monastery in the Habbanlyeh (PL 11 ; permission must be procured from the minister of public worship). The mon- astery was erected in 1174 of the Hegira by Mustafa Agha, vizier of Sultan Selim. The round sebil is the most interesting object in the establishment. The building possesses a large court,' Taised considerably above the street, and containing a few trees. Around the court are the cells of the dervishes, and adjoining it is a small mosque. With regard to the dervishes, see p. 150. 272 Route 3. CAIRO. Qdmi' el-Muaiyad. Continuing; to follow the same street, we cross the new Boule- vard Slteklt liihan, and beyond it the Boulevard Mohammed f Ali (see p. 260). Beyond the latter we pass an open space, on the right side of which is the Palace of Mansur Pasha (PI. 85; un- attractive), and enter the street named after the Garni cl-Benat (PI. 40; 'mosque of the girls'), which rises on the right. On the left, a little beyond the mosque, and on the farther bank of the canal, is the entrance to the house of Shtkh Mufti, or Shekh ul- Islam (PI. 95), the interesting interior of which is shown by special permission only (p. 241). The street then runs on towards the N., in a straight direction, and terminates in the Muski, near the Hotel du Nil (p. 231). If we leave the Palace of Mansur Pasha (see above) on the left, and follow a lane leading to the S.E. (right) corner of the place called after the old gate Bab el-Khalk, we reach after about 500 paces more the (left) old town-gate Bab ez-Zuweleh (PI. D, 2), built of solid blocks of stone, and resembling the Bab el-Futuh (p. 280) in plan. The S. side consists of two huge towers ; by that to the right are a number of stone and wooden balls, probably dating from the Mame- luke period. Tuman Bey, the last of the Circassian sultans of Egypt, was hanged outside this gate by Sultan SelimlL, on 19th Rabi' el- Awwel, 923 of the Hegira (15th April, 1517; p. 243). This gate is also called Bab el-Mutawelli, from the old tradition that the most highly revered saint Kutbt el-Mutawelli has his abode behind the western gate, where he sometimes makes his presence known by a gleam of light. A beggar who spends the day here endeavours, by loudly invoking the saint, to excite the compassion of passers-by. From the inner (E.) gate hang bunches of hair, teeth, shreds of clothing, and other votive offerings placed here by sick persons who hope thereby to be cured of their diseases. Passing through the gate, we enter the street called Sukkariijch (p. 254), where on the left we observe the handsome portal of the Garni' el-Muaiyad (PI. 57), a mosque which is connected with the gate of the city. The interior is undergoing restoration, and is, therefore, not easily accessible. This mosque was erected by Sultan Shekh el-Mahmudi Muaiyad (1412-21), of the dynasty of the Circassian Mamelukes, who had once been the leader of the f Kuth properly means pole m- axis. This greatest of the Mohammedan saints is' so named because the other wcli's, who are divided into three classes (naJcib, pi. nukaba; negib, pi. nugaba; bedil, pi. ai>u,iij. are con- sidered, as it were, to revolve round him. According to the generally ived belief of the Muslims the favourite abode of this saint is on the roof of the Ka'ba, but the Kgyptians regard the 1 1 ;\ 1 ■ ez-Zuweleh as at least his oi » tnosf favoured dwelling-place, and therefore sometimes call it the gate of El-Mutawelli, i.e. 'of the reigning k.utb\ The tomb of Seyyid Ahmed el Bedawi (p. 225) is another resort 'of the kutb. who of San in tantaneoUBly transport himself from Mecca to Cairo or ore. Gami' el-Muaiyad. CAIRO. 3. Route. 273 rebellion against Sultan Farag (p. 284), and who had been defeated by the sultan and imprisoned for a time at this spot. The edifice is also known as the Gami' el-Ahmar, or the red mosque, from the colour of its exterior. Sult&n S/tekh el-Malimtldi Muaiyad, alter having defeated and executed Sultan Farag, his predecessor, who was the son of Barktik, the founder of the Circassian Mameluke dynasty of the Burgites (from the Arabic bicrg, or castle, and so called from their service in fortresses), ascended the throne in Nov. 1412. His reign was chiefly occupied with victorious campaigns against his unruly Syrian vassals, in which he was greatly aided by the military talents of his son Ibrahim. He was a man of weak constitution, and the early death of Ibrahim is said to have accelerated his end; while some authors state, on the other hand, that he caused Ibrahim to be poisoned from jealousy on account of his greater popularity. Muaiyad died on 13th Jan. 1421. Although, according to Egyptian historians, he died very wealthy, his coffers did not contain money enough after his death to defray the expenses of his funeral, all his property having been carried off by his emirs, while no one cared for the dead body. Though successful in his foreign policy, he had neglected to secure the good will of his people. His emirs were never sure of their lives, many of them having been imprisoned or executed on mere suspicion. As most of the public offices were sold to the highest bidder, his subjects were oppressed and maltreated by his judges and officials, who sought to indemnify themselves by practising all kinds of extortion. Notwithstanding all the misfortunes he brought upon Egypt by his maladministration and cupidity, Muaiyad had no lack of panegyrists, who remembered only that he was a pious Muslim, that he associated much with scholars, that he was distinguished as a theologian, an orator, and a poet, and that he had founded a mosque, a hospital, and a medreseh, or theological school. On several occasions, after having perjured himself with a view to compass the destruction of his opponents, he spent several days in a dervish mon- astery, attended the zikrs, and loaded the monastery with presents. Like the dervishes, he usually wore nothing but a woollen robe, and to prove his humility he commanded the preachers to descend one of the steps of their pulpits when they had occasion to mention his name. Towards religionists of other creeds he was intolerant in the highest degree. He exacted heavy contributions from Christians and Jews, and he re-enacted and rigorously enforced the sumptuary laws of 'Omar (A.D. 634-44), Mutawakkil (849-50), the Fatimite Khaiif Hakim (996-1020; see p. 279), and Sultan Mohammed en-Nasir (1293-1341 ; p. 277). Not only were the colours to be worn by the Christians and Jews prescribed (the costume of the former being dark blue, with black turbans, and a wooden cross weighing 51bs. hung round their necks ; that of the latter, yellow, with black turbans, and a black ball hung from their necks) ; but the fashion of their dress and length of their turbans, and even the costume of their women, were so regulated as entirely to distinguish them from the followers of the prophet. The handsome bronze gate at the entrance originally belonged to the mosque of Sultan Hasan (p. 260). The plan of the mosque resembles that of the mosque of 'Amr (p. 324) ; but this edifice is richer in its details, although without any strongly defined charac- teristics. Here, too, columns of many different kinds have been employed. On the right, by the Maksura, is the mausoleum of the sultan, and on the left that of his family. The sanctuary is separated by a railing from the inner court (Sahn el-Gami r ), which is shaded with acacias and sycamores. The ruins on the S. side are those of a public bath which was formerly connected with the mosque, but its plan is scarcely now traceable. The mosque has three minarets, Baedeker's Egypt I. 2nd Ed. 18 274 Route 3. CAllto. Gdmi' tl-Ohuri, two of which rise above the outbuildings of the Bdb ez-Zuwileh (see above), the city-gate connected with the sacred edifice. [Outside the gate, towards the S.E., to the left of the sentry, I', rb • l-Maii'ir. or 'red way', recently called Rue de la Cita- dellc, leading to the Citadel (p. 262). About 450 yds. from the Bab Mutawelli, by abend of the road towards the right, rises the Gdmi' el-Werddni (or Marddni; PI. 69], with its graceful minaret. The court, now closed, and used as a magazine, is adorned with slender columns and pointed arches.] Following the Sukkariyeh street to the left (N.) for about 100 yds. more, we observe on the right the modern Sebil of Mohammed 'A/i. in marble (PI. 92), a fountain of pleasing appearance, though imperfect in its details. To the left, about 270 yds. farther on, where the street now takes the name of El-dlturh/ch (p. 254), we observe, slightly projecting into the road, the *Gami' el-Gh.Uri ( I'l. 4'2 ), and opposite to it the *Sebil and Medreseh erected by the same founder. The two facades, dating from the second half of the I Oth cent, of the Hegira, and presenting a very harmonious effect, are most interesting. The walls of the interior are adorned with inlaid figures. A shirt of the Prophet brought hy Sultan el- Ghiiri from Mecca, was formerly shown at this mosque, but it is now said to be preserved in the Citadel, where it is shown once annually to the higher government officials only, who have the privilege of kissing the precious relic. The Sebil and Medreseh have been skilfully restored by the architect of the Wakf, a German named Franz-Bey, and are to be extended and adapted to contain the viceroyal library (p. 269). Kansuteeli el-Ghdri (1501-16). once a slave of Sultan Kait Bei chosen sultan on 20th April. 1501. alter the downfall oi Tuman Bey, who had reigned for one hundred days only. Although upwards of sixtj years of age when he ascended, the throne, he 'Still possessed considerabl and enei ;> He kept the unruly emirs in check, and neutralised the influence of the older Mamelukes bj the purchase of new slaves. Although himself of servile origin, he was as great a lover of splendour a had belonged to a princely family. His stables contained the finest horses in Egypt, his rings the most precious jewels; his dinner-service was of the purest gold, and his palace and citadel were the resort nl' 1 Is. is. ami musicians, lie improved the roads and canals of Egypt, founded schools and mosques, and constructed fortifications; but, in order hi j '1 i n mills, ships, beasts "t burden, and irrigation machinery, and all government pensions w^rv withheld for i' d mi u i tni from the merchants. At the same lime he levied heavy dues mi imports and exports, debased ■■I i ' pectors of markets, who indemnified them- I'rom the dealers. Already seriously injured by the the Cape route to India by the P Egypt was terribly depressed bj these tyrannical proceedings. Hairing at -.are by the Venetians of the dangers which thn 1-Ghuri endeavoured to protect its oiinin ie .. mi I lie Portuguese in India, and with Muristan Kalaun. CAIRO. 3. Route. 275 it in 1508 he gained a naval victory over Lorenzo, son of the viceroy Francisco d'Almeida, near Shawl in Beluchistan ; but the following year his ileet was compelled to retreat to Arabia in a shattered condition. Meanwhile Husen had conquered Hijaz and Yemen, and added them to the Egyptian dominions, on which occasion El-Ghuri caused the whole of the S. side of the Haram at Mecca to be rebuilt (in 906 of the Eegira), as recorded there by an inscription under the Bab Ibrahim ; but these districts soon threw off his yoke and placed themselves under the suzerainty of the Osmans, and, before his newly equipped Ileet reached India, the sultan himself died. On 24th Aug. 1516, while fighting against the army of the Osman sultan Selim I. in the plain of Dabik (to the N. of Aleppo), he is said to have fallen down in a fit of apoplexy, and to have been slain by his own followers, either from motives of cupidity, or to prevent his being captured by the enemy. His head was afterwards cut off and carried as a trophy to the victor. Farther on, we leave the Garni' el-Ashraf (PL 37 ; uninterest- ing) to the left, and], ahout 220yds. from the Gamf el-Ghuri, reach the Rue Neuve (Muski, p. 253). N.E. Quarters. Muristan Kalaun. Tomb of Sultan Mohammed en-Ndsir ibn Kalaun. Garni' Barkukiyeh. Gdmi r Hakim. Bab en-Nasr. Bab el-Futuh. Tombs of the Khallfs. Starting from the Ezbekiyeh and ascending the Muski as far as the El-Ghuriyeh street, on the right (p. 254), and the Bazaar of the Coppersmiths (en-Nahhasin ; PI. C, 2; p. 256), on the left, we follow the latter, passing the entrance to the Khan el-Khalili on the right (p. 255), and after a few hundred paces observe on the left three mosques, adjoining each other , with staring red and white striped facades (p. 180). The first of these is the — Muristan Kalatin (PL 73), once a vast hospital ('muristan', from the Persian word bimaristan) , the greater part of which is now in a ruinous condition, and used as a workshop by copper- smiths and tinkers. The tomb of the founder, however, which also serves the purpose of a mosque, is tolerably preserved. The foundation-stone was laid by Sultan el-Mansur Kalaun (1279-90) in the year 683 of the Hegira, and the whole edifice is said to have been completed within thirteen months. Passing over a son ofBebars, who was a minor, Kalaun ascended the throne of Egypt in Nov. 1279. He gained a victory over a rebellious governor of Damascus ; he defeated the Mongolians , who were threatening Syria, at Horns ; he chastised the princes of Armenia and Georgia for allying themselves with the Mongolians, who had invited Pope Nicholas IV., Edward I. of England, and Philip le Bel of France to attack Syria, offering them the necessary horses, beasts of burden, and provisions ; he entered into treaties with Emperor Rudolph, the Genoese, Alphonso III. of Castile, Jacopo of Sicily, the prince of Yemen, and the prince of Ceylon; he took the town of Ladikiyeh (Laodicea) from the prince of Tripoli, and then Tripoli itself, which after the death of Bohemund had fallen into the hands of Bertram of Gibelet; and lie made preparations to wrest from the Christi- ans their fortress of 'Akka (Acre), the only one still held by them in Syria. Before, however, he could proceed to carry out this last enterprise, he died on 10th Nov. 1290. Kalaun is immoderately praised by the Egyptian historians. He was, indeed, less bloodthirsty than Bebars, and less tyrannical towards his subjects; but in the prosecution of his schemes 18* 276 Route 3. CAIRO. Murist'in Kiihuin. of aggrandisement he committed flagrant breaches of justice and honour. deeming 110 treaty sacred, it' its violation promised him any advantage. The Muriatan, the finest monument of Kalafin's reign, was so extensive, thai it contained a .separate ward for every known disease (see Plan), i rooms for women; and connected with it were abundant stores of provisions and medicines. It also contained a large lecture-room, in which the chief physician delivered medical lectures. Not only the poor, but even persons of means, were (received gratuitously as patients, and the con- fwi 1. lint ranee (Portal ) from the street En-Nahha- sin. i. Entrance to the tomb- que. 5. Vestibule (diwan of the administration). \ . Entrance to the Mau- soleum. 8. Tomb of Kalaun. hkm II & .„m ier numbers in the Plan are intended to convey an idea of the form,-,- arrangements of the hospital, but some of the'rooms are in a dilapidated condition, while others are now used for various other ' Closed entrance to the Mausoleum; 3. Entrance to No. 11. formerly pan of the mosque; B. .Minaret; 10. Basin; 12. Room for pi i room : 15. Booms of the physicians: L6-19 > '" r patient ,,, . 21. Court : 22. Hh&kh; 2 Kiti ; 26, 27. Cells for the insane. Tomb Moh. en-Nusir. CAIRO. 3. Route. 277 sumption of food was so large that the hospital employed several officials for the sole purpose of buying provisions and keeping accounts. Besides these officials there were a number of others, whose duty it was to collect the various revenues set apart for the support of the institution. In the tomb-mosque the Koran and the religious traditions connected with it were publicly taught , the teachers and the pupils both being supported by government. A large adjacent apartment contained the library, which was well stocked with exegetical treatises on the Koran, books of tradi- tions, grammars, and medical, theological, legal, and literary works, and was kept in good order by a librarian and five assistants. The sekool- building contained four lecture-rooms for the teachers of the four schools of Mohammedanism (p. 149); and there was also a school for children, where sixty orphans were maintained and educated gratuitously. In the tomb-chamber are still preserved articles of dress which once belonged to Kalaun , and are populary supposed to possess miraculous virtues. Thus, the shawl ('immeh) of his turban is supposed to cure headaches , and one of his heavy kaftans, wrapped round the body of the patient for 24 hours, is said to be an infallible remedy for ague. This superstitious belief in the healing powers of the sultan's clothing is probably due to the fact that he devoted much attention to medicine. The Portal (PL 1 ; Nos. 1-8 are the only parts of the building now preserved ; the other numbers on the plan show the former arrangements), the most interesting part of the whole edifice, is constructed of black and white marble, and is of imposing height. The doors still show traces of their former covering of bronze. The ceiling of the entrance, with its open beams, is also very effective. The corridors , most of which are vaulted in the Gothic style, appear to some extent to have lost their original regularity in consequence of their restoration by Seyyid el-Mabriiki and Ahmed Pasha Taher during the present century. The second door (PI. 4) on the right leads to the Vestibule (PI. 5) of the Tomb of Kalaun, now used as an office by the ad- ministrators of the Wakf. The tomb itself contains a fine granite column, and the lower parts of the walls are covered with mosaics in marble. The kibla (prayer-recess), with its mosaics, its beautiful dwarf-arcades, and its shell-shaped ornamentation, is also worthy of notice. The disposition of the pairs of windows resembles that which occurs in Christian churches of the Romanesque period. The stucco tracery with which the windows are filled should also be inspected. Adjacent to the Muristan is the *Tomb of Sultan Mohammed en-Nasir ibn Kalaun (1293-1341; PI. 56), dating from 698 of the Hegira. In 1293 Mohammed eii-JYasir ibn Kala&n , son of the Kalaun above mentioned , when only nine years of age, succeeded his elder brother Khalil, who is better known as El-Ashraf (p. 255). At the beginning of his reign sanguinary feuds broke out between Ketboga, his vicegerent, and Shujai, his vizier. In Dec. 1294, Ketboga, having got rid of his antagonist, usurped the sceptre, but two years later was dethroned by the discontented emirs, and was succeeded by Lajin, son-in-law of Bebars, and once a slave of Kalaun, who is said to have been a German by birth, and to have been brought to Egypt when ten years old. Lajin having been assassinated in Jan. 1299, Nasir, who had meanwhile resided at Kerak , a Syrian fortress to the E. of the Dead Sea, was recalled. Although he bad gained several victories over the Mongolians, who were threaten- 27S Route 3. CAIRO. "Barkdktyeh Mosque. ria and even Egypi itself, lie was still treated l>y his emirs as a youth under age, and the real rulers of the country were Sallar, his chancellor, and BSbarS II. Jashengir, the prefect of his palace, who had originally been a Circassian slave. In 1309 Nasir returned to Kerak, for the avowed purpose of undertaking a pilgrimage to Mecca, bul on his arrival there he announced his intention to throw off the trammels of e, and for a time to establish his residence at Kerak. The consequence was that he was declared at Cairo to have forfeited his throne, and Bebarsll. was proclaimed sultan in his Stead (April, 1309). The Syrian emirs , however, remained faithful to Nasir, and with their aid he succ led in re-establishing his authority in Egypt, although the nominal '.Mil. aside Klialif residing at Cairo had pronounced liim an outlaw and declared war against liim. The three chief traits in Nasir's character, distrust, vindictiveness , and cupidity, now became very pn minent, and there' was no promise or oath which he deemed inviolable. lie- treated his emirs with the utmost capriciousness, presenting them with rich gifts, or ordering them to be executed, as the humour seized him; and this feature Of his character has been aptly described by an Arabian historian, who declares 'that he fattened his emirs, and killed them when thoroughly fattened, in order that all they had swallowed might return to him.' Ismail Aim] Fida (p. 301), however, one of his emirs, retained his master's favour till the time of his death, and even had the title of sultan conferred upon liim. Towards the mass of the population, on the other hand, Nasir was always liberal and condescend- ing: he abolished oppressive taxes, punished hoarders of grain, and distributed corn in times of famine. He was tolerant towards the Christians also, and was anxious to abrogate the regulations about dress (p. 273) which certain fanatics had induced him to make in his earlie* years, but was unable to carry out his wish. lie even appointed Christian ■ i I, particularly in the custom-house and finance departments. His chief object was to surround himself with officers who could procure him to defray the enormous expenses of his court, to gratify his taste for horses (of which no fewer than 3000 are said to have been reared in his stables annually), and his love of building. He connected Alexandria anew with the Nile by means of a navigable canal, and Constructed other canals also, such as that from Khankab to .Siryakfls, and embankments. in spite of his tyranny, be therefore enjoyed a considerable share of popularity) to which his stringent enforcement of the religious laws and his indulgence towards the clergy, so long as they did not interfere in politics, farther contributed. On lith .Ian. 1311 Nasir died the death of a pious and penitent .Muslim. As soon as the emirs perceived that his end was near, they seized upon the whole of his property, so that alter his death not even a suitable pall to cover th -pse could be found. His miserable funeral took place by Bight, attended by a few emirs only, and lighted by a single lantern. Thus, according to his Arabian biographers, terminated the reign of tin- powerful sultan whose dominions had extended from the frontier of Abyssinia to Uia Minor, and from the Euphrates to Tunis, but win., though wealthy and the father of twelve sons, died like [| tranger and a, childless man. and was buried like a pauper. The latc-lioniaticsque portal, in marble, with its round arch, is strikingly different from all other Arabian portals of the kind. It was originally erected at Acre in Syria, after the de- ion of which it was transferred to Cairo in A.I). 1291 by the Egyptian .Mameluke Sultan |.|- \shraf | p. 255 ) as a trophy of vic- tory. The only object of interest in the interior is the well- defined .iiul beautifully moulded Arabian stucco-work, remains of which are preserved. i third largo building is the Barkukiyeh. Mosque ( I'l. 39 I. erected at the close of the I lib cent., ami containing tin' tomb ol Q&mi' el-Hakim. CAIRO. 3. Route. 279 the daughter of Barkuk. It possesses a marble portal and a bronze door, but the interior is uninteresting. Barkuk (1382-99), a Circassian slave, succeeded in raising himseH' to the throne by setting aside Haggi, a boy of six years, and great-grandson of Mohammed en-Nasir. He' was proclaimed sultan in Nov. 1382, being th 3 first of the Circassian Mameluke sovereigns (p. 104). His accession to the throne, which had been the result of treachery and intrigues of every kind , so exasperated the emirs that they conspired against him and dethroned him in June, 1389. In .Tan. 1390, however, after having de- feated his enemies , Barkuk celebrated his triumphal entry into Cairo. During his reign the Mongolians under Timur and the Osmans under Bajesid encroached on the frontiers of his empire, but Barkuk was not sufficiently energetic to resist their advances. He died in 1399. These three mosques , -with their three lofty minarets, present an imposing, though not quite regular, facade. Opposite to them is a modern sebil. Continuing to follow the Nahhasin Bazaar (p. 256), which is generally enlivened by busy traffic, towards the left, we come to another fountain with a School (PL 91), erected by a certain ' Abder-Rahman Kikhya, the founder of several religious edifices (p. 291). An arm of the Nile is said once to have flowed between the Tomb of Kalaun and this fountain. Passing to the right of the fountain, we reach the beginning of the Gameliyeh street, the seat of the wholesale trade of Cairo ( p. 257), the warehouses of which occupy the okellas (p. 257 ), or inner courts, of this part of the town. The finest of these courts, which present no great attraction, is the Okella Sulfikar Pasha (PI. 74), opposite the corner where our street bends to the N. The entrance, with a kind of star-vaulting, and the court, with its colonnades and mushrebiyehs , should be noticed. To the left, at the corner of the lane by which we have come , is the Medreseh arl ol the Minaret. 4. Bahn el-Gami r . 5. Liwftn with Kibla and ganceofitsform. IheDomr. 6. Mausoleum, 7. Tomb of Kail richly adorned with bands ''">• s - "'' of sculpturing, is construct- ed of limestone. With ;> visil to this moBque the traveller may conclude his in- t Mosque el-Aehar. CAIRO. 3. Route. 287 spection of the great necropolis. Those who are not fatigued may now walk towards the Citadel (p. 262), examining the different h6sb.es, domes, and smaller monuments on the right and left, and may then visit the Tombs of the Mamelukes (p. 327) heyond the Citadel. The embankment of the new railway which runs between the Tombs of the Khalifs and the quarries of the Mokattam, affords a good survey of the scene. The traveller who quits the Tombs about sunset should not omit to ascend the Windmill Hill from the side next the town (comp. Plan, p. 282), for the sake of the view. A fine effect, especially by evening light, is produced by the domes and the peculiar colouring of the valley and the opposite heights of the Mokattam. This mound of rubbish should indeed be fre- quently visited (comp. p. 282). To the "W. are the city, the plain of the Nile, and the Pyramids. The red building to the N.E. is the 'Abbasiyeh (p. 332), to the left of which is a mosque (Ganii r el- f Adil). In front of the latter is the N.E. group of the Tombs of the Khalifs (p. 282), a little to the right of which are the two minarets of Sultan Barkfik (p. 282). Beyond these rises the Gebel el-Ahmar (p. 337), adjoining which are the Mokattam hills, with the other Tombs of the Khalifs at their base. Mosques of El-Azhar and Hasanen. The Garni' el-A2har (PI. 38; C,2) presents few features of ar- chitectural interest, and is so shut in by houses that very little of the exterior is visible. The plan of the principal part was originally the same as that of the 'Ami Mosque (p. 324), but the numerous additions made at various periods have somewhat modified its form, and since the conversion of the mosque into a university the aisles have been separated from the court by walls and railings. The first great alterations took place in the year 1004 of the Hegira, in the reign of Mohammed ibn Murad, the next were made by Shekh Is- ma'il Bey in 1131 of the Hegira, and the last by Sa'id Pasha about 1848, all exhibiting the decline of Arabian architecture. The Minarets (PL 12) , some of which are brightly painted, were erected at different periods, one of them having been built by 'Abder Rahman Kikhya (p. 279). The mosque has six gates : the Bab el-Muzcyinln (PI. a), or Gate of the Barbers (see below), on theW. side, forming the prin- cipal entrance, and possessing an interesting portal ; the Bab Go- harlyeh (PL b), on the N. side ; the Bab esh-Shurba (PL c), or Soup Gate, on the E. ; the Bab es-Sa'Wiyeh, or Gate of the Upper Egyp- tians ; the Bab esh-Shawwam (PL e), or Syrian Gate ; and the Bab el-Magharbeh-(¥\. f), or Gate of the "W. Africans, the three last being on the S. side. The mosque was converted into a University (now the most important in Mohammedan territory) by Khalif 'Aziz Bill ah (A.D. 975-96), at the suggestion of his vizier Abu'l Farag Ya'kub. in 288 Route 3. CAIRO. University. the year 378 of the Hegira, and the establishment is attended by students from almost all the countries professing El-Islam. On the side of the court looking towards Mecca is a spacious col- onnade (see below), which forms the principal hall for prayer and tui- tion. On the other three sides are smaller colonnades, divided by wooden partitions or railings into a number of Riwdks , or separate chambers (literally, colonnades). Each of these is set apart for the use of the na- tives of a particular country, or of a particular province of Egypt. The mu^t important of these riwaks are as follows: Riwdk et-Turk (the word Turk being applied to all Mo- hammedans from the N. provinces of the Turkish em- pire), attended by 64 students Riwdk el-Maghdrbeh (W. Africans) 88 Riwdk esh-Shaww&m (Syrians) 94 „ Riwdk el Baghdddiyeh (natives of Baghdad) 1 Riwdk rl-Iliniid (Indians) 7 Riwdk el-Akrdd (Kurds) 12 „ Riwdk ed-Daharna, or D&rf&rtyeh (natives of Darfur) . . 56 Riwdk es-Senndriyeh (natives of Sennar) 37 .., Riwdk el-Bar&bm (Nubian Berbers) 36 Riwdk el Qabart (I-:. Africans from the Somali coast, from ZSla, Berbera, and Tajurra) 98 „ Riwdk el-Earamen (natives of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina) 8 ,, Riwdk el-Yemen (natives of Yemen) 26 Riwdk esh-Shardkweh (natives of the Egyptian province of Sherkiyeh) '. 380 Riwdk el-Fasliniiiek (natives of Fashneh in Upper Egypt) . 703 „ Riwuk el-FayHmeh, or Fay dyimeh (natives of the Fayum) . 181 „ Riwdk el-Baharweh (natives of Lower Egypt) 454 „ Riwdk es-Sa'idtyeh (natives of Upper Egypt) 1462 „ The university is attended by about 7700 students in all, who are taught by 231 shSkhs or professors. The different sects are distributed as follows : Shufe'ites . . . 3723, with 106 shekhs. Malekites . . . 2855, with 75 shekhs. Hanefltes . . . 1090, with 49 shekhs. Hambalites ... 23, with 1 shekh. The students (Mugdwirin) usually remain three, and sometimes from four to six years in the mosque. They pay no fees, but each riwak is supported by an annual subsidy from the endowments of the mosque, although these were much diminished by Mohammed r Ali , who ap- propriated the revenues of most of the religious foundations inEgypI to government purposes. The shekhs, or professors, receive no salary, either from the mosque or from government, but support themselves by teaching in private houses, by copying books, or by filling some religious office to Which a salary is attached, and they occasionally receive donations from the wealthier students. When teaching, the shekh sits cross-legged on a straw-mat and reads from a book placed on a desk (raljleh) before him, explaining each sentence as he proceeds; or he directs ope of the dvaneed students to read aloud, adding his own explanations from time to time. The students sit in a circle around the teacher, listening, or attentively taking notes. As soon as a student knows by heart the Whole of the book which is being studied by the class, Hie shekh makes an nil ■■ in hi copy of the work, called the Tgdeeh, whereby authority to lecture on the lioi.k is conferred on the student himself. The pri of Hie university, who is usually the most distinguished of the slu-khs, Is called Shekh el-Azhar, and receives a salary of about 20 purses, i. e. b 1,000 piastres. Mosque el-Azhar. CAIRO. 3. Route. 289 Most of the students, particularly those whose native tongue is not Arabic, begin their university education by learning the Arabic grammar ('Urn en-nahu). The next branch of study is religious science ('Urn el- I rin in), the introduction to which consists of a series of preparatory lec- tures on the attributes of God and the prophet (Him et-tauhtd , i. e. the doctrine of the unity of God). The chief attributes of God are said to be the following twelve: existence, source of all being, eternity, in- dependence, unity, omnipotence, will (in accordance with which he rules the universe , man being powerless to save himself from sin or to be pious without the assistance and grace of God) , omniscience (or know- ledge of everything that happens between the lowest foundations of the earth and the loftiest heights of the firmament), life, vision (which enables him to see everything everywhere, without the aid of light, and without eyes) , hearing (without ears , in the same way as he knows without a brain, and overthrows without hands), and speech (in a language that has had no beginning, a language without letters or sounds, which is inherent in his nature, and does not resemble human speech). After having completed his course of religious instruction, the student proceeds to study law (Him el-fikh). 'Jurisprudence 1 , says Ibn Khaldun , one of the greatest of Arabian thinkers, 'is a knowledge of the precepts of God in relation to the actions of men , some of which it is our duty to perform , while others are for- bidden , or recommended, or permitted ; and this knowledge is derived from the book of God, i.e. the Koran, from the Sunna (i.e. tradition), and from the inferences drawn by the lawgiver (Mohammed) from suf- ficient materials afforded by the Koran 1 . The study of law is therefore based upon the exegesis of the Koran (la/sir) and of tradition (hadith). The science of law is divided into two branches : — (1) The doctrine of the Chief Religious Commandments of El-Islam, viz. (a) Et-Tauhid, or the recognition of God's unity and of Mohammed as his prophet; (b) The Saldt and Tahara, or the duty of repeating the canonical prayers in connection with the ablutions; (c) The Sadaka and Zakdt, or giving of alms and payment of a religious tax; (d) The Siy&m, or fasting during the month of Ramadan ; (e) The Hagg, or duty of per- forming a pilgrimage to Mecca. (2) The doctrine of Secular Law, civil and criminal, either as expressly laid down by the Koran, or as deducible from it. The legal literature again is divided into two classes, one embracing systematic expositions of the law of the Koran, and the other consisting of the decisions (fetwa) and opinions of celebrated jurists in special and difficult cases. Besides these leading branches of instruction , logic (Him el-maiilik) rhetoric (Him el-ma' ani wal bay&n) , the art of poetry (Him el-'avfid) , the proper mode of reciting the Koran (Him el-kira'a) , and the correct pro- nunciation of the letters ('Urn et-tejwid) are also taught. * The above list of the subjects taught at the most important of Moham- medan schools will serve to convey an idea of the intellectual condition of Orientals at the present day. The most conspicuous defect of their culture consists in the entire absence of independent thought, in conse- quence of which they are the mere recipients of the knowledge of the past. Their minds are thus exclusively occupied with the lowest grade of intellectual work, their principal task consisting in the systematic arrangement or encyclopaedic compilation of the knowledge handed down to them. Some of the shekhs of theAzhar are men of marvellous erudi- tion, but they are destitute of creative power, or of the ability to utilise their old materials for the construction of any new edifice, and they ad- here faithfully to the notion of their forefathers that the greatest triumph of mental labour is to learn by heart any work of acknowledged literary value. Doubt and criticism, which so often serve to open up fresh sources of knowledge, are unknown to them; with natural history they are entirely unacquainted ; and even geometry, algebra, and astronomy, so assiduously cultivated by the ancient Arabs , have now fallen into ob- livion. So well satisfied are they, moreover, with their own wisdom, that they utterly despise the scientific pursuits of the Western world. Baedeker's Egypt I. 2nd Ed. 19 290 Route 3. CAIKO. Mosque cl-Azhar. We enter the mosque by the G ate of the Barbers (PI. a), from the Street of the Booksellers (p. 254). On each side of the Entrance a, li, c, d, e, f. Gales (see p. 287). 1. Entrance Court (barbers'). 2. llosh el-Oanii', or Great Court. 3. Cisterns. 4. Liwan el-Gami c , or Sanctuary, now the principal hall for instruction. 5. Kibla. G. Mambar. 7. Dikkeh. 8. Tomb of 'Abdcr-Rahman Kikhya. 9. * Mesgid (mosque) Gohariyeh. 10. Mesgid Tabarset. ii. Mesgid Ebthahawiyeh (in ruins). 12. Minarets. 13. Fountain. 14. Latrine. 15-34. Riwaks (or rooms for study). 15. Ri- wak et-Turk (Turks from N. provinces' of the empire); 1G. Riwak el- Hagharbeh (W. Africans); 17. Staircase U* the Riwak esh-Shawwam (8y- ; 18. Staircase to the Riwak el-Baghdadiyeh (natives of Baghdad): 19. Riwak el-Akrad (Kurds); 20. Riwak ed-Dakarna or Darfflriyeh (na- tives of Dfirluri; 21-27. Riwak es-Sennariyeh (natives of Sennar), Riwak tbra (Nubian Berbers), 'Riwak el-Gabart (E. Africans from the So- mali coast. Zrb'. Berbera, and Tajurra); 28. Riwak e) Harameo (natives of Mecca and Medina); 29. Riwak el-Yemen (natives of Yemen): 30. Ri- arakweh (natives of 'the province of Sherkiyeh); 31. Riwak el-Fashniyeh (natives of Fashneh); 32. Riwak el Fayflmeh. or Fayayimeh Urn): 33. Riwak el-Bak&rweh (natives of Lower I 34. Riwak es-Sa'idiyeh (natives of Said,' or Upper Egypt). 35. Red rpei .'86. Stepi to the Terrace. 37. Sate ot the Okella Kait Bey. a 39 Road to the Tombs of the Khalifs. 40. Book- sellers' Street (p. 254). 41. Street to the Hue Neuve (Muski). Mosque el-Azhar. CAIRO. 3. Route. 291 (PI. 1), which- was restored by Edhem Pasha at the beginning of the present century, we frequently observe barbers engaged in shaving the heads of the students with admirable skill, but we of course avoid stopping to watch the process for fear of giving offence. This being one of the fountain-heads of Mohammedan fanaticism, the traveller should, of course, throughout his visit, be careful not to indulge openly in any gestures of amusement or contempt. Beyond the entrance , which forms a kind of fore-court , we reach the Hosh el-Gami r (PI. 2), or Great Court, where the students are seen sitting on their mats in groups and conning their tasks. This court does not contain the usual fountain for ablution , but there are three small Cisterns (PI. 3) for the purpose. The arcades enclosing the court have arches approaching the keel shape, but the sides are straighter than usual. The openings and niches over the arcades are less systematically arranged than in the case of the Tulun Mosque (p. 265), from which they seem to have been copied. On the E. side, in the direction of Mecca, is the Liwan el- Gamf (PI. 4), or Sanctuary, now the principal hall of instruction, covering an area of about 3600 sq. yds., with a low ceiling resting on 380 columns of granite and marble , all of ancient origin, and arbitrarily arranged. The hall is entirely destitute of architectural enrichment , and presents a heavy and sombre appearance. Here again, as in the court, we observe various groups of students in the usual crouching attitude , and others devoutly praying in front of the kiblas (PI. 5), of which there is one for each of the four recognised sects of the Shafe'ites, the Malekites, the Hanefites, and the Hambalites (comp. p. 149). The domes over these kiblas and their walls are adorned not unpleasingly in stucco. On the S. side is the Tomb of f Abd er-Rahman Kikhya (PI. 8), by whom the S.E. part of the mosque was restored (d. about 1750). To the W. (right) of this tomb is the Riwak (see above) of the students from Upper Egypt (PI. 34), and to the left of the latter, on the E. side, is that of the natives of Mecca and Medina (PI. 28). The N. side is bounded by the Mesgid Gohartych (PL 9), a smaller mosque, and the oldest part of the whole structure. After having inspected the great hall , the visitor is conducted into a number of smaller apartments (riwaks) , some of which are indicated in the plan of the edifice, but they contain nothing noteworthy. There is also a separate riwak, called the Zdwiyet el- 'Omydn, for blind students, for whose maintenance a portion of the funds is set apart. These blind youths , who have a shekh of their own , were frequently guilty of riotous conduct in former years, and used to parade the streets armed with bludgeons , whenever they conceived their rights infringed, the disputes being generally concerning the quality of their food. To this day they are said to be the most fanatical of their sect, and to entertain the most bitter hatred and contempt for the kafir, or unbelieving Christian. 19* 292 Rout i.' :i. CAIRO. Gdmi' el-Hasantn. On tlic right and left of the W. Entrance (PL a) are two old mosques. The Mcdreseh of Emir Taibar (PI. 10), on the S. side, built in 1309, contains a kibla richly adorned -with mosaic. The mosque on the N. side (PI. 11) is now in ruins, as indeed are sev- eral other parts of the mosque of El-Azhar ('the flourishing'). Returning to the Rue Neuve, we observe to the N. , opposite us, the handsome minaret of the — *Gami' el-Hasanen (PI. 46; C, 2), the mosque of Hasan and Husen, the sons of'Ali, the son-in-law of the prophet (p. 153; the termination en indicating the dual), which has recently teen restored. The interior is constructed with considerable symmetry and care. The wooden ceiling, from which hang a number of lamps, is painted. A marble column is said to contain the head of Husen, who was slain at Kerbela by Shemir Ibn el-Gaushan by order of Yezid. The head is said to have been brought to Cairo in a green silk bag. This tomb-mosque is chiefly frequented by men on Thursdays, and by women on Saturdays. + t The visitors to the tombs, burial-mosques, and welis, which are In be found near almost every village, generally have a twofold object in view, one being to do honour to the memory of the deceased ami to invoke the blessing of heaven upon them, and the other to obtain through their mediation the fulfilment of some .special wish. On arriving at the tomb, the visitor must turn towards the face of the deceased and pronounce the greeting of peace. He then walks round the maks&ra, or monument, from left to right, repeating the fatha at the door, or at each of the four sides, in a verj Low voice. A sureh of the Koran is sometimes also repeated, and even the khatmeh, or recitation of tin' whole volume, is not unfrequenlly performed. In conclusion the praises of God and tin: prophet are usually recited, coupled with a prayer that the merit of the. whole performance may be placed to the credit of the weli's soul. Before the concluding prayer, the worshipper sometimes introduces a prayer fir his own temporal and spiritual welfare. When wealth] persons visit the tomb of a saint, they distribute bread among the poor, and pay one sakka or more to dispense water gratuitously. Some of the tombs are chiefly visited on certain days of the week; ami there are certain days of the year (especially about the middle of the month of Sha/ban] on which festivals are celebrated in honour of the patron saints of the different towns and villages. Tlie most important of these are. that of Seyyid Ahmed el-Bedawi at Tanta in Lower Egypt, and that, of 'Abd er-IJahim at Keueh in Upper Kgypt. A week or a fortnight before the day of the festival, booths lor the sale of coffee and sweatmeats begin I i pring up around the shrine, and crowds of devotees Mock to the tomb from all directions, some of them to perform the /.ikr, and others lo lake pari in various fantasiyas. Dancing women, singers, musicians, 1 charmers, buffoons, as well as swings and merry-go-rounds, I their various attractions to young and old. On the feast day I he crowd is greatest, a solemn procession takes place. The mahmal, a find of wooden frame which usually lies on tie' roof of the tomb, is covered with the gold and silver-embroidered winding-sheet of back of a camel, gorf OSly dec .rated with ribbons, carpets, and bells. The procession is headed bj outriders and fro on camels, by life-players and drummers, and by if population of the villa.', whose chief delight consists in tiring off thei mediately before the camel with the mahmal walk a of renerabl reciting passages from the Koran, at Behind it come a band of music, female Bulak. CAIRO. 3. Route. 293 The battle of Kerhela. at which Husen fell, took place on 10th Moharrem of the year 61 of the Hegira (iOth Oct. 680). Historians record that Husen's head was sent to Damascus, while his body was interred in the Meshhed Husen on the N.E. frontier of Persia, to which Persian pilgrims still resort in great numbers. Neither Hasan nor Husen was remarkable for moral worth or poli- tical greatness. The veneration paid to these young 'saints' seems to have sprung solely from the persecutions to which the whole family of r Ali was subjected, coupled with the fact that they were the grandsons of the prophet. Their misfortunes doubtless at first excited pity, a feel- ing which led to their being honoured with a kind of deification, parti- cularly in Persia, where divine honours had at a still earlier period been paid to the sovereigns of the country as being descended from the gods. It is still the custom in Persia, during the month of Moharrem, to represent the events which led to Husen" s death in nine successive theatrical performances, somewhat resembling the Passion plays of Europe. Opposite the egress of the mosque is the entrance to the Khan Khalili (p. 255). At the E. end of the Rue Neuve is the Windmill Hill mentioned at pp. 282 and 287, adjoining which is the road to the Tomhs of the Khalifs (pp. 282-287). Bulak and the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities. Owing to the expansion of Cairo towards the W., in the direction of the Nile , Bulak (or Boulaq) , situated beyond the Isma'iliyeh Canal, and formerly an island, has hecome the river-harbour of the city of the khalifs. Its narrow streets present a very busy scene, affording a more characteristic picture of Oriental life than the capital . as the inhabitants of distant provinces are proportionally more numerous here. Natives of Dar-Fur , Wadai , Donkola , Kor- dofan, and Khartum, and members of the various negro tribes are seen mingling in picturesque confusion ; and popular festivals and amusements are very frequently provided for their entertainment in the evening. Goods are conveyed hither from Upper Egypt, from Nubia, from the interior of Africa, and from the fertile Delta; and the Nile barges are then laden with other cargoes for the return- journey. The principal quay is nearly opposite the palace of Gezireh, adjacent to a large timber-yard; and it is most frequented between October and December, when the rapids of the river are most easily navigated. The merchants of Cairo congregate here every morning to make purchases, frequently as early as 7 o'clock. "When there is a scarcity of goods , they sometimes go out to the vessels in boats ; but when there is no scarcity, the goods are sold by auction in Bulak. Caravans bringing merchandise also arrive here not unfre- quently, the most important being from Tunis via Kufra and Siwa, and from Wadai and Dar-Fur. On one part of the route from Dar- Fur, it is said that the caravans obtain no fresh water for twelve days. dancers, men on camels thumping on huge drums, and lastly a promiscuous crowd of holiday makers. The procession often marches about the town for an hour or more , and thence out into the desert. Towards evening the mahmal is brought back to its usual place, and the festival then terminates. 294 Route 3. CAIRO. Museum The chief wares brought to Bulak are gum, ostrich-feathers, ivory, ami Benna-leaves. The best quality of gum, called 'samgh kordofani', from Kordofan, while the inferior 'talb,' is from Sennar. The ostrich-feathers come from Kordofan, where the birds are reared , and also from Wadai and Dar-Fur. The feathers are carefully tied up in bundles, and well peppered to protect them against moths. They are Sold by weight, a rotl (pound) of good and pore white feathers realising as much as 301. A single white feather of good quality is worth 10 The black and grey feathers are much less expensive. After reaching Europe they require to be washed before being used. Of late years it has become usual to pick out the finest feathers, and to offer them for sale to travellers at high prices, even as far up as AsBuan. At Bulak, and at the moorings of Embuleh, farther to the N., the traveller -will find the dahabiyehs, or boats fitted up for the voyage to Upper Egypt. At the N. end of the town is situated the Arsenal, founded in 1835, with a manufactory of weapons at- tached to it. Machinery for Egyptian manufactories arriving from Europe is put together at Bulak before being sent to its final destination, and all repairs of machinery are also executed lore. Bulak also boasts of a large Iron Foundry, an Ecole des Arts et Metiers, a Paper Manufactory , a. House of Correction for Women, a Lunatic Asylum, and the Government Printing Office, none of which establishments will interest ordinary travellers. The Viceregal Printing Offtce\( el-matba'a ; director. 'Ali-Beu Qattdat)vrM 1 by .Mohammed r Ali, chiefly for the purpose of printing and dis- cing translations of European scientific works of all kinds, and par- ticularly school-books. The introduction of printing had at first to contend i serious prejudices, as many of the Muslims feared that the name of God would be defiled by contact with impure substances used in the pro- cess. To this day, indeed, the Koran is preferred in a written form; but, thanks to the perseverance of the government, the prejudice againsl other printed books has now almost entirely disappeared, and there are few of the many modern institutions recently introduced into Egypt Which have thriven so well as this printing-office. Within the last fifty year have been printed here, according to the government statistics, eoliics of 226 works (393 vols.) of various kinds, without reckoning works printed at the cost of private individuals. The number of private printing-offices is also increasing from year to year, the most important being that of Mustafa Wahabi , where works published by a scientific society (gem'iyet el-ina'arif.) are printed. Litho- graphy is also beginning to come into use. but the execution is often defective. Of the works printed in Egypt 1(KJO-4000 copies are usually struck off, and the fact that, the whole of them are generally sold within a few years affords a proof that the taste for literature in the East is again on the Some works, such as Bokhara's collection of traditions, have. an i in 1 1 i attempts are still being made to render an works accessible to Orientals in the form of translations, chiefly from thi French. Thus, among the legal works, may be mentioned a in of the Code Napoleon, among the geographical tli" works of JIalte B among the historical the Life of Charles XII. by Vol- the libretto of Offenbach's Belle Hi lene wafl even thought worthy of being printed in Arabic at the it print- Bfllak. — At the same time the national literature has not -'. , and a number of valuable early Arabian worl i brought into notice by the agency of the printini ical works oi' I I'll el Mini- \r p p. 201), those of Ma- krizi (p. 201), II i El MnU.iiri. the writer of Spanish history lITtll cent.), and the 'Book of the Songs' by Abulfarag el-Jtbahdni id. 966). I differ e sal ill B! U Li A K G-eoy-ln.:! of l: 12.300 Jford de l'Ancien Sa.lle 1 Sallt? M P*l n n !~i ! ! fune'rairr P3 i-X . l 3 J ) ^U.i rEmjiir, Centre Salle des momies rovalcs j / 3 ' r'1 ] r^7"~ ~ "T"r j j de Grand Yestibule | l'OujEStH Slid ofBUldk. CAIRO. 3. Route. 295 A peculiarity of many of the books recently printed at Bulak is ibat smaller works illustrative of the text are printed on tbe margins of the pages. The paper used for the purpose is made in Egyptian manu- factories, chiefly from maize-straw, which accounts for its yellowish tint. The great attraction at Bulak is the — =1: *Museum of Egyptian Antiquities (the traveller bound for which has only to direct his donkey-hoy 'HI Antikat'), a magni- ficent collection , and entirely unrivalled of its kind. A great ad- vantage possessed by it over all the European museums is that the places where all its monuments and relics have been found are known, and indicated by labels, a circumstance of the greatest im- portance in assisting historical and geographical research. The col- lection was founded by M. Mariette-Pasha , who died in 1881 and has been succeeded as director by Prof. Maspero, another French- man. The keeper of the museum is Herr Brugsch-Bey, who is as- sisted by M. Bouriant. The arrangement of the museum has recently been entirely altered, and most of the treasures formerly stored in the magazines have now found a place in the building itself. Several of the rooms have been enlarged and an addition has been built to receive the objects found at Der el-Bahri, near Thebes, in 1881. Prof. Maspero has also caused a room to be fitted up for monuments of the Greek, Roman, and Coptic periods. The Museum is open daily, except on Fridays, from 8 to 12 and from 2 to 5 ; in winter from 8 to 12 and 1 to 4 o'clock (no fee). Strangers, who wish to make special studies, will receive every facility from the director and keepers. Court. To the right of the gateway is a colossal figure of King Usertesenl. (PI. A), in rose-coloured granite, brought from Abydos in 1884. Farther on, placed against the external wall of the Mu- seum, are four dark-grey granite figures, in a sitting posture, of the lion-headed goddess Sekhet (No. 6006) , all brought from the temple of the goddess Muth at Karnak. To the right, between the windows, 6007. Double statue representing the god Ammon and an Ethiopian queen. This group, which is of rough workmanship , was found in 1882 at Naga (MeroeJ by Herr Berghoff, who some months later was captured and beheaded by the Mahdi. On the left side of the court are two large fragments of a granite Naos, or shrine , with elaborate decorations and the name of King Nectanebus II. In the corner to the left, 6002. Large eagle in marble, from the island of Thasos. To the left of the entrance to the garden is a large Sphinx (No. 6008) in rose-coloured granite, from Tanis in Lower Egypt; the cartouches of Ramses II. are a later addition. To the right is a cast of the same figure (PI. B). We now enter the Garden. To the right : 6013,6014. Sarco- phagi in grey granite from Sakkara, belonging to two brothers named Takhos , who were high officials in the time of the first Ptolemies. 296 Route 3. CAIRO. Museum Adjacent, G015. Granite sarcophagus of Ankh-hapi, also from Sakkara (Greek periouV). Opposite are three marble sarcophagi of the Graico-ltoman epoch, from Alexandria. Opposite the entrance of the Museum, in the middle of the garden, is the Tomb of Mariette, who is interred in a marble sar- cophagus made in the ancient style. The four small limestone sphinxes in front of it are from the sacred avenue leading to the Serapeum at Sakkara ( p. 3S4). — Nearer the river, 6030, 0032. Two sphinxes in rose-coloured granite fromKarnak, with inscriptions and the name of Thothmes III. Between these: 6031. Colossal figure of Ramses II. (from Tanis), and 6033. Sacrificial tablet of Thothmes III. (from Karnak "). To the right (E.) : 6025. 'Stele' or sepulchral tablet, in limestone, with an inscription referring to Ptah-hotep (5th dynasty; from Sakkara). To the N., by the wall of the Museum, are several sepulchral slabs and the sitting figure (in grey granite; No. 6028) of the Princess Nefert, daughter of I ser- tesen I. (12th dynasty). In front, 6029. Sarcophagus in brownish granite, found at Damanhur, with an inscription containing the name of Psammetikli II. (26th dynasty). The building of the Museum is painted blue, green, and red in the manner of the Egyptian temples, and above the door is the winged disk of the sun (see p. 133). To the right and left of the door are two seated granite figures from Tanis (6020, 6021) , both 'usurped' by Ramses II., i.e. provided with his cartouches , but really of earlier origin (13th or 14th dynasty? ). Petit Vestibule. Maspero's new Catalogue, several of Mariette's works , and photographs of objects in the Museum are sold here. The best collections of the latter are the M>>numents Choisis du Muste de BouUnj (25 fr., small size 15 fr.) and La Trowaitle de De'ir el Bahari (1st vol. 40 fr., 2nd vol. 15 fr. ). Sticks and um- brellas must be given up here. The walls are covered with tombstones and basreliefs , most of them from Abydos and Sakkara. Among the most interesting are: No. 21. Stele ofHormin (20tb dynasty), with a burial scene; 3. Stele Of Unnefei, Who (lied at the age Of 51 years. I month, and 27 days ( from Luksor) ; 19. Tombstone of Pa-nefer-haf, who died aged 57 years, 10 months, and 4 days. ■ — To the left. 82. Base of a column in alabaster, with the cartouche of Ramses 111., found at Tell el- Yehudiyeh (Shibin el-Kanatir). In front is the capital of a por- phyry column, with an inscription of a later date. Sarcophagi in basalt and close-grained limestone, dating from the time of the Ptolemies. Grand Vestibule. The walls are completely covered with 'steles' or sepulchral slabs, chiefly from Abydos. No. 165. Monument of Phra-em-heb. In the uppermost row are two figures standing before • toiris : in the second row, the mummy of Phra-em-heb is represent- ed in an upright position before the tomb, while his sister embraces ofBulak. CAIRO. 3. Route. 297 Ms knees ; in the third field is a sacrificial scene (20th dynasty ; from Sakkara). — 166. The gods Usurhapi, Ammon-Ra, Muth, and Khunsu receiving the sacrifice of a king, whose cartouche has been left empty (from Sakkara). — 167. Tombstone of Entef, with well- preserved colouring (11th dynasty; from Thebes). — 292. The scribe Anawa, major-domo of .Memphis , in the act of worshipping Turn and Harmachis (19th dyn.; from Sakkara). The inscription is a hymn to the sun. — 330. Stele of Piankhi, son of Herhor, high-priest of Amnion and viceroy of Ethiopia (21st dyn.; Abydos). — 378. Tombstone. In the uppermost field are represented Phra- unem-emamf, the chief scribe of Amnion, and his wife Niuhai, priestess of Amnion, kneeling before the jackal Anubis; in the sec- ond tow the deceased are seen arriving before Osiris and Isis; the third field represents a sacrifice for the dead (20th dyn.; Sakkara). — 420. Roma, keeper of the royal diadems and of the perfumes of the royal treasury, with his wife Sukha, his daughter Tapu, and his grandson Nihiai', all in adoration before Osiris, Isis, and Horus. In the second field Roma and Sukha receive sacrificial gifts from their son Apii and other members of the family ; the third contains a hymn to Osiris (19th dyn. ; Abydos). — Nos. 199, 229, 255, and 327 are the best examples of steles of the 6th dynasty. To the left, in the middle: 446. Statue of Sebek-em-saf , a king of the 13th dynasty, in rose-coloured granite (from Abydos). No. 445, used as a base for the last, is the shaft of a column in red granite, inscribed with the 5th year of the reign of Merenptah (19th dyn.). Adjacent, to the left : 442. Ta'i and his wife Nai, sitting figures in limestone ; at the back the same figures are re- presented in the act of receiving sacrificial gifts from Tinro, priestess of Ammon (19th dyn.; Sakkara). — In the middle of the room, to the right : *468. Alabaster Statue of Queen Arneneritis, on a base of grey granite. The cartouches are those of her father Kashta and her brother Shabako (25th dyn.; Karnak). — *465. Lion, admirably pourtrayed in bronze , with the cartouches of King Apries of the 26th dynasty, probably designed to adorn a staircase. — 469. Group of Ammon and Muth, dedicated by Seti I. (19th dyn.; Thebes). At the sides of the door leading to the Salle du Centre are two large limestone steles, inscribed with the name of Ramses IV. and with hymns to various deities. In front, 265, 286. Two limestone figures, in a crouching posture, of Khai, keeper of the treasures in the mortuary chapel of Ramses II. No. 285 holds a small shrine with an image of Osiris, and No. 286 another with an image of Ra. — By the four pilasters are finely-executed sarcophagi in basalt and limestone. 409. Limestone coffin of a woman named Ankh ; 160. Coffin in green basalt of a woman named Betaita, both of the Ptolemaic period. Opposite, 284, 287. Coffin and lid of Hor-em- heb, dating from the Saite period (p. 91), and covered inside and out with funereal representations and inscriptions. 298 Route 3. CAIRO. Museum We now turn to the left and enter the — Salle historique de l'Ouest. This room contains historical steles of various epochs and also the monuments of the period of the Hyksos (p. 88), which is represented in Europe by a solitary head in the Villa Ludovisi at Eome. — In the centre of the room : **107. Hyksos Sphinx in black granite, from Tanis, the restored parts re- cognisable by their darker hue. The head shows the coarse and foreign-looking features of the race which oppressed Egypt for so long a period. An inscription on the right shoulder, almost effaced, mentions Apepi (Apophis), one of the last Hyksos kings. Merenptah, the Pharaoh of the Exodus, and Ramses II. sub- sequently caused their names to he inscribed on the base, and Psusennes, of the 2ist dynasty, engraved his on the breast of the statue. 106. Head of a sphinx, resembling No. 107, with the name of Merenptah, added at a later date. — 108. Sacrificial tablet of black granite, with the name of the Hyksos king Apepi. — 100. Torso of a Hyksos statue in grey granite, found atMit Fares in the Fayum, and thus proving that the Hyksos dominion extended at least as far as this district. 123. Double statue of grey granite , found at Tanis and dating from the Hyksos period. Two foreign-looking figures are standing before the sacrificial tables, which are lavishly adorned with aquatic plants (Baskhtiiu). fishes, and birds. The features of the figures resemble those of the sphinxes ; their matted beards, their plaited hair, and the bracelets on their arms dis- tinguish them strongly from the figures on other Egyptian monuments. The name of Psusennes, engraved both on the front and on the buck of the monument, was added at a later date. **89. Stele of the Diadoch , in black granite , found in 1870 among the ruinous foundations of the mosque of Shekhun in Cairo. In the arch above the proper inscription is a representation of Pto- lemy i. Lagi (p. 96j, before his accession to the throne. He is Still Btyled a 'satrap 1 here, but the empty cartouches adjoining his figure seem to indicate that he is free to ascend the throne. On the left he is consecrat- ing to Horus, the avenger of his father, a piece of planted land ( flOQ ] i and on the right he is presenting gifts to Isis-Buto , the tutelary of the cities of Peh and Tep. The inscription extols the satrap Ptolemy as a hero, who brought back from Asia to the Nile the treasures rem from the temples of Egypt, and who fixed his residence in the ''Fortress of Alexander I., which was formerly '-idled Rhakotis' 1 (i.e. Alexandria). I IN victories over Syria and the western regions of Egypt, and his be- neficence to the gods of Egypt are also praised, and there follows a eulo- gium of his liberality in renewing a grant to the goddesses (i.e. to the i of the cities of Peh and Tep, the so-called quarters of Buto, wlmsc; worship had been abolished by the 'Arch-enemy Xerxes\ **127. Celebrated monument of the time of Tholhmcs III, in black granite (l'Jth dyn.; Karnak). The upper part of the inscription was erased bj Kim en-aten, who overthrew the worship of Amnion in Thebes, or bj some othei i was afterwards restored, perhaps bj Ramses II, The traces age arc distinctly visible on the upper half of th tele. Below is an inscription in 25 lines celebrating the victories of Thothmi ill. in a Mi M\ poetic manner. This monument was often copied bj Bub- equenl dyna ties to celebrate the exploits of Seti I. and Ramses ill. ofBuWc. CAIRO. 3. Route. 299 101. Portrait-head in dark granite of Taharka (the Tirhakah of the Bible), the Ethiopian conqueror (25th dyn.); negro cast of fea- tures, nose mutilated. The following steles are also of historical interest : 98. Stele of Piankhi, in grey granite , covered with inscriptions (23rd dyn. ; Gebel-Barkal). In the 6th cent, before Christ the power of the Ethiopian monarchs extended to Thebes , while several native princes still maintained them- selves in N. Egypt. One of these named Tefnekht (p. 91) organises a rising against the usurper Piankhi, hut is finally conquered and forced to yield to the Ethiopian, who, after pacifying the country, returns to his capital Napata. 99. Stele of Hor-sa-tef , in grey granite , from the end of the Persian period (Gebel-Barkal). The king gives an account of the wars carried on by him against the tribes dwelling between Abyssinia, Darfur, and the Red Sea, particularly of the expedition to the Gebel-Barkal in the 6th year of his reign. 114. The so-called Coronation Stele, on which the name of the king has been effaced. — 122. Stele of Amen-meri-nut, recount- ing a campaign undertaken by him at the instigation of a dream. — 112. Tablet known as the Stele of Excommunication. These three steles were all found at Gebel-Barkal. In the corner of the room: 97. Door-post of grey basalt, with the name and titles of Tau , brother of Queen Ra-meri-ankh-ens, wife of Pepi I. (6th dyn.; Abydos). — 127. Limestone stele, with inscriptions on each face and the cartouches of Usertesen III. and Amenemha III. (12th dyn.; Abydos). The rose-coloured granite door, leading from the Grand Vesti- bule to the Salle du Centre, was found at Abydos, amid the ruins of an ancient temple of Osiris. The central portion bears the car- touche of Seti I., while at the sides are full-length figures of the same monarch. Salle du Centre. Along the walls are arranged twelve cabinets, containing statuettes of the Egyptian deities in bronze, stone, and porcelain, and objects connected with the burial ceremonies of the Egyptians. To the left, Case B : Osiris and Apis. 2490. Apis- bull with the sacred triangle on its forehead; 2497-2502. Apis steles, in limestone, from the Serapeum at Sakkara ; 2494. Serapis (human body with the head of a bull) ; 2434. Relief of the trans- portation of a dead Apis, with figures of Isis and Nephthys to the right and left of the reliquary. Case C. 2416. Statuette of Osiris in limestone, with fragments of the kneeling figures of a brother and sister, each presenting a sacrificial tablet ; 2415. Hawk with the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt; 2386. Upper part of a sceptre, consisting of a lotus blossom and a hawk ; 2381. Upright mummy of Osiris in basalt ; 2383. Stele with relief of an Osiris mummy ; on the arch at the top is the sun (a red disk with a scarabajus), while to the right and left are two dog-faced baboons in an attitude of adoration. 2359. Harpocrates 300 Route 3. CAIRO. Museum emerging from the calyx of a lotus; 2325. Statue of the child Horus, with its finger at its lips, formerly gilded; 2391, 2364. Two bronze chairs, with feet and arms in the form of lions, while the back of the second consists of a hawk with outspread wings. Cabinet D. 2209. Bronze naos, with a cat; 2276. "Wooden obe- lisk with a mummy of Osiris; 2299. Jackal; 2315. Statuette of Anubis with the jackal's head, and the linen case in which it was found ; 2260. Beak and neck of an ibis ; 2129. Statuette of a priest, holding a shrine of Osiris ; 2134, 2223. Ibises in bronze. Cabinet E. Figures of Isis. 2167. Isis with wings attached to her arms; 2170. Isis and Horus, in stone, gilded; 2141, 2142. Same subject, in bronze ; 2154. Osiris mummy on a pedestal adorn- ed with basreliefs of gods (in bronze) ; 2185. Tombstone repre- senting Isis sheltering the god Harmachis with her wings and re- ceiving sacrificial offerings. Cabinet F. Statuettes of the goddesses Isis , Nephthys, and Thueris. 2028. Sitting figure of Nephthys in yellowish marble; 2038. Sitting figure of Isis, with her hands resting on her knees, the face and neck gilded; 2105. Bronze aegis with a head of Ila- thor, furnished with cow-horns ; 2033. Same subject; 2063. Por- celain statuette of Thueris; 2061. Tombstone, with the singer Anarimes offering sacrifices to a hawk. Cabinet G. 2009, 2013. Bronze figures of the Theban Amnion, with the double feather on his head; 1967. Bronze aegis with the head of a lion, bearing a solar disk and a uracils serpent; 1957. Bronze figure of Imhotep (the /Eseulapius of the Greeks), with a papyrus roll on his knees ; 1925. Ptah as a mummy, in bronze. — 1933. Figure of the 'Primaeval Ptah' (seep. 126) in green porce- lain; the deity is represented in the shape of a distorted child, Standing upon two crocodiles and strangling two snake.-. Behind is Ma, the goddess of justice, with outspread wings. — 1883, L863. Bronze figures of the goddess Sekhet, with the lion's head, one sitting and the other standing; 1857. Bronze cat; 1882. Bronze figure of Sekhet, with the solar disk and a uraeus serpent on her head. Cabinet I, *1813, *1750. Bronze statuettes of the god Nefer- Tum, one inlaid with gold and enamel; 1831. Sceptre ending in a lotus, surmounted by a bronze statuette of Serapis; 1829. Bronze statuette of the goddess Neith ; 1826. Bronze group of Horus and Tlmtli pouring water over a figure kneeling between them: L775. horus with the head of a aawk, leaning against an obelisk; 1770. Iran- serpent with a human head, wearing the crowns of Upper and Lower Kgypt; 1764. Sceptre with a lotus ami head of a hawk. 1734, Pectoral plate in the form of a shrine; in the middle is a shield bearing the head of llathor supported by two uraeus snakes; at the sides are I'tah and Sekhet. — 1710. The rod Shu, ia por- celain. Cabinet J. chieflj contains statuettes of Osiris. 1558. Wooden of BulCik. CAIRO. 3. Route. 301 Stele, with wonderfully preserved gilding and colouring; tbe scene represents a priest of Mentu in adoration before Harmachis and Tum. 1530. Stele ofBesmut; 1510, 1511. Two small coffins of baked clay, containing statuettes of Osiris; *1547. Wooden sta- tuette of Osiris; 1562. Perforated slab of porcelain, representing a scarabcBus in blue, green, and black enamel; 1493. Wooden head- rest, such as is still used in the Sudan and Japan. Cabinet K. 1445. Side of a sarcophagus of Besmut, dating from the period of the Sa'ite kings. The inscriptions are taken from the Ritual of the Dead. — 1483. Naos of elegant workmanship for a person named Nekht, a sitting figure of whom, in serpentine, oc- cupies the interior ( 13th dyn. ; Abydos). — In the front part of the cabinet is a aeoklace, consisting of small statuettes of Osiris in green enamel and the emblems If and u- ft Cabinet L. 1393. Papyrus written for the mummy of Amen- mes and containing a treatise on the lower world. 1307. Osiris sta- tuette of the scribe Neferhotep, in alabaster. 1306. Alabaster statuette of Awi, the royal scribe for the sacrificial offerings. Sev- eral wooden hawks, partly from coffins and shrines, partly from wooden statuettes of Osiris. This cabinet also contains numerous 'cartonages' (p. 312) of the Gr;cco-Roman era, many of them with elaborate designs and wonderfully fresh colouring. Cabinet M. also contains cartonages and masks. 1200, 1201. 'Ca- nopi' or Canopic jars of terracotta, adorned with boldly and elegantly- executed designs, and inscribed with the name 'Baau'. These jars contained the embalmed viscera of the mummy and were generally interred with it. They invariably occur in groups of four, either all with covers in the shape of human heads, or with the heads of a man, an ape, a hawk, and a jackal. — 1243, 1244. Two similar vases. Mummies of animals : 1271, 1274. Crocodiles, 1275. Jackal, 1272. Ibis. Also shrines and statuettes of Osiris in wood and other materials. Cabinet N. 1123-1126. Canopi of painted limestone; 1156. Small stone naos of the 13th dynasty. 1171 et seq. Conical tiles of baked clay, of a kind found only at Thebes; they were perhaps votive offerings. Between the pillars and the N. and S. walls are four glass-cases. Case A. (by the S. wall, to the left) contains a selection of fig- ures from the Egyptian Pantheon in bronze, porcelain, and lapis lazuli. 2625. (in the middle of the case) kneeling bronze figure with the head of a hawk and the arms raised in adoration. 2512. Group in bronze : Osiris seated between Nefer-Tum and Horus, and in front a kneeling worshipper. 2626. Sitting figure of Osiris, with Isis and Nephthys behind him ; *2665. Anubis ; 2664. Figure wor- shipping Isis, whose headgear consists of a fish; 2700. Horus; 2697. Osiris as a mummy, in bronze inlaid with gold ; 2595. Isis 302 Route 3. CAIRO. Museum with the head of a cow; 2597. Ammon; 2581. Apis-bull, with Isis on the right and Nephthys on the left; 2583. Mummy of Osiris be- tween Isis and Nephthys; 2576. Apis-bull, with a Carian inscrip- tion on the base; 2709. Serapis, with a papyrus plant on his head. — Among the Porcelain Figures the following are the most note- worthy : 2558. Isis, Horns, and Nephthys ; 2675. Thueris ; 2552. Figure of the god Set (almost unique"); 2548. Ptah as a child; 2566. Thoth, Isis, Nephthys, and Khnum ; 2559. Bes strangling a lion; 2687. Ptah Sokar as a mummy, with a sceptre in his hand; 2640. Hathor-Isis with a child at her breast, while behind is an Isis sheltering her with her wings; 2635. Harpocrates ; 2542. Cyno- cephalus or dog-faced ape, the emblem of the god Thoth. — Lapis lazuli Figures: 2643. Ma, the goddess of truth, with a golden fea- ther on her head; 2638. Isis and Horus, with golden horns and the solar disk ; 2565. Horns holding a serpent (finely executed) ; *2646. Small figure of Horus in iridescent glass. Cabinet H. (N. wall) contains the **Jewela of Queen Adh-hotep, mother of Aahmes (18th dyn.), found with the mummy of the Queen at Drab abu'l Negga (Thebes). In front : 3448. Bracelet for the upper arm, adorned with turquoises ; in front is a vulture with wings of lapis lazuli, cornelian, and paste in a gold setting (not enamelled). 3476. Dagger with a handle formed of four female heads in gold and a blade damascened with the same metal; 3475. Axe with a handle of cedar wood encased in gold and inlaid with the name and titles of Aahmes in precious stones ; 3477. Pliable chain of gold, 36 inches long, to which is attached a scarabaeus with wings inlaid with la- pis-lazuli ; 3508. Diadem with the cartouche of Aahmes and two sphinxes; 3510. Gold bracelet inlaid with lapis lazuli, representing King Aahmes kneeling between Seb and his acolytes; 3509. Brace- let formed of pearls strung upon gold wire. 3582. Golden boat, resting upon a wooden frame with four wheels of bronze and con- taining twelve rowers, a steersman, and a figure holding a baton of command. The end of the boat, which is in the form of a lotus, bears the cartouche of King Karnes ( end of the 17th dyn.). — On the N. side of the cabinet: 3564. Necklace (usekh) of gold, the links of which are in the form of coils of rope, cruciform flowers, ante- lopes chased by lions, jackals, vultures, and winged uncus ser- pents ; the clasps represent the heads of hawks. — 3565. Breast- plate of gold inlaid with precious stones. In the middle is with a naos or ark, containing King Aahmes, on whose head Ammon and Ra arc pouring the water of life; at the back is an en- graved representation of the same scene. — 3580. Golden diadem with the head of Medusa, dating from the Greek period. — On the W. side of the cabinet: 3595. Gold chain with three flies in gold foil ; 3G05. Wooden staff, with a crook at the end, overlaid with gold ; 3607. Fan of gilded wood, with the holes left by the ostrich feathers with which it was originally furnished. — On the S. side ofBulak. CAIRO. 3. Route. 303 of the cabinet: Bracelets and anklets of massive gold; 3628. Mirror of Queen Aah-hotep, made of wood, bronze, and gold. Adjacent are numerous rings and bracelets of the Grasco-Roman period. — Op- posite — Case P. Historical relics. 3834. Roll of mummy linen with the cartouche of King Pepi (6th dyn.), found at Sakkara ; 3956. Large alabaster vase, the capacity of which is indicated as '21 kin' ; 3870. Circular vase with enamelled inscription mentioning Amenko- tep III. and his wife Tii (18th dyn.) ; 3894. Scarabseus, admirably executed in green serpentine, with the cartouche of Ramses II. ; 3901, 3902. Alabaster vase, with the name of King Mer-en-Ra on the bowl and that of his brother and successor, Pepi II. Ra-nefer-ka, on the lid. 3874. Bronze cube found at Tanis along with 15 others of the same kind; the inscriptions, with several names and cartouches that belong, perhaps, to the 13th dynasty, are inlaid in silver. 3868. Piece of enamel with the cartouches of Ramses III., found at Tell el-Yehudiyeh (Shibin el-Kanatir). — 3960. Fragment of a statue of Taharka (25th dyn.). On the base are 14 fettered Asia- tics and 14 negroes, emblematical of the tribes conquered by Ta- harka. — 3893. Vase in blue enamel, with the cartouche of Thoth- mes III. (18th dyn.) ; 3910. Statuette of Ramses IV. as Osiris, in blue enamel; 3908. Fragment of a statue of Seti I.; 3914. Large scarabams in blue enamel, with the cartouche of Ramses IV. (20th dyn.) ; 3925. Small heart-shaped amulet, inscribed with a chapter from the Ritual of the Dead and dedicated to Seti I. ; 3928. Small sphinx in green felspar, with the cartouches of Apries (26th dyn.) ; 3897. Bronze segis with the head of a king. — The case also con- tains a number of scarabaei inscribed with the names of kings and gods. Case O, between the pillaTs and the S. wall of the room, con- tains statuettes of Osiris, canopi, and objects connected with the dead. 1606, 1607, 1648, 1649. Alabaster canopi of the period of the 26th dyn., very finely executed. — 1621. Small votive sar- cophagus, in limestone, made in the time of the 22nd dynasty and dedicated to Ra. It contained the bier of black granite, now placed in front of it, on which lies the mummy of the deceased, guarded by the soul in the form of a hawk with a human head. — 1622. Wooden stele, the lower part of which is adorned with an Egyptian landscape, a representation of extremely rare occurrence ; 1594. Bronze statuette of Osiris ; 1678. Papyrus with extracts from the Ritual of the Dead, prepared for a Theban named Mapui. Adjoining the four pillars in the centre of the hall are eight cabinets. Of these Cabinets R. and Q. contain models for sculptures, while the other six contain articles of daily life. Several of the slabs in Case Q. have reliefs on both sides. The most striking is No. 3393. Fragment of a ram, exceedingly delicate both in de- sign and execution. 304 Route 3. CAIRO. Museum Cabinet Y. 3*2-40. Hippopotamus in blue enamel, the body adorned -with lepresentations of plants, birds, and butterflies ( 11th dyn. ; Thebes). — *3622. Statuette of Osiris, in white enamel, in- laid with blue, yellow, and violet. The inscription mentions the name of Ptahmes (20th dyn.). This unique work is the most beau- tiful statuette of Osiris that has been found. ■ — ■ 3277. "Wooden case for perfume. The handle consists of a nude female figure in the act of swimming and holding in her outstretched arms a duck, the body of which is hollowed out to receive the perfume, while the wings form the cover. — 3289. 3305, 330G, 3314. Enamel works from Tell el-Yehiidiyeh. No. 3306. represents a garland of lotus flowers and buds. — 3278. Head of a king of the 26th dynasty, in blue porcelain. 330-i. Small wooden reel or bobbin of thread, terminating at each cud in a human head ; 3315. Fine bronze figure of the goddess l'.:ist. Cabinet V. contains glass phials and vases. *3159. Eead of a girl, carved in wood, found near the pyramids of (ii/rh; 3179. Green enamelled brick with the cartouches of Ramses III. (almost unique); 3181. Tortoise in wood, with holes containing wooden hair-pins (11th dyn.; Thebes). — 3182. Board for a game re- sembling draughts; the drawer contains seven of the pieces used in the game, inlaid with ivory. 3183. is another board of the same kind. — 3195. Reed-basket (11th dyn.), almost identical with the parti- coloured baskets still made by the natives of Assuan. Cabinet V. contains vases and other vessels for eye-powder (3063, 3066, 3068, 3069). 3080. Vase of green jasper in the shape of a heart, with a scarabaeus engraved on the one side and the 30th chapter of the Ritual of the Dead on the other; 3092. Inkstand in green porcelain for red and black ink; *3098. Rust of Isis in blue enamel, with the cartouches of Ramses III.; 3059. Blue colouring material, retaining the shape of the little bag that contained it (Tell el-Yehudi\ tli ) : 3090. Small piece of stone, for grinding the colours used in writing; 3093. Split rings of cornelian, ivory, and glass, found in mummy-cases (use unknown); 3107. Sceptre in bronze of the Sai'te period, with a crocodile bearing a boat, which in turn supports a naos. Cabinet X. 2929. Palette used by scribes, with six different colours and the cartouche of Thothmes III. (18th dyn.). *2949, 2950, 2960, 2961, 2968. Five silver vases of elaborate workman- ship, found at Tell Tm.-i'i | Mendes | ; the details consist of the flow- ers, buds, and leaves Of Ihe lotus. 2965. Linn's head, in red jas- per; 2966. Silver boat with ten rowers and a steersman, found with the trinkets of Queen Aah-hotep ; 2984. Statue in Med clay, standing on a base covered wii h inscriptions, which mention the name of Nefcr-ahra (26th dyn.); 2986. Pies, resembl- i ii jz; those still in use ; 2991. Small bronze sphinx of the Persian era. Cabin I X. and T. contain vases of terracotta and bronze, for holding perfume, water, meal, etc. of Bulak. CAIRO. 3. Route. 305 In the centre of the room : **3961. Statue of King Khefren or Khafra, the builder of the second pyramid, found in the well of the granite temple near the Great Sphinx (p. 365). The king is represented in life-size, sitting on a throne, the arms of which terminate in lions 1 heads. At the sides of the seat are papyrus and lotus plants intertwined around the symbol of union V , which indi- cates the junction of Upper with Lower Egypt, and is perhaps emblemati- cal of the transition from this life to the next. On the pedestal, to the right and left of the feet of the statue, is insci-ibed in distinct hiero- glyphic characters: 'The prince and victorious Ilorus, Khafra, the good god and lord of the diadem'. In his right hand the monarch holds a roll of papyrus. On the top of the back of the throne is a hawk, protect- ing the king's head with its outspread wings. The torso is of a more thickset type than is the case with the statues of the modern empire, having been modelled in accordance with the rules prescribed by the hieratic canon at that early period, and the whole figure breathes a spirit of strength and repose. The muscles of the breast and legs are repro- duced with wonderful accuracy. The statue is made of an extremely hard diorite, the difficulty of working which has been overcome by the artist in a marvellous manner. **3962. (railed in) Wooden Statue from Sakkara known as the Shekh el-beled (village-chief), a name given to it by the Arabs on account of its resemblance to a well-fed specimen of that modern functionary. The figure, which dates from the early part of the old empire, affords a proof that the Egyptian sculptors were quite capable of executing really artistic work whenever they could shake off the fetters of their rigid. canon. The individuality and realism of this figure will afford a pleasant surprise to those who have found it difficult to admire the stiff conven- tional forms of Egyptian art. The feet, which had been broken off, are restored; but the rest of the figure is in its original condition. The up- per part of the body and the legs are bare, while from the hips hangs a kind of apron folded in front. In the hand is the long rod of office. The round head with its short hair, and the portrait-like, good-natured face are remarkably life-like. The eyes, which have a somewhat rigid ex- pression, were put in, as in the case of other similar statues, after the work was completed. They consist of pieces of opaque white quartz with pupils formed of rock-crystal, in the centre of which is placed a polished metal knob for the double purpose of securing them and giving them light and sparkle ; and they are framed with thin plates of bronze, the edges of which form the eyelids. The figure was originally covered with a thin coating of plaster of Paris and painted. — The female torso in the Salle de l'Ancien Empire (No. 1044) was found in the grave of the Shekh el-Beled and probably represents his wife. **5243. Statue of Hathor, the goddess of the infernal regions, bending her head, adorned with the disk and double feather, pro- tectingly over the deceased Psametik. Nos, 5245 (Osiris), 5246 (Isis), and 5244 (sacrificial slab) were found in the same tomb. This group, executed in green basalt, and found at Sakkara, is one of the best works of the 26th dynasty. The heads are remarkably at- tractive, but the treatment of the other parts of the body is much in- ferior to that of the ancient empire. The technical execution, however, shows the utmost care and skil By the N. wall, behind the statue of Khefren, are numerous Canopi (see p. 301). — 1841. Small stele in black basalt, repre- senting 'Horus on the crocodiles' ; the inscription contains magical Baedeker's Egypt I. 2nd Ed. 20 306 Route 3. CAIRO. Museum formulae and formed a talisman against evil. — 184G. (behind the last), Papyrus found at Thebes, containing moral precepts couched in the form of a dialogue. Above, 1847. Ritual of the Dead with coloured representations, prepared for a person named Senhotep (20th dyn. ; Thebes). * 184-8. Geographical papyrus, describing, after a somewhat mythical and allegorical fashion, the Fayum and Lake Mceris (Thebes ; Greek period). — Along the walls and be- tween the cabinets are wooden coffins of various periods, most of them found in Thebes. The door on the W. side of the Salle du Centre leads to the Salle de l'Ancien Empire, which contains the largest existing col- lection of monuments of the primaeval empire, i. e. of the time of the builders of the pyramids. In the middle of the N. side: *1050. Double group in limestone, found in 1870 in a mastaba near Medum, the colouring still remarkably fresh. It represents Prince Rahotep and his wife Nefert, a princess of the blood, both in the costume of the period (4th or 5th dyn.). The eyes, made of coloured quartz, impart a very lifelike air to the figures. — To the left of the last, 1052. Statue of Ti, in limestone, found in the Serdab of his tomb at Sakkara (p. 388); to the right, 1049. Statue of Nefer-kha-ra ( 5th dyn!). — By the E. Wall: •1037-1039. Three wooden panels with reliefs. These panels, taken from the walls of a tomb, represent the figure of 'Hosi', the deceased, while the hieroglyphics above give his name and bis titles. The work is executed by a master band and is not unworthy of comparison with the Shekh el-Beled (4th dyn. ; Sakkara). N. side, in the cabinet in the corner to the right: 1051. Frag- ment of the inner lining of a tomb, found in a grave at .Medum. The six geese represented here arc drawn and coloured with accuracy, while the treatment shows considerable cleverness'and humour. The material is a kind of hardened clay coated with plaster of i'aris. Below, Models of boats used in transporting mummies (11th dyn. ; Sakkara). — The cabinet in the left corner of the same side contains small and lifelike figures, differing entirely from the ordinary stiff attitudes of Egyptian statues : 1002. Man in a crouch- ing position cleaning a vase: *1006. Scribe in a kneeling pos- ture, with his arms crossed (inlaid eyes); 1001. Man with a sack on his shoulder and his sandals in his hand; 1012, 1013. Two women grinding corn ; 1014. Dwarf named Khnumhotep, 'keeper of the linen for embalming'. These figures all belong to the 4th, 5th, and 6th dynasties. — 1007. Small sacrificial chest, probably used by the priests. It contains a sacrificial slab, vases, knives, etc. (6th dyn.). — On the walls are several tombstones in the form of doors, chiefly From Sakkara. — In front of the window : 1053. Limestone sarcophagus from Thebes, of which a drawing was made i>> Lepsius in 1842, but which was afterwards again lost under heaps of rubbish and not rediscovered till 1SS2. It belongs to the 1 1th dyn isty and was made for a person named Tagi. The of BCdak. CAIRO. 3. Route. 307 interior is adorned with numerous inscriptions and scenes relating to the dead, most of them in good preservation. In the middle of the S. Wall: *975. Statue of Ra-nefer, a priest, wearing a wig (in limestone). The muscles of the arms and breast are executed with great realism , and the statue ranks among the most perfect specimens of Egyptian art (5th dyn. ; Sakkara). — To the right, 974. Basaltic statue of King Khefren at a more advanced age than in No. 39G1 (p. 305); the statue, which was found with the latter in the granite temple near the Sphinx, has been freely restored. — *964. A large and very perfectly executed sarcophagus in rose-coloured granite, of great antiquity, which once contained the remains of a priest of Apis named Khufu-ankh. The sides recall tlie domestic rather than the sepulchral style of archi- tecture, but in Egypt these styles were similar in many respects. The ancient Egyptians used to call their earthly dwellings 'inns' 1 or 'lodgings 1 , while they styled their tombs 'everlasting houses'. The ends of the beams, resembling triglyphs, should be noticed. 965. Similar but plainer sarcophagus, prepared for Prince Hirbaif. 970. Similar sarcophagus with the angles rounded, bear- ing the name of Prince Kamskhem. These three sarcophagi were all found near the Pyramids of Gizeh and date from the time of the 4th dynasty. Adjacent, by the W. Wall: 886. Stele of limestone, with an inscription of 50 lines, in which the deceased Uni records his ex- ploits under the three Pharaohs, Teta, PepiI.,andMer-en-ra, includ- ing his work on the pyramids constructed by the last two kings (both in Sakkara, opened in 1880-81 ; comp. p. 402). — 882. Celebrated tombstone of the 25th dynasty, probably a copy of an original of the 4th dynasty. The inscription is a record by King Cheops of various works and restorations carried out by him. It contains a representation of the great sphinx of Gizeh, with an intimation 'that the dwelling of the sphinx Harmachis lies to the S. of the temple of Isis and to the N. of the temple of Osiris'. Also on the S. side of the room are various fragments from tombs at Sakkara, with scenes of great life and humour. 887. Boatmen, engaged in the transportation of fruit and other provi- sions, fall into a quarrel and attack each other with the oars. 889. In the upper row are represented the various stages in the making of bread; below are slaves pouring wine into jars. 890. Shepherds conducting their flocks across the inund.ited fields, and scaring off the crocodiles, which lurk amid the reeds, by loud cries and gestures. 908. Fruit-seller teasing an ape, which has seized him by the leg. W. Wall. 958. The two upper rows represent field workers, the third the making of wine and bread. In the lowest row are goldsmiths weighing gold and sculptors at work with their polishing stones. — 959. Shepherds pasturing their flocks ; below, shepherds and fishermen preparing for a meal. — To the right and left of 20* 308 Route 3. CAIKO. Museum the door, 881, 1046. Steles from the grave of Sahu at Sakkara (p. 401). The first of these represents the deceased sitting at a table covered with slaughtered cattle, eggs, tlowers, fruit, and other offerings, which ag brought in by servants; cm the other slab we see Sahu seated in a kind of litter, while a number of men and women are bri their gifts to the tomb. Below are represented the cutting up of ,\ red oxen, the deceased navigating the Nile, and his cattle being driven before him to be counted. All these scenes are intended to implv that in the next world the just continue the same life as they lived in this, but in a state of greater felicity. In front of the steles, 986, 988. Two sacrificial tables in alabaster. Two lions support each of the tables in a slightly tilted position, so that the libations ran down into a vase placed between the tails of the lions (4th dyn.l. The door on the 15. side of the Salle du Centre leads to the Salle Funeraire, which contains wooden sarcophagi from Thebes, chiefly belonging to the priests of Mentu, and also others found in 1884 in the necropolis of Akhmim (JPanopolis ). To the right and left are two large octagonal glass-cases containing scarabaei, amulets of glass, enamelled clay, and cornelian, and objects used in the adornment of the dead. Cases AN, AO, and AP. contain scarabaei, the finest of whioh are No. 4572, in felspar; No. 4567, in gold; and No. 4566, in light-coloured serpentine, of very delicate workmanship. Case AQ. contains figures of deities in bronze. 4585. Isis, with winged arms raised in an attitude of protection ; the indented por- tions were formerly filled with enamel. 4587. Two wooden tablets with figures of the god Bess. Case AR. Scarabaei, the emblem of the heart, found in the bodies of mummies whence the heart had been removed, and other smaller scarabaei, made of cornelian and granite. 4555. Heart with a man's head in amethyst, perhaps dating from the 11th dy- nasty; 4562. Amulets in the form of outstretched fingers, probably interred with the mummy to avert the evil eye (26th dyn.). — Case AS. contains objects in bronze, used as ornaments for the beads of small statues, including Amnion and Osiris feathers, Isis horns, false beards, and the like. — Case AT. Pectorals, or eccles- iastical breast-ornaments, in the form of shrines, some of them inlaid with glass. 4333. Scarabacus in blue enamel, with expand- ed wings; 4328. Scarabaeus made of coloured glass heads ; 4327. Ha'iis in perforated work. Case AU. Small sceptres in wood and bronze. 4274. Pectoral representing Isis on a lotus between two winged serpents ; 4303. Kukupha, or sceptre of wood ; 4271. Mgis, head of Isis with the solar disk and horns; 4278. Small aegis of quartz. W. Side. Cabinet AE. Wooden chests in the shape of a naos* wooden statuettes of Osiris, chains of cornelian, glass, and other 4402. Fragment of a frieze found in Tell el-Yehudiyeo, of Buldk. CAIRO. 3. Route. 309 with a fantastic bird, probably meant for a phoenix. Above are two round disks of enamel (No. 4401), with ornamentation re- sembling stars , found at the same place. 4427. Wooden naos with well-preserved colouring. 4420. Small stele of wood, for- merly gilded. The fact that the figure of Osiris alone is intact proves that the mutilation of the stele took place at a very early period, when the thieves did not dare to remove the gold on the figure of the god. S. Wall. Case AD. 4436. Osiris in the first stage of his re- surrection (comp. p. 130), a figure of diorite with a double feather of gold on the head (26th dyn.) ; 4441. Case for a sceptre or standard, in the shape of a boat terminating at each end in a lotus ; 4450. Figure of the royal scribe Ani, in black granite, holding a sistrum with the head of Hathor (18th dyn.). — *4454. Small figure of the ancient empire (5th dyn.), in limestone, described by the inscription as the 'steward of the grain for tribute, Nefer'. This is one of the finest specimens of Egyptian sculpture. — 4457. Vase of grey granite, encircled by a serpent and bearing the names of King Piankhi (23rd dyn.) and a queen (the latter illegible) ; 4449. Urjeus serpent in bronze, perhaps used as a sceptre; 4475. Weight of grey granite in the form of a calf's head, with the car- touches of Seti I (19th dyn.) and a stamp indicating the weight (300 Utes) ; 4479. Door-hinge, in bronze, with the cartouche of Queen Shep-en-apet, daughter of Queen Ameneritis and wife of Psammetikh I. (26th dyn.). Cabinet AC. Chairs, baskets, wooden instruments of husband- men and masons, fruits, seeds, and other objects used in common life. 4493. Chair with lion's claws as feet, 4495. Similar chair without the lion's feet, both found in Thebes (11th dyn.); 4497. Wooden hatchet; 4650. Wooden ruler. In the middle of the cabinet is a large basket (No. 4618), tilled with the fruit of the dum-palm (p. 78). In front are saucers of red earth containing grain, olives, and eggs. E. Wall. *3599. Tomb Chamber of the 11th dynasty, found at Thebes and brought to Bulak in 1883. The tomb was prepared for a Theban grandee named Herhotep, whose stone sarcophagus, covered with inscriptions, occupies almost the whole available space in the interior. The drawings and hieroglyphics, the latter consisting of citations from the Ritual of the Dead, resemble those of the primaeval empire. On the wall opposite the door is a list of the sacrificial offerings. N. Side. Octagonal glass-case. Section AG. Figures of mfn and animals in glass paste of different colours. Ram, in green and black; Eagle, black with a white beak ; Cow, red and blue; Bird with a human head, representing the soul, in red and green. All the objects in this section were found with mummies from the Fayum (Labyrinth). Section AH. 4096. The goddess Ma, with the face coloured light-blue, the body reddish brown, and a necklace of variegated 310 Route 3. CAIRO. Museum j 4091. Four female heads, of a light-blue colour; 4090. Two jackals, in obsidian ; 4099. Two plates of gold, engraved with amulets. Section AI. So-called ut'a eyes £35^ , in various materials. These amulets are emblematical of the eyes of Ra which illumine the world (p. 128), the right eye being called the sun, and the left the moon ; the former also symbolising the king, and the latter the queen. The dead, when rising from their graves, are represented as ut'a eyes. — Small head-rests, symbolical of the eternal resting- place of pure souls. — Small columns in green felspar or earthen- ware, emblematical of the Tenewed spring or rejuvenescence of the deceased. Section AJ. Paste imitations of precious stones, works in glass, and mosaics. Among the last are an ape, a human head, and small star-shaped flowers; if split into thin sheets, each layer of the mosaic shows the same pattern. Small tortoise, executed with great care and truth to nature. Section AK. Hares, crocodiles, hedgehogs, cows, and other animals in enamelled clay, cornelian, agate, and lapis lazuli. 4163. Elephant (rare) ; 4173. Ape leaning on its elbow, a work showing a good deal of humour. Section AL. Cornelian rings and serpents. In the middle, Collection of small ornaments for a necklace, several of which, in the shape of cartouches, bear the name of Ramses II. Section AM. Amulets and emblems : TT Tat, the symbol of constancy ; t^> the heart ; "T" the symbol of life (?). Section AF. Amulets : rOi rising of the sun ; fl emblem of the the goddess Neith; [ ' — , , /\ emblems of impartiality ; [| symbol of the clothing of the dead in the other world; etc. W. Wall. Cabinet Z. 4480. "Wooden figure of the ancient king- dom. 4846. Small round naos in terracotta, found at Abydos ; over the door is a frieze of uranis snakes, while round the exterior runs a scries of scenes representing Osiris receiving sacrifices and worship from a family of Abydos. 4919. Large two-handled terra- cotta vase, with the inscription 'Year 33, wine prepared for trans- portation'. 4876. Small models of votive offerings in terracotta, bearing the name of the scribe Nib. The case also contains a col- lection of terracotta moulds for the preparation of amulets and in glazed earthenware. At the top of the case are alabaster of the Bt varied shapes. \. Wall. Cabinet AA. Palettes for scribes andjpainters, com bs, of BCdak. CAIRO. .1. Route. 311 needles, phials for salves and cosmetics, nails, and other finely- executed objects in wood. 4737. Double comb, in wood ; 4728. Three polishing stones ; 4747. Six fish-hooks ; 4764. Small lizard in lead, a metal seldom used by the ancient Egyptians. 4791. Model of an Egyptian house , showing that the present natives of Kurna and Drah abu'l Negga have in no way improved or altered the domestic architecture of their forefathers. 4830. Iron key, probably of the Grjeco-Roman period. Cabinet AB. Weapons, darts, chisels, knives, pincers, axes, and arrow-heads. Many of the chisels and axes (e. g. 4657, 4463) bear the cartouches of Thothmes III. and Queen Hatasu (18th dyn.). 4705. Bronze chisel with the head of a hawk ; 4714-4716. Bows and arrows, some of the latter tipped with flint or bone (see also No. 4720). The two alabaster statues (Nos. 4648, 4685) belong to the 4th or 5th dynasty and are destitute of inscriptions. 4676. Double group in limestone, found at Sakkara (5th or 6th dyn.). — 4673 , 4674. Two boards for games : the first is divided into 30 squares, four of which bear special names ; the other has three squares, with holes for the insertion of the wooden pins used in the game. Both date from the period of the 17th dynasty and were found at Thebes. — 4713. Sabre of hard wood, with the name of King Rasekenen on the one side and that of the 'royal son' on the other. Cabinet AV (without glass) contains basreliefs of the period of the 18th dynasty. The titles, as well as the style of execution and design, which recall the monuments of Tell el-Amarna, seem to in- dicate that the persons here represented lived at the close of the reign of Amenophis III. or the beginning of that of Amenophis IV. Cabinet AX contains a selection of Canopi (see p. 301). — 5005,5008. Two unfinished statues in grey serpentine, found at Mitrahineh (Memphis), the one of a man kneeling and holding a naos, the other a standing figure divided by a still distinguishable red line into two halves. — 5021. Granite statue without an inscrip- tion, found at Karnak and probably belonging to the 18th dynasty. The figure is in a kneeling posture and holds in front of it a kind of altar in the form of a column, with the head of Hathor and a lotus. We now leave the Salle Funeraire and pass into the Salle des Momies Royales, which contains the valuable collection of monu- ments found at Der el-Bahri (Thebes) on July 5th, 1881. The first suspicions of the existence of the royal tombs at Der el- Bahri date from 1871, but the Arabs of the neighbourhood carefully con- cealed their knowledge of them and long baffled the curiosity of travellers. Statuettes of Osiris, rolls of papyrus, and other objects offered for sale at Luksor gradually put investigators on the right scent, and finally in 1881 the source of these antiquities was discovered, yielding a treasure that surpassed the most sanguine expectations. We begin with the S. Wall. 5205. Double coffin of Masaherta, high-priest of Ammon, son of King Pinetem II. and father of Queen Hest-em-sekhet (2ist dyn.). Adjacent, 5206. Double coffin of 312 Route 3. CAIRO. Museum Ta-u-hert, priestess of Ammon (21st dyn.). 5207. Double coffin of Pinetem III., son of Hest-em-sekhet, and of Men-kheper-ra, two liigh-priests of Ammon (21st dyn.). — On the other side of the passage : 5208. Outer case of the mummy of Queen Hest-em-sekhet. 5209. Double coffin of Princess Nesi-Khunsu. 5210. Exterior mummy-case of Queen Ramaka and her daughter Mutemhat. 521 1 . Double coffin of Tet-Ptah-auf-ankh, priest of Ammon (22nd dyn.). 5212. Double coffin (blackened -with bitumen at a later period) of Nesi-ta-neb-asher, priestess of Ammon (22nd dyn.). 5213. Coffin of Thothmes III. (18th dyn.), much injured and robbed of its rich gilding. 5215. Coffin of Queen Hent-ta-ui (21st dyn.). — By the pillars : 5247. Large mummy-case or 'cartonage', in the shape of Osiris, of Queen Ahmes-nefer-ateri . wife of Amosis I. 5222. M iiiumy-caseof Queen Aah-hotep, wife of Amenophis I. and mother of Amosis I. (similar to the last; see p. 302). Hutli these cases are of huge size and are formed of innumerable layers o! linen cloth, tightly pressed and glued together and covered with a thin coating of stucco. The solid mass of linen thus prepared is at least as hard as wood, and is adorned with painted and incised ornaments and inscriptions. Each of the mummies wears a wig, surmounted by a crown and double feather. Between the pillars and the N. Wall stands Cabinet AY, the upper shelf of which contains a bronze pedestal with four vases for libations, inscribed with the name of Queen Hest-em-sekhet. Ad- jacent is a wooden chest for containing statuettes of Osiris, bearing the cartouches of Pinetem II. Below are two shelves with Osiris statuettes, in blue glazed clay, dedicated to the memory of Pine- tem II., Masaherta, Pinetem III., Tet-Ptah-auf-ankh, Hest-em- sekhet, Hent-ta-ui, Nesi-Khunsu, Ramaka. Nesi-ta-neb-asher, and Ta-u-hert. — Lower down are several votive gifts found with the mummy of Ilcst-em-sekhet. 5201. Ivory casket with inscrip- tions and the cartouches of Ramses IX. — 6262. (lowest shelf but one |, False mummy of a child, fabricated at a very remote period by thieves, to take the place of the real one; the mummy-case beais the name of Princess Setamn, daughter of Amosis I. (18th dyn.). Ad- jacent are two small oars found with the mummy of Thothmes III. A.1 the botton of the cabinet are several finely-executed canopi'. Cabinet BD, between the pillars and the S. wall. On the upper- most shell' are two wigs belonging to Queen Hest-em-sekhet, and between them a small wooden box with the cartouches of Pinetem 11. I shelf: Osiris statuettes. Third shelf: Fruits of the dum palm, raisins, and dates; small vases in blue glazed earth bearing tame of Princess Nesi-Khunsu; similar vases of glass paste, green, blue, or black and white. 5248. Casket in wood and ivory with the; cartouches of Queen Hatasu (18th dyn.). 5249. Fragment of the coffin of Ramses f. Fourth shelf: 5250. Mummy of Si em-saf, fonnd in 1881 in the pyramid built by this king at Sakkara (6th dyn. |. of BCddk. CAIRO. 3. Route. 313 Cabinets AZ and BC, placed at the foot of the pillars, opposite each other, contain wigs, boxes made of the papyrus reed, vases for libations, and leaves and flowers found with royal mummies, which have been prepared and described by Dr. Schweinfurth. In the centre of the room is a large Funereal Bed, intended for the reception of the mummy. The feet of the bed, which was found in Thebes and belongs to the 11th dynasty, are formed of two lions. The mummy, which is of later date, is that of a priestess of Ammon, daughter of Prince Takelot (23rd dyn.). 5221. Exact reproduction, on a reduced scale (one-third) of the tent or canopy of the mummy of Hest-em-sekhet, painted by JIM. Brugsch and Bouriant. The original, which is made of dyed leather, has been so damaged, that it cannot be exhibited until it has undergone a long and costly pro- cess of restoration. N. Wall, within the recess with panelled sides. 5227. Coffin of Rasekenen III. (end of the 17th dyn.) ; 5228. Wooden coffin of Amosis I. (18th dyn.), painted yellow, with ornamention and in- scriptions in blue ; 5229. Inner case and mummy of Queen Ahmes- nefer-ateri ; 5230. Coffin and mummy of Amenophis I. (18th dyn.), the head wearing a mask. In the corner : *5202. Richly gilded lid of the coffin of Aah-hotep, mother of Amosis I. (17th dyn. ; p. 312). E. Wall. 5231. Coffin and mummy of Thothmes II. (18th dyn.) ; 5232. Coffin and mummy of Seti I., father of Ramses the Great (19th dyn.). 5233. Coffin and mummy of Ramses II., surnamed the Great (19th dyn.). The two inscriptions on the coffin record that in the 16th year of King Siamu the mummy was removed from the tomb of Seti I., and that in the 10th year of the high-priest Pinetem it was again removed and transferred to the tomb of Amenophis I. Adjacent, *5234. Coffin of Netem-Mut, mother of King Herhor (20th dyn.), finely executed but in a very dilapidated condition ; the ornamentation and inscriptions are inlaid with coloured glass. S. Wall. 5235. Inner case with the mummy of Queen Hest-em- sekhet; 3236. Inner case and mummies of Queen Ramaka and her daughter Mutemhat, who died at the same time. 5237. Coffin and mummy of Nebsenui, a priestly scribe; this mummy is in wonder- ful preservation, even the eye-lashes are visible. 5238. Coffin and mummy of Pinetem II., with teeth ground to a point. The two Stands contain eight other mummies, also found in 1881. Salle Greco-Rornaine. This room contains mummies and tomb- stones of the Graeco-Roman period, Greek and Coptic inscriptions, and numerous smaller relics, arranged in eight cabinets. To the right of the entrance, *5400. The famous Decree of Canopus (pp. 447, 455), found at Tanis (and usually called the Tablet of Tanis, to distinguish it from another copy in the Louvre). This tablet confirmed the correctness of the method of deciphering discovered by the celebrated Champollion, and employed by Egypto- logists since the finding of the Rosetta Stone (p. 450). On the limestone pillar are inscribed three different versions of the same decree; above it appears in hieroglyphics , or the Ancient Egyptian written language, 3 1 4 Route 3. CAIRO. Museum below in Oreek, and on the margins in the popular dialect written in the Demotic character. The decree was pronounced bj an assembly of the priests in the temple of Canopus on 7th March (17tii Tybi), B.C. 23S, in the reign of Ptolemy ill. Euergetes I.; it praises the kin;; fur having brought back the images of the gods f rom Asia, gained many victories, pre- served peace in the land, and saved it from imminent famine by his fore- thought in importing corn; and it concludes with a resolution (hat the bly shall call itself *the priesthood of the Euergetes of the gods 1 , found a new sacerdotal caste to be named after Euergetes, institute new fesii\ a Is in honour of the king and queen, and introduce an improvement in the popular calendar. It is also resolved to pay permanent honour in all the temples throughout the country to the Princess Berenice, who died young and unmarried, and to celebrate certain festivals yearly to her memory. In all temples of the first and second rank costly and beautiful statues were to be erected to the 'princess of virgins 1 , to which various servi- ces were to be rendered and offerings presented. Her praises were to be sun by specially trained choirs, and chiefly by virgins, and the bread provided for the priestesses was to be stamped 'bread of Berenice 1 . The inscriptions lastly declare that the decree is to be inscribed on slabs of bronze or of stone in the holy (hieroglyphic), the Egyptian (demotic), and the Greek languages, and to be exhibited conspicuously in every temple of the first and second rank. To the left of the door, 5401. Another copy of the same decree found at Tell el-Hizn (Lower Egypt) in 1881. The representations above the inscriptions show the royal family in adoration before the gods of Egypt. — 5457. Coptic inscription found at Der el-Bahri in a grave used as a chapel. The text consists of a tirade against heretics and the usual prayer for the emperor and his family. — 5466. Fragment of a marble stele with the names of certain citi- zens of Memphis, who had erected a monument to a high function- ary in the temple of Ptah. 5455. Coffin in baked clay, of the By- zantine epoch, found at Syene (Assuan). Rectangular coffin of lead, of the Grreco-Roman period, found at Alexandria. 5426. Stele of the 26th dynasty, representing King Apries offering a sacrifice to Ptah-Sokar-Osiris ; on the upper margin, to the right, is a Carian in-eription which has not yet been deciphered. — 5492. Stele of the Persian period, representing a god standing on a lion and bear- ing on his head the disk of the sun and the crescent of the moon; at the sides arc lunar crescents surmounted by ears. 5566. White marble statue of a Roman lady, found at Tell Mokhdam. This figure stands on No. 5565, a quadrangular base of ranite, with a Greek inscription dedicated to Antinous by a governor of Thebes. — Opposite, 5563. Block of close-grained sand- stone, with a frieze containing the cartouches of Psammetichus I. and Shabako. Below is a long Greek inscription with the names of the emperors Valens, Valentinian. and Gratian. 5613, 561 '(. Two mummies found at Sikkara, dating from the period and adorned with reliefs of Christian and Egyptian emblems (3rd or 4th cent, of the present era). — 5574. Lid of the miii y-case of a sacred ram, found in 1871 at Tma'i el-Amdid, ilo- ancienl Mendes. The ornamentation includes representations of the twelve tours of the day and night. — 5515. Porphyry bust of Buldk. CAIRO. 3. Route. 315 of a Roman emperor, unnamed ; 5532. Colossal figure in rose- coloured granite, probably representing one of the Ptolemies ; 5550. Bust of the Nile, a beautifully executed work of the Roman period; 5569. Siren playing the lyre, a figure of great rarity found in the Serapeum at Sakkara (feet modern). — 5609. Rectangular coffin with a pointed cover, a good work of the Greek period; the triangu- lar ends were adorned with stucco basreliefs of sirens, painted and gilded, like the one found in the Serapeum. — 5610, 5575. Wood- en coffins with inscriptions and representations in black, both of the Grffico-Roman period. Cabinet BE. In the middle, Isis, in white marble. The vases, candelabra, and lamps surrounding this figure date from the Christian epoch, and were found chiefly in the Fayum and Coptos. *5624. Vase in blue glazed earth, of the Ptolemaic period. Cabinet BF. Objects like those in Cab. BE, and also carvings in ivory, either enclosed in wooden frames or intended for the adorn- ment of wooden caskets. 5713. Two wooden panels with Greek in- scriptions engraved upon a coating of wax. 5709. The triangular ends of No. 5609 (see above). The four heads of Medusa, numbered 5711, also belong to No. 5609; they are made of painted and gilded stucco and are fastened in round wooden saucers. The rest of the collection consists of terracotta lamps and figures. Cabinet BG. Below, 5767. The god Bess, in painted terracotta ; 5765. Grotesque figure of a woman; 5789, 5769, 5808, 5823. Terracotta plaques with reliefs from Grecian history. — 5846. Bacchic procession (lower half mutilated); 5769. Basrelief in per- forated work , of earlier date than the foregoing. Nos. 5874 and 5886. are similar pieces of less careful workmanship. — 5777. Two bronze plates, containing military commissions of the time of Domi- tian, both found at Coptos. *5807. Bronze lamp; the handle ends in a flower from which a lion emerges. *5812. Black terracotta saucer, with busts of the Alexandrian Isis and Serapis in the middle. Cabinet BH. 5872. Terracotta relief of a goddess sitting on a swan and holding a bow in her left hand; 5830, 5831. Two Assy- rian cylinders found in the Isthmus of Suez ; 5883. Bronze mirror of the Greek period, finely chased; 5871. Anubis in the garb of a Roman soldier and wielding a club; 5876. Handles of a vase decorated with horses' heads, probably of the early Greek period. Cabinet BI. 5949. Faun lying on a wineskin, a good Greek work; 4948. Fragment of a similar figure. 5909. Hilt of a Roman sword, in the shape of an eagle's head; the blade. is of a later date. 5956. Statuette of Venus in gold, repousse' work ; 5920. Gold ring with a piece of lapis lazuli, on one side of which are three deities, on the other a gnostic inscription. Cabinet BJ. On the top shelf are figures of animals in terra- cotta. On the second shelf, 6118. Small round altar on a square base; to the right, fragment of a vase. *Bust with an angel's head, 316 Route 3. CAIRO. Museum the arms pressed against the breast and holding a butterfly. — The two lower shelves contain modern reproductions of stone and bronze figures, small steles, and scarabsei, most of them manufactured in Keneh and Thebes. The terracotta figures in the lowest shelf but one, resembling those of Tanagra, were found at Alexandria, in tombs of the Ptolemaic period. The cabinet adjoining the N.W. pillar contains trinkets of silver and gold, a beautifully executed little stele in felspar, a 'Horvis on the crocodiles', and two tambourines found in Akhmini. In the lower part of the cabinet are two slabs of serpentine (No. 0106), found at Coptos in 1883, which contain fragments of a long inscription recording a series of works carried out by Roman soldiers under Augustus. The rest of the inscription has not been discovered. Opposite is a cabinet containing terracotta figures , a figure of Anubis in blue glazed earth, and ivory plaques for caskets with reliefs. Below is a collection of weights in stone and bronze. This cabinet also contains a pair of scales. The Salle Historique de l'Est contains several hundred steles or tombstones, chiefly found at Abydos, Sakkara, and Thebes, but a few also at Tell el-Am arna. — In the middle of the room (No. 872) is the celebrated Tablet of Sakkara. This tablet was found in 1861 in a half-ruined mortuary chapel at Sakkara. On one side is inscribed a hymn to Osiris and on the other a list of 58 kings, in two rows, beginning with Meribah (1st dyn ) and end- ing with Ramses II. The list is unfortunately very imperfect. 870, 871. Two blocks of close-grained sandstone, intended for votive offerings; on the upper margin of the lateral faces is an in- scription mentioning the name of Ameni Antef Amenemha, an un- known king of the 13th or 14th dynasty (Kamak). — 497. Stele of the period of Khu-en-aten (18th dyn.). 488. Serpent in black granite, with the cartouches of King Amenhotep III., who erected it as a guardian of the temple at Athribis (the modern l.enha). — *492, 493. Two basreiiefs found in old Memphis and showing some of the most delicate workmanship of the Sa'ite period. The one re- presents the scribe Psamtik-nefer-sa-mer superintending the trans- portation of gold ornaments intended for his tomb; the other shows him receiving votive offerings. E. Wall. In the corner to the right, 600. Granite statue of Thothmes III. (18th dyn.). *610. Fine head in black granite with mild and regular features, held by Mariette to be the Pharaoh of the Exodus (Merenptah), but according to Maspero the Pharaoh Horemheb; *017. Head of hard limestone found in the temple of ELarnak; other fragments found almost exactly in the same spot make it probable that this is the head of the wife or daughter of King Horemheb. — To the left, 642. Bust of Amenophis II. (18th dyn.); '"640. Head of a king (18-20tb dyn.). N. Wall, in the centre, 721. Large granite statue of the Roman period, found al Tanis. In a niche to the right, '3963. Figure OLD CAIRO. 4. Route. 317 of Thueris in green serpentine , in the form of a hippopotamus (Thebes); this goddess was the guardian of departed souls and her forbidding appearance was supposed to drive away evil spirits. The figure is well preserved and its technical execution is admirable. S. Wall. In the centre, 561. Limestone statue of AmenhotepIIL, with inlaid eyes. To the left, by the adjacent window, is a dum- palm found in a tomb at Thebes in 1884, with a head of Hathor and a hieroglyphical inscription. In front, Naos covered with inscriptions and representations relating to Thot, including a dog- faced ape (p. 134). — Large stele, covered on both sides with inscriptions and bearing the cartouches of King Usertesen (12th dyn.). The Museum of Biilak also possesses a large collection of Papyri, including a number of valuable scrolls found at Der el-Bahri. Un- fortunately there is ;it present little space for their exhibition, so that most of them , as well as numerous other monuments , have for the present at least to be kept in the store-rooms. 4. Environs of Cairo. Old Cairo, Gezireh, Shubra, Heliopolis, and the Pyramids of Gizeb. are most conveniently visited by carriage, and the Mokattam hills, Moses' Well, the Petrified Forest, and Gebel el-Ahmar on donkey-back. The first-named excursions may also of course be made on the back of a don- key, but this mode of travelling is more fatiguing. Old Cairo (Masr el-'Atlka). Fumm el- Khalig. Old Water Conduit. Christian Cemeteries. Island of Rdda. Cattle of Babylon. Coptic Church of St. Mary. Garni' 'Amr. Tombs of the Mamelukes. Huslt, cl-Baslm. Traversing the new town of Isma'iliya (p. 259) towards the S.W., we proceed by the Boulevard 'Abdul 'Aziz, the Rond- Point Bab el-Luk, and the Square of that name (beautifully planted with flowers of the Turkish national colours), to an open space, from which a road to the S. leads to the Nile Bridge (p. 328). Here we turn to the left and follow the Boulevard Kasr Ali. On the left, at the corner, we observe the Palace of Husen Pasha (brother of the Khedive), surrounded by lofty walls. Opposite, to the right, are the new Palais Ismdiliyeh (PI. 81 ; E, 6) and the large palace Kasr ed-Dubara (PL 83), both belonging to the Khedive. To the left, surrounded with pleasure-grounds, is the Ministry of Public Works (formerly the Military School; PI. 31); the Mosque to the right contains the Institut Egyptien, that to the left the Viceregal Laboratory (p. 244). Farther on, to the right, is the Palais Ibr&Mm Pasha (PL 80 ; F, 5), with a large garden ; then the spacious Kasr 'Ali (PL 82; F, 6), the palace of the Khedive's grand- mother. We next reach the Kasr el- Ain (PI. 28; Gr,6), or large hospital (p. 234), with the Mosque Kasr el-' Ain (PI. 49), where the howling dervishes perform their zikr (p. 239). About 272 M- from the W. end of the Muski we observe on the right and left large straw magazines (tibn), and opposite to us the — 318 Route 4. ISLAND OF ROD A. Environs Fumni el-Khalig, or influx of the city canal into an arm of the Nile, which, however, is dry from May until the period of the over- flow. The festivities connected with the cutting of the Nile em- bankment take place here in August. The straw-market is hounded on the S. l>y the Old Aqueduct of the Citadel, which has been dis- used since the completion of the steam-pump in 1872, The Head of this conduit, separated by a street from the arm of the Nile just named, is constructed of solid masonry in a hexagonal form, and consists lit' Hirer stories, about 150 ft. in diameter. The ground-floor contains stables and magazines, and on the first and second is accommo- dation for about 130 soldiers, tin the terrace, where there are six water- wheels (saki\ehs). each worked by two oxen, is a large hexagonal basin iiich the water flowed into the aqueduct. On the platform there are also stables for the oxen and chambers for the attendants. The aqueduct, constructed of massive blocks of stone, and resting on pointed arches, as- in four different levels to the citadel, the total height being 278 ft., and the total length 4000 yds. i'Jy, .M.I. When the Nile was at its lowest, the water bad to be raised to a height ot 80 ft. to the tirst basin. A branch of this conduit supplied the Jewish quarter with water in the iei hbourhood ot' Imam Shafe'i (p. 327). The aqueduct dates from tin' time hi Saladin (12th cent.: p. 262). The entrance is in the N. wall, at the back id' the head of the aqueduct, where a Berber is posted as a custodian (fee 1 /t fr. for each person). Views from the openings of the platform, very line. Easy ascent by an inclined plane. Towards the left, a few hundred yards from the gate of the head of the aqueduct are situated the Christian Cemeteries, surrounded by lofty Avails. The first is the English Cemetery, the second the Roman Catholic, beyond which are those of the Greeks, Armenians, and Copts, which present no attraction. Leaving the head of the aqueduct, we follow the direction of the arm of the Nile, which, however, is not always visible, as the houses and walls of the Manjal quarter interpose between the road and the water, and reach (l 1 /^ M. ) the mansion which Form- erly belonged to Sulemun Pasha cl-Fransaici( Colonel Selves), with two fine Arabian portals (visitors not admittedl. The second nar- row and short road to the right beyond the chateau loads to the ferry crossing to the Island of Roda. We descend the slope, enter the ferry-boat ( ' 4 l'r. for one person, there and back; for a party more in proportion; payment made on returning), ascend the op- posite path, and turn to the right. A young gardener is usually in waiting at the landing-place to conduct travellers through the intricate lanes to the garden. At the S. extremity of the island is tin- Nilometer (Mikyds), situated on laud belonging to the hoirs of Hasan Pasha. The garden, laid out in the Arabian stylo, is mi- serably neglected. The paths are paved with a kind of mosaic of round pebbles, obtained partly from the desert, and partly from the island of Rhodes, and the most important of them arc bor- dered with low walls, supporting wooden verandahs and arbours, over which climb immense vinos. The gardens contain orange and lemon tiers, dates, palms, and bananas, and also the henna plant, which is not met with in the public gardens of Cairo. of Cairo. ISLAND OF RODA. 4. Route. 319 The Nilometer (Mikyas), a square well, 16 ft. in diameter, con- nected by a channel with the Nile , has in the centre an octagonal column, on which are inscribed the ancient Arabian measures and Curie inscriptions. The four straight sides are constructed of massive masonry , and contain niches adorned with columns with Byzantine capitals. Marble slabs built into the walls bear Curie inscriptions. The drd\ or old Arabian ell, is 54 centimetres, or about 21 1/3 inches, and is divided into 24 kirat. The column of the Nilometer , which has been frequently repaired , is 17 ells in height, the first of which is built into the foundations. The up- per part is secured by means of a beam attached to the opposite walls. The zero point of the Nilometer (according to Mah- mud-Bey) is 28 ft. above the average level of the Mediterranean, so that the top of the column is nearly 59 ft. above sea-level. The water of the Nile, when at its lowest, covers 7 ells of the Nilometer, and when it reaches a height of 15 ells and 16 kirat, the shekh of the Nile measurement proclaims the Wefa (p. 239), i.e. the height of the water necessary for irrigating every part of the Nile valley. The announcement of the wefa is the signal for cutting the em- bankment. The shekh, however, has his private meter, the zero of which is nearly 7 inches lower than that of the old Nilometer +. The mean difference between the low and high level of the Nile at Cairo is 24 1 /* feet. "When , according to the shekh's mode of reckoning, the height of 23 ells is attained, the island of Roda is overflowed. The Mikyas or Nilometer was constructed in the year 97 of the Hegira (A.D. 716) by order of the Omayyad Khalif Suleman (715-17). Mamun, the 'Abbaside Khalif (A.D. 809-33), added the Cuflc inscriptions on the N. and W. walls and repaired the whole structure in 814. Accord- ing to the Cufic inscriptions on the S. and E. sides, another restoration took place in the year 233 of the Hegira. Khalif Mutawakkil (847-61) also repaired the Mikyas in 247 of the Hegira (A.D. 859), and transferred the office of measuring the water from the Copts, who had hitherto held t The rate of taxation was determined in ancient times in accordance with the height of the inundation. All the authorities from Herodotus down to Leo^Afrieanus agree in stating that the Nile must rise 16 cubits, or Egyptian ells, in order that the land may produce good crops. The famous statue of Father Nile in the Vatican is accordingly surrounded by sixteen figures of genii, representing these 16 ells. To this day the height of the overflow influences taxation , and the land which is artifi- cially irrigated pays less than that reached by the river itself. _ The object of the government always is to induce a belief that the inun- dation is favourable, and the sworn shekh of the Nilometer is therefore subject to the influence of the police at Cairo. 'The same political motives, from which in ancient times the custody of the Nilometers was entrusted to the priests alone, still prevent the Egyptian public from obtaining access to the Mikyas in the island of R6da. The real height of the water is always concealed , and false statements made , as it is the object of the fiscal authorities to levy, if possible, the full rate of taxation every year , whatever the height of the Nile may have been. This traditional dishonesty in the use of the Nilometer was first discovered by the French engineers during the occupation of Egypt by Napoleon'. (C. Ritter.) 320 Route l. OLD CAIRO. Environs it. to the Muslim family of Abu" Radab. In 4-85 of (lie Hegira (A.D. 1092) the Fatimite Khali f Mustansir Billah (1036-94) caused the Kilometer to lxj m columns, bul tli.it structure was destroyed the siege of this part of the island tjy the French under Nap A roof in Turkish taste, resting on wooden columns, now covers die well. Adjoining the Nilometer is a large Kiosque in the Turkish style, which may be inspected when not occupied by any liarcm. The architecture is uninteresting, but the handsome dimensions of the rooms, which are intended for a summer residence, and the bath are worthy of notice. The S. verandah of the kiosque affords an uninterrupted *View of the Nile, with Gizeh to the right, the pyra- mids in the background, and Old Cairo on the left (fee 1 fr. ). Near the N. end of the island stands the wonder-working tree of the saint Mandiira. a huge nebk tree, the branches of which are hung with innumi According to a popular superstition the patient must thus offer to the saint the cloth which enveloped the affected limh. then encircle the tree seven times, pluck off two leaves, and tie them on the affected part with another cloth. Leaving the island and returning to the opposite bank, we re- gain the Old Cairo road, and after ' 4 M. more we reach the end of the bazaar of this small town. We then turn to the left, and in a few minutes reach a street running from N. to S. Turning to the N. (left)) we observe on the right a distinct quarter of the town, built on the ruins of Fost&t (p. 241) within the precincts of an ancient Roman Castle, formerly called Babylon. The plan of the fortress is still traceable by means of the numerous characteristic remains of the Roman outer wall. On the S. side, between two projecting towers, is a gateway with a gabled roof, now almost entirely ruined. The castle is said once to have been occupied by one of the three Roman legions stationed in Egypt (p. 241 !. and to have been connected by a bridge with Roda and with Gizeh, where another Roman station is said to have been situated. Proceed- ing in a straight direction for about 100 yds., and then about 35 paces to the right of a low doorway situated in a hollow on the W. side and concealed by a small wall, we reach the middle of the Coptic quarter, where, enclosed by a dense mass of houses, is situated the much frequented — :i Abu Sergeh, or Coptic Church of St. Mary. (A Coptic boy may be engaged as a guide to the church; fee 1 piastre. I According to a wide-spread belief this church was built before the Mohammedan conquest, and a legendary document preserved by the Coptic priests I lie date of its erection in the year 3'29 of the llegira, i.e. 'din A.D. A glance at the poor materials of the building, however, with its wooden ceiling and heterogeneous columns, will at once show the absurdity of this idea. The crypt, however, is undoubtedly much older than the church and may very well date from a pre- Mohammedan epoch. Abu Sergeh is probably equivalent to St. Ser- gius. According to tradition, the Virgin and Child after their flight ;>r spent a month in the crypt of this church. ( »ne of the I op- tic priests i who expects a fee of 1 piastre tariff from each visitor) of Cairo. OLD CAIRO. 4. Route. 321 shows some interesting Byzantine carving and mosaics in ivory, now blackened and discoloured with age. Many valuable art relics have heeii removed from the church since 1860. A number of old pictures of saints which still remain, some of them on a gold ground and with well preserved colours, possess no artistic value. Above a door to the right of the high-altar, engraved in wood, is the Coptic inscrip- tion, 'Greetings to the Temple of the Father!' Below it is a mod- ern Arabic inscription with the date 1195. — This church may be regarded as the original model of all the older Egyptian-Byzantine churches in which the Coptic Christians now worship t . The basilica consists of a nave and aisles. The tribuna, the two side chapels, the sanctuary, and the parts corresponding to the senatorium and matroneurn of northern basilicas are raised a few steps above the level of the nave and aisles , and are almost all as high as the nave, while the aisles are pro- vided with galleries. The nave and tribuna have open roofs, that of the latter being sup- ported by elliptical beams, and both being probably of later date than the church itself. The left side-chapel is surmounted by an Ara- bian dome, while the aisles have flat ceil- ings. The lofty side- walls of the nave con- sist of two rows of columns, one above the ntlier, the columns of the lower row being se- parated by keel-shaped arches, while the upper series , supporting the gallery, consists of groups of two columns and one pillar alter- nately, connected by an architrave. The columns of Carrara marble originally be- longed to ancient edi- fices, and, like those in the earlier mosques, have been placed here without the least re- gard to their suitabili- ty in point of dia- meter, form of capital, or other architectural features. Two of the three original entran- ces are now built up, while the third, in ac- cordance with the custom of the country, has walls projecting into it. in order to prevent passers-by from seeing into the fore-court. The sacristy, t Coptic Worship. On entering the church, the members of the cou- Baedkkkk's Egypt I. 2nd Ed. 21 a. Entrance from the street, b. Anterior Court, c. Entrance to the Church, d. Vestibule, e. Wo- men's section, f. Men's section, g. Well h. Scat. for the chief priest, i. Wooden screen, k. Wooden screen adorned with carving. 1. Steps to the crypt, m. Altar, n. Presbyterium. o. Reading- desks, p. Side-chapels, q. r. Wells, s. Sacristy, t. Magazines. ',\2'2 Routed. til. I) CAIRO. Envi\ mow a dark and dirty chamber withoul a door, contains relics of Coptic paintings on the right wall The nave is divided by wooden screens into three sections. The first forms a fore-court, or vestibule, the second is set apart for the •uvuutioii first pay tlieir homage to a number of pictures of saints hanging on the walls (the veneration of saints and of the Virgin being a prominent feature of the Coptic system), and then kneel before the altar ami kiss the hand of the priest. They then take their stand (for there are D in the part of the church allotted to them, leaning on crutches which they bring for the purpose, as the service often lasts for three hours. Tin' service begins with the reading or chanting of prayers and pa from the Gospels, partly in the ('optic language, and partlj in Arabic. in which the priest is assisted by a schoolmaster and a choir of hoys. During this performance the worshippers, with very few exceptions, engage freely in conversation, and the noise is said to be sometimes so great that the priest has to come out of the hekel. or sanctuary, and enjoin silence. After a time the burning of incense begins. The priest, swinging his censer, leaves the hekel and joins the COngr member of which he blesses, placing his hand on their heads, He eon eludes this ceremony in the women's section of the church, and the ordinary service now terminates. The c, lebration «f the Eucharist is very frequent in the Coptic churches. immediately following the ordinarj service. The celebrant priest wears a white and gaily embroidered gown reaching to his feet, and hearing the Coptic cross on the breast and sleeves. After washing his hands, he directs a hoy to bring him several small round loaves with the Coptic cross impressed on them. He choo of them, places it on a plate, and pronounces over it the blessing of the triune Cod. He then carries it into the hekel, places it on the altar, covers it with white cloths, and makes the circuit id' the altar several times, reciting prayers, and accompanied by the choristers carrying lighted candles. I! brings the plate with the bread out of the hekel and holds it up before the people, whereupon the whole congregation kneels. Returning to the hekel, he. breaks the bread into small pieces, puts it into a chalice, pours wine over it, and eats it with a si u. distributing a few pieces to the assistant clergy and the choristers. Lest an] fragment of the cor elements should be profaned, he Qnallj washes all the utensils ami his own hands, and drinks (he water in which he I thl Da. Hem while a number of small i nd loaves, prepared in an adjoining apartment, are distributed among the congri ation, each member receiving and eating one or more. The laity partake more rarelj of die wine, and onlj after having previously confessed, in this case Hie communicants approach the door of the hekel. where the priest administers to them with a s| ,, a piece of the bread dipped in wine. A curious ceremony takes place in the Coptic churches on Palm Sunday ('id esh-Sha'&ntn). After Hie usual service and the communion which follows it. several basins of water are placed in the space before the hekel. The priest in his white urplice lakes his stand in front of them, turning his face towards tin- hekel. uhile another priest in his ordinary dreSS reads the Gospel in Arabic, after which Hie former COn- secrates the water by pronouncing a prayer over it. The moment this ceremony is concluded, the surroum to the basins in order to dip palm wreaths into them: and the crowd i so unruly that the priest IS obli ed tO restore order with the aid stick. These wreaths are then worn by the Copts under their tarhiishrs during the whole of the following year as amulets against the evil eye, the Bting of scorpions, and every other misfortune that can befall body or soul. 'oi r- 1 1 1 Huh January, the ot the Baptism of Christ ('td el-ghilA»), men and boys plunge into the large font or hath which is to be found in most Coptic churches, the water having I n first bl< of Cairo. OLD CAIRO. 4. Route. 323 women , and the third for the men. Within the vestibule (first section of the nave), as in most of the ancient Christian churches, is a trough in the pavement for washing the feet and other ablutions. Beyond the three sections of the nave, and raised !>y a few steps, is the choir where the priests officiate ; and, lastly, we observe the Hekel, or sanctuary, containing the altar, and enclosed by a wall, doors, and curtains. Inside the apse rise several steps of masonry, in amphitheatrical fashion, towards the place which in European churches is occupied by the episcopal throne , and in Oriental by sacred images. The wall separating the sanctuary from the choir is panelled and richly adorned with carvings in wood and ivory. The oldest of these, probably coeval with the church, represent the Nativity, the Eucharist, and the patron saint of the church , and are surrounded with ornamentation in wood , consist- ing of rectilineal patterns, the basis of which is generally the Coptic cross (*f«). Another favourite device, which is often seen at Jerusalem, and with which the Copts frequently tattoo their arms, consists of the same cross, with four smaller crosses in the angles. A narrow flight of twelve steps descends to the Crypt, a small vaulted chapel, consisting of nave and aisles. At the end of the nave is an altar in the form of an early Christian tomb-niche, which tradition indicates as the spot where the Virgin and Child reposed ; in the centre of the aisles are apses. The right aisle contains the font, into which, according to the Coptic ritual, the child to be baptised is dipped three times. The Coptic quarter (if Old Cairo contains several other basilicas, used by Coptic, Greek, and Jewish congregations, but interesting only to those who are making a special study of this kind of architecture. Among them we may mention the second Seiyideh Maryam, or Greek Church of St. Mary, on an elevated site in the castle of Babylon, and sometimes called El-Mu'aUala. 01 'the hanging', containing ivory carving and stained glass windows. The church of Mdvi Mena contains a handsome candelabrum. That of Ab& Sefen has a pulpit in coloured marble, inlaid with mother- of-pearl, and a jug and basin with old Arabian enamel work. The Syna- gogue (Esh-Sltamyan, or Ken/set Eliy&hu) was formerly a church of St. Michael. The Jews say that Elijah once appeared here, and the synagogue boasts of possessing a scroll of the Thorah written by the hand of Ezra. The scrolls shown, however, are all quite modern. Benjamin of Tudela men- tions a synagogue at Old Cairo where Moses is said to have prayed for the priest. Or, partly by way of amusement, they perform the same ceremony in the Nile, into which they first pour some consecrated water. On these occasions the river in Coptic districts swarms with boats. On the eve of this festival, as well as on Holy Thursday and on the festival of the Apostles, the priest washes the feet of the whole of his congregation. It is impossible to resist the impression that the Coptic worship has degenerated into a series of mere empty outward ceremonies, and indeed the more enlightened members of the sect admit this to be the case. Another external form to which they attach great weight is the observance of fasts, and a Copt who is negligent in this respect will rarely be met with. On these occasions all kinds of animal food, not excepting fat, eggs, butter, and cheese, are prohibited, and the usual fare consists of bread, onions, ful (beans), prepared with walnut or mustard-oil, and dukka (a kind of salad). 21* '■'>'2\ Route 4. OLD €A1R0. Environs the cessation of the plague of the thunder and bail (Exod. ix. 29), and which 'is therefore called the house of prayer of Moses'. — The church of SI. Barbara is embellished with many carvings in wood and ivory, and with paintings of more than average merit. Starting from the door of the castle, we pursue our way towards the N., across the rubbish heaps of the ancient Fostat ( p. 241), skirt the town-wall of Old Cairo, and after 650 yds. reach the — :|: Gami r 'Amr, sometimes styled the 'crown of the mosques'. The W. side with the entrances, of which that near the S.W. corner (PI. A) alone is used, the two others having been built up, is partly concealed by peasants' huts and potteries (manufactories of kullehs, p. 326), the occupants of which pester visitors for bakshish. The entrance is easily recognized by the newly built porch. So far from being the oldest structure of the kind in Cairo, as is generally asserted, this mosque is in its present form really one of the youngest. The last of its numerous reconstructions dates from the beginning of the 9th cent, of the Begira (1400 A.I)."), when a rich Cairene merchant, named Ibrahim el-Mahallf, under- took to restore the building, paTtly at his own expense anil partly with the proceeds of collections made in all parts of Egypt. In this undertaking he pulled down and made use of the materials of the then standing mosque, which had been hastily erected in 1302 after the destruction of a still earlier building by an earthquake. The heterogeneous nature of the columns is accounted for by the fact that they were brought from other buildings in Cairo ruined by the same earthquake and were adapted to their new functions by rude Procrustean methods of lengthening or shortening. The N. and S. walls, running parallel with the aisles, arc not straight. The N. and S. colonnades are in ruins. The plan of the edifice is in exact accordance with the typical form of the rectangular mosque with a hypaethral arrangement of columns round an open court. We traverse the great court towards the \V., passing the Fountain (PI. 7), near which rise a palm and a thorn-tree, and enter the E. colonnade of the Sanctuary ( PI. a, b, c, d), which rests on six rows of columns. In front of the Mambar ( PI. 'J ) is a Column ( PI. •! ) bear- ing the names of Allah, Mohammed, and Sultan Suleiman in Arabic characters; and by a freak of nature the, outline of the prophet's 'kurbatsh' is traced on it by a vein of lighter colour than the rest of the marble, which is of a jrrey colour. This column is believed b.J the Muslims to have been transported miraculously from .Mecca to Cairo t. In the N.E. corner is the Tomb of Shekh Abdallah , son of 'Amr. The columns, all composed of marble of various kinds, are30(iin number. The masonry consists + The legend is told by Horitz Busch as follows: — 'When 'Amr was buildit be asked his master. EhaJif r Omar, tor a column from Mecca. The Khalif thereupon addressed himself I amns there, and commanded it to migrate to the Nile, but the column of Cairo. OLD CAIRO. 4. Route. 325 A. Entrance. a,b,c,d. Sanctuary. e,f.g.h. Fasha (large open court), i. Kibla. 2. Mambar. 3. Column bearing the name of Mohammed'. 4. Kursi dl.- stroyed). 5. Tomb of Sheklf 'Abdallah (sou of r imr). 6. Dikkeh. 7. Hanefiyeh. 8. Quadruple aisle (in ruins). 9. Triple ball (almost entirely ruined). 1U. Hall without aisles. 11. Chambers of later con- struction. 12. Double column for the faithful. 13. Minarets. 14. Entrances now closed. 15. Potteries and fellah dwellings. would not stir. He repeated his command more urgently, but still the column remained immovable. A third time he repeated his command, angrily striking the column with his 'kurbatsb 1 , but still without effect. At length he shouted, 'I command thee in the name of God, O column, arise, and betake thyself to Cairo !' Thereupon the column went, bearing the mark of the whip, which is still visible 1 . 326 Route 4. OLD CAIRO. Environs of 1)111111 bricks, and evidently belongs to different periods, the oldest part being near the entrance , in the S. facade of the court. The arches are of very various forms, some of them being almost circular, while others , particularly those in the apertures of the wall, form a nearly acute angle with straight sides. Horseshoe a re he-; also occur, and others are constructed in arbitrary and fantastic shapes. The capitals display a great variety of Roman and Byzantine forms, and some of them, not quite completed, in the ruined N. colonnade, were perhaps Arabian imitations of Ptolemaic models. Tin baths and other buildings once connected with the mosque arc no longer traceable. The colonnades on the W. side (that of the entrance) are now supported by one row of columns only. Of the double columns that once stood here one Pair of Columns (PI. 12) alone remains. They are placed very close together, and it is said that none but honest men could squeeze themselves between them ; but the Khedive has abolished this test of character by walling up the interstice.— In 1808 this mosque, which has long been almost disused, witnessed a very remarkable scene. At the usual period of the rise of the Nile, the water began to fall. Dismayed by this strange phenomenon, the whole of the Mohammedan priesthood, the Christian clergy of every sect, and the Jewish rabbis, with one accord, assembled in the mosque of 'Ami to pray for the rise of the water, and so effectual were their prayers that the river ere long rose to its wonted ferti- lising height. (Fee to the attendant i/2-lfr.) The traveller who does not intend ascending the Nile will find it not uninteresting, on quitting the mosque, to visit one of the above-mentioned Kulleh Manufactories, and to inspect its primitive apparatus (bakshish, a few copper piastres). The porous water-jars (Arabic Kulleh) used throughout the whole of Egypt are chiefly manufactured at'Keneh in Upper Egypt of Jigh clay of very equal consistency. The remarkably uniform and delicate porosity of the vessels is produced by mixing the clay with ashes, which, the first time the vessel is used, arc partly washed away by the water. The rapid evaporation caused by the porosity of the kulleh cools the liquid Within to a temperature of 12-14° lower than that of the surrounding air. — These vessels, indudini thi large jars with handles, chiefly manufactured at Jialii: in Opper Egypt, are brought down from Dppe* Bgypts in rafts, consisting of thousands of them tied together bj the bandies and with llirir mouths covered. Continuing to follow the road across the rubbish-hills of I'ostat, which we have just left, we observe on our right a Muslim burial- ground, and at a short distance in front of us the old aqueduct. A little to the right, on an eminence, rises an old ruined mosque ( G&m? AbH Su'ud). beyond it is the Citadel with the mosque of .Mohammed 'Ali. and farther distant arc the hills of the Mokattam I |>. 335). This view is very strikinsr towards sunset. The road, which becomes had beyond this point, leads round the ruined mosque and ascends heaps of debris. <*n the top of the hill it divides. The road to the Left leads back to the town, from the houses of which the .Mosque of Sultan Hasan (p. '2(>< ► ) stands Tombs of the Mamelukes. (Names -unkno-wm.l l&n.iret Tomjli Hai ft. belov, the Level of the river when at its lowest. At a very early hour in • lie morning an interesting and picturesque crowd of peasantry may be leen congregated lure for the purpose of paying duty on the wares i hej are bringing to market. k co oi s d a of C GrEZXKEH. 4. Route. 329 Beyond the bridge we turn to the right, and soon observe. to the Nile, the northernmost part of the great park, the laying out of which is still unfinished. The grounds, which were designed by M. Barillet (p. 76), are intended to extend from ' to Kmbabeh. and will be about 5 1 - : M. : Iff. broad. The W. Arm of thk Nile, which separal inland, is at present closed at the upper end, SO that when the river i* low the channel is tilled with water to a point a little above Kmbabeh only. It is intended. use this arm as a kind of waste-pipe, opened when the water is so high as to endanger the K. bank near Kasx eu-"Xil and the new town of Isimviliya. The bed of this arm of the river has been widened, deepened, and protected by embankments (a work which was began in 1866), and nearly one-third ot" the volume of the iCile can be conducted through this chaunel. The embankments were constructed with the aid of a small transportable railway. The island of Gezireh was often Hooded in former times, renderiui horticulture im- possible, but the whole surface has been raised about 5 elevate it above the level of the highest inundations. From the Entrance (PI. 1) we cross the Fore Court (PI. 0) to the left, and apply to the custodian QW. 3 : generally a Frenchman : |, who shows the palace and grounds. The Palace, which is externally a simple edifice, was erected, after many interruptions -Bey, a German architect, in 186 - 3 All the distinguished guests who were invited to attend the cere- mony of opening the Suez Canal were entertained here. The palace became state property in 1SS0 and is now seldom occupied. The masonry was executed by native workmen, the woodwork by J. Mannstein of Vienna, and the marble-work by Bonani of Carrara. The decorations of the walls in the principal apartments were designed by Diebitsch, and the silk-hangings were manufactured by D OS from designs by >'r;u. 01 the Laueh- hauimer foundry ■ The furniture in the N. wing is chicly Parisian, and the rest was partly manufactured by Parvis (p. 236), and partly by a Berlin firm. On the -V. side is the superb Entrance QP1. a), with bamboo furniture from Paris. Adjoining it on the E. are the Waiting Room (PI. V) and the large Audience Chamber (T\. c '. Beyond these are a Drawing Room QP1. dl and the Cabinet of the Khedive. The visitor should notice the magnificent onyx mantel-pieces with mirrors, each of which cost 30001., and the handsome metal cup- board in the cabinet. To the W. [right] of the entrance are a large (PI. el and a small dining-room, the latter of which contains Arabian cabinets by Parvis p. 236). The other two winss i W, and S.), surrounded by the gardens, contain suites of apartments for visitors, each consisting of a bed- room, dressing-room, and sitting-room. The upper floor contains similar apartments, one suite of which was lined with blue satin when occupied by the Fmpress Kuge'nie. and another was fitted up for the reception of the Princess of Wah - We next \isit the Or Ho, a little to the N.W. of the palace, and easily recognised by the rock of which it is constructed. The materials were chiefly brought from the wave-worn coast of Alexan- 330 Route 4. SHUBRA. Environs dria, and partly from the Petrified Forest (p. 337). The pebbles were imported from the island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean, and the coral and shells from the Red Sea. IT. 4, a fountain by Bonani, representing the infant Nile. To the N. of it is the Harem Building, part of which was erected by Mohammed 'Ali (not shown). PI. 5, a pleasant resting-place, a 'voliere' enclosed with interesting plants. PI. 6, a fountain. In the centre of the garden is the long *Kiosque, probably the finest modern Arabian structure of the kind. The ornamentation, in cast iron, is in the Alhambra style. The plan of the building is slightly irregular, as several apartments of an older kiosque have been in- corporated with it. The handsome hall and the fountain were executed at the Lauchhammer foundry near Dresden; they weighed 400 tons, and the cost of transport alone amounted to upwards of 2000L ; the hall itself, exclusive of the expense of its erection and decoration, cost 8000L On the E. side of the kiosque are the recep- tion chambers, and on the W. side the private apartments of the Khedive, consisting of an ante-chamber (PI. f, g), a small (PL i) and a large dining-room (PI. k), a smoking-room (PI. h), chambers for reading, Testing, and bathing, and a store-room for plate. The marble work here is also by Bonani, the principal decorations byDiebitsch. and the others by Ercoleni, Furcy, Girard, and Parvis. Roman table in mosaic, presented to Mohammed 'Ali by the pope. Several handsome tables in Florentine mosaic. Furniture in cast metal by Barbedienne of Paris. The bronze candelabra in the palace and in the kiosque were for the most part brought from other palaces, so that there is some incongruity in their styles. Furniture French and English. PL 8, green-houses, with a Victoria Regia at the N. end. PL 9, a small menagerie with animals from Central Africa (none deserving special mention). PL 10, confectionery establishment. PL 11, usual exit. PL 12, pumps for watering the grounds and the avenues leading to Gizeh. Adjacent, an ice-manufactory. The Shubra Avenue. About 2'/ 2 M. to the N. of Cairo lies the village of Shubra, on the Nile, where a spacious garden and kiosque of Mohammed 'Ali, now neglected, are situated (permission to visit them obtained through the consulate). The broad *Shubra Avenue leading thither is composed of beautiful sycamores and lebbek trees (erroneously called Nile acacias ; p. 76). This avenue forms the Rotten Bow, or Avenue de Boulogne, of Cairo. The fashionables of the town, both Mohammedan and Christian, drive or ride here daily, but principally on Friday and Sunday evenings. The scene resembles the of European cities, but is rendered far more picturesque by its < Iriental elements. The carriages of the slightly veiled ladies from the harems of the wealthy, and those of the ministers, the consuls, and the merchants, follow each other in gay procession, while the ubiquitous donkej forms a conspicuous feature in the busy throng. of Cairo. SHUBRA. 4. Route. 331 The handsome equipage of the Khedive is also seldom ahsent on Fridays and Sundays. Beyond the railway-station (PL A, 5), where the avenue hegins, are a number of cafes and orange and refresh- ment stalls. Near the beginning of the drive are several villas, one of which, to the right, a little back from the road, is the beautiful Villa Ciccolani, a visit to which (on the way back) is recommended. The tower commands a good survey of the environs (fee 1 fr.). On the left is the viceroyal palace Kasr en-Nuzha, for the reception of distinguished foreign visitors (not shown). At the end of the avenue, and beyond the first houses of Shubra, we turn a little to the right and soon reach the entrance to the garden, where tickets of admission are presented. We first proceed to the kiosque (fee 1 fr.), after which a gardener shows the grounds and presents visitors with a bouquet (fee 1 fr.). The new garden chateau, which was erected by Halim Pasha, son of Mohammed r Ali, on the site of an older building, presents no architectural interest, but is worthy of inspection as an example of rich and effective garden architecture. The fine large basin, bordered with balustrades and galleries , was left unaltered. The corners and sides of the square reservoir are embellished with small kiosques. The fountains consist of water-spouting lions, and in the centre of the basin rises a kind of balcony , borne by twenty-four water-spouting crocodiles, which remind one of the proximity of the Nile. The pavement, basin, and columns are of Italian marble, while the upper part of the structure is in wood and stucco only. As already observed, the whole place is in a neglected condition. Several of the windows afford a fine view of the Nile. The rooms, which are handsomely fitted up, contain a number of pictures, including an indifferent portrait of Mohammed r Ali. The *Garden, which covers an area of nearly nine acres, was somewhat incongruously re-modelled a few years ago by M. Barillet (p. TO) in the old French style, which is ill adapted for the Oriental vegetation , but it also contains some beautiful rose and geranium beds. Among the tropical plants, which have their Latin names attached, we remark the beautiful Indian lemon- shrub and a huge lebbek tree (p. 76). An artificial hill in the garden commands a good survey of the grounds. A large building to the N. has been built for the Khedive's stud. Heliopolis. Another pleasant drive may be taken to Matariyeh. a village 5 M. to the N.E. of Cairo, where the Tree of the Virgin and the Obelisk of Heliopolis are situated. The drive to the Kubbeh palace takes 3 A hr., theme to Matariyeh >/« "r., and to tue obe li sk V« nr - more - A donkey takes longer. We follow the Boulevard Clot Bey, leading from the Ezbekiyeh to the station and to Shubra (p. 330), turn to the right at the 332 Route 4. 'ABBASIYKll. Environs RondPt hit dt Fagalla ('where we observe the Sehil of the mother of ex-Khedive Isma'il on the left ; PI. 93"), leave the now guard-house on ft, and then follow the Route del' Abbasieh, which booh inclines a little to the left. A few years ago this road "was flanked with large heaps of rubbish, but these have now given way to villas and gardens, which extend to the Bab Hasaniyeh. The road is also pleasantly shaded by the lebbek trees (p. 76) planted here some time ago. Immediately after crossing the Khalig (city-canal), the 'Abbasiyeh road skirts the old mosque of Ez-Z&hir | PI. 71), a large square pile of buildings, which was called by the French Fori Sulkowsky , was afterwards a government bakehouse, and is now a guard-house. A few paces beyond this building we reach the (right) B&b Hasaniyeh, through which the route to r Ab- basiyeh lay before the completion of the new road (and which, being shorter, may still be followed by riders or walkers). Beyond this gate the carriage-road runs towards the tf.E., skirting the desert. At the beginning of it, on the left, is the slaughter-house. A road to the right leads to the pumps of the water company. A few hundred paces farther on . the road divides again. The branch to the right, the old Suez road, leads to an uninteresting viceroyal chateau at the base of the Gebel el-Ahmar (p. 337), the ascent of which is recommended. We follow the road to the left, leading direct to 'Abbasiyeh. On the right we pass a modern public fountain, and on the left an old burial-mosque and the 'European Hospital'. 'Abbasiyeh is a group of houses and cottages, founded by 'Abbas Pasha in L849, in on'u r to afford suitable accommodation for the Beduin shekhs whose friendship he was desirous of cultivating, and who objected to enter the city itself. A large palace which formerly stood here has been replaced by barracks in the most modern style, besides which there are numerous older barracks and a military school with a gymnastic-ground. The English troops are at present en- camped here. Near the last barrack on the left is a palace of the ex-Khedive's mother, and a little farther on, also to the left, rises the meteorological and astronomical Observatory. At the end of the houses of 'Abbasiyeb begin the new gardens which have been reclaimed from the desert. The road crosses two railways, passes the village of Kubbeh (left), intersects beautiful orchards and vineyards, and leads under handsome acacias and past numer- qs to the Palace of Khedive Tewftk. The vineyards, were planted by Ibrahim Pasha, the grandfather of the Khedi utain various kinds of vines from Fontainebleau, ■ brated. Thisproperty formerly belonged to the late Mustafa Fazyl-Pasha, the uncle of the Khedive. The present palace, i in !. erected by Tewfik himself. Jn the de- ■ the ritrht of the road, about ' _, M. distant, is situated the re races formerly took place annually in January. of Cairo. HELIOPOLIS. 4. Route. 333 A little before reaching Khedive Tewfik's palace, the road turns to the right and skirts the garden belonging to the palace. It then enters an olive plantation and leads in a straight direction to Ma- tariyeh. This plain has been the scene of two important battles. In 1517 the Battle ofHeliopolis made Selim and the Turks masters of Egypt (p. 105) ; and on '20th March, 1800, General Kleber with 10,000 French troops succeeded in defeating 60,000 Orientals, and in consequence of this victory regained possession of Cairo, although for a short time only. Near the village of Matariyeh are the Tree and Well of the Virgin and the Obelisk ofHeliopolis. The Virgin's Tree (in a garden to the right of the road) is a sycamore with a decayed and riven trunk , covered with names and inscriptions , but the branches are still tolerably flourishing. According to the legend, the Virgin and Child once rested under the shade of this tree during the Flight to Egypt ; and there is another tradition to the effect that the persecuted Mary concealed herself with the Child in a hollow of the trunk, . and that a spider so completely covered the opening with its web as to screen her effectually from observation. The present tree, the predecessor of which died in 1665, was not planted till after 1672. At the time of the inauguration of the Suez Canal the tree was presented by the Khedive to the Empress Eugenie. The garden is watered by means of a double sakiyeh, which is supplied from a shallow Teservoir fed by springs. This water is good for drinking, while that of all theotheTS, which percolates through the ground from the Nile, is usually brackish. This reservoir has been called the 'Water of An' from a very early period , and figures in the Coptic legends connected with the Virgin. It is an interesting fact that the celebrated balsam shrub, the balm of which is said to have been presented to Solomon by the Queen of Sheba, once throve in this neighbourhood. The plant, however, does not now occur nearer than Yemen, where its juice is an article of commerce. It is said to have been replanted here by Cleopatra, but apparently without success. In 1820-30 the first experiments with the cotton-plant (p. 75) , which now plays so important a part in the commerce of Egypt, were made in this neighbourhood. Quails abound here in the month of April (p. 80). About ] /'2 M. beyond the garden are situated the rums of the famous ancient Heliopolis, or city of the sun, of which the obelisk and the outer walls are now the only vestiges. The town was call- ed by the Egyptians the dwelling or seat of Ra (Helios) , or of Turn (the evening sun, p. 125), or house of Phojnix. (Bennu) or An. The latter, the popular name of the place, is frequently mentioned in the Bible under the Hebrew form of On. Thus , in Genesis , we are informed that Pharaoh gave Joseph the daughter of Potiphera (i.e. 'dedicated to Ra'), a priest of Heliopolis, named 334 Eoute4. BELIOPOLIS. Environs Lsenath, in marriage. On lay in the land of Goshen, and we learn from the monuments that even after tlie Exodus it was still in- habited by a considerable number of Semites. The Arabs named it 'Ain Shems, which means 'well of the sun'. From a very early period the Sun Temple of Ka (Tum-llariuachis. p. 127), the most famous and ancient shrine in Kgypt, with the excep- tion nl that of Ptah of Memphis, was the scene of magnificent rites in honour nl' the cycle of deities connected with the worship of the sun. The chief of these were Turn and Ra-Harmachis . with his companion Thotli. Sehu and Tefnut, children of Turn, Osiris in the character of the SOU] of Eta (called -the ancient, of Heliopolis')j Ilorus, and I s i s . the last named deity being specially worshipped here under the highly revered name of Isis-Ilathor, or Venus Urania, who was sometimes known as Isis of An. The Mnevis bull was also revered here, being the animal to Ha, while the Apis bull of Memphis, which abode for a time at Heliopolis before its introduction into its sanctuary in the town of the pyramids, was associated with Ptah. The lions which were kept Inn perhaps had reference to Sehu and Tefnut, the brother and sister, who were represented as lions, or perhaps, owing to the glossiness of their skins and their natural tire, to the shining and glowing Orb of day. With regard to the Phoenix, the bird of Ka, which was worshipped here, and which brings its ashes to Heliopolis, see p. 127. Cats and a white sow were also regarded as sacred here. The foundation of the temple is of very remote origin. In the 'great hall' here the wounds of Horus, received in his combat with Sett Ty- phon (p. 130), are said to have been healed. Amenemha I., the first king "i the I'-'tli Dynasty, restored the shrine of Turn and laid the foundation of the Sun Temple, in front of which his son Usertesen erected the olielisk which still stands here. The immense wealth of this shrine is mentioned by various papyri, ami particularly the Harris papyrus in London, which gives a list of the gifts presented to it by Rarnses III. alone. The stall' of priests, officials, custodians, and menials connected with the temple is said tn have numbered no less than 12,913. As each Pharaoh was re- garded as a human embodiment of Ba, it was natural that he should present special offerings to the chief scene of the worship of thai 1. and should proudly add to his titles that of 'lord of Heliopolis'. The most celebrated of the ancient schools, with the teachers of which Herodotus once conversed, was also established at Heliopolis. while inStrabo'a time (born B.C. 60) the famous seat of learning had ceased to exist, although the houses of the priestly scholars were still standing. The guides showed tie great : jrapher the dwelling in which Plato and Budoxus were said to have resided for thirteen (?) years; 'for', he says, speaking of at this university, 'the ! " : . so admirably imbued with knowledge of heavenly things, could only be persuaded by patience and politeness to communicate some of their doctrines; but most of them were concealed by these barbarians.' Obelisks, the emblems of Hie sun's rays, were of course frequently dedicated to the god of the sun and his temple; and we are accordingly informed that Heliopolis Was 'lull of obelisks'. The "Obelisk which still stands here is of rod granite of Syene I \-u.ini, and is 66 ft. high. Excepting a small obelisk found by Lepsiua in the Necropolis of Memphis, this is the oldest yet dis- ed, having been erected by Fscrtcsen, with the pronon.en Ra-kheper-ka, the second kin": of the 12th Dynasty. The com- panion obelisk ( for these monuments were always erected in i I. as Mohammedan writers inform us. down to the 12th century. Each of the four sides bears an inscription in the bold of Cairo. MOKATTAM. 4. Route. 335 and simple characters of the old empire; hut those on two of the sides have heen rendered illegible hy the hees which have made their cells in the deeply cut hieroglyphics. The pyramidium at the top was covered with metal at a comparatively late period. The ground on which it stands has heen so considerably raised by deposits of mud, that a great part of the obelisk is now buried. The inscriptions, which are the same on each of the four sides, record that Usertesen I. (Ra-kheper-ka) , King of Upper and Lower Egypt, lord of the diadems and son of the sun, whom the (divine) spirits of An (Heliopolis) love, etc., founded the obelisk on the first day of the festival of Set, celebrated at the close of a period of thirty years. Cambyses is said to have destroyed Heliopolis, but it is ascertained that the city still contained many objects of interest down to a late Mohammedan period. The excursion may be extended to the village of El-Mevg (with some ruins of the 18th Dynasty) and the once prosperous, but now ruinous Khdntdh, on the outskirts of the desert (2'/2 hrs. from Matariyeh), but the sole attraction consists in the duck and snipe shooting: around the ponds near Khankah. An interesting visit may, however, be made without much trouble to an ostrich farm kept by some Frenchmen , about ] /2 hr. to the right. The Birket el-Hagg, or Lake of the Pilgrims, 41/2 M. to the E. of Matariyeh, presents no attraction except during the latter half of the lunar month of ShawwAl, when the great caravan which accompanies the new kisweh, or cover for the Kalia, to Mecca, assembles here to celebrate the so-called Mahmal Festival (p. 236). A similar scene may, however, be more conveniently viewed at r Abbasiyeh , where , in the open spaces on each side of the road before its bifurcation, numerous tents are pitch- ed ami festivities take place at the time of the departure and arrival of the sacred carpet. The Mokattam Hills. The *Mokattam Hills are well worthy of a visit (on donkey- back ), especially about sunset, or in the morning between 8 and 9 o'clock ; or the ascent may be made by way of termination to the excursion to the Petrified Forest (p. 337). Those who consider the expedition too fatiguing may content themselves with the ascent of the Windmill Hill (p. 287) at the end of the Muski, or with a visit to the Citadel (p. 262). One route to the Mokattam (or Gebel Giyushi, as the range of hills to the E. of Cairo is sometimes called after the conspicuous old mosque situated on their summit) starts from the Tombs of the Khalifs, and the other from the Citadel. The former is recom- mended for going, and the latter for returning. The whole excursion takes 3 hours. Passing the Tombs of the Khalifs, and crossing the railway em- bankment, we ride in the direction of a dark projecting rock, which we afterwards leave to the right. The road, which is fairly good, then ascends along the S.E. side of the large quarry lying on the right, and bears towards the right. In 3 / 4 hr. we reach a large plateau, on the W. margin of which rises the dilapidated Mosque of Giytishi. 336 Routed. MoKA'l"! 'AM. Environs The **Vib - w from this point, especially with its sunset colour- ing. Ls magnificent. The thousand minarets of the city and the picturesque buildings of the Citadel are then tinted with a delicate rosy hue. The grandest of all the burial-grounds of the desert forms a noble foreground, the venerable Mle dotted with its lateen sails flows below \is in its quiet majesty, and to the W., on the borders of the immeasurable desert, tower the huge and wondrous old Pyr- amids, gilded and reddened by the setting sun. At our feet are the Citadel with the mosque of Mohammed 'AH, the old aqueduct on the left, and the domes of Imam Shafe'i(p. 327). On a rocky emin- ence are situated the picturesque ruins of several burial-mosques, which, being of the same colour as the rock, are apt to escape the notice of travellers on the Nile or its banks. Tin- Mokattam and the adjacent hills which Hank the valley of the Nile, belong to the great range of the nummulite mountains which ex- tend from X.W. Africa, across Egypt and India, to China. This nam- mulite formation is one of the Eocene, or oldest deposits of the tertiary period, and immediately follows the Chalk. It is remarkably rich iii fossils, the chief mass of which consists of millions of nummulites (a kind of snail-shell), or large rhizopodes of the polythalamica group. The lar- ger kinds are about one inch in diameter, and the smaller about '/g inch. On removing the outer coating of limestone, we find the well-defined chambers within. They are also frequently seen, cut into two halves, in the stones of the Pyramids, which are to a great extent constructed of nummnlitc limestone. The Greeks also noticed these curious fossils, and Herodotus mentions the smallest kinds as being petrified lentils, of the sort eaten by the ancient Egyptians (comp. 348). The numerous quarries in the slopes of the Mokattam and the higher side-valleys of the range also yield a profusion of sea-urchins (clypeaster, cidaris, echinolampas, etc.), various kinds of oysters, cerithium, uvula, strombus, nerina, furritella, nautilus, bivalves, 'sharks' teeth, and bones of the halicore. Beautiful crystals of isinglass-stone and of strontian also occur, the shells of the nuiumuliles having frequently been crystallised into the latter mineral. At the X. end of the plateau is an old Turkish fort, whence a bridge descends to the Citadel, but travellers are not permitted to use this route. On the E. and higher part of the .Mokattam, to the right, adjoining the summit, is a flagstaff erected in 1874 by the English party of scientific men who observed the transit of Venus from this point. The S. (right) end of these hills is skirted by the road to the smaller Petrified Forest, which may be reached from this point in about 2/4 hour. "n the way back our route bears a little to the right, and away from the lofty perpendicular sides of the above-mentioned quarry. The route back to the town via the Citadel turns to the left alter ' 4 hr., near some ancient tomb-caverns, crosses a new . and enters the Citadel by the B'ib el-Qebel, passing a number of dirty canteens. Turning immediately to the left, we pass the Well of Joseph (p. 204) on the left, and reach the broad road leading to the city. of Cairo. GEBEL EL-AHMAR. 4. Route. 337 The Gebel el-Ahmar, or Red Mountain, which rises to the N.E. of Gehel Giyushi (p. 335; most conveniently visited from r Abba- siyeh on donkey-back; p. 332), and connected with it by means of a substratum of limestone, consists of a very hard meiocene con- glomerate of sand, pebbles, and fragments of fossil wood, cemented together by means of silicic acid, and coloured red or yellowish brown with oxide of iron. According to Fraas, the two colossal sta- tues at Thebes are composed of rock from the 'Red Mountain'. For many centuries the quarries here have yielded excellent and dur- able millstones, and the neighbouring huge heaps of debris afford abundant material for the construction of the macadamised roads of Cairo and Alexandria. Similar meiocene formations, which owe their origin to an eruption of hot springs impregnated with silicic acid, occur to the S.E. of the Gebel el-Ahmar, in the direction of the Petrified Forest, and even in a side-valley of the Gebel Giyushi. A railway now encircles the whole of the hill, being used for carry- ing away the conglomerate and the subjacent limestone yielded by its quarries. Messrs. Fraas and Unger have found a few examples of freshwater conchylia among the fossils of the Gebel el-Ahmar. The Red Mountain undoubtedly owes its origin to an eruption of silicic springs, which forced their way through the tertiary limestone rock; ami to similar agency is probably to be ascribed the mud-volcano near Abil Za'bel, beyond Khankah, 4-5 hrs. to tbe N. of this point. A little to the E. of Abu Za'bel, 'on the borders of the very smooth slope of the sandy desert, protrudes a black basaltic tufa rock, which has not reached the well-known crystallised form of basalt, but is in an amorphous condition, exactly resembling the black blocks lying on the E. side of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh. As there are traces of very ancient quarries mar Abu Za'bel, these blocks may possibly have been brought thence. Moses' Spring and the Petrified Forest. Since the time of the French expedition the 'Petrified Forest near Cairo', as part of the Gebel Khashab is now called, has become one of the Sights of Egypt which almost every traveller makes a point of visiting. To the natives the Petrified Forest is known as the 'Great' and the 'Little Gebel Khashab'. The scientific traveller will find a visit to the former extremely interesting, but most travellers will be satisfied with an ex- cursion to the latter, the outskirts of which may be reached in I'/s hour. The expedition may be made in half-a-day on donkey-back. Carriages require extra horses, and even then sometimes stick in the sand. A few drops of bitter and brackish water which trickle from a cleft in a narrow and rocky side-valley of the Mokatt.am are quite erroneously called tin- Pyramids of Gi- zeh, the excursion is generally made by carriage (20-25 fr. ; a drive ni I ' ■■• lir. ; donkey, 2 hrs.). Travellers formerly crossed the Nile at Old Cairo and rode thence to Gizeh. The inspection of the Pyramids takes 2 hrs. at least (p. 343), the whole excursion thus occupying 5 hrs., so thai the traveller can return to Cairo in time for dinner. Those who intend spending a whole day at Gizeh should take provisions with them, Candles will also be required (and mai aesium wire is recommended), if eller visits the interior of the Great Pyramid [see p. 356) or of any of the other tomhs. A visit in Sakkara (p. 371 1 combined with the excursion to Gizeh takes under ordinary circumstances tWO days, and, unless the traveller Is content to pa the night in a cavern, requires a tent and a dragoman, so that the whole expedition is somewhat troublesome and costly. Those 1 , 4 i / u a H" 7 of Cairo. THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. 4. Route. 341 who do not care to ride the whole way send donkeys to Gizeh on the day before they start, drive thither early in the morning and dismiss the carriage there (the fare being hardly less than for the journey there and back), and ride in the afternoon or evening along the outskirts of the desert to Sakkara, where the night is spent. On the following morning the route leads by the site of the ancient Memphis and through palm groves to the railway-station of Bedrashen. Railway thence to Bulak ed-Dakrur, the station for Cairo, together with fares and the time occupied by the journey, see p. 371. A visit to Helwan (p. 403) may also be combined with the last- mentioned excursion if the traveller crosses the river with his donkey near Bedrashen, and passes the night in the hotel at Helwan. Cairo may then be regained on the third day on donkey-back, or by the railway (p. 403). Travellers who do not fear a little extra exertion and who are satis- fied with a rapid inspection of the pyramids may visit Gizeh and Sakkara in one day by observing the following directions. Leaving Cairo at 8 a.m., we drive to Bedrashen and ride thence to Sakkara (p. 371); quitting the latter at 2 p.m., we next ride along the edge of the desert to the pyramids, which we reach about l'/2 hr. before dusk. The drive back from the pyramids, where a carriage should be ordered to meet us, is most agree- able when a moonlight night has been chosen for the excursion. One of the fine and calm days of which there is no lack at Cairo should be selected for the excursion, the driving sand in windy weather being very unpleasant. Near Kasr en-Nil we cross the Nile by tlie great iron bridge (p. 328). On the opposite hank we leave Gezlreh (p. 328) , to which an avenue leads , on the right. The greenhouses and gar- deners' dwellings belonging to the Khedive also lie on the right. To the left of the road leading across the island we observe the lofty chimney of a water-pump, and the private gas-manufactory of the Khedive. A second and. smaller bridge then crosses the other branch of the Nile, which was long choked with mud, but which has lately been re-opened, so that the name of Gezireh (i. e. island) is now justifiable (comp. p. 329). Immediately beyond the bridge rises a Karakol (Turk, 'guard-house') , the road passing which leads to the railway station of Bulak ed-Dakrur (p. 371) and to a palace of Tusun Pasha. The road to Gizeh, which is well kept and is shaded by beautiful lebbek trees , diverges to the left by the second bridge. Near the entrance to the viceroyal gardens of Gizeh, which are bounded on the S. by an extensive pal- ace, are waterworks for the raising and distribution of the water, immediately beyond which the road turns to the right. On the left rises the high wall enclosing the property of the Khedive , and on the right are palaces of the princes Husen and Hasan Pasha (none of which are shown to visitors). After crossing the Upper Egyptian railway, the road leads between the railway (on the left) and the canal (on the right) towards the S. to the private station of the Khedive, and thence to the right, direct towards the Pyramids. Or we may follow the better road along the Nile, keeping the wall of the palace to our right. The now decayed village of Gizeh (which was a railway-station until recently, but has ceased to be so since the opening of the Bulak ed-Dakrur station), which we 342 Route 4. THE PYRAMIDS OF (iJZEII. Environs leave to the left, is said by Leo Africanus to have once contained magnificent palaces, which the Mameluke princes afterwards used as a summer-residence, audit was a place of some commercial importance in the middle ages. A line of fortification between this point and the Nile, which once protected the entrance to the town on the left bank of the river, has entirely disappeared. On this part of the road two bridges are crossed ; on the left lie the huts of two fellahin villages, Et- Talblyeh and El-Kom el-Aswad. The fields on each side are intersected by canals and cuttings, containing more or less water according to the season. Small white herons, errone- ously supposed to be the ibis , and vultures with light and dark plumage are frequently observed here. The huge angular forms of the Pyramids now loom through the morning mist, and soon stand out in clear outlines, with all the injuries they have sustained dur- ing the lapse of thousands of years. A few hundred yards before the road begins to ascend, it is pro- tected against the encroachments of the sand by a wall 5 It. in height. On the left are a Sakiyeh (water-wheel) and stables, and on the right a building once destined to be a hotel , the establish- ment of which the Beduins, apprehensive of infringement of their rights , succeeded in preventing. Carriages have usually to stop here on account of the sand, and the occupants have to complete the excursion on foot; the best walking is on the top of the wall. The road, 26 ft. in width, and now Hanked with walls G'/o ft. in height, winds up the slope to the left, and reaches the plateau 130 yds. from the N.W. corner of the Pyramid of Cheops. Near the N.E. angle of the Pyramid is the Viceroyal Kiosquc (PI. a), where the custodian will generally give visitors the use of some of the rooms on the ground-floor on payment of a fee. The 'Beduins of Gizeh', who surround (lie carriage ami importune travellers long before the Pyramids are reached, and who strew (lie last part of the road with sand in order that tiny may have a pretext for assist- ing carriages up the bill, are very pertinacious in their attentions and exorbitant in their demands. No attention should he paid to their de- monstrations at first, but one of them may be afterwards engaged for the of the Great Pyramid and a visit to the other antiquities. With the aid of the annexed plan the traveller might indeed easily di with their services, but as they seem to regard the privilege of escort- ivellers as a kind of birthright, he had better engage one of them for the sake of avoiding farther importunities. The Pyramids or Gizbb occupy a plateau gradually ascending from E. to W., the E. and N. margins of which are ver\ precipi- tous at places, and extending about 1000 yds. from E. to \V., and 1300 yds. from N. to S. The three great Pyramids are so situated on this plateau that a line drawn from the N.E. to the S.W. angle of the largest pyramid is exactly in a line with the diagonal of the second pyramid, while the diagonal of the third pyramid is parallel with that line. These Pyramids are thus built exactly facing the four points of the compass, although the magnet seems to show an of Cairo. THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. 4. Route. 343 inclination of 8° 30' towards the W. Smaller (and uninteresting) pyramids rise to the E. of the Great Pyramid and immediately to the S. of the third. To the S^.E. of the Great, and to the E. of the second and third pyramids, aie. situated the Sphinx , the adjacent temple of granite , a deep rock-tomb (Campbell's Tomb) , and an isolated stone building. Numerous tombs (mastabas), almost all in ruins, surround the Great Pyramid and extend over the plateau to the E. and W., or are hewn in the form of grottoes in the external rocky slope towards the E. and in a ledge of rock to the S.E. of the second pyramid. Chief Attractions. Those who are pressed for time should devote their attention to the **Great Pyramid (p. 354; explore the interior , and ascend to the summit) , the **Sphinx (p. 362), the *Granite Temple (p. 365), *Campbelt's Tomb (p. 367), and the Tomb of Numbers (p. 366). The inspection of these chief objects of interest , which we describe first , occupies about 2 hrs. ; but those whose time permits, and who desire to form an accurate idea of the topography of the whole area, should make the ^Circuit de- scribed at p. 367, which will occupy 172-2 hrs. more. Most of the tombs (p. 368) are so badly preserved that they are not worth visit- ing, unless the traveller is unable to undertake the excursion to Sakkara. The Pyramids +. 'Everything fears time , but time fears the Pyramids'. 'Abdellatif (Arabian physician, born at Baghdad in 1161). The Pyramids within the precincts of the Necropolis of the ancient capital city of Memphis are the oldest and most wonderful monuments of human industry yet discovered. They stand on the margin of the plateau of the Libyan desert, along a line about 25 M. in length, and may be divided into the five groups of Abu Roash (p. 370), Gizeh (p. 340), Zawyet el- f Aryan and Abusir (p. 370), Sakkara (p. 382), and Dahshur (p. 402). Beyond the boundaries of Egypt, to the S., there also occur the Ethiopian pyramids in the island of Meroeh near Begerawiyeh , at Nuri , and on the Gebel Barkal ; but these Ethiopian structures, as Lepsius has shown, are comparatively recent imitations of the Egyptian, those at Nuri and on the Gebel Barkal dating from the 7th cent. B.C. at the earliest, and those of Begerawiyeh from the 1st century. History of the Erection of the Pyramids. Manetho has ascribed the erection of the First Pyramid, which was surnamed that 'of Cochome' (comp. p. 382), to the fourth king of the 1st Thinitc Dynasty (p. 86), but the statement is very improbable. The first f The name, according to some authorities, is derived from the Egyp- tian Pi-Rama ('the mountain'), and according to others from rcopo's, wheat, and (jidtpov, a measiire. 341 Route 4. THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. Environs Egyptian monuments which bear the names of their founders date from the time of Snefru, who formed a link between the 3rd and 4th Dynasties. That monarch was the immediate predecessor of Khufu(or Cheops, B.C. 3091-67), Kh&fra [or Chephren, 3067-43), and Menkaurd (ox Mycerinus, 3043-20), the builders of the Great Pyramids (eoinp. pp. 86, 344-347). It continued customary to build pyramids down to the 12th Dynasty (R. C. 2300); but at a later period, especially after the residence of the Pharaohs bad been removed from Memphis to Thebes, the kings, as well as their sub- jects, seem to have preferred rock-tombs to mausolea above ground. The Greeks were much struck by these monuments when thej first came to Egypt, and even erected similar ones themselves (as at Cenchreae) , akin to the Mastabas (p. 379). The Pyramids are therefore invariably described by Greek travellers i, as well as by their successors, and the) afterwards became famous as one of the greatest wonders of the world. Herodotus, though ill informed as to the history of the founders of the Pyramids, describes the structures themselves admirably, like everything else he saw in person. Cheops (Khutu), accord- ing to his statement, was addicted to every kind of vice ; he closed the temples, prohibited the offering of sacrifices, and oppressed the whole nation by exacting compulsory labour. Some of his subjects were employed by him in quarrying blocks of stone among the Arab- ian mountains, and in transporting them to the Nile, others bad to ferry these stones across the river, while others again conveyed them to the base of the Libyan mountains ++. 'Now there were about 100,000 men employed annually for three months in each of these tasks. They took ten years to make the road forthe transport of the stones, which, in my opinion, must have been almosl ai laborious a task as the building of the Pyramid Ltself ; forthe ! of the road amounts to Ave stadia ( 1017yds.), its breadth is ten fathoms ("60 ft.), and its height, ai the highest places, is eight fathoms £48 ft.), and it is constructed entirely of polished stone with figures engraved on it tit. Ten years were thus consumed in making this road and the subterranean chambers on the hill oc- cupied by the Pyramids, which the king caused to be excavated as his burial-place, having made it an island, by conducting a canal thither from the Nile. ( As to this erroneous statement, see |>. 358. ) ; According to Pliny, flu' Pyramida have been described bj Hero- dotus, ESuhemerus , Duria Samiua, Aristagoras, Dionysius, Artem Alexander Polyhistor, Butoridea, Antialhenea, Demetrius, Demoteli Anion, to whom we might add Strabo, Diodorus, Pomponiua Mela, and othi r . Thej a re mi ntioned by Aristotle. Eerodotua is accurate in iii^ atatement as to the origin oi th< atone, most of that used in the construction of the Pyramid bavin quarried on the E, bank of the Nile (p 405). t++ 'I'lii route is tilt traceable, and was i ed at a later period for the removal oi i nei from the Pyramida to the Nile. It ter- ide of the Pyramid of Cheopa (see Plan). of Cairo. THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEII. 4. Route. 345 Now the construction of the Pyramid occupied twenty years t. Eaeh of the sides, which face the different points of the compass, for there are four sides, measures eight plethra [820 ft.), and the height is the same. It is covered with polished stones, well jointed, none of which is less than thirty feet long.' 'This pyramid was first built in the form of a flight of steps. After the workmen had completed the pyramid in this form , they raised the other stones (used for the incrustation) by means of machines, made of short beams, from the ground to the first tier of steps ; and after the stone was placed there it was raised to the second tier by another machine ; for there were as many machines as there were tiers of steps ; or perhaps the same machine, if it was easily moved, was raised from one tier to the other, as it was re- quired for lifting the stones. The highest part of the pyramid was thus finished first, the parts adjoining it were taken next, and the lowest part, next to the earth, was completed last if. It was recorded on the pyramid, in Egyptian writing, how many radishes, onions, and roots of garlic had been distributed among the workmen, and if I rightly remember what the interpreter (p. 13) who read the writing told me Hi, the money they cost amounted to sixteen hundred talents of silver (upwards of 350,000i.). If this was really the case . how much more must then have been spent on the iron with which they worked , and on the food and clothing of the workmen, seeing that they worked for the time already mentioned, and 1 believe that no shorter time could have been occupied with quarrying and transporting the stones , and with the work and the excavations under the surface of the earth.' 'Cheops is said to have reigned fifty years in Egypt, and to have been succeeded in the kingdom by his brother Chephren, who acted exactly in the same manner as his brother, and who also erected a pyramid, which, however, is not of so great dimensions (for we measured this one also). This pyramid does not contain subter- ranean chambers, nor is a channel conducted to it from the Nile (comp. p. 358). Chephren constructed the foundations of coloured Ethiopian stone (granite of Assuan), but the pyramid was forty feet lower than the other, near which he erected it; for both stand t It is not quite clear whether Herodotus means that the 100,000 men were occupied 20 or 30 years in building the Pyramid of Cheops, as he docs not say whether it was the building above the subterranean chambers, or the whole of the structure, that took twenty years. ! 'his account of the mode in which the pyramid was constructed has been entirely confirmed by modern investigations (comp. p. 350.1. fit If inscriptions, now destroyed, really once existed on the outside of the pyramid, they doubtless contained much more important in- formation than that which the interpreter professed to read. It is, more- over, unlikely that the interpreters , who attended travellers like the dragomans of the present day. were able to read hieroglyphics. They probably repeated mere popular traditions regarding the pyramids and other monuments, with embellishments and exaggerations of their own. 346 Routed. THE PYRAMIDS OF GiZEH. Environs on the same hill, at a height of about a hundred feet. Chcphrcn is said to have reigned fifty-six years.' •This makes altogether a hundred and six years, during which the Egyptians suffered all kinds of oppression, and the temples constantly remained closed. Owing to their hatred of these two kings, the people would not even mention their names, and they even call the pyramids after a shepherd named Philitis, who at that period pastured his flocks in the neighbourhood^. After this king (Chephren), Mycerinus, the son of Cheops, is said to have reigned over Egypt. He is said to have had no pleasure in the conduct of his father, but to have re-opened the temples and to have allowed the people, reduced to extreme distress, to return to their occupations and the worship of the gods. He is also said to have pronounced the most just judgments of all the kings.' 'He, too, left behind him a pyramid, but a much smaller one than that built by his father. Each of its sides measures 280 feet only, and half of it consists of Ethiopian stone. Some of the Greeks state that this was the pyramid of Rhodopis, a courtezan ; but they are wrong; nay, when they maintain this, they do not seem to me even to know who this Rhodopis was, for she flourished in the time of King Amasis, and not in the reign of this king (comp. p. 348).' The account given by Diodorus Siculus (i. (53, 6i) is as follows : — 'The eighth king wasChembes, the Memphite, who reigned fifty years. He built the largest of the three pyramids , which were reckoned among the seven wonders of the world. They are to be found in the direction of Libya, 120 stadia distant from Memphis, and 4o from the Nile. The sight of these great masses and their artistic construction excites surprise and admiration. The base of the largest, the plan of which is quadrilateral , is seven plcthra (700 ft.) on each side; and the height is more than six plethra. The sides gradually contract towards the top, where each is still six cubits broad. The whole building is of hard stone, difficult to hew, and it isof everlasting duration. For no less than a thousand (some writers even say three thousand) years are said to have elapsed from the building of the pyramids down to the present time ; and yet these stones, in their original jointing, and the whole structure are preserved uninjured by time. The stones are said to have been brought all the way from Arabia, and the building to have heen erected by means of embankments, as no lifting machines bad yei been invented. And the most wonderful thing is, that, around the place when' this enormous work is built, nothing is to be found but sandy soil, and there is no trace either of the embankment or of the hewing of the stones; so thai "ue mighl believe that the whole mass had not been gradually 'i I'., human hands, but tad been placed bj some god in this ; Obviou lj :i reminiscence of the Byksos (p. 88), to whom, even at a later period, every national misfortune was popularly attributed. of Cairo. THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. 4. Route. 347 sandy plain in a finished condition. The Egyptians attempt partly to explain this by the miraculous story that the embankments consisted of salt and saltpetre , and that they were melted by an inundation; that they thus disappeared , while the solid building remained. But this was not really the case; it was more probably the same number of human hands employed in throwing up the embankments which removed them and cleared the ground. It is said that 360,000 men were compulsorily employed in the work, and that the whole was scarcely completed within a period of twenty years +.' 'On the death of this king, his brother Chephren succeeded to the throne. He reigned fifty-six years. According to others the successor was not a brother of the last king, but a son of his, named Chabryis. In this, however, all the accounts agree, that, imitating his predecessor, he erected the second pyramid, which is indeed as artistically built as the first , but is not nearly so large , each side of the area being a stadium only (193 yds.) . . . The kings had built these pyramids as tombs, and yet neither of them is buried in them. For they were so hated on account of the excessively laborious work imposed by them and their many cruelties and oppressions, that the people threatened to drag their bodies from their tombs with derision and to tear them to pieces. Both, there- fore, commanded their relatives, before their deaths, to bury them quietly in some unknown place.' 'These kings were succeeded by Mycerinus (whom some call Mencherinus), a son of the builder of the first pyramid. He resolved to erect a third pyramid, but died before the work was finished. Each side of the area he made 300 feet long. He caused the sides to be constructed, up to the fifteenth tier, of black stone, resem- bling the Theban. For the completion of the remaining part he employed the kind of stone which had been used for the other py- ramids. Although this work is inferior to the others in point of size , it is superior in its much more artistic construction and its valuable stone. The. name of Mycerinus, the builder of the pyramid, is inscribed on its N. side.' 'This king is said to have abhorred the cruelty of his prede- cessors, and to have endeavoured to be courteous to every one and to become the benefactor of his subjects. He is said to have sought in every possible way to gain the affection of his subjects, and among other things to have presented large sums at the public courts of law to honest people who were thought to have lost their causes undeservedly. There are three other pyramids, tin sides of which are 200 feet long. In their whole construction they resemble the others, but not in si/.c. The three kings already named are t These 360,000 workmen (a number perhaps based on the 360 days of which the old Egyptian year consisted), like the 100,000 men of Hero dotus, who were relieved every three months, are doubtless a mere myth. 348 Route 4. THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. Environs said to have erected them for their wives. These works are un- questionably the most remarkable in all Egypt, whether in respect of the size of the buildings and their cost, or the skill of the artists. And it is thought that the architects deserve even more admiration thin the kings who defrayed the cost; for the former contributed to the completion of the work by mental power and praiseworthy exer- tion, but the latter only by the wealth they had inherited and the labour of others. Neither the natives , however, nor the historians at all agree in their accounts of the pyramids. For some maintain that they were built by these three kings, and others that they were built by different persons'. Strabo's account is remarkably graphic and concise : — 'If you go Inrty stadia from the city (of Memphis), you come to a hill on which stand many pyramids, the burial-places of kings. Three arc particularly remarkable, and two of these arc even reckoned among the seven wonders. They are square in form and a stadium in height, and this height is only slightly greater than the length of each side. One pyramid , too , is a little larger than the other. A moderate distance up one of its sides , this pyramid has a stone which can be taken out. When it is removed, an oblique passage within leads to the tomb. These pyramids are near each other in the same open space; and a little higher up the hill is the third, much smaller than these two, but erected in a much more costly style. For, from its foundation nearly up to the middle, it consists of a black stone, of which mortars are also made, and which is brought from a long distance, namely from the mountains of Ethio- pia. Owing to its hardness and the difficulty of working it , the building is rendered expensive'. Strabo then speaks of the fossils resembling lentils, mentioned at p. 336 , but docs not share the view current at that period that they were the petrified remains of the workmen's food. With regard to Rhodopis, who is mentioned at p. 346, he tells the following tradition, resembling the tale of the modern Cinderella. \\ liile Rhodopis was bathing, an eagle carried off one of her shoes, carried it to Memphis, and dropped it. into the lap of the king, who was then sitting on the judgment seat. The king, admiring the neatness of the shoe, and surprised at the strangeness of the occur- rence, sent out messengers to search for the owner of the shoe. She u ml at Naukratis and brought to the king, who made her his wife, and on her death erected the third pyramid to her memory. Pliny speaks somewhat slightingly of the Pyramids: — 'We must also in passing mention the Pyramids in this same Egypt, an idle ami foolish display by the kings of their wealth; and indeed, as most persons maintain, they had no other object in erecting them than to di'pri\e their successors , and rivals plotting against them, of money, or perhaps for the purpose of keeping the people engaged. The vanitj of these people in this matter was very great'. of Cairo. THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. 4. Route. 349 His description of the Pyramids is borrowed without remark from other authors. Thus he does not hesitate to repeat that em- bankments for the raising of the stones were made of saltpetre, which was afterwards washed away, or of bricks, which on the completion of the pyramid were distributed among private persons. He also mentions Rhodopis. Mas'tidi, one of the Arabian Historians, says that the Pyramids were built three hundred years before the flood by Silrid, in con- sequence of the interpretation of a dream which predicted the deluge. Having assured himself that the world would be repeopled after the flood, he caused the Pyramids to be erected, the prophecy to be in- scribed on their stones , and his treasures , the bodies of his an- cestors , and records of the whole store of knowledge possessed by his priests to be deposited in their chambers and recesses , in order that they might be preserved for the benefit of those who should come after the flood. According to a Coptic legend , he caused the following inscription to be engraved on one of the Pyramids : — 'I , King Surid , have built these Pyramids and completed them in 61 years. Let him who comes after me , and imagines he is a king to compare with me, attempt to destroy them in 600 (years). It is easier to destroy than to erect. 1 have covered them with silk ,• let him dare to attempt to cover them with mats !' A tradition recorded by the same author resembles the German myth of the nymph of the Lorelei : — 'On the western Pyramid is enthroned a beautiful naked woman with dazzling teeth, who allures desert wayfarers from the south and west, embraces them in her arms, and deprives them of reason'. 'Fair Rhodope, as story tells, The bright unearthly nymph, who dwells 'Mid sunless gold and jewels hid, The lady of the Pyramid'. (Moore.) According to other myths the spirit of the Pyramid bears the form of a boy , or that of a man , who hovers around it burning incense. The Pyramids have been frequently visited and described by Christian travellers to Palestine on their way through Egypt. The spurious itinerary of Antony of Piacenza of the 6th cent, states that he visited the twelve granaries of Joseph (the Pyramids) , and the same notion was entertained by pilgrims as late as the 1 4th, 15th, and 16th centuries. It is worthy of remark that many of the mediaeval travellers, even as late as the 17th cent., concur with the most accurate of the Arabian authors in stating that they saw in- scriptions on the. Pyramids. Thus the knight of Nygenhusen , a pilgrim who assumed the name of William of Boldensele (14th cent.), informs us that he saw inscriptions on the Pyramids in dif- ferent languages, and he gives six verses of one of them in Latin. 'Abdellatif, speaking of the inscriptions on the Pyramids, which no 350 Route 4. THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. Environs one could decipher in his time, says that — 'they are so numerous, that, if one attempted to copy on paper those only which appear on the surface of these two Pyramids (those of Cheops and Chephren) they would fill more than 10,000 pages'. A similar account is given byMas'udi, Makrizi, IhnHaukal, Edrisi , and other Arahs ; and yet on the incrustation of Chefren's Pyramid which is preserved at the top there is now no trace of a single letter. "We must therefore conclude that the slahs which have heen removed once hore in- scriptions, which were perhaps purposely destroyed. Construction of the Pyramids. In consequence of the investiga- tions of Lepsius and Erbkain, the mode in which the Pyramids were erected and the meaning of the account given by Herodotus are now well ascertained. The following questions have heen asked by Lepsius : — (1) How does it happen that the Pyramids are of such different sizes? (2) After Cheops and Chephren had erected their gigantic mausolea , how could their successors be satisfied with monuments so much smaller, and of so different proportions? (3) How is the fact to be accounted for, that an unfinished pyramid is never met with ? (4) How could Cheops, when he ascended the throne and chose an area of 82,000 sq. yards for his monument, know that his reign would be so unusually long as to enable him to complete it? (5) If one of the builders of the great pyramids had died in the second or third year of his reign , how could their sons or successors, however willing to carry out the plan, have succeeded in completing so gigantic a task, and in erecting monuments for them- selves at the same time? And how comes it that many other kings did not, like Cheops, boldly anticipate a reign of thirty years and begin a work of the same kind, the design for which might so easily have been drawn, and might so readily have been carried out by his sub- jects? — To all these questions the researches of Lepsius and Erbkam afford but one entirely satisfactory answer. 'Each king', says Lepsius in his letters from Egypt, 'began to build his pyramid when he ascend- ed the throne. He began it on a small scale, in order that, if a short reign should be in store for him, his tomb might be a complete one. As years rolled on, however, he continued enlarging it by the addi- tion of outer coatings of stone, until he felt that his career was drawing to a close. If he died before the work was completed, the last coating was then finished, and the size of the monument was accordingly proportioned to the length of the builder's reign ; so that , had the progress of these structures always been uniform . it would have almost been possible to ascertain the length of each reign from the incrustations of his pyramid, in the same way as the age of a tree is determined by the number of the concentric rings in its trunk'. — The first step taken by the king's architect was doubtless to level the surface of the rock on which the pyramid be erected, leaving, however, any elevation in the centre of the area untouched, to form a nucleus for the structure, and to save of Cairo. THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. 4. Route. 351 labour and material. The subterranean chambers were first ex- cavated in the rock , and then extended into the superincumbent masonry. A small building , in the form of a truncated pyramid, with very steep walls, was first erected. If the king died at this stage of the construction , a pyramidal summit was placed on the structure , and its surface was then prolonged down to the ground by filling up the angles formed by the nearly upright sides. If, however, the king survived this first period in the pyramid's history, a new series of stones was placed around it, and the same process was repeated until each successive incrustation became in itself a work of prodigious difficulty. The filling up of tbe angles could then probably be safely entrusted to the piety of the monarch's successor. The annexed plan will serve to illustrate this explanation. The rock which in some cases served as the nucleus of the struc- ture is marked a ; the first part of the pyramid is b ; on this was placed the pyramidal summit e ; the angles d were then filled up, and a pyramid on the smallest scale was now completed. If time permitted, the builder next proceeded to place the two blocks e next to the blocks d, and above these the blocks f. To complete the pyramid on the next largest scale, it was then necessary to crown it with the summit g, and to fill up the angles h and i. If, for some reason or other, the angles were not filled up, the result was a so- called 'step-pyramid' (p. 382). A confirmation of the accuracy of this theory is afforded by the ascertained fact, 'that the more nearly the interior of the pyramid is approached, the more careful does the construction become, while the outer crusts are more and more roughly and hastily executed, in proportion as the probable time for their deliberate completion gradually diminished'. The smallest pyramids always consist of the simple structure already described. The outer sides of the comple- mentary triangular stones were entirely polished , except when , as in the case of the third pyramid, the whole surface was to be, as it were, veneered with slabs of granite. Object of the Pyramids. In accordance with the ancient Egyp- tian doctrine of the immortality of the soul (p. 139), it was ne- cessary that the earthly tabernacle of the soul should be preserved. 352 Route 4. THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. Environs In order to remove the bodies of the dead from the influence of the inundation of the Nile , they were huried in the dry rocky soil of the desert. Wealthy persons caused tomb-chambers (p. 379 ) to be excavated for themselves, while the kings, who wished to maintain their royal pre-eminence even in death, were specially anxious to ensure the durability and permanence of their tombs. The burial- place of a king was worthy, in their opinion, of being- distinguished by its situation and its magnitude ; they desired that it should sur- pass all others in magnificence, and that the tomb-chamber should be least capable of violation. It was probably, therefore, at first customary to cover the rock-tomb of a king with blocks of stone, or to raise a mound over it, if sand and earth were procurable in the vicinity. The violent winds from the desert, however, rendered it necessary to consolidate these mounds by covering them with stones. The sepulchral mounds thus acquired a definite form ; they became square structures, tapering upwards, and gradually assumed the pyramidal shape, ensuring the utmost strength and durability. Opening of the Pyramids. The Pyramids are said first to have been opened by the Persians (B.C. 525-333), and it is certain that they were examined by the Romans. The Arabs endeavoured to penetrate into the interior of these stupendous structures , chiefly in hope of finding treasures ; and the greater the difficulties they encountered , the more precious and worthy of concealment did they imagine the contents to be. According to 'Abdellatif, it was Khalif Mamun (A.D. 813-33), son of Harun er-Kashid (p. 101), who caused the Great Pyramid to be opened; but it is probable that that prince merely continued the investigations of his predecessors, as Dionysius, the Jacobite patriarch of Antioch , who accompanied him, found that an entrance had already been effected. Mamun's workmen are said to have made a new entrance (p. 357) adjacent to the old, with the aid of fire , vinegar, and projectiles. With regard to the success of the undertaking there exist various more or less highly embellished accounts by the Arabian historians ; but one thing appears certain, that the hopes of the explorers wire disappointed, and that nothing was found in the already plundered chambers and corridors. According to some accounts, the gold found here was exactly enough to defray the cost of the undertaking, having possibly been introduced into the interior by the Khalif himself, in order to obviate the reproach of having spent so much money for nothing. Many of the Arabs relate, that, after the workmen had penetrated to a considerable depth, they found a vessel containing a considerable sum of gold coin, amounting, strangely enough, to the exact sum which had been spent on the investigation. Along with the treasure was found a marble slab, bearing an old inscription to the effect that the money beside it Bufflced to pay for the work of the inquisitive kin;: ; but that, if lie attempted to penetrate farther, he would expend a large sum and of Cairo. THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEII. 4. Route. 353 find nothing. The vessel containing the treasure is said to have consisted of an emerald , and to have been taken by Mamun to Baghdad. Other fabulous stories are told of golden statues set with jewels, amulets, talismans, and mummies, which were found here in a golden cabinet, in a box in the form of a human figure, and in a stone sarcophagus. Makrizi speaks of the sarcophagus which still lies in the royal tomb-chamber as in his time , and another author says that its cover bore the words — 'Abu Amad built the Pyramid in 1000 days'. "We possess no definite information concerning the opening of the second Pyramid, but r Abdellatif , who was himself present, gives us an account of the attempted destruction of the Third Pyramid. As early as the reign of Saladin (A.D. 1169-93), the vizier Kara- kusk used the Small Pyramids as a quarry for the material of which he constructed various imposing edifices in Cairo , including the Citadel. El-Melik el- f Aziz f Otkman (1193-99), Saladin's successor, was persuaded by his courtiers to demolish the so-called 'Red Pyra- mid', or that of Menkaura. The sultan accordingly organised a party of workmen for the purpose , under the supervision of some of his nobles, caused a camp to be pitched at the base of the Pyramid, and ordered them to begin the work of destruction. After eight months of incessant labour , however, the senseless undertaking, which had cost enormous sums and prodigious exertions , had to be abandoned. 'Nothing was effected by the undertaking', says f Abdel- latif, 'but the shameful mutilation of the Pyramid , and the de- monstration of the weakness and incapacity of the explorers. This occurred about the year 593 of the Hegira (A. D. 1196). When the stones that have been removed are regarded at the present day, one would think that the structure had been entirely destroyed, but when one then looks at the Pyramid itself, one sees that it has suffered no material damage, and that a part of its incrustation has been stripped off on one side only'. — The Pyramids were also used as quarries at a later period , and even during the regime of Mo- hammed f Ali, who moreover is said to have been advised by a prophet to destroy them. "With the aid of gunpowder he might per- haps have succeeded in effecting what the workmen of the Khalif had failed to do, had not his European friends represented to him that the blasting operations would probably damage the city of Cairo. The first modern traveller who carefully and successfully examined the Pyramids was Nicholas Shaw in 1721; but he still entertained the notion that the Sphinx had a subterranean connection with the Great Pyramid. He was followed by Norden in 1737; Pococke in L743 , who gives a plan and dimensions; Fourmont in 1755; Karsten Niebuhr in 1761; Davison in 1763, a most meritorious explorer, who discovered many new facts concerning the interior of the Great Pyramid; Bruce in 1768; Volney in 1783; Browne in 1792-98; Denon, Coutelle . Jumard, and other savants of the French expedition under Bonaparte in 1799-1801. Jumard in particular has the merit of having taken very accural.: measurements but he exhibited more ingenuity than good sense in attributing to the proportions of the building a hidden significance which they cannot be Baedeker's Egypt I. 2nd Ed. 23 354 Route J. THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. Environs proved to possess. Hamilton, in L801, was a dispassionate and critical observer, to 1817, Caviglia, a bold, but illiterate and fanciful seaman, was fortunate in eliciting new facts regarding the interior of the Great Pyramid, an-f For the ascent a single traveller usually tal e I, but three Suffice for two traveller . For a visit to the interior each traveller is accompanied by one guide. The customary fee for the whole expedition fr. for e.-oh traveller, whether he has been attended by one. two, or three guides. The Beduin an never contented with thit sum, but is ample. The traveller, however, if ie i oitional gratuity of L-2 silver piastre to each of his guides. /> yds. from the chamber the flooring sinks a little, so that the height increases to 5 ft. 8 inches. The.N. andS. sides of the chamber are each 17 ft. in length, and the E. andW. sides 18 ft. 10 inches. The height is 20 ft. 4 in., including the pointed roof, which consists of enormous blocks of rock placed obliquely and leaning against each other, and projecting beyond the sides of the walls to a distance of S'/o ft. into the surrounding masonry. We now return to c and enter the Great Halt (PI. h~), the handsomest of the comparatively small chambers in the interior of this colossal mass of masonry. The jointing and polish of the fine-grained Mo- kattam limestone form an unsurpassable marvel of skilful masonry. As the visitor can now breathe and look about him with more freedom, he may verify the accuracy of 'Abdellatifs remark, that neither a needle nor even a hair can be inserted into the joints of the stones. The Great Hall is 28 ft. high and 155 ft. long. The lower part is 3 ft. 4 in. in width ; and the upper part , beyond the last of the panels of stone, each of which is 1 ft. 8 in. thick and 2 ft. high, is 7 ft. in width. The seven courses of stone composing the roof, which seem to have been arranged in imitation of the arch-principle, project slightly one above the other, serving to strengthen and support the horizontal slabs which form the ceiling. The parallel incisions in the pavement and on the walls were per- haps used to facilitate the introduction of the sarcophagus, and they now serve to prevent the visitor from slipping. At the end of the Great Hall is a small horizontal passage, 22 ft. long and 3 ft. 8 in. high, expanding about the middle into an Antechamber (PI. i), which was once closed by four trap-doors of granite. The remains of these slabs, in their pendent position, should be noticed. We next enter the King's Chamber (pi. k), the most interesting of all. The N. and S. sides are each 17 ft. in length, the E. and W. sides 34'/ 2 ft., and the height is 19 ft. ; the floor of the chamber is 139'/2 ft- above the plateau on which the Pyramid stands. The chamber is entirely lined with granite, and is roofed with nine enormous slabs of granite, each l8 l /2 ft- '" length, the ends of which rest on the lateral walls. It now contains nothing but an empty and mutilated sarcophagUB of granite, bearing no trace of an 358 Route 4. THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. Environs inscription, the lid ot which had disappeared before the time of the French expedition. Length 7 l /i> ft. , width 3 ft. 3 in., height 3 ft. 4 inches. The very massive sides ring with a clear tone when struck. Curiously enough, the King's Chamber does not lie exactly in a line with the diagonal of the Pyramid , but is 16 ft. 4 in. to The S. of it. < Iwing to the prodigious weight of the superincumbent masses, it would have been extremely hazardous simply to roof the chamber with long horizontal slabs, but the cautious architects of Cheops foresaw the danger and relieved the ceiling of the weight by introducing five hollow chambers above it. The first four (I, m, n, o) have flat ceilings, while the last (p) is roofed with blocks leaning obliquely against each other. These chambers are access- ible from the Great Hall (p. 357), but not without great difficulty. 111.- fir t chamber (I) is named 'Davidson's chamber', after its dis- coverer (1763). The four others, discovered by Col. Vyse and Mr. Perring, were named by them Wellington's (m). Nelson's (»), Lady Arbuthnot's (o), and Col. Campbell's (p) chambers. The discovery of the last of these was particularly important, as the name of Kliut'n (p. 330) was found in it. Lady Arbuthnofs Chamber contains the name of Khnum ('builder') Kbufu. These inscriptions arc in red paint, anil wire doubtless placed on the stones as distinguishing marks by the quarrymen, as some of them are now upside down. About 3 ft. above the floor of the King's Chamber are the ends of the Air Shafts (w, x) by which the chamber is ventilated , and which were re-opened by Col. Vyse. They are about 6 in. in height and H in. in width only, expanding by a few inches at the outer extremities. The N. shaft is 234 ft., and the S. shaft 174 ft. long. We now retrace our steps, and, on emerging from these awe-in- spiring recesses, hail the light and air with no little satisfaction. Chambers not now accessible. The only other chambers in the interior of the Great Pyramid as yet discovered are the following. The first pas age d- 6, r. leading downwards in a straight line, 293ft. in length, terminates in a horizontal corridor, 27 ft. in length, 3 ft. in height, and 2 ft. in width, which bads to the subterranean chamber s, hewn in the rock. The E. and W. sides of this chamber are each 46ft. in length, the ST. and S. sides '27ft.. and the height LO l /sft. it does not lie in a line with the diagonal of the Pyramid, and its Boor is lOl'/sft. below tin level on which the Pyramid is built. The subterranean horizontal i leads nowhere. The statement of Herodotus (p. 344) that the subterranean chamber planned by Cheops for the reception of his body a a kind of island, surrounded by a canal which was conducted hither from the Nile, is erroneous, as the chamber lies above the highest ij the overflow of the river, and it has, moreover, bei ■■ that no channel from the river leads in this direction. From the lower end of the Great Hall a shaft, discovered by Davidson in I' 1 to tin lower passage, and is erroneously known as the 'Weir. The en- Caviglia found that it terminated in the passage leading to the subterranean chamber (n. and in 1831 Sir G. Wilkinson rightly ex- ! thai it must have been made to enable tin- workmen to quit the Pyramid alter the upper passages had been obstructed by blocks of stone. it inn t ;ii all events have been constructed at a later period than the i If, as it has been ohviously bored through it. The Second Pyramid (which cannot be ascended, hut should be intend bj scientific visitors), called by the Egyptians "^^=} A ur, of Cairo. THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. 4. Route. 359 the 'great' or 'considerable', was erected by KhatYa, who was called Chephren by the Greeks, and whose portrait-statue is preserved in the museum at Bulak (p. 305), but his name lias not been dis- covered on any part of the structure. Owing to the greater height of the rocky plateau on which it stands, it appears higher than its larger neighbour. As the rocky site rises towards the W. and \., a considerable part of it required to be removed in order that a level surface might be obtained. The levelled space surrounding the base of the Pyramid was paved with blocks of limestone (see p. 369 ). To the E. are remains of the temple erected for the worshippers of the deceased Pharaoh, a structure of the kind which probably adjoined all large pyramids (p. 368"). The incrustation of the Pyramid, which must have been preserved down to the middle of the 17th cent., seems to have been laid on in a rough condition and to li'i ve been polished afterwards, beginning from the top. The lower courses were left in the rough, a circumstance which led the French savants to suppose that the Pyramid was once surrounded by a pedestal. The merit of having opened this Pyramid belongs almost exclusively to Belzoni, a most enterprising and successful explorer +. An inscription over the entrance records that the opening took place on March '2nd, 1818. The Interior is entered by two passages mi (he X. side. The mouth of is in the level surface in front of the Pyramid, and was con- by the pavement; that of the other is on the N. side of the Pyra mid itself, now 38 ft., but formerly 49 ft. above the level of the ground. This upper passage, which was lined with granite at the beginning, descends at an angle of 2o°55' to a depth of 105 ft., leading first to a horizontal corri- dor, and thence to 'Belzoni's Chamber'', which once contained the tomb <>l the deceased, situated 3 ft. 10 in. to the E. of the diagonal of the i The traveller will meet with the name of Oiambattista Belzoni so frequently, and in connection with discoveries of such importance . that a brief notice of his remarkable career may not be unacceptable. He was the son of a poor barber, and was born at Padua in 1778. He was brought up as a monk at Rome, where he was distinguished both for mental and ph j iical endowments, and devoted much of his time to draw- ing. When l; me was occupied by the French, he quitted that city and went to England, and while in London eked out his livelihood by acting as a model for figures of Hercules and Apollo. At the same time he devoted considerable time to study, and especially to the science of water-engineering. Accompanied by his high-spirited wife, he next went to Egypt, where he arrived in 1815 and was at first obliged to support himself by dancing in public. He at length attracted the attention of Mohammed f Ali, who accorded him relief. His first undertaking of im- portance was the opening of the Pyramid of Chephren. He next dis- covered the tomb of Seti I. at Thebes (No. 17), the finest of all the royal tombs; he opened the rock-temples of Abu Simbel, and re-discovered the emerald mines of Zabara and the ruins of the ancient Berenike on the Eed Sea. He died in 1823 while on a journey into the interior of Africa. A giant in stature, he inspired the Arabs with such admiration that he could prevail upon them to undertake the most unusual tasks. At the same time he was an intelligent explorer, and a very able and accurate draughtsman. His works, partly published by himself, and partly by his willow, are still valuable. 360 Route 4. THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. Environs Pyramid. This chamber is hewn in the rock, and roofed with painted slabs of limestone leaning again i each other ;ii the same angle as that formed by the sides of the Pyramid. It is 22'/2 ft. in height, -iii'/.j ft. in [i.in B. to W., and iu'/3 ft. in width from N. to S. Belzoni here found a granite sarcophagus let into the ground and filled with rubbish, 3 ft. in height, 6 ft. 7 in. in length, and 3'/2 ft. in width, and destitute Of inscription. The lid was broken. The lower passage, entered from the pavement on the N. side of the Pyramid, descends at first at an angle of 21° 40', reaches a trap-door, runs in a horizontal direction for 59 ft. . and thru ascends, terminating, after a distance of 97 ft. in all, in the hori- zontal corridor leading to Belzoni's Chamber. ensconced in a still lower tomb-chamber. The pavement of the chamber e covers the mouth of a shaft 29 ft. in length, which was closed by a trap-door, and is Hanked with a project- ing block oi granite on each side. II ft. wide and 2ft. 4 in. high, de- to prevent the removal of the sarcophagus. Beyond the trap door of Cairo. THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. 4. Route. 361 the passage descends 2 ft. 5 in. more, and a horizontal shaft, 10 ft. in length, finally leads thence to the Tomb Chamber (PI. i), which is bj far the must interesting of all those yet discovered within the pyramids. It is paved with Mocks of granite , 2>/2 ft. in thickness , and its ceiling is arched in the English Gothic form. The arch has been formed b\ plac- ing the stones against each other at an angle so as to resemble a roof, and then hollowing them out on the inside. The sarcophagus of Men- kaura was found here by Col. Vyse in a good state of preservation. It was externally 2 ft. 7 in. high, 8ft. long, and A ft. wide. The lid was gone, but its remains were found in the chamber c, and beside them the upper part of the wooden coffin, which, as the inscription on it recorded, once contained the body of Menkaura. The finely executed sarcophagus was composed of brown basalt, showing a bine tint where broken. The vessel in which it was being conveyed to England was unfortunately lost off Carthagena in the S. of Spain, but drawings of the precious relic A A-teSG ': A B-<2'« F BB. Present perpendicular height of the Third Pyramid , 204 ft. — B C. Former perpendicular height, 219 ft. — A A. Side of base, 3561/2 ft. — ABA Sloping sides, each 2523/ 4 ft. — A (' A. Original si. .ping sides, each 279 3 A ft. — Angles at A A, 51°. have been preserved. The inscription on the wooden lid, now preserved in the British Museum, runs as follows: — 'Osiric King Men-kau-ra o cia UUU ^ ever-living, who art descended from heaven, who" wast borne under the heart of Nut, and heir of the sun. Thy mother Nut spreads herself over thee in her name, winch is the mystery ot heaven. She has granted thee to be like a god. annihilating thy ene- mies, King Menkaura, ever-living! 1 Herodotus is. therefore, doubtless right in stating that Mykerinos (Menkaura] was the builder ..I the rhird Pyramid, though Manet.h.. mentions Queen Nitokria ol the 6th Dynasty (p. 87) as one of the builders. 362 Route 4. THE SPHINX. Environs The three Small Pyramids situated to the S. of the Third Pyr- amid are uninteresting. The tomb-chamber of the one in the centre also contains the nana- of Menkaura, painted on the i About 600 paces to the PL ofthe plateau of the Sn 1 Pyramid, from amidst the sand of the desert, rises the — :i: *Sphinx t, which, next to the Pyramids themselves, is the most famous monument in this vast burial-ground. It is hewn out of the natural rock, and where this material has failed it has been moulded into the shape of a recumbent 1 ion with the bead of a man. The body was left in a rough form, but the head was origi- nally most carefully executed. The entire height of the monument, From the crown of the head to the pavement on which the fore-legs of the lion rest, is said to be 66 ft. (sec below |, but the head, neck, and a small part of the back are generally alone visible, the rest being concealed by the constantly shifting sand. The ear, according to Mariette, is 4'A> ft., the nose 5 ft. 7 in., and the mouth i ft. 7 in. in length; and the extreme breadth of the face is 13 ft. 8 inches. If the traveller stands on the upper part of the ear. he cannot stretch his hand as far as the crown of the bead, and the space between these points must have been greater when the bead- decoration, which, as well as the greater part of the beard, is now broken off, was still intact. There is a hollow in the head, into which one of the Arabs may be desired to climb. The face was deplorably mutilated at a comparatively recent period by a fai iconoclastic shekh, and afterwards by the barbarous Mamelukes, w bo used it as a target. It would appear from 'Abdellatif's ( p. 343 i account that it was in perfect preservation in his time: — 'This face is very pleasing, and is of a graceful and beautiful type; one might almost say that it smiles winningly'. lie also describes the proportions of the head very minutely. An older writer, however. states that the nose was mutilated in his time. and. as it is now entirely destroyed, the face somewhat resembles the though the mouth still has a smiling appearance. The erly had a reddish tint which has now entirely disappeared. The Arabs have given the Sphinx the name of 'abu'l b&l', i.e. 'father of terror', or formerly 'belhit', probably derived from the I fieA-gH'r (bel-hit), signifying a person who carries his heart or bis intelligence in bis eyes, or 'the watchful'. This last expression has frequently been used, by authors who were ignorant of i tiquity, as an appropriate epithet for the Sphinx. The Arabs be- lieved that the figure possessed the supernatural power of prevent- ing the encroachment of the sand. The complete excavation ofthe Sphinx was first undertaken by Caviglia I p. 354), at the cost I l50f. i of an English society. lie discovered tin- Bighl of steps t 'I'lo' Egyptian Sphinx (p. ii;,i. being of the ma culine gend ented with the head of ■ < ram or of a man. and never with thai of a woman. of Cairo. THE SPHINX. 4. Route. 363 which ascended to the stupendous monument, and also found be- tween the paws of the lion a carefully laid pavement, at the end of which next to the breast of the Sphinx rose a kind of open temple, dvided by two par- titions , through which ran a pas- sage, containing a small figure of a recumbent lion, fa- cing the Sphinx, in the middle. In the background rose a pillar, and at the sides were two others , forming a kind of wall. The one next the breast of the Sphinx was particularly inter- esting from the fact that it bore the date of the reign of Thothmcs HI. of the ISth Dynasty. Several of these relics are now pre- served in the Bri- tish Museum. The Sphinx was also entirely excavated by M. Mariette. History of the Sphinx. It was pointed out by Lepsius in L843 that the Sphinx must have been founded earlier than the 18th Dynasty, notwithstanding the above mentioned inscription on one of the tablets. The date there given is the first year of the reign of Thothmes III., which contains the account of the dream of that monarch while practising at a target and hunting near the Sphinx. From the inscription at the end the Sphinx appears to have been a re presen tation of Khafra or Chcphren, whose cartouche occurs at the left end of the last but one of the consecutive lines of the inscription, the O alone having been ob- literated. In his dream Thothmes is asked by the Sphinx to clear away the encroachments of sand. As the Sphinx lies nearly in a line with the Pyramid of that king, it was not unnaturally thought that he was the founder of both monuments. This conjecture seemed to be confirmed by the discovery of the statue of Chcphren 364 Routed. THE SPHINX. Environs in the rock-temple adjoining the Sphinx (p. 365). The monument lias even been supposed to be entitled to claim still higher antiquity; for M. Mariette, while examining a ruined building at the foot of the southernmost of the three pyramids which rise to the E. of the Great Pyramid, found a stone built into a wall, bearing an inscription which seemed to imply that the Sphinx already existed in the time of Khufu , the builder of the first pyramid. The inscription on the right side of the stone runs literally thus : — 'The living Horus, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Khufu, the life-dispensing, found fin making excavations) the Temple of Isis, the patroness (hant) of the Pyramid in the place (i.e. in the immediate vicinity) of the Temple of the Sphinx'. The Sphinx is written « Y> _2ba5 hu, which signifies 'to guard' or 'watch', or 'the watchman', an expression precisely equi- valent to the 'bel-hit' (p. SQT) of a later period. The above in- scription, however, is of later date than the time of Cheops. The large tablet of Thothmes III. , found between the paws of the Guardian of the Necropolis, has been already mentioned. This celebrated Pharaoh (p. 89) restored the Sphinx, and seems specially to have revered it, as is indicated by numerous small monuments which bear the figure of the Sphinx coupled with his name or his portrait. In the inscription already referred to, the Sphinx is said to speak to Thothmes 'as a father to his son', and to address him in the words — 'I am thy father llarmachis'. Though more or less buried in sand at various periods, the Sphinx was highly admired and revered down to so late a period as that of the Roman emperors, as numerous inscriptions upon it, now concealed by the sand, testify. Curiously enough , the Sphinx is mentioned neither by Herodotus nor any later Greek traveller. Signification of the Sphinx. The Greeks and Romans call the Sphinx Hariuachis, or Armachis, which is equivalent to the ancient Egyptian Har-em-khu , i.e. Horus on the horizon, or the sun in the act of rising. Uarmachis is the new-born light which conquers darkness, the soul which I-'- mies death, or fertility which expels barrenness. Being the power- ful antagonist of Typhon, he was victorious over evil in different shapes. He achieved some of his most brilliant exploits in the form Hi'- winged disk of the sun, and conquered his enemies in that of a lion willi a human head, i.e. in the form of a sphinx. The scene of this victory was the Leontopolitan Nome, the name of which is derived from : i' pri lerved at Berlin the solar god is said some- I take the form of a lion, and other Shapes also. llarmachis, in iii burial places, promises resurrection to the dead. Turned directly towards the E. , his face first reflects the brilliance of the rising sun, and he illumines the world after the darkness of night. Haritiachis, dwellin el l.irl, of the desert, overcomes sterility and prevents in overwhelming the fields. This last attribute was still !■ iin Irabs at a late period to the Sphinx Uarmachis, who is called bj Greek inscriptions Agathodsemon , or the •■■ 1 spirit'. The mornin idered sacred to Barmachis, and it i^ in the K.that be In I •■hows himself to the world. The. East b. I.m 1 to him; and as Thothmes ill. carried his Bway farther to the k. than any of his prede- of Cairo. GRANITE TEMPLE. 4. Route. 365 cessors, it was not unnatural that he should have showed special vener- ation for the Sphinx-Harmachis, and chosen him for his tutelary god. Every Pharaoh was, as we are aware, regarded as an earthly incarnation of Ea. and also, as many monuments testify, of Ea Harmachia. The kings, therefore, afterwards chose the Sphinx to symbolise the divine nature of their mission as monarchs, and it was a favourite practice to crown the lion's body with a head bearing their own features. The sphinx representing a king is called neb, or 'lord'. The Assyrians provided their sphinxes with wings as symbols of speed and of the power of rising above earthly things. About 3 /t hr. in a due S. direction from the Sphinx, on the outskirts of the desert , is a spot known to the Beduins where numerous fossils occur in the meiocene sand-formation. Among the commonest are the curious sea-urchins ( Clypeaster), which the Beduins frequently offer for sale. — In the desert, about 4 hrs. farther distant, petrified wood is said to occur (comp. p. 339). A few paces to the S.E. of the Sphinx is situated the*Granite Temple, a large building constructed of granite and alabaster, dis- covered by M. Mariette in 1853. The different chambers are now kept free of sand, so that they can be examined in every part. The object of the building has not yet been ascertained , but there can be no doubt that it was in some way connected with the Sphinx. The inscription of Khufu mentioned at p. 364 speaks of a Temple of the Sphinx. The statues of Chephren (pp. 305, 307) found here seem to indicate that he was the founder of this structure ; and, if so, this would be the only temple handed down to us from the prim £eval monarchy. At the same time the building so closely resembles a mastaba (p. 379), that, particularly as it stands in the Necropolis of Memphis, it was perhaps rather one of those monuments which were dedicated to the rites of the dead ; and it seems not impro- bable that Chephren, who built the Second Pyramid as his tomb, erected this edifice as a place of assembly for the worshippers, of his manes. The building is a fine example of the simple and majestic architecture of that remote period , when the art of working the hardest kinds of stone had already attained perfection. The chisel which in the hand of the stone-mason shaped these blocks of granite with such exquisite skill, could doubtless, when wielded by the sculptor, easily create a statue of Chephren. Descending by a recently constructed Passage (PI. ad) in steps, protected by walls against the encroachment of the sand, we pass through a door (6) into a Passage (66) descending towards the E., 6ft. Sin. in width and 79ft. in length. On the right, halfway down this passage, is the entrance to a Chamber (c) constructed entirely of blocks of alabaster ; opposite to it, onthe lo ft, is the Entrance (d) to a flight of steps, which turns at a right angle and ascends to a small chamber, where an opening on the S. side to the granite roof of the temple. This passage and chamber nre also constructed of alabaster. At the E. end of the corridor we entei a Hall (PI. e), 79 ft. in length (N. to S.) and '23 ft. in width, em- bellished with six monolithic pillars of granite varying from 3 ft. 4 in. to 4 ft. 7 in. in thickness. The pillars are connected by enor- 366 Routed. GRANITE TEMPLE. Environs a b in. a J inous blocks of similar dimensions which are still in situ. Adjoin- ing this hall on the W. is another similar Hall (PI. f), 5? ^ ft. long ami '2M ft. wide, the ceiling of -which was borne by ten columns of granite in two cows. At the S.W. corner of Hall j e is a Door g, leading into . . the Corridor gg, whicb is | adjoined on tbe left by .: J !i ! . the Chamber i. At hh, far- ther on , and also at the end of gg, are niches in two stories, one above the other, probably destined for the reception of mum- mies. Returning to Hall e, we proceed to Passage fc, in the middle of the E. side, which leads between walls 13 ft. in thickiiess to Chamber I, the last on the E. side of the build- ing, and destitute of co- lumns. At the point m in this apartment, M. Ma- riette found a deep well containing water, but now tilled with sand, in which he discovered no fewer than nine statues of Che- j— -3 - phren. The best of these are now in the Museum ofBulak (pp. 305, 307). Several dog-headed apes (p. 134-j, executed in stone, were also found in the sand here. At the N. and S. ends of this apartment are two side-chambers, (me df which ( PI. n) only is now accessible, the other having been built up. Between the Granite Temple and the Sphinx recent excavations have laid bare a series of walls, which consist of Nile mud and gravel and obviously date from the Roman period. Among the tombs surrounding the different pyramids, where, the relatives, priests, and state officials of the kings were interred, ' the most interesting is the — Tomb of Numbers ('PI. n), so called from the enumeration it contains (as usual in other tombs also) of the cattle possessed by the deceased. This tomb, which lies on the E. slope of the plateau of the Pyramids (p. 342), belonged to a certain Khafra-ankh and <,f Cairo. TOMB OF NUMBERS. J. Route. 367 his wife Herneka. The representations and hieroglyphics it con- tains are either partly or entirely obliterated. Khafra-ankh was a 'semer' or companion , and a 'suten rekh', or blood-relation of the king, to whom his wife, a priestess of Neith, was also related, lie is extolled as the illustrious priest of the Pyramid of Khafra, surnamed 'the great'. On the E. wall of the principal chamber we see writers engaged in recording the number of cattle of each kind possessed by the deceased. The representatives of the different Hocks placed beside the numbers are admirably executed , and faithful to nature even in their attitudes. The sign I is equivalent to 1, H to 10, and Q to 100, these symbols being repeated so as to represent the hundreds, tens, and units of which the various flocks (srsrarDnniii consisted. Thus (aurora A .. coupled with the figure of a bull, in- dicates that Khafra-ankh possessed 835 bulls, and in a similar man- ner we are informed that he had 220 cattle without horns, 760 asses, 2235 goats of the antelope kind, and 974 goats. Besides these ani- mals we also distinguish the more or less obliterated representations of a voyage on the river, the measurement of corn, the felling of trees, etc. , and on the S. wall we find a portrait of the deceased and his wife, both in a sitting posture, with tables covered with offerings before them. *Campbell's Tomb, which may be visited on the way back from the Sphinx to the Great Pyramid, is larger than most of the others mentioned below. It is of comparatively late origin, dating, as the inscriptions record, from the 7th cent, and the 26th Dynasty. The upper part has been entirely destroyed, and the deep and wide shaft, at the bottom of which is a tomb-chamber vaulted with an arch havinga span of 11 ft., isnow uncovered. The tomb was discov- ered in the course of excavations made by Col. Vyse in 1837, and named by him after Col. Campbell, the British consul-general of Egypt at that period. The shaft is 3072 ft- wide from E. to W., 26 ft. from N. to S., and 53 3 / 4 ft. in depth. The sarcophagi found here were in niches, and not in the vaulted chamber. One of these, now in the British Museum, is composed of red granite, and pris- matic in form, and bears numerous inscriptions. The arched lid bears the portrait of a bearded mummy at its upper end, and a pro- fusion of funereal scenes and inscriptions in the style of the 26th Dynasty. Two sarcophagi in basalt and another in whitish quartzose stone were also found here. From all of these the bodies had been removed. The vaulted chapel had also been forcibly entered on the W. side, but the passage is now closed. * Circuit of the Pyramid Plateau of Gizeh (comp. p. 343). After having inspected the Great Pyramid externally and internally (p. 354), we turn ( following the dotted line on the Map, p. 354) to the left (^\~.) of the entrance, descend the mound of debris, and proceed to the N.W. angle of the Pyramid, where its foundation- 368 Route 4. THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. Environs stone ( PI. 6) has been exposed to view. Towards the W. and S.W. lie numerous tombs (mastabas, p. 379), but they present no attrac- tion, being almost all in very bad preservation and more than half buried in the sand. We may, however, notice two of these mastabas, situated not far from the above mentioned foundation-stone, but now covered witb sand. In one of these, built by a certain Senet' em-ab, were found several carefully executed scenes, including a representation of the deceased in a litter, borne by thirteen servants , and followed by two large dogs. The other tomb belonged to another Senet' em-ab (i.e. 'good 1 or 'perfect name 1 ), surnamed 'Jleha 1 , who seems to have been one of the most distinguished dignitaries of his time, and was married to Khent-kau-s, a king's daughter. He was a priest of high rank, treasurer, and superinten- dent of the corn-magazines, which last office, recalling the history of Jo- seph, was instituted at a very early period. He was at the same time a minister of war, or literally 'president of the double house of war 1 . Opposite the N.W. angle of the Second Pyramid, and also now filled with sand, are the tombs of three other Egyptian magnates of the 5th Dyn- asty, containing a genealogical record of a family which enjoyed the distinction of being -suten rekh 1 (p. 367), or related to the king, "for four generations. As the kings themselves are also mentioned here, these tombs have materially facilitated the compilation of an accurate list of the members of the 5th Dynasty. The ancestor of this family Shep- seskaf-ankh, lived in the reign of the Pharaoh Shepseskaf. His eldest son Aimeri served under Nefer-ar-ka-ra ; and Ptab-bau-nefer , the son of Aimeri, was a priest of Ra-en-user , and is also styled a prophet, of Khufu. i.e. of the manes of the builder of the First Pyramid. Two jambs from this mastaba, and the architrave belonging to them, arc now in the museum at Berlin. The eldest son of Ptah-bau-nefer was called Ptah- nefer-sam. To the same family belonged Ata, who also served under Ra-en-user, apparently in the capacity of a director of music, as he styles himself 'president of song, who delights the heart of his lord by his beautiful song in the inner chambers (khennu) of the lofty gate 1 . The Egyptian word 'peraa 1 which occurs in this inscription is the root of the word Pharaoh used in the Bible. The largest and best preserved of these tombs lie to the N.W. of the Second Pyramid (see dotted line in Plan, p. 354), near the point e. A handsome gateway and a well-preserved hieroglyphic inscription are still to be seen here. To the N. of this point arc also several rows of tombs now filled up. We now skirt the W. side of the vast necropolis, and reach the N.W. angle of the rocky enclosure of the court of the Second Pyr- amid. A natural cleft in the rock heTe facilitates our descent from the top of the rock, which is 16 ft. in height. At the foot of it we reach the plateau which was hewn in the rock in order to prepare a level surface for this pyramid (p. 359). Part of the surface on the N. side is divided by means of deep incisions and transverse furrows into six rows of squares, the object of which is unknown. On the rock above is inscribed the name of Ramses II. in hierogly- phics. On the E. side of the Second Pyramid are remains of the temple once connected with it (p. 309). We follow the W. side of tin' Pyramid. On the rock to the right is a hieroglyphic inscription (PI. f; the name of an architect, and uninteresting), near which are several rock-tombs. One of these tombs | PI. lish- r, soon disappears e line, and , omul. tosa i bridge - B turn . and ride OS the enibanknier. - - [TOve. Immed- iately beyond the - - - - serve to the right, ip of rubbis it manufa ride of the embank- ment 51 3 in - -nor. and. large expanses of The embankment - ear the firs - i min. from the 54 3 at differ- - sons - leads due W. , ses I] - in, but it is not practicable at the seas a. I'he other route ('winter- mbankment to I rses the Mitrahineh mbankment farther on. The insignificant sandy expanse before us, shaded by p and fragments of . is the ancient Site of Memphis . - - interesting observe ftoi tent Egyptians built their edifiees, \. -option of palaces and temples, of large sun-dried bricks of Nile-mod - Necropolis to the W. of the ancient city, no • that one of the most famous and populo - itiqoity had once stood here. It is not - idea of the situation of the city ; and as its s - were carried off i:i former centuries to build edi- f the Nile (see p. ■ " The nan s, which art - said -a-day's journey in length down to the of Cairo, MEMPHIS. 4. Route. 373 12th cent., extended between the Nile and the Bahr Yiisuf, to the N. as far as Gizeh, and to the S. about as far as the latitude of the Pyramids of Dahshur. The most important quarters of the city and many of its public buildings appear to have stood in the fields of the villages of Bedrashen, Mitrahineh, and Kasriyeh. Menes(p. 86), 'the enduring', 'the eternai', who is placed by the Egyptians at the head of all their dynasties (having been immediately preceded by the dynasty of the gods), and is described as a man of This (near Abydos in Central Egypt, the district which DiodOrua calls the oldest part of Egypt), is said to have been the founder of the Empire, and the builder of Memphis. Herodotus states that he was told by the Egyptian priests, that Menes had constructed an embankment across the Nile about 100 stadia above Memphis, and thus compelled the river, which had formerly flowed past the Lib- yan chain, to quit its old channel, and to run between the two ranges of hills. When the land thus reclaimed had become suffi- ciently firm, he built upon it the city of Memphis, situated in the narrow part of Egypt. To the N. and the W. of the city, as they informed him, Menes caused a lake to be excavated for its defence, and to be filled from the river, which protected the town on the E. side ; while within the city he erected the great and memorable Temple of Ptah. The whole history of the city is associated with this vast sanctuary, whichincluded within its precincts the temples of other gods, was surrounded by a wall, and must have commanded the city like a huge castle. Memphis, like all the Egyptian towns, was known by several dif- ferent names. In the first place, like the nome around it, it was called the 'city of the white wall", after the castle, which was well known even in the Greek period. Another name, derived from the deity most highly revered by the citizens, was Ha Ptah ('house of Ptah"), which the Greeks translated Hephaistopolis. Lastly it was known by the popular name of ,\fe a- iiefer, i.e. 'good place', or 'haven of the good'. The r at the end of Jlen-nefer was then dropped, and thus arose the Coptic form Menfi or Mem.fi, which the Greeks and Romans changed to Memphis, and the. Arabs In Menf. The quarter where the licentious rites of the Egyptian and Phoenician goddess of love were celebrated, and where strangers were afterwards allowed to settle, was called Ta-ankh, i.e. 'the world of life'. Menes was succeeded by his son Atahuti, orAthothis, who made Memphis his capital, and is said to have built the royal palace. Dur- ing his reign and that of his successors of the primaeval monarchy, Memphis attained its greatest prosperity. Each of the Pharaohs ex- tended and embellished the temple. Memphis suffered severely from the invasion and during the domination of the Hyksos ('2194-1683). The Pharaohs of the new empire who expelled the intruders (p. 89) resided at Thebes, the city of Ammon, but by no means forgot their ancient capital, the city of Ptah and Apis. During the 21st Dynasty the seat of government was transferred to Sa'is (p. 445), the proximity of which restored to Memphis a share of its ancient glory, though but for a short period. The city was besieged and captured several times by the Assyrians, and also by 3 / I Route 4. MEMPHIS. Environs the Ethiopian Piankhi who offered great sacrifices to Ptali in the 'City of the White Wall'. Cambyses, the first monarch of the Per- sian dynasty, took the city by storm after his victory at I'elusium I B.C. 525] over Psammetikh III. (the last king of the 26th Dyn. ): and two centuries later it was entirely eclipsed by the foundation of Alexandria (B.C. 332), although it still retained some importance during the Roman period (B.C. 30). In consequence of the edict of Theodosius ( A.D. 379-395; comp. p. 100) the temples and sta- tues were destroyed, and under the later Byzantine monarchs the heretical Monophysites (p. 101) seem to have been very numerous here. Makaukas, the leader of the Copts, was established at Mem- phis while ncgociating with 'Ami Ibn el-Asi, the general of 'Omar. The Mohammedan conquerors transferred their residence to the right bank of the Nile (comp. p. 241), opposite the northernmost part of Memphis , using the well-hewn blocks, which had once composed the venerable palaces and temples of the ancient city of Mines, for the construction of their palaces, castles, and mosques. Memphis, however, was so vast, that it was long before its plun- derers succeeded in entirely destroying it. Down to a late period its ruins excited the admiration of all visitors. Thus 'Abdellatif (at the end of the 12th cent.), after a lively account of numerous attacks sustained by the enormous city, assures us that even i" his time, the ruins contained a profusion of wonders which bewildered the mind and baffled description. 'The more profoundly we con- template the ruins (he says), the greater does the admiration be- come with which they inspire us; and every new survey we take becomes a source of fresh delight.' On beholding the ruins he cannot help regarding as pardonable the popular belief, that the ancient Egyptians were giants of prodigious longevity, who had the power of moving masses of rock with a magician's wand. — After the time of Abdellatif the rapidly dwindling ruins of Memphis are rarely mentioned. Stone after stone was transferred as from a quarry to the opposite bank of the Nile , and we are told that the site was systematically explored by treasure-seekers, who took many centuries to exhaust its precious relics. The :;::|: Colossal Statue of Ramses II. lies in a hollow, having unfortunately fallen with its [ace to the ground. The head is turn- ed inwards the 8.W. This huge statue was discovered by Messrs. Caviglia and Sloane . p. 354 ) in 1820, and presented to the British Museum, but owing to the difficulty of transport it has never been removed. It consists of remarkably hard and line-grained limestone, and before it was injured was about 42 ft. in height. The workmanship is admirable. The features, which resemble the Semitic type , are exactly similar to those of this great mon- arch (the Sesostris of the Greeks) as portrayed on numerous other monuments, particularly at Thebes, lie wears the royal of <'0 Route J. SAKKARA. Mastaba of workmen of different trades, including carpenters, masons, sculp- tors , glass-blowers , chair-makers , leather- workers , and water- bearers. To the right of these, at the bottom, are geese, ducks, pigeons, and cranes ; above which are oxen, and then a scene in a court of justice, consisting of a number of judges writing, before whom several criminals are being dragged. To the right of the last scene are several figures bearing offerings, and below these is re- presented the slaughtering of various animals. Behind this wall is concealed another Serdab (PI. H), in which a statue of Ti, now preserved in the museum at Bfilak, and several broken statues were found. On the W. side are two large 'steles', extracts of the contents of which have already been given (p. 389). These inscriptions also contain an invocation of Anubis, the jackal-headed guardian of the infernal regions, who is to take the deceased under his pro- tection. In front of the left stele is a slab for the reception of offer- ings (p. 380), of the kind which occurs in every tomb. In the centre of the wall are slaughterers and the presentation of gifts (damaged). In front of these stood statues [of Ti and his wife, which are now in the museum of Bulak. N.Side of the Tomb Chamber of Ti . .„,...,,-. I Jfuiittded. FUh' enisling and Bird • sntiruiq 'ft. muiifaUd. Sale of Fx.rh Fwlwg Qrirs-e^r Rustic- Cattle, Scenes Hij.ttir, Cuttle, Seen es with JRirtlr Hipp apotamus Bunting Fishmsj ui Boats Ft*> u y fang Seen* Rants traasling itte seed mto the (jrautul Irij.nJ.i n an. 3(? /Iwiffi//? Figures rrftrGsertUng Ti's esH-a+Ar of Ti. SAKKARA. 4. Route. 397 The **North Side of the chamber is adorned with the most elaborate and best preserved scenes. The lowest of these consists of a long procession of 36 female figures (of a pale yellowish colour, see p. 381) , bearing on their heads large baskets filled with various kinds of agricultural produce , bottles, jars, and loaves, carrying poultry in their hands (and in one case a porcupine in a cage), and leading cattle by ropes. The inscription above them re- cords that this is an — 'Offering of sacrificial drink and food from the villages of the family estate of the chamberlain Ti situated in Lower and Upper Egypt'. Adjoining each figure is the name of the place which it represents. Each name is accompanied by that of Ti, the proprietor, and the order is in accordance with the most valued products, the industries, and the situation of the place re- presented. Thus we observe a Water-drawing Ti (probably so call- ed from its irrigation system), a Field Ti, a Palm Ti, a Ship Ti, an Island Ti, a Sycamore Ti, a Bread Ti, and a Cake Ti. Above these are rustic cattle scenes. A cow is represented calv- ing, and another is being milked, while an overseer, apparently tired with doing nothing leans on his staff and orders the servants to — 'milk while you hold fast the young calf by the knees'. To the right of these are a number of frisky young calves, tethered to blocks of wood, and browsing or skipping about. Near the left angle we observe a dwarf leading an ape, resembling the long- tailed monkeys of the Sudan, and a man with a deformed shoulder 39S Itoute 4. SAKKARA. M< izl aba with a couple of prick-eared greyhounds, of the kind known in N. Africa as 'slughi' (p. 401). Higher up (comp. Plan, p. 396) we observe scenes representing the snaring of birds and the catching of fish in nets and baskets ; and we here read the last of the hieroglyphic inscriptions — 'Let what is in it fall down', and 'the emptying of the receptacle form- ed of rushes'. To the right, towards the door, is a large and striking tableau, representing **Ti engaged in hippopotamus hunting. He stands in a light papyrus boat, leaning on a staff, and is more than double the size of his attendants. The hunting of crocodiles and hippo- potami on the Nile formed a favourite pastime of the wealthy Egyptians, and we find scenes of this kind recurring frequently, especially in the burial chapels of the earliest period of the Egyp- tian monarchy. The bearing of Ti is calm and dignified, while the captain of the vessel, 'the chief over the people of the bird- pond Atet', seems to be attending to the directions of his master with a view to communicate them to the crew. In the foremost vessel three of the men are engaged in securing two aquatic mon- sters floundering in the water, one of which has been caught with a kind of snare and is threatened with the spears of the hunters. An allusion to this kind of hunting is said to be contained in the following passage in the Book of Job (xli. 1,2) : — 'Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lcttest down? Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?' — The other hippopotamus which the men are endeavouring to secure has a small crocodile in its mouth. At the stern of Ti's vessel is a smaller boat containing a boy, who is about to strike on the head a silurus which he has caught. The other fish represented in the water are so faithfully drawn that the species to which they belong are easily determined. The three bo^ts are surrounded by papyrus plants, among the tops of which various birds are sitting on their nests or fluttering about. A pair of king- fishers with their young, in a nest faithfully copied from nature, of Ti. SAKKARA. 4. Route. 399 are defending themselves against the threatened attack of some kind of weasel. This scene is nearly double the size of he others, and the above copy is about Vi9th of the original size. Below these hunting scenes is the procession of women hearing offerings, already described. Above these, to the right, are cattle being driven through the water during the inundation. Above the inundation and over the door are a number of rams. According to Herodotus the Egyptians sowed their seed on the wet mud, and caused it to be trodden in by swine, and this task is here 400 Iioute 4. SAKE ABA. Environs being performed by the rams, stimulated partly by blows and partly by food held before them. The explanatory hieroglyphic inscription is to the effect that — 'it is well for him who loves work !' Above the rams is a ploughing scene, adjoining which is a man hoeing the ground, while another is scattering the seed. In the fishing scene ( above ) the overseer, leaning on his staff, says to his servants, 'Ye are like apes', to which they good-humouredly reply, 'Thy command is executed; it is done excellently'. At the top (not easily distinguished) is a quarrel among sailors, who ap- peai to be interchanging violent blows and remonstrances — 'Thou art of a pugnacious hand, but I am so gentle'. Among th« mastabas which arc now shown only by special permission from the Director of Museum, and from which the sand of Cairo. SAKKARA. 4. Route. 401 requires to be removed, the most interesting, and after that of Ti the best preserved, is the — Mastaba of Ptahhotep, which lies a little to the "W. of the path from the step-pyramid to Mariette's House. Ptahhotep, like Ti, lived in the 5th Dynasty, and was a priest of the Pyramids of Aser, Ra-en-user, and the 'divine dwelling of Men-kau-Hor 1 . He also bore a number of other titles. The best portrait of him is on the E. wall. His costume is similar to that of Ti (p. 398). His young son, with the lock denoting infancy, is holding his staff with his right hand and a hoopoe in his left. The visitor should observe the harvest of the papyrus plant, and the games which were probably connected with the vintage festival. The grapes are being plucked, trodden, and pressed. A hunting scene lower down is full of humour and life, and some of the animals will interest zoologists. Most of the hounds are 'slughi' (p. 39S). The attack and slaughter of the gazelle is a very spirited scene. Ptah- hotep also indulges in lion-hunting. A lion is represented seizing in its jaws the muzzle of a cow tied up as a bait, and fastening its claws into the animal's neck, while the calf stands behind its mother, and the kneeling hunter with his two hounds points out to them the lion on which he is about to let them loose. The fishing and fowling scenes are particularly well executed. Another successful representation on the same wall is the procession of the retainers of Ptahhotep bearing offerings from the different villages on his estates. Like the modern processions of pilgrims at Cairo , this cortege is headed by pugilists and prize- fighters. Captive lions and other smaller wild animals are being carried in cages, and the master of the dogs is leading his greyhounds and an- other kind of hound resembling a hyena. Next follow mountain-goats, antelopes, and oxen. A cow is calving with the aid of a veterinary sur- geon, and a number of calves on the ground are struggling violently to disengage themselves from the cords with which they are bound. After these come flocks of poultry. If the inscriptions are to be believed, Ptah- hotep possessed 121,000 geese of one kind and 11,210 of another, 1225 swans, 120,000 small geese, 121.022 pigeons, and 111,200 goslings. Among the domestic poultry are included cranes, which their keeper brings be- fore his master, counted, and in good order. Ptahhotep, sitting on a throne, wearing a panther-skin, and anointing himself with oil, surveys the rich produce of his estates, watches the slaughter of his cattle, ap- proves of the order kept by his clerks, and listens to the music of harps and flutes. The list is exceedingly instructive owing to the distinctness of the determinative symbols which accompany the carefully written words. This mastaba also contains a false door, bearing a representation of the entrance to a tomb as a symbol, on the W. wall. The Mastaba of Sabu, to the E. of that of Ti, contains similar representations, and an enumeration of the various kinds of cattle possessed by the deceased. Of one kind of cattle he possessed 405, of another 1237, and of a third 1300; of calves 1220 of one kind, and 1138 of another. Besides these he had 1308 antelopes, 1135 gazelles, 1244 goats of a species resembling the antelope, and 1010 herons. The poultry (geese, ducks, and pigeons) is reckoned by thousands ( T = 1000 ) After having visited the Necropolis, the traveller may, if time permit, proceed to the 'Mastaba Far'un', which belongs to the Baedeker's Egypt I. 2nd Ed. '26 402 Route J. SAKKARA. Environs S. group of Sakkara, a ride of l 1 ^ hr. to tlie S. of Mariette's House. We pass the step-pyramid and the pyramid of Unas on the left. Exactly in a line with the step-pyramid, parallel with its W. side, and ahout a thousand paces to the W. of it, we observe a space of ground enclosed by broad and massive, but now very dilapidated, walls on the E., N., and W. sides, while the S. side is bounded by the natural hills of the desert. The object of this enclosure is a mystery to Egyptologists. M. Mariette, however, conjectured, with much probability, that the place was used as a pen for the numerous cattle slaughtered here as victims. Repeat- ed excavations have been made within the precincts of the enclos- ure, but without result. Each side is 440 yds. in length. Proceeding hence towards the Mastaba Far'un, we observe the tomb rising before us at no great distance, so that the route to it cannot be mistaken. To the left are the dilapidated Pyramids of Pepi I. and Sokar-em-suf. On the N.W. side of the mastaba is the still more dilapidated Pyramid of Pepi II., now used by the Arabs as a quarry. All these pyramids are constructed exactly in the same manner as that of King Unas (p. 383), but they are in such a ruined and dangerous condition that the director of the museum has had them all closed again , previously taking an ac- curate copy of the inscriptions they contain. — The Mastaba Far 'tin, which may be ascended, is oblong in form, like all the other tombs of the kind, with walls sloping inwards. The entrance is on the N. side. It was first explored by M. Mariette, who believed that it was the tomb of King Unas (p. 383). We may either retrace our steps hence to Mariette's House, or traverse a depression to the N. of the mastaba , opening to- wards the E. , and leading direct to the village of Sakkara. If several days have been allowed for the excursion to Sakkara, the traveller may next proceed to visit Dahshur, situated 3 /4 nr - to the S. of the Mastaba Far r un. This place, is perhaps identical with the Acanthus of Diodorus, where a leaky cask is once said to have stood, into which water from the Nile was daily poured by 360 priests. On the margin of the desert there still grow numerous sunt trees, as in ancient times. On the desert plateau of Dahshur rise two large and two smaller pyramids of limestone, and two of brick, together with remains of others, all of which are at a considerable distance from each other. The northernmost brick pyramid, which was once covered with slabs of stone, is curious. It is sometimes pointed out, but without any authority, as the fabulous pyramid which Herodotus mentions as having been erected by King Asychis , who is said to have compelled his labourers to make bricks of mud laboriously obtained from the bottom of a lake by means of poles. The entrance on the N. side was once approached by a vestibule. The [ire- sent height of the pyramid is about 90 ft. only. On the S. side of another ruined pyramid, situated to the S.W. of IIm last, are traces of two embankments (p. 344), descending towards the E. from the larger Stone Pyramid on the W. The last is still 326 ft. in height and 234 yds. in width, being nearly as large as the Great Pyramid nt Gizeh, and in its solitude presents a very imposing appearance, even to an accustomed eye. To the E. and S. are remains of several other pyramids. Still farther to the S. rises a pyramid of peculiar form , sometimes called the Blunted of Cairo. MA'SARA. 4. Route. 403 Pyramid (comp. p. 159), the lower slopes rising at an angla of 54° 41', while the sides of the apex form an angle of 42° 59'. The whole pyramid was probably originally intended to have the same slope as the apex (as the sides of the neighbouring pyramid rise at an angle of 43° 36')i but the lower part was never completed. This pyramid is 206'/^ yds. square and 321 ft. in height. The interior was explored so early as the year 1660 by Mr. Melton, an English traveller. In 1860 M. Le Brun found a small chamber in the interior. No clue to the name of the 1 milder has been discovered. On the extreme S. side of the plateau rises a brick pyramid. 99 ft. in height, marking the S. extremity of the vast Necro- polis of Memphis , which extends down to Abu Roash (p. 370), towards the X., a distance of 23 M. — From Dahshur to the Pyramid of Medum, and to the Fayum, see R. 9. Quarries of Tura and Baths of Helwan. Railway to (14 M.) Helwan in 3 |^-1 hr. (fares 11 piastres 10, 7 piastres 20, 4 piastres 20 paras). The trains , of which there are four daily, start from the new station in the Place Mehe'met Ali. Another train starts from the Central Station, passes the 'Abbasiyeh and the Cartridge Factory, joins the first-mentioned line at Basatin, and reaches Helwan in i 1 /$ lir. The railway to Helwan, which was constructed mainly for the purpose of connecting the great military establishments at Tura with the Citadel , runs from the Place MeTie'met Ali , in a S. direction. It skirts the base of the Mokattam, on the slopes of which are the interesting ruins of a mosque, and traverses the burial-ground of the Mamelukes (p. 327). To the right lies the oldest part of Cairo, with the Mosque of Tulun (p. 265). On the same side we next observe the Necropolis of Imam Shafe'i (p. 327), beyond which is the valley of the Nile, with the various groups of pyramids rising above it (p. 404). Before reaching (4 M.) Basatin, a village situated in one of the angles of a triangular piece of arable land which extends a con- siderable way into the desert, we perceive the Jewish burial-ground on the left, and, farther on, the broad Wadi et-Tih (p. 339), which separates the Mokattam range from the Gebel Tura. Traversing a tract of desert sand, the line approaches the Nile, on which lies the village of Tura. A little to the right are the large military estab- lishments and gunpowder mills. On the hill stand the ruins of an old fort. 9!/ 2 M. Ma'sara, a village on the Nile, is noted for the slabs of stone obtained in the neighbourhood, known as 'palattes', and used for paving purposes in almost every house of the better class in Egypt. From either Tura or Ma'sara we may visit the Quarries of Tura (p. 405), which yielded material for the construction of the ancient temples, and are still worked. Their entrances in the rocks are visible from the railway. The ride thither occupies 1 /2 ur '> from Helwan l l /% hr. It is advisable to bring good donkeys from Cairo, as the choice at Helwan is very limited. Beyond stat. Ma'sara the line skirts the slopes of the Gebel Tura, and after ascending a considerable incline reaches the plateau on which the Baths of Helwan are situated. 26* 404 Route 4. HELWAN. Environs liiv ; > li •a "2 a '< 5 I f &E Beg' ° 3'° &» g ^£ I •W 14 M Keiwan, French Mlouan-les-Bains. - Hotels. 'Grand SMSSW, TeS a rf-«ri &, ai vavious .rices, are obtained. of Cairo. TURA. 4. Route. 405 Helwan, an artificial oasis in the desert, 3 M. from the Nile, belongs to the Egyptian government, and is placed under the super- intendence of M. Grand-Bey, who is represented at the place itself by M. Onty. The medical inspector is Dr. Engel, a German. In spite of the disadvantages of its situation, which necessitate the bringing from a distance of drinking water, provisions, and even garden mould, Helwan has hitherto had a very prosperous existence, especially since it came into the hands of the government in 1880. It still , however, presents a dull and new appearance, and the vegetation around is still very scanty. Visitors who have come to Egypt for their health are strongly recommended not to remain in Cairo, but either to go on at once to Upper Egypt or to pass the winter in Helwan, where, besides the baths, they enjoy the advant- ages of perfect quiet and a remarkably pure and dustless atmosphere (comp. p. 67). The sulphur springs, which were also probably used in ancient times, resemble those of Aix in Savoy in their ingredients. In 1871 they were utilised for sanatory purposes by Dr. Reil, by order of Khedive Isma'il. The principal springs are covered in. The bath-house for Europeans contains fourteen cabinets, for warm and tepid baths, shower-baths, and inhalation. There is also a basin containing water strongly impregnated with sulphur, 5-6 Y2 ft. deep, and 1200 sq. yds. in area. The interior of the Khedive's bath-house may also be inspected. Near the sulphur springs, especially those situated farther to theW., which are still uncovered, a quantity of flint splinters have been found, the largest of which are now in the museum at Bulak (comp. p. 370). The banks of the Nile afford good wild-fowl shoot- ing, but the desert game is shy and not easily reached. The subterranean quarries of Ma'sara and Tura, which are still worked, yielded the stone used in the construction of the Pyra- mids. A visit should be paid to these vast caverns, if time permit. The ride thither from Helwan takes Ufa hr. ; candles and matches should not be forgotten. The stone is transported to the bank of the Nile by means of tramways, carts, camels, and mules. These immense quarries are hardly less imposing than the Pyr- amids themselves, for which they afforded material. The Arabs make very poor miners , as they dread the darkness of shafts and pits. They quarry the stone on the outside of the rocky slopes only, while the quarrymen of the Pharaohs penetrated into the interior of the mountain and excavated large chambers, tunnelling their way until they came to serviceable stone, and leaving the inferior untouched. The roofs of the rock-halls, which are of different sizes, are supported by pillars of rock left standing for the purpose. A few remains of hieroglyphics and coloured basreliefs are still pre- served in the quarries, but they are of no historical value. During the construction of the railway in 1875 a number of sarcophagi 406 Route 4. BARRAGE DU NIL. Environs of soft limestone, without inscriptions, were found in a sand-hill in the neighbourhood , belonging probably to a burial-place of the ([uarrymen of the Pharaohs. These quarries were also worked during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods ; and Strabo, who was generally well-informed, states that the quarries which yielded the stone used in building the pyramids lay on the Arabian bank of the Nile. He says that they were excavated in a very rocky mountain, called Hhe Trojan", and that near them and the Kile lay the village of Troja, 'an ancient residence of captive Trojans who had followed Menelaus to Egypt and remained there 1 . Diodorus gives the same account of the foundation of the Egyptian Troja, but adds that Ctesias has a different version of it. Both authors were probably misled by the statement of Herodotus, that Menelaus was hospitably re- ceived in Egypt when returning home with Helen from the siege of Troy. There is, however, little doubt that the village called Troja by these authors is the modern Tura, which had no connection whatever with the city of Priam. Inscriptions dating from the ancient empire and others of the later monarchy, found in the quarries themselves, inform us that the ancient name of the place was Ta-ro-fu, or more recently Ta-roue, or region of the wide rock-gateway, whence the stone of the pyramids was obtained. This name was corrupted by the Greeks to 'Troja', and as prisoners of state and of war, including many Asiatics, were chiefly employed in the quarries, it was not unnatural to suppose that the colony of quarrymen at the foot of the hill was a settlement of captive Trojans. Several slabs of rock bearing figures and hieroglyphics have been found in one of the great rocky halls of Tura. One of these represents King Amenophis III. (18th Dynasty) sacrificing to the gods Ammon, Horus, and Hersheft ; and on the other we find him worshipping Ammon accompanied by Anubis, Sekhet, and Hathor. The inscription under the first slab (with which that on the second is nearly identical) runs thus from the second line onwards: — 'His Majesty ordered new halls (het-u) to be opened, for the purpose of quarrying the light-coloured and excellent stone of An for the construction of his buildings founded for perpetuity, after His Majesty had found that the halls of Rufui (Troja) had been tending to great decay since the time of those who had existed at the beginning (i.e. former generations). These were newly established by His Majesty'. — Another inscription, of the time of Nectanebus II., runs thus : — 'This excellent quarry of Kufu was opened in order to con- struct the temple of Thoth, the twice great, the double Aperu, the commander of the divine speech, etc. . . . May (its) continuance be ever- lasting! 1 The Barrage du Nil. Railway. As a train runs from the Bitlak ed-T)akrur station (p. 224) to (12 M.) El-Mendshi (p. 225), the station for the l'arrage, in the evening only, and returns on the following morn- ing, travellers cannot visit the Barrage by this line in one day. They will therefore find it more convenient to take a train on the Cairo and Alexandria line as far as (9 M. ) Kalyub (p. 227); fare pias. tariff 30, 4 pias. 20, or 2 pias. 30 paras ; donkeys and attendants, see p. 233; departure of the trains, see p. 223. Don- keys may be hired at Kalyub ; but, as the saddles are bad, the short ride to the Barrage (IV4 hr.) is often uncomfortable, (ieorgc PoliU keeps a tolerable restaurant in the bazaar of the village noar the Barrage. Permission to inspect the works connected with the Barrage of Cairo. BARRAGE DU NIL. 4. Route. 407 must be obtained from the minister of war through the traveller's consulate. The barrier, which consists of a huge bridge with lock-gates, built across the the Nile at the S. extremity of the Delta, about 12 M. below Cairo, dates from the time of the energetic Mohammed r Ali and was constructed from the plans of a French engineer named Mongel-Bey. Fortifications of considerable strength were constructed here by Sa'id Pasha for the purpose of arresting the progress of any invad- ing army, and storing munitions of war. The place was therefore called Kal'at Sa'tdiyeh ( Sa'id's Castle), but is now known as l Ka- n'ttir' (bridges). The object of the Barrage was to keep the water of the Nile at the same level in all seasons, so that the necessity for irrigation machinery throughout the district below it would have been entirely superseded, while those fields to the S. of it which are on a level with the reservoir would also have benefited. The Barrage was also intended to remove the difficulties of navigation below this point during the three months when the Nile is at its lowest. During that period the water is too shallow for large vessels, and even small vessels are often impeded by shoals and shifting sandbanks; and it was therefore proposed that the whole of the communication by water should then be kept up by means of large canals. The first trial of the Barrage was unsuccessful ; when the gates were closed to retaiu the water, part of the work gave way and it was hastily concluded that the w 7 hole undertaking was a costly failure. For the next twenty years the Barrage was nothing but an impediment to the navigation, as vessels often take several hours to effect the passage of the locks, which is sometimes even attend- ed with danger, and have to pay heavy dues. At the beginning of 1883, however, it was carefully tested by two English engineers, who came to the conclusion that the Barrage might not be so wholly unfitted for its intended purpose as had been generally taken for granted. As the Nile fell, they accordingly lowered the gates inch by inch, and found that no untoward results ensued. On the contrary the water at the Barrage only fell 10 inches while it fell 57 inches at Assuan, and the fellahin were enabled to irrigate their fields without recourse to the expensive steam-pumping apparatus on which they had previously been dependent. It would, however, be rash to make a prophecy from the successful experiment of a single year, and the engineers who conducted it are of the opinion that an expenditure of '20000CU. would be necessary to make the Barrage quite secure. As yet, also, no barrier has been constructed for the Damietta branch of the Nile ; and for the complete success of the scheme this, of course, would be essential. Comp. the map of the environs of Cairo, p. 31G. (OS 5. From Cairo to Suez. No special preparations need be made tor this journey, and a drago- man is superfluous. At Suez, Isma'iliya. and Port Sa'id there an hotels in the European style, where local guides may be engaged tor the environs. These towns present little attraction beyond their situation; but the harbours, the Red Sea, and the Suez Canal will interest most travellers. The excursion may conveniently be made on the way home, as most of the steamers which ply between Alexandria and the European ports touch at Tort Sa'id. besides which it has direct communication witli Naples, ^Marseilles, and Trieste through the Australian and Chinese mail steamers. The journey takes four days: 1st Day. By train at 11.30 a.m. from Cairo to Suez, which is reached at 6 30 p.m. — 2nd Day. Excursion in the morning to Moses" Spring, and in the afternoon to the harbour of Suez. — 3rd Day. By train at 9.15 a.m. from Suez to Isma r iliya, arriving at 11.30 a ui. i or by steamer if there happens to be an opportunity; see p. 424); excursion in the afternoon to El-Cisr. — 4th Day. By canal steamer (p. 424) at 7.30 a.m. to Port Sa'id. arriving at 2 p.m. From Cairo to Suez I 119 31.) by railway in 7 hrs. : fares ill piastres tariff 30, 74 pias. 20, 44 pias. 30 paras. From Cairo to Isma'iliya only (97V 2 M.), in 4',' 2 hrs.; fare 73 pias. 20. 49 pias. , 29 pias. 20 paras. There is only one through-train daily, starting at 11.30 a.m., and arriving at Zakazik at L. 30 p.m.. where a stoppage of half-an hour takes place (dinner 3-5 fr. ; also quarters for the night). The through-train leaves Suez at 9.15 a.m., reaches Isma'iliya at 11.33 a.m.. Zakazik at 1.46 p.m. (halt of V'-jhr.l. and Cairo at 4.15 p.m. (A train leaves Zakazik for Alexandria via Benha at 2.20 p.m., reaching Alexandria at S.45 p.m.) — There was formerly a direct railway from Cairo to Suez, traversing the desert, but the line had to lie abandoned, partly on account of the want of water, ami partly owing to the difficulty in keeping it clear of sand (comp. .Map of Lower Egypt). From Cairo to (9 M.) stat. Katy&b, see p. *2'2 7 . The slender minarets of the mosque of Mohammed r Ali ( p. 2l>3 ) and the Mokat- tam hills (p. 335) remain in sight for a considerable time, and as we approach Kalyub the Pyramids of Gizeh become conspicuous to the W. of the line. Beyond Kalyub a line of rails diverges to the Barrage |p. 40(V) to the left, and the main line to Alexandria ( R. '2 ) diverges on the same side, farther on. Our train turns towards the N.E., and traverses a fertile and well-watered district, >liaded by numerous trees. The next stations are (13 [ /o M. ) Nawa and ( L9'/a M. I 8hibin el-Kandtir. About l 1 2 31. to the S.E. of Shibin el-Kanatir is the ruined site of Tell el-Yehiidiyeh (Hill of the JYwsi. (in this spot Onia. the high priest of the .lews, son of Onia HI., aided by Ptolemy Philometor, erected a temple for his countrymen who had been expelled from Palestine bj the Syrian parly and had met with a hospitable reception in Egypt. To the n that no true temple could exist anywhere but in Jerusal answered in the words of Isaiah (xix. 18, et seq.): — 'In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the languai to the Lord of hosts; one shall be called the city of destruction (or. ac- to others, "city of deliverance' 1 ). In that daj shall there altar to the Lord in the midst of the land oi Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord'. Some critics have supposed that th< - wen interpolated tor the purpose of justifying the erection oi a temple on the bank of the Nile. At all events Onia effected his purpose and erected the sacred edifice. The temple is said to have i the site of a ruined sanctuary of Pasht (Sekhet), and recent excavations made here have led to the discover; that a town stood on the pot as early as the tin i llamses II.. and attained to great prosperitj BELBES. 5. Route. 409 in the reign of Ramses III., the wealthy Rhampsinitus of Herodotus. The pronomen and surname of the latter monarch (Ramses hak Aan) are of frequent recurrence, and he was probably the founder of the ancient sanctuary, of which but few traces now remain. Every vestige of that edifice, as well as of the Jewish temple, which was built after the model of the Temple of Solomon, and tended materially to widen the breach between the Syrian and Egyptian Jews, had long been lost, when, in 1871, Brugsch found under the rubbish here some massive substruction? of Oriental alabaster, and a number of interesting mosaic tiles with which the walls had once been overlaid, and on which were not only r and decorative figures, but representations of battles and sacrificial and other scenes. The well-known Oriental type of head, so characteristi- cally drawn by the Egyptian artists, was found to recur very frequently. Cartouches of Ramses III. in fayence and his easily recognised portrait in alabaster were also found at different places. The most valuable are now in the museum of Bulak. A walk to this spot is pleasant, and the hills command a picturesque view, especially by evening light, but of the ruins themselves there is very little now to be seen. Next stations (29 M. j Inshda, and (36 M.) Belbes, which is supposed to he the ancient Pharbaethus. The town was formerly a place of some importance from its situation at the junction of most of the routes leading from Cairo to the East. The railway now ap- proaches the Fresh-Water Canal, which was probably constructed by the early Pharaohs, and certainly existed in the 14th cent. B.C., hut afterwards fell to decay and was not again utilised until the construction of the modern canal. Near Zakiizik were the sources of those streams which intersected the land of Goshen, rendering it famous for its productiveness: they then fell into the Bitter Lakes, which were connected with the Red Sea by means of an artificial canal. 'Now another canal 1 , says Strabo, 'falls into the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf near the town of Arsinoe. which some call Kleopatris. It also flows through the so-called Bitter Lakes, which were formerly bitter. But when the canal was constructed they changed their character through the blending of the waters, so that they are now well stocked with fish and frequented by water-fowl'. The channel of the old canal, which was re-discovered by the French expedition of 1798, is still traceable at places, and its direction has frequently been followed by the engineers of 31. de Lesseps. From the not inconsiderable remains of the old canal near Belbes. it appears to have been about 50 yds. (100 ells, according to Strabo) in width, and 16-17'. '2 ft. in depth. The somewhat steep banks are still strengthened at places with solid masonry. Ac- cording to Herodotus the canal was four days' journey, and according to Pliny tj'2 Roman miles, in length. It certainly had a branch, towards the N.E.. to Lake Timsah (-crocodile lake'), or it may have flowed entirely in that direction, and been continued thence to the Bitter Lakes. The name of Lake Timsah (p. 434), moreover, indicates that it must once have been connected with the Nile. In ancient times the canal was primarily con- structed for purposes of navigation , and it is now used by numerous small barges which convey the produce of the Egyptian soil to Isma'iliya for exportation, and bring back cargoes of coal and imported wares in exchange: but the canal is now chiefly important as a channel for con- ducting fresh water to the towns on its banks, particularly Isma'iliya and Suez, and as a means of irrigating and fertilising the country through which it passes (coinp. p. 430). Near Cairo the canal diverges from the Nile to the N. of the viceroyal palace Kasr en-Nil. The volume of water passing through it is regulated by locks, three between Nefisheh and Suez, and another of larger size at Suez itself. The surface of the canal is 54 ft., and the bottom '26 ft. in width, and it averages 7 ft. in depth. — The construction of a new and larger fresh-water canal between Cairo and Isma'iliya was begun in I 410 Iiouter). ZAKAZIK. From Cairo 41i/ 2 M. Stat. Burdtn. A7 l f 2 M. Zak&zik (halt of about lialf-an-hour; good refreshment- room, with a civil Italian landlord, and tolerable quarters for the night), a thriving, semi-European town, lies on a branch of the fresh- water canal (see above) and on the Mu'izz Canal (the ancient Tanite arm of the Nile, p. 438). It is the capital of the E. province of Sherklyeh and seat of a mudir, and is said to contain about 40,000 inhabitants. The situation of Zakazik, in the midst of a fertile tract watered by several canals , and connected with the richest districts of the Delta, is extremely favourable, and it is a rapidly improving place. The soil here has been very carefully cultivated since the time of Mohammed r Ali (1826), and Zakazik forms the chief centre of the Egyptian cotton and grain trade. No less than 50,000 tons of cotton are said to be sold here annually. During the American war the production of cotton in this district was carried to such an ex- tent as to threaten all other branches of agriculture with extinction, but a just equilibrium has fortunately been again restored. Many European merchants have offices here, and the large cotton-factories give the place an almost European appearance. Zakazik is also important as a railway junction. — In the vicinity, near TellBasta, lay the ancient Bubastis, or Bubastus (Egyptian Pi-bast ; the Pibe- seth of Ezekiel xxx. 17), the capital of the Bnbastite nome (p. 91 ). The ruins of the ancient Bubastis consist of large and dark mounds of debris, visible from the railway, and situated 3 /< M. from the station; but the place is uninteresting except to those who endeavour to identify these shapeless remains with the description given by Herodotus (ii. 137, 156) of the town and temple of the Egyptian Artemis (Sekhet, Bast, or Pasht). The site was re-discovered by Malus. Wherever an ancient Egyptian town has stood, there are always to be found mounds of earth, rubbish, and potsherds, which the Arabs call 'K6m\ These mounds here are of unusual height, recalling the account of the place given by Herodotus. He informs us that Sabaco, an Ethiopian monarch, who reigned for 50 years, never caused criminals to be executed, but sent them back to their native places for the purpose of heaping up rubbish to raise the height of the sites (which had already been done in the reign of Kamses II.). The town of Bubastis in particular, which con- tained the beautiful temple of Bubastis , seems to have been specially favoured in this respect, so that, if the story is true, the inhabitants must often have been getting into trouble. It is these mounds which are visible from the railway, but the 'notable temple 1 , of which Herodotus says that 'there are many larger and more costly, but none equal to it for beauty of form', has entirely disappeared. It was situated on an is- land, which was connected with the mainland by one approach opposite. tlir entrance to the temple, and formed by two moats conducted from the Nile. Each moat was 100 ft. in width, and bordered with trees. 'As the temple stands in the centre of the town', says Herodotus, 'it may be seen from every direction, and , as it remained unaltered when the site of the town was raised, the spectator overlooks it wherever lie may happen to be. A wall with raised stone-work surrounds it, and another encloses both the temple , containing the image of the goddess, and a grove Of trees of considerable height. The temple is a stadium in length , and the same in width. From its entrance runs a paved road, three stadia in length and 400 ft. in width, towards the E., across the market-place, and straight to the temple of Hermes. On each side of it rise gigantic to Suez. BUBASTIS. r>. Route. 41 1 trees. 1 — The temple of Sekhet. the goddess revered here, was the most important of the pilgrimage shrines in Lower Egypt; and the same joyous and licentious festivals which were celebrated in honour of Hathor at Dendera also took place here in presence of Bubastis, another form of Isis Hathor, with similar magnificence and riotousness. 'The young men of Aven (or On, p. 333) and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword', says Ezekiel (xxx. 17), when speaking of their idolatrous practices. Bubastis was the Aphrodite of foreigners, the golden Cypris, and also the Artemis of the Greeks ; under the name of Bast she was the Ashera, and under that of Sekhet the Ashtaroth, of the Phoenicians (p. 136). The Upper Egyptians celebrated their joyous festivals at Dendera during the first half of the month corresponding to our October, and the Lower Egyp- tians probably held theirs at the same season, and also about the period of our Christmas , on the 16th Khoiak (Kiahk, or commonly Kiak) , the 'very auspicious'' day dedicated to the goddess. Bubastis is represented with the head of a lion or a cat (p. 137). The cat was sacred to her, and, according to Herodotus, cats are said to have received honourable burial at Bubastis. 'When the Egyptians travel to Bubastis", says Herodotus, 'they do so in this manner. Men and women sail together, and in each boat there are many persons of both sexes. Some of the women make a noise with rattles, and some of the men blow pipes during the whole journey, while the other men and women sing and clap their hands. If they pass a town on the way, they lay to, and some of the women land and shout and mock at the women of the place, while others dance and make a disturbance. They do this at every town that lies on the Nile; and when they arrive at Bubastis they begin the festival with great sacri- fices, and on this occasion more wine is consumed than during the whole of the rest of the year. All the people of both sexes, except the children, make a pilgrimage thither, about 700,000 persons in all, as the Egyptians assert.' — These ancient festivals are recalled to some extent by the modern merry-makings at the fair of Tanta (p. 226). On leaving Zakazik the train runs round the town, into the market of whioh we look down on the right. Immediately afterwards the Mansura line diverges to the left (p. 438). The fertile tract which we now traverse is part of the Goshen of the Bible. During the Turkish re'gime it fell into a miserable condition, and at the be- ginning of the century afforded a very scanty subsistence to barely 4000 Arabs ; but the cultivation was so rapidly improved by means of the fresh-water canal that it now supports upwards of i'2,000 prosperous farmers and peasants. The viceroy Sa'id Pasha ceded this tract to the company of M. de Lesseps, but it was purchased by his successor Isma'il Pasha for 10 million francs, erected into a separate province, and garrisoned with cavalry. The Goshen of the Bible (Egyptian Goseni) is frequently mentioned by Moses. Thus , in the Book of Genesis (xlv. 10), Pharaoh says to Jo- seph: — 'And thou shalt dwell in the land of Gusheu, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast'. Gen. xlvi. 28, 29: — 'And he sent Judah before him unto Joseph, to direct his face unto Goshen ; and they came into the land of Goshen. And Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel, his father, to Goshen, and presented himself unto him'. Gen. xlvii. 5. 6: — 'And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee. The land of Egypt is before thee ; in the best of the land make thy fa- ther and thy brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen let them dwell'. Gen. xlvii. 27: — 'And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein, and grew, and multiplied 412 Route H. GOSHEN. Prom Cairo lingly 1 . In a later passage the sacred record mentions the cities in i in which the Israelites were compelled to work at the tasks im- on them by Pharaoh. Exodus i. 11 : — 'Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And tin y built for Pharaoh treasure cities. Pithorn and Raamses 1 . Lastly, the first camping-places of the retreating Israelites are enumerated in Numbers xx.xiii. 5. et seq. : — (1) Ramses, (2) Succoth, (3) Etham, and (4) Pi-ha- hiroth, 'which is before Baal-zephon : and they pitched before Jligdol 1 . Leaving Pi-hahiroth, they then 'passed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness 1 . We thus find that the Bible mentions a considerable number of pla- ces belonging to Goshen, and as the sites of several of these have been identified with the aid of the Egyptian monuments, we are enabled ap- proximately to determine the boundaries of the district, within which also lay Tell el-Yehudiyeh (p. 408), BelbSs (p. 409), and Bubastis (p. 410). That Goshen lay to the E. of the Delta there can be no doubt, as it was situated between the residence of the Pharaohs and Palestine, and the Scriptures make no mention of the Nile having been crossed. This pro- vince was afterwards called the Nomos Arabia, or Arabian nome, and the ancient Egyptian Gosem is spoken of as one of the E. districts of the empire. The name still survives in that of the town called Kits by the Copts, and Fakfis by the Arabs (the ancient Phacusa; comp. p. 451). The southernmost point of the triangle formed by the land of Goshen was probably Heliopolis (Matariyeh), whence the district seems to have extended in a narrow strip as far as BelbSs. The S. boundary ran thence, in the latitude of the present Fresh-Water Canal, as far as Lake Tim- sah. On the W. the district was probably bounded by the Tanitic arm ot the Nile, on the N. by Lake Menzaleh, and on the E. by a branch of the same, as well as by the Balah and Timsah lakes, which in an- cient times were connected hyaline of fortifications, and formed a kind of moat behind the bastions erected for the purpose of warding off the attacks of the warlike tribes of W. Arabia. To the S. of the district of Goshen extended a desert tract intersected by ranges of hills, ramifying from the hills which bound the Arabian bank of the Nile. These hills generally run from W. to E. , and attain their greatest height in the 'Atilka Jits., which command the N.W. shore of the Gulf of Suez. It is probable that the Jews, who settled in Goshen as shepherds, and after- wards appear as inhabitants of the towns in that region, were compelled to assist in the cultivation of the soil, which seems to have attained a high state of perfection at that period. Several records written on pa- pyrus by Egyptian officials about that epoch are still preserved. They describe the charms of the country in the most vivid colours, stating that life there was 'sweet 1 , and that the soil yielded all kinds of crops in abundance. In a papyrus preserved at Leyden the writer, Keniameu, writes the following report to his superior Hui , an important official under the Pharaoh of the oppression (Ramses II.): — 'Therefore I heard the message of the eye (an official title) of my master, saying: Give corn to the Egyptian soldiers, and to the Hebrews who polish stones for the construction of the great store-houses (bekhennu) in the city of Ramses', etc. — The Israelites were doubtless also employed in the construction of the new canals which converted the sterile land into a smiling agri- cultural tract, affording abundant subsistence both to man and beast, no that it is not surprising that the emigrants fondly remembered the 'llesli- pots of Egypt 1 . Pithom, where the Israelites made bricks, probably lay, ationed below, near Abft Sulim&n, which is situated to the S. of the railway between Zakazik and Tell el-Kebir, and near which there is a small lake. Farther on, near the, ruin-covered hi]] of Rig&beh , are several muddy ponds, which contain a considerable vidume of water dur- ing the inundation, and are probably identical with the 'Barkabuta 1 (ni3"l2), or ponds of Pithom, mentioned in a papyrus of Anastasi VI. i v According to Brugsch , who relies on the geographical ami topo- to Suez. TELL EL-KEBIR. Route 5. 413 Another scene of the forced Israelitish labour was Ramses , which has been identified by Lepsius with the ruins of Tell el-Maskkuta (see below), while Brugsch and others suppose it to have been Tanis-Zoan, the modern San (see remark, p. 452). The environs of these towns were richly cultivated, while another part of Goshen was, as at the present day, of a sterile character, and probably suitable for pasturage at certain seasons only. In this E. province of the empire the Egyptian element of the population preponderated in the towns only. On the coast were settled Phoenician colonists, and the desert tracts bounding and extend- ing into the cultivated land were occupied by Beduins , living in tents, as at the present day ; while the marshes in the region around Lake Jleu- zaleh were peopled by cowherds , as to whose Semitic origin the mon- uments afford conclusive evidence. The higher culture of the Egyptians would doubtless in many cases influence and attract these strangers, but the constant influx of immigrants from the vast neighbouring Semitic countries of Asia would on the other hand seriously impede the progress of civilisation in this part of the empire. Down to the present day the character of the population of the N. and E. parts of the land of Goshen has remained nearly the same as in ancient times. The European mer- chants represent the ancient Phoenicians, the Beduins who haunt the sterile regions are the wandering Semites of antiquity , and the peculiar inhabitants of the Menzaleh region (p. 452) are similar to the primitive pastoral population. Beyond (59 M.) stat. Abu Hammad, on the left, begins the Arabian desert , which is here an undulating sandy plain with scanty desert vegetation. It is intersected in an easterly direction by the fertile WCidi Tumilut and the fresh-water canal, which pre- sent a striking contrast to their surroundings. On the right, beyond the canal , stretches a beautiful green tract of country, beyond which rise the hills of the desert. 66M. Stat. Tellel-Kebh, an insignificant place , which lately attained celebrity as the scene of Arabi's defeat by the British troops in 1882. It lays claim to the honour of occupying the site of the Pithom of the Bible ; but that city must have lain more to the S.W., on the site of the present Tell Abu Sulemcin (see above). On leaving Tell el-Kebir the train passes a cemetery laid out by the English, with a tasteful monument to the British soldiers who fell in the struggle with Arabi. A little farther on a tower and a palace come in sight. 80 M. Stat. Mahsameh possesses the remains of a monument which probably belonged to one of the cities of Ramses where the graphical information afforded by the monuments, Pithom was situated in the Sethroitic Nome, between the Pelusiac and Tanitic anus of the Nile. This district, according to the inscriptions, also bi.re the Semitic name of Sukkdt ('tents 1 ), which it doubtless derived from the nomadic lite led by its Semitic shepherd inhabitants, who from a very early period had been permitted by the Pharaohs to pasture their flocks there. Classic authors state that Heracleopolis Parva (see pp. 87, 453) was the capital of this nome, while the monuments mention Pi-tom as its capital. The identification of the site of Pithom is farther facilitated by the fact that the ancient itineraries place it on the route from Pelusium to Tanis (p. 452), exactly halfway between these places. The surrounding country was covered with lakes and marshes, and was intersected by canals in every direction. At the present day the district is half desert and half swamp, and it is traversed by the canal between Port Sa'id and El-Kantara. 414 Route 5. [SMATLIYA. Israelites made bricks for Pharaoh. We next pass the small station of Ramses, which is chiefly used for the traffic connected with the construction of the new fresh-water canal (p. 409). Near the fresh-water canal is situated the ruin-covered Tell el-Mas- khuta, the debris of which is not worth visiting. It possesses, however, a large and interesting block of granite, on the front of which is a re- presentation of Ramses II. , enthroned between the gods Ra and Turn. The figures were once elaborately executed, but have suffered much from exposure to the air, particularly the heads. On the back of the mon- ument the name of Ramses is inscribed six times. Lepsius is probably right in identifying this spot with the Ramses of the Bible , and his opinion is corroborated by the existence of huge bricks of Nile mud in the enclosing wall of the buried city, which still contain an admixture of chopped straw, recalling the sacred narrative (Exodus, i. 13, 14): — 'And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage , in mortar , and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field 1 . — 'And (Exodus, v. 6, 7) Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore; let them go and gather straw for themselves'. Beyond this point the train runs through an entirely desert track, passes the small junction of Nefisheh, and reaches — 977 2 M. Stat. Isma'iliya (p. 434), where the blue Lake Tim- dh (p. 434) presents a beautiful and striking contrast to the de- ™rt just traversed, especially if some large sea-going steamer appens to be passing, with its masts overtopping the low houses °f the town. Isma'iliya is a terminal station. To the right of tho s tation lies the Arabian quarter of the town. The Suez train returns by the same line of rails to stat. Nefisheh (good refreshment-room, embellished with antlers , stuffed birds, and other curiosities), and then turns to the S. (left). On the right we observe a large nursery for trees, the property of ex-Khedive Isma'il's mother. The train traverses the desert, frequently skirt- ing the fresh-water canal, which it crosses immediately beyond Nefisheh. This canal runs between the railway and the great Suez Canal, and is navigated by a few small craft only. The Suez Canal, connecting the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and traversed by large sea-going steamers, and the extensive Bitter Lakes lie on our left (comp. p. 433). Towards the S.W. rises the Qebel Geneffeh, or Gebel Ahmed Daher, witli its productive quarries, which yielded material for the construction of the canal. Beyond (lOS'/aM.) stat. Serapeum (p. 433) we obtain a fine view of the bluish green Bitter Lakes (p. 433) on the left. Farther on, the heights of the Qebet I wtbid rise on the right. The next station is (11372 M.) Fdyid. Near (125 7 2 M.) stat. Geneffeh we reach the S. end of the Bitter Lakes. On the left again stretches a vast sandy plain. On the right, above the lower hills, tower the dark masses of the 'Atdka Mts. (p. 415), the outlines of which stand out very prominently by evening light. Near (136'/ 2 M.) stat. Bhal&ffy. 432) the canal is visible for a short time. Then (149 M.) Suez (see below). h 38 is ; b t m a- ' '■ ,. 'l [ / i y tl & FQ tT IJ I RAH f M 1: 44-.000 V, Vg V» 1 I«Jl»iil« 415 6. Suez, Ain Miisa, and the Red Sea. On arriving at the busy station, the traveller is beset by a number of cicerones who speak broken English, French, and other languages. Hotels. Hotel Sdez (PI. a), situated on the coast, at a considerable distance from the station , a first-class house , fitted up in the English style, and kept by a German; board and lodging 16s. per day (less if a prolonged stay is made). There are two scales of charges: (1st) break- fast 4, tiffin 4, dinner 6s.; (2nd) 2, 2, and 4s. respectively. Bottle of ale or porter Is. 6d. The servants are Indians, — quiet, attentive people, with delicate features and of slender build. English Church service on Sundays. The shady court of the hotel affords a pleasant lounge. News- papers for the use of visitors. — Hotel d'ORiENT, in the Rue de Colmar, the principal street, Vi M. from the station ; pension , with wine , 10 fr. per day ; unpretending, but tolerable. — Most of the restaurants and cafes are very disreputable-looking. Ladies should not walk in the streets of Suez after dark. Post and Telegraph Offices (Egyptian) at the station. Telegrams to foreign countries should be despatched by the wires of the Eastern Telegraph Company (English). Consuls. British, Mr. West; French, M. Cravery ; Austrian, Br. Mar- gutti; Russian, Sen. Costa (p. 420); Spanish, Sen. Nacadi. Disposition of Time. If the weather is calm, the harbour and en- trance to the canal may be visited by small boat. Calm weather is also very desirable for the excursion by land to the Springs of Moses (p. 419), as the driving sand is excessively disagreeable in a high wind. The beautiful clearness of the green water, with its curious shells and sea- weed, and the almost invariable beauty of the sunsets render a boating excursion here unusually attractive. The situation of the sandbanks and of the navigable channel is of course best inspected at low tide. A charge of 6-Ss. is usually made for a rowing-boat for half-a-day. The boatmen are apt to be extortionate in their demands, as travellers on their way to or from India, and making a short stay only , are often too lavish in their payments. In fine weather a day may be pleasantly spent as follows. Row early in the morning down the gulf to the mouth of the canal, ascend the canal for a short distance, and land at the usual starting-point for the Springs of Moses. Donkey (which is brought in the boat from Suez) 5-6 fr. for the day. We now traverse the desert, which extends down to the sea-shore, to the (2 hrs.) Springs, where luncheon (brought from Suez) may be taken. An hour or more may be spent here in resting or looking for shells on the shore, after which we regain the boat in 2 hrs. more. We next row (again taking the donkey with us) to the quays, land there, and dismiss the boat. Re- mounting the donkey, we ascend to the docks, inspect them at our leisure, and then return to the hotel. The whole excursion may be ac- complished without much fatigue in about 8 hrs. If the wind is favour- able, the traveller may sail as far as the so-called caravan landing-place (comp. Map, p. 414), whence the Springs are reached in half-an-hour; but the charge for the boat is then higher, and if the wind is favourable in one direction, it is adverse in the other, so that nothing is to be gained by this arrangement, unless donkeys are altogether dispensed with. In stormy weather the pier and docks only can be visited with comfort. The 'Ataka Mountains (p. 418) may be ascended on the S.W side, but not without great difficulty, as the rocks are bare and precipitous, and competent guides are not procurable. The view, according to Fraas, is most beautiful and interesting, as the whole of the isthmus and the canal lie at the spectators feet like a vast map. Natural History of the Red Sea (by Dr. C. B. Klunzinger). Among the numerous natural products of the Red Sea, which is of a tropical character, with a fauna almost entirely different from that of the Mediter- ranean , we need only mention those of commercial value and those 416 Route 6. SUEZ. frequently offered for sale to travellers as curiosities. The prices de- manded are usually exorbitant, but may be reduced by bargaining. The Mofhei'-of- Pearl Shells (sadaf) of the Red Sea form an important article of commerce, but, owing to the undue extent to which the fishery has recently been carried, the yield has greatly fallen off. The Beduins of the coast, who train slaves as divers, carry on the fishery during the summer. The price of the shells averages 12-15 piastres tariff per okka (2 J /2 lbs.), varying according to the size. The largest of the shells are rarely more than two pounds in weight, and the finest are apt to be per- forated by worms, in which case they are valueless. The principal mart on the Bed Sea for mother-of-pearl and pearls is Jedda (p. 423), the seaport of Mecca. Pearls may sometimes be purchased direct from the Beduins or their slaves, but they ask more than the pearls are worth in Europe, 4-5 fr. being often demanded for one of small size. The small discoloured pearls, though valueless, are also frequently offered for sale. The Arabs grind them down, and prepare an eye-salve from the powder. Another common bivalve is the bust- ( Tridacna gigas), a huge kind of clam-shell. The indigestible flesh, called l suntmbdk\ is dried and sold in the markets as an article of food. This shell also yields pearls , but they are dull and worthless. Among the univalves the most important is the Btik, a kind of whelk, which the hdwi, or conjurer at fairs, uses as a horn. Large and unstained specimens are rare, costing 2-4 fr. each. Other large varieties of the same species are of less value. A very common shell-fish is the large gemel or abu sub'da (Pteroceras lambis), which has six long finger- like projections; its flesh is also dried and sold as stirtcmbdk (see above). The divers frequently bring up specimens of the large malha (Cassis covmita), which is of a stone-grey colour externally, and covered with a thick yellow substance at the mouth, in which cameos may be cut. The wad'a, or cowry, or 'porcelain shell' as it is sometimes called (Ch/praea), and the morsd r a, or cone-shell (Conns), are very abundant and rarely worth more than a few paras each. A small white cowry is used in the 'troll-madam'' game. A small black-and-yellow striped cowry (Golumbella mendicavia), known as the silem, is sometimes exported to the Sudan , where it is used instead of small coin. The glossy mosm'a (Nerila polita), which is often found on the sea-shore, is sometimes used for the same purpose. One of the prettiest shells of the Bed Sea is the abundant small pink warddn or silesefu (Monodonla Phavaonis) with its black and white knobs. Among other shells frequently offered for sale are the Mwex, with its long spines, the gibrin (Oliva), the long conical mirwad, or screw shell (Terebra), the large and thin Doliiim, and the small Ilaliolis, or ear-shell. The neliid , or top shell (Trochus), and the sdr'a (Turbo) are sometimes polished with muriatic acid so as to resemble mother-of-pearl, and are used for ornamental purposes. Black coral, or yusr, which realises a high price, is used for the manufacture of rosa- ries, pipe mouthpieces, and ornaments. The purple dem el akhwdn, or organ coral , is sometimes used as a dye , and the blocks of the porous cunt] (Poriles) for building purposes. Other kinds of coral, or stony zoophytes, known as sha'ab , bleached perfectly white, are frequently seen in the shops. They sometimes resemble roses, trees, leaves, and bulbous growths. The traveller should, if possible, make a point of seeing the **Subaqueous Coral Formations, which resemble a scene from fairyland. A boat is taken in calm weather as far as (lie. slope of the coral reef of Sha'ab which skirts the shore. The coral in the immediate vicinity of Suez is not so fine as some of the formations a little farther off. Those who are interested in marine zoology should walk along the cliffs at low tide, when they will find thousands of curious shell-fish and zoophytes in the pools, under the stones, and on the beach. They may also amuse themselves by gathering edible mussels, limpets, and sea- and watch the eccentric movements of the crabs. A visit to the Fish-Market is also recommended, where the curious and brightly coloured members of the tinny tribe are seen to far better advantage than in a museum. The singular .looking ball-fish (p. 84) is often stuffed and SUEZ. 6. Route. 417 offered for sale. A large crab, known as the bint vmm er-rubbdn , which is caught on the shore by moonlight without difficulty, is esteemed a delicacy. The tortoise-shell yielded by the loggerhead turtle, and the thick skin of the gild, or dugong (Halicore cetacea), form considerable articles of commerce. According to some authorities the Jewish ark of the covenant was covered with dugong leather. History of Suez Little is known regarding the ancient history of Suez. A town mentioned for the first time by Lucian under the name of Klysma , or Kleisma , seems to have occupied this site at a very early period. It was a fortified place , and the special task of the garrison was to protect and maintain the old isthmus-canal completed by Darius (p. 427). Ptolemeeus calls the place Cli/sma Praesidium , but places it much farther to the S. During the supremacy of the Arabians , who re- opened the old canal for a short time (p. 428), the town was named Kolzum or Kolzim. After the 8th cent, it seems to have sunk into insignificance, but it is mentioned by Abdulfida, as the starting-point for Tur (p. 515). — The chief historical interest attaching to the place lies in the fact that it is usually supposed to be close to the point where the Israelites crossed the Red Sea (comp. pp. 419, 483). Suez, a town with 11,170 inhab., lies at the head of the gulf of that name, one of the N. extremities of the Red Sea, and to the S.W. of the mouth of the Suez Canal. On the W. it is com- manded by the picturesque blue heights of the 'Ataka Mts. , and on the E. by hills belonging to the Asiatic coast range. Before the construction of the great work of M. de Lesseps, Suez was a miser- able Arabian village, with 1500 inhab. at most. 'The place', says Dr. Schweinfurth in 1864, 'still consists of confused groups of miserable mud hovels, and ruinous, half-European buildings of lath and plaster. On the quay rises the one-storied block of the English hotel, in front of which are the iron railway shed, a few warehouses, and the consulates of the western powers. Such is the poverty-stricken appearance of the town , where moreover a deathlike stillness prevails, notwithstanding the fact that three different quarters of the globe join hands over its walls. Not a tree, not a spring, not even the meagre saltwort, or a trace of vegetation of any kind, is to be seen on the extensive and flat coast or anywhere in the environs of the town. The blue of the sky and the sea, where half-a-dozen steamers and a few sail- ing vessels are lying at anchor, affords the only relief to the eye of the spectator." To this day the town presents a very dreary appearance, and its trade has again greatly fallen off , the stimulus given to it by the opening of the canal and the large docks having apparently been transient. Neither the Arabian quarter with its seven insignifi- cant mosques, nor the streets of the European quarter , which eon- tain several buildings and warehouses of considerable size, present any attraction. The Arabian bazaar is unimportant , but at the entrance to it aTe stalls of beautiful shells and coral from the Red Sea, for which exorbitant prices are asked (comp. p. 416). Near the Suez Hotel are several stalls where Chinese articles are sold. On a mound of debris to the N. of the town, not far from the station and the magazines of the 'Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company', is a kiosque of the Khedive, commanding a fine view of the mountains of the peninsula of Sinai, the sea, the harbour, and the town. The hill is called by the Arabs Kom el- Ol- zum, and was probably the site of the ancient Kolzum (see above). Baedeker's Egypt I. 2nd Ed. 27 418 Route 6. SUEZ. A little farther to" the N. is the mouth of the Fresh Water Canal (p. 409) t, the flow of which into the conduits, as well as its discharge into the sea, is regulated by means of a large lock. The level of the canal is here 6y 2 ft. above that of the Red Sea. The large buildings to the N. of it are the English Naval Hospital and the engine-house of the 'Compagnie des Eaux.' To the E. of the canal is the large camping-ground for the caravans coming from Arabia, which sometimes number as many as a thousand camels and present a most interesting sight. On the way from the kiosque of the Khedive to the canal are a number of salt pools, sometimes tinged red by innumerable microscopically small crabs, which, in the morning especially, diffuse an odour resem- bling that of violets. The small neighbouring eminence is called the Beduins' Hill. Opposite, to the E., beyond the railway, is the Arabian sailors' quarter, consisting of dirty mud-hovels. A massive *Pier, about l 3 /^ M. in length, resting on a sub- structure of artificial stone , 48 ft. in width , extends into the sea to the S. of the town, leading to the *Harbour. (Boat thither, see p. 415.) The foundation of the pier and of the whole of the quays rests upon a sandbank stretching out from the land in the shape of a hook, and heightened by the addition of large quantities of earth dredged from the S. end of the canal. The deposits of earth thus made also enabled the canal company to embank an area of about 50 acres, on which the arsenal , magazines, work- shops , and buildings connected with the docks were erected. The pier affords a pleasant and interesting promenade (donkey 1-2 fr., according to the time), commanding beautiful views of the bay and the mountains enclosing it. At low tide the outline of the sandbank is distinctly traceable. 'The 'Ataka Mts. to the W. of the town looked as if composed of a liquid mixture of molten garnets and amethysts. They were reflected in the water at their base , the ebb of which gradually disclosed more and more of the ramparts and buildings around the harbour and the entrance to the canal. The lofty pier, carrying the railway from the anchorage of the large vessels to the town , overtopped all the other buildings, the sandbanks, and the deep pools left isolated by the retiring tide. Men riding on donkeys and camels were passing along the pier, and the lower the sun sank, the sharper did their outlines become against the glowing horizon, until at length they looked like black shadows on a transparent golden yellow and violet wall of glass. At length the darkness closed in, and the roads were shrouded in night'. At the end of the pier we first Teach a small dock of the Canal Company on the left, with a lighthouse (white light), beyond which + Before the construction of the canal the inhabitants of Suez derived a supply of bad water from the Springs of Moses , which was brought to the town by camels and donkeys; and they were afterwards supplied with Nile water by railway, at a cost of l'/« centimes per quart. 'What a notable day (29th Dec, 1863) was it then in the town's history when the fresh-water canal was opened, and the life-giving element flowed from the desert into the town in exhaustless abundance '. It seemed like a repetition of one of the miracles of Moses.' H. Btephan. f AIN MtJSA. 6. Route. 419 is the Waghorn Quay , bearing a Statue of Lieutenant Waghorn, an enterprising Englishman , who after having spent the best years of his life in establishing regular communication between England and India via Egypt , died in London in poverty in 1850. M. de Lesseps has placed a French inscription to his memory on the W. side of the monument. The large basin farther S. , which has been named Port Ibra- him, and is capable of containing 50 vessels of the largest size, is divided by massive bulwarks into two parts , one for vessels of war, and the other for the mail steamers and trading vessels. The mouth of the dock is protected by gates. The masonry is everywhere admirably constructed, particularly that of the massive breakwater outside the docks. The dry dock is 123 yds. long, 25 yds. wide, and 29 ft. in depth. On theE. side of these docks are stakes and buoys indicating the entrance to the Suez Canal (p. 431), which is at a considerable dis- tance from the N. extremity of the gulf. (Small boat, see p. 415.) The Springs of Moses, Arabic r Ain (pi. 'Ayuri) Musa, lie on the E. side of the gulf, about 7 l / 2 M. to the S.S.E. of Suez, or A l /-2 M. from the new docks. (Boats and donkeys, see p. 415.) The whole of the route thither by land traverses the sand of the desert , skirting the sea , which lies to the right. Towards the W. tower the imposing r Ataka Mts. (p. 415), which present a most picturesque appearance on the return route. To the left rise the yellowish ranges of the Gebel er-Rdha, belonging to the long chain of the Gebel et-Tih, and facing the S.E. We are now traversing Asiatic soil, while at the same time the eye ranges over part of the African continent. 'At this point, as at the Hellespont, two different quarters of the globe adjoin each other; but, instead of Europe, we here have the greater continent of Africa lying to the W. of Asia. The meeting of these two neighbours here, however, is of a very different character. While Europe and Asia salute each other across the Bosphorus and Hel- lespont, adorned with verdant robes and crowned with laurel, as if about to vie with each other in a peaceful contest of song, Asia and Africa seem to scowl at each other across the Red Sea like wrestlers who have divested themselves of their garments and are on the point of entering the lists to fight a fierce battle for the sovereignty of the world. On the African side the r Ataka Mts. present a bold and menacing appearance, while the dreary desert of Asia, situated among the Gebel er-Raha, bids defiance to its loftier adversary'. (Schubert.) Those who make the excursion by water need hardly be reminded of the profound historical interest attaching to this part of the Red Sea. 'This is the scene of Pharaoh's attempted passage , and these waves were once ploughed by the ships of King Hiram and King Solomon, which every three years brought gold from Ophir, and ivory, ebony, and incense, to the harbours of Elath and Ezion-Geber. Here, too, once plied the light Moorish vessels mentioned in the Old Testament, and similar to the craft now used by the Indo-Arabians. From this point the Phoeni- cian mariners employed by King Necho began their famous circumna- vigation of Africa about the year B.C. 600, and at a later period enter- 27* 420 Route 6. f AIN MUSA. prising Greek sailors set forth to solve the great geographical problem of the ancient Hellenic world regarding the true character and situation of India. The Red Sea was also navigated by the merchantmen of the Ptolemies and the Romans , who by this route imported precious stuffs from India and spices from Arabia — the robes and pearls which decked Cleopatra, and the frankincense which perfumed the halls of the Palatine. The waves of this sea, moreover, wash the shores of places deemed sacred by two different religions , viz. Mt. Sinai, and Jed- da, the seaport of Mecca'. ( Stephan. ) With regard to the Exodus of the Israelites and their passage of the Red Sea, see p. 481. If the Red Sea is really meant, and not the Sirbonic Lake, as supposed by Brugsch , the scene of the passage was most probably near the modern Suez. 'Ain Musa is an oasis, the property of M. Costa (p. 415), about five furlongs in circumference, and watered by several springs. The traveller will easily find a pleasant resting-place for luncheon. The vegetation here is very luxuriant. Lofty date-palms and wild palm saplings, tamarisks, and acacias thrive in abundance ; and vegetables are successfully cultivated by the Arabs who live in the mud hovels near the springs, and who expect a bakshish from visitors. Their gardens are enclosed by opuntia hedges and palings, at the entrances to which the traveller is beset by barking dogs. The springs , situated in the midst of these gardens , consist of several turbid pools of brackish water. The largest of them, enclosed by an old wall, is said to have been the spring called forth from the rock by the rod of Moses, or the bitter waters which the prophet sweetened by casting a certain tree into them. The scene of these miracles , however, must have been a considerable distance to the S. of this point ; but this oasis may have been the spot where Moses and the Israelites sang their beautiful song of praise, recorded in Exodus, xv. 'I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously : the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and. I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name. Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red sea. The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone. Thy right hand, Lord, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee: thou sentest forth tliy wrath, which consumed them as Stubble. And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered to- gether, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were con- gealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said , I will pursue , I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters'. The oasis is also interesting in a geological point of view, par- ticularly on account of the formation of a number of springs, which lie in funnel-shaped cavities at the top of isolated mounds, 4-6 ft. in height. These springs have been described by Fraas, the geo- logist, whose account will be best appreciated by the traveller if f AIN MUSA. 6. Route. 421 lie visits the mound marked by a solitary palm , about 10 min. to the S.E. of the gardens (view). 'The temperature and character of these springs vary. They range from 70° to 84° Fahr. ; and while some of them are quite drinkable and but slightly brackish , others are very bitter and nauseous to the taste. The springs rise in the midst of gardens, where the natural hillocks have been levelled, in funnel-shaped basins, within which the water wells up from numerous small holes; and every new hole the visitor makes with his stick becomes the source of a new spring. The natural condition of the springs, however, is more satisfactorily observed in the desert, outside of the opuntia enclosure. About a thousand paces to the E. of the oasis stands a solitary palm, at the foot of a hillock rising about 16ft. above the level of the plain. On the top of this hillock is a pool, 4ft. in diameter and l'/2 ft. in depth. The water, 70° in tempera- ture, is very salt and bitter, and the bottom of the pool is covered with inky-black mud. The discharge of the spring forms a stream 3-4 inches in width, which, however, is soon swallowed up by the desert sand at the foot of the hill. Numerous water-beetles, which clung to the hand when touched , the Melania fasciolata Oliv. which seemed to luxuriate in the tepid water, and, as I was much pleased to see, myriads of transparent water-fleas (Cypris delecta Mull.) disported themselves in the basin. In the hollow of my hand I caught dozens of them, which swam about for a time with their fringed feelers, and at length got ashore. I next ob- served in the mud the innumerable transparent scales of dead insects, and I at length discovered that the rock enclosing the hill was entirely composed of Cypris skins. It was now obvious that the Cyprides had built the hill. Millions of these little insects had in the course of ages cemented with their calcareous integuments the sand through which the springs rise, thus at length forming a kind of wall around it; and when the surface was in this way raised beyond the height to which the pres- sure of the water forced the springs, some of them were entirely shut oil* and compelled to seek some other outlet. . . . The pressure of the water evidently comes from the Kahah Jits., although they are 10-14 miles distant. . . . Had it not been for this organic life, and particularly that of the Cyprides , which gradually walled in the channels of the springs with their remains, so that the surface of the water is at some places 40-50 ft. above the level of the desert, and 100 ft. above the level of the sea, these waters would simply have been lost among the sands of the desert. 1 (O. Fraas.) Conchologists (p. 416) will find a number of interesting shells on the beach at low tide, but the best places are farther S. Unless the traveller is bound for Mt. Sinai, he will probably not extend his journey farther in this direction. To some of our readers, however, the following brief description of the Ked Sea and its shores will not be unacceptable. The Red Sea and its Coasts (by Dr. C. B. Klunzinger ; comp. Map, p. 30). The Red Sea, Arab. El-Bahr el-Ahmar, or Bahr el-Ilejciz, the ancient Sinus Arabian, is an arm of the sea extending from the Indian Ocean towards the N.W., between Arabia and Africa, to a distance of 1400 miles. It is entered at the S. extremity by the Bdb el-Mandeb, a strait 18 M. only in width. At the broadest part (in 16° N. lat.) it is 221 miles in width. Towards the N. end it gradually contracts , and at length divides into two arms, the Gulf of f Akaba (Sinus JElanites) , and the Gulf of Suez [Sinus Heroopolites ; Arab. Bahr Sues, or Bahr Kolzum, so called alter the ancient Klysma.l. The sea averages 400-600, arid is at places 10UO fathoms in depth, but the shores are flanked with a network of subterranean coral reefs and islands , which often extend a long way from the coast. These reefs render the navigation of this sea very dan- gerous, particularly at the narrower parts of it, the most dreaded point being the so-called Bahr Far'&n (p. 488), near Tur. The course of the 422 Route 6. THE RED SEA. large steamers is in the middle of the sea, which is free from these reefs , but the smaller Arabian vessels always steer close to the shore, with the configuration of which their captains are well acquainted, in order that they may run into one of its numerous creeks (skerm) on the slightest threatening of bad weather. The Arabs adopt the cautious policy of never sailing at night or in stormy weather, unless compelled; and when they are obliged to cross the sea, they always wait for settled weather. In spite of the miserable construction of their vessels, ship- wrecks are accordingly of rare occurrence. No rivers fall into the Red Sea, but a number of intermittent rain- torrents descend from its banks. The water is of a beautiful blue colour, changing to pale green where there are shoals or reefs near the surface. No satisfactory reason for the modern name of the sea has yet been given. The difference between high and low tide is 372-7 feet. The prevalent wind in the N. part of the sea, particularly in summer, is the N. wind, and in the S. part the S.E. wind in winter, and the N.W. in summer. The sea is therefore unsuitable for large sailing vessels, which, when bound for India, always sail round the Cape of Good Hope. The coasts of the Red Sea consist of barren rock or sand, and are almost entirely uninhabited. A little way inland the mountains rise to a height of 4000-7600 feet. So far back as the time of Solomon the nav- igation of the Red Sea was of considerable importance, and several of the seaports, such as Berenike and Myos Hormos, were celebrated. Since the opening of the Suez Canal the sea has been regularly traversed by the Indian steamers, which run direct from Suez to Aden. The traffic between the different places on the coast is carried on by means of the Arabian coasting vessels (katgra, barge ; samb&k, vessel of medium size with a short cutwater ; baghleh, the same, without cutwater ; dau, or dow, a vessel of considerable size with a prodigious development of stern ; rangeh , the same, with a long cutwater). Regular communication be- tween some of the more important places is also kept up by Egyptian steamers, which ply fortnightly between Suez, Jedda, Souakin, and Masau c a. Steamers of the Austrian Lloyd and others also ply between Suez and Jedda at the time of the Meccan pilgrimage. Afbican Coast. On this side of the Red Sea there is not a single place of consequence between Suez and Koser. At Gimsdh, opposite Tur, sulphur-mines were formerly worked, and it was then a place of some importance ; but the mines have been abandoned, and the whole district is now inhabited by a few nomadic Beduins only. Koser (1200 inhab.) is the harbour of Upper Egypt, from which it is 4'/2 days 1 journey in a straight line. It was formerly one of the chief outlets for the products of Egypt, particularly grain, and. was also the starting- point of numerous pilgrims, but since the opening of the Suez railway it has lost nearly all its importance. It was a place of no importance down to the first decade of the present century, when, under the auspices of Mohammed 'AH, it increased to a town of 7000 inhabitants. It is now a neglected place, as all the pilgrims, except the poorest, now prefer the route by Suez. Even its grain trade, its only other resource, has greatly declined, as steamers now convey corn to the Hejaz at a cheaper rate than it can be obtained from Koser. The steamers rarely touch here, and the traffic is carried on by native craft only, which ply almost exclusively to Jedda, Yenba r , and Wejj. Koser is the residence of a governor, and possesses a quarantine establishment, a government corn magazine for the supply of the Hejaz ( "Dakhirch), and a telegraph office communicating with the valley of the Nile. The town is a well-built place, crowned with a citadel, which was erected by Sultan Selim in the 16th century and still contains a few cannon dating from the French period and a mortar with the inscription, 'I/an III de la Rep. francaise'. In the distant background rise pictur- esque mountains, culminating in Gebel AbH TiyClr and Abil Suba'a, 4200ft. in height. The harbour is sheltered from the prevailing N. wind only. Drinking water has to be brought to the town in skins from the moun- tains, one day's journey distant. THE RED SEA. 6. Route. 423 About 5 M. to the N. is Old Kose~r, with the remains of the ancient Leukos Limen , a famous harbour in the time of the Ptolemies, but now blocked up with coral, and accessible to small boats only. Between Koser and Rds Bends, where Berenike was situated, dwell the nomadic 'Ababdeh' (p. 45), and between the latter and Souakin the 'Bisharin' (p. 45), both being tribes of a Nubian type. Souakin (10,000 inhab.), situated in a sterile region with a saline soil, possesses a good harbour. It belonged to the Turks down to 1865, when it was ceded to Egypt, and since that period it has rapidly im- proved. The principal part of the town lies on a small island, and there are also a number of substantial stone houses belonging to it on the mainland. Behind it extends the busy village of Gef, which is inhabited by the native Bisharin. About l l /i M. farther inland are the springs which supply the town with water and irrigate the gardens. The chief exports, being products of the district, are cattle, hides, butter, india- rubber, tamarinds, and mother-of-pearl ; while ivory, ostrich-feathers, and other commodities from the Sudan are brought to Souakin via, Kassala and Berber, and exported hence. Souakin was formerly an important depot of the slave-trade. This seaport is a convenient starting-point for the exploration of the Sudan, and formed the basis of the English expe- dition despatched in March, 1885, to co-operate with the Nile army of Lord Wolseley in attacking the Mahdi at Khartum. Masau'a or Massoicah (5000 inbab. I, the seaport of Abyssinia, belonged to the Turks as early as 1557, and has recently been ceded to Egypt. Like Souakin, it lies on an island, opposite to which, on the main- land, are the pleasant villages of Ai-kiko and Mukullu, with their country- houses and gardens. Masau'a carries on a brisk trade in commodities similar to those of Souakin. The population consists of Ethiopians, Arabs, and a few Europeans. The climate is very hot, but not unhealthy. Arabian Side. The seaports of the province of Yemen, on the E. side of the Red Sea, are Mokhd, Hodeda, and Lohdya. Mokka. has fallen entirely to decay, and Hodeda alone is visited once monthly by the steamers of the Austrian Lloyd. These places have long since been superseded by the English seaport of 'Aden. The most important seaport on the Red Sea, a great focus of Oriental trade, and one of the wealthiest towns in the Turkish empire, is Jedda, situated 46 M. to the W. of Mecca, of which it is the port. Pilgrimages from every Mohammedan country converge here , and the merchants transact business with the devotees on their arrival and departure. The inhabitants trade with the interior of Arabia, with Egypt, E. Africa as far as Mozambique, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, and the Malay Islands. Jedda is the chief market for pearls , mother-of-pearl , and black coral, and for the coffee, balsam, senna leaves, aromatic herbs, and horses and donkeys which Arabia produces. It is also a great depot of Oriental car- pets, muslins, woollen and silk stuffs, spices, cocoa-nuts, essential oils, and other products which are exported to the western Mohammedan countries. The imports are corn, rice, butter, oil, and not unfrequently slaves. The covered bazaars and khans are therefore very interesting, and the markets are well supplied with fruit, which does not grow in the utterly sterile environs, but is imported from El-Yemen by water and still more extensively from Tdif by land. The harbour lies at a con- siderable distance from the town, which can only be approached by small craft. Water for drinking is collected in cisterns. The houses are lofty and substantially built, and the town possesses handsome government buildings and a castle. Outside the walls the Muslims point out a stone structure, 120 yds. long and 6 yds. wide, as 'Eve's Tomb'. Over the 'holy naveF is placed a chapel, containing a hole in the interior through which the visitor can look down on the stone covering that part of the sacred remains. This spot is only one-third of the way from the feet to the head (39 yds.), so that the upper part of Eve's frame must have been dis- proportionately large. At the time of the Wahhabite wars the town was taken by the Egyptians, but has again belonged to the Turks since 1840. In 1858 a terrible massacre of the Christians took place here , on which 424 Route 7. THE ISTHMUS OF SUEZ. From Suez occasion the French and English consuls were murdered, and the town was bombarded by the English in consequence. Farther to the N. lies Yenba c , the seaport of Medina, which lies about 92 M. to the E. of it. Yenba' el-Bahr, situated on the coast, with about 2000 inhab. only, lies in a sterile region, while the larger town of Yenba' en-Nakhl, with about 5000 inhab., situated nearly a day's journey inland, is surrounded with palms and other vegetation. The chief ex- ports are sheep, bides, honey, and dates. Steamers touch here at the season of the pilgrimage only. As Yenba' en-Nakhl is only nominally under the Turkish supremacy, Europeans cannot safely visit it except under the protection of one of the principal inhabitants of the place. Medina, like Mecca, is forbidden ground to Christians. There are no harbours of note between this point and Suez, but El- Wejj, opposite Koser, is an important quarantine station. Since the cholera was brought to Egypt by the Meccan pilgrims in 1865, the quar- antine establishment here has been annually fitted up for a month and a half or two months, at the time of the return of the pilgrims after the Great Beiram. Both the caravans travelling by land, and vessels of every nation from Arabian ports, must undergo quarantine here for five days, or for a longer period if the outbreak of an epidemic is apprehended. While the quarantine lasts, Wejj presents a very busy appearance. The great Mecca caravan, which travels via 'Akaha. passes this way both in going and coming. The town itself has 600-800 inhab. only, a castle built by Sultan Selim, with a garrison of a few soldiers, a spring of fresh water, and, as the latter is insufficient during the quarantine season, a steam engine for the distillation of sea-water. — The N. part of the Arabian coast, as far as El-Wejj, is under the supremacy of Egypt. 7. From Suez to Port Sa c id. The Suez Canal. Between Suez and Isma'ilIya there is no regular steamboat service on the Canal ; but large steamers traverse it daily on their route to India and China, and in one of these a passage may generally be obtained by applying to the agent of the company, to whom an introduction may be obtained through the traveller's consul. The usual charge for the trip is 10 fr., besides which food must be paid for in accordance with the steward's tariff. The vessels of the Messageries JIaritimes (p. 10), however, issue cabin tickets for the whole trip from Suez to Port Sa'id for 100 fr. , including food and wine. The S. part of the Canal, from Suez to Isma'iliya, including the Bitter Lakes and the entrance to Lake Timsah , is the more interesting. The steamers generally make a very short stay at Suez , where a small boat must be hired by the passenger who desires to land, but they halt at Port Sa'id for at least 5-8 hrs. to coal, and lay to at the quay, so that passengers can walk ashore. The passage from Suez to Port Sa'id occu- pies 16 hrs. (see below), but it now and then happens that vessels run aground, in which case part of the cargo has to be discharged, and a detention of several days takes place. The deck of the large steamers affords a good survey of the surround- iilry, but from the small steamboats which ply regularly between i ma tliya and Port Sa'id the passenger cannot see beyond the embank- ments of the Canal. Railway fbom Suez to Isma'iliya, see p. il4; a train starts daily at 8.15 a.m., arriving at 11.33 a.m. (fares 44 pias. 10, 29 pias. 20, I 30 paras). Fbom i.-m.v'iliya to Post Sa'id a small Egyptian steamer runs every evening, starting about 5 o'clock, alter the arrival of the train from Cairo and Alexandria, and arriving at. Port Sa'id about midnight (fare 24'/2 fr..l. A small screw-steamer belonging to the Canal Company also alternate day from Isma'iliya to Port Sa'id I fare 19Vsi fr. ; the additional 5 fr. changed by the other steamers are paid by them to the Canal Company as a tax). None of these steamers accommodate more, than to Port Sa'ld. THE ISTHMUS OF SUEZ. 7. Route. 425 20-25 passengers. A place on deck should be secured, if possible. The passage from Isma r iliya to Kantara (p. 435), where a halt of l /2- 3 /i hr. is made for refreshments, occupies 272 hrs., and thence to Port Sa r id 3'/i hrs., or about 6V2 hrs. in all. As already mentioned, the large steamers take 16 hrs. to perform the passage between Suez and Port Sa'id, Isma'iliya being about half way. They are not allowed to steam at greater speed, as their wash would injure the embankments. The Canal is 160 kilometres (100 31.) in length, and the E. bank is furnished with posts at intervals of 5 kilometres. Kear the stations, which generally consist of a few wooden huts only , are passing places for the large steamers, named 'Gare du Nord 1 and 'Gare du Sud 1 respectively. The Canal is about 26 ft. in depth, thus admitting vessels drawing 24-25 ft. of water. The surface varies in breadth from 65 to 120 yds., while the width of the bottom is about 24 yds. only. The dues amount to 10 fr. per ton, 10 fr. for each passenger, and 10-20 fr. for pilot- age according to the tonnage of the vessel. The use of the Canal is open to vessels of all nationalities. The Isthmus of Suez, a narrow neck of land which connects Africa with Asia, is at its narrowest part T0'/ 2 M. in width. On the S. side it is washed by the N. part of the Gulf of Suez (Arah. Buhr Kolzum , Greek Heroopolite Bay\ the western of the two arms of the Red Sea which separate Africa and Asia. The Isthmus is a low-lying tract of land, the S. part of which may he regarded as a kind of continuation of the gulf. About halfway across it rises an eminence about 50 ft. in height, called El-Gisr (^the 'threshold', p. 434), and dividing it into two nearly equal parts. Within the S. half, and adjoining this harrier, .lies Lake Timsah, or the Cro- codile Lake (p. 434), a little to the W. of which begins the Wldi Tumilatfp. 413), a transverse valley, traversed by the Fresh Water Canal, and now partly cultivated. Farther S. we come to a belt of sand-hills in the region known as the Serapeum (p. 433), about 10 M. in width, and beyond them to the Bitter Lakes (p. 433), consisting of a large and a smaller basin. Before the construction of the Canal the deepest part of these lakes, the bottom of which was covered with an incrustation of salt, was *24 ft. below the average level of the Red Sea. In 1856, before the water of the Me- diterranean was introduced into the lakes, they covered an area of 14>/ 2 sq. miles. Between them and the Red Sea extends a desert tract, i '2 ' /- 2 M. in width, and 2 1 /-) ft. only above the level of that sea. To the N. of the harrier of El-Gisr lies Lake Bal ah, or the Date Lake (p. 435), a little beyond which is Lake Menzaleh (p. 435), originally a shallow sheet of water, extending a long way to the W., as far as the Damietta arm of the Nile, and separated from the Mediterranean by a narrow strip of land only, in which there are now four openings. By the second opening from the E. the harbour of Port Sa r id has been constructed. The numerous ruins which have been discovered below the surface of this lake indicate that its site was once cultivated land, sprinkled with a number of towns (p. 435). At a very remote period the Red Sea and the Mediterranean were probably connected, or at all events the former extended as 426 Route 7. THE ISTHMUS OF SUEZ. From Suez far as Lake Timsah, as fossil conchylia, particularly varieties of the Spondylus, now occurring in the Red Sea, hut not in the Mediter- ranean, have heen found there. The isthmus, however, is undoubt- edly of very ancient formation, having been as broad at the time of the journey of Herodotus (B. C. 454) as it is now. With regard to the formation of the isthmus we may quote the following passage from M. J. Schleiden : — 'If we suppose a strait substituted for the isthmus, it is not difficult to foresee what would happen. The waves of the Red Sea entering it at one end would soon choke it with sand, while the same result would be caused on the Mediterranean side by the prevalent N. and N.W. winds, the Etesian winds of antiquity. About halfway between the seas these dif- ferent agents would come into collision, and throw up a bar of sand, the situation of which would naturally be a little to the N. of the central point, as the action of the waves on the S. side would be more regular than that of the wind on the N., and thus be generally able to penetrate farther. This bar would gradually be raised by the action of the waves, and that at an accelerating rate in proportion as its growth would present an obstacle to the motion of the water, until its level came to be above the level of low tide. The surface would then become dry by exposure to the air, and the loose sand, blown about by the winds, would form sand-hills of the kind found on every sea-shore. In this way the connection between the seas would at length be cut off, and the barrier of El-Gisr formed'. The Isthmus of Suez has, from a very early period, formed an important highway between Asia and Africa. A considerable part of its area was occupied with lakes and swamps, while the higher points were fortified to prevent the passage of invaders. Near Pelusium, the 'Key of Egypt', at the E. extremity of the curve formed by the coast of the Delta, to the S.E. of Port Sa'id, were situated the passes by which the empire of the Pharaohs was entered. The high road from Asia skirted the coast of the Mediterranean, passing Ithinocolura (the modern El-'Arish, p. 478), traversed the neck of land separating the Sirbonic Lake from the Mediterranean, and led by Casium (see below), with the temple of Jupiter Casius (the modern Ras el-Kasruni"), and by the town of Gerrha+t, to Pelusium (p. 435), whence several roads di- f The agnomen of Casius is derived by Brugsch from the Semitic Egyptian word Hazi or Hazion, signifying the asylum, or land of the asylum, a name which applies admirably to a shrine situated on the ex- treme E. margin of the Egyptian frontier. He also identifies the Baal- zephon of the Bible, which lay 'beside Pi-hahiroth 1 (Exod. xiv. 9), with this hill and the shrine of Zeus Casius. The word Ba'al Zeohon occurs in a papyrus in the British Museum in the form Bauli Zepiina, and is the Semitic equivalent ('lord of the north 1 ) of the Egyptian Amnion. I'i- hahiroth again literally means the 'entrance to the reed and papyrus swamps'', by which was doubtless meant the Sirbonic Lake, so that Pi- hahiroth itself probably lay at the W. end of the lake, at the entrance tii the neck of land when approached from Egypt (p. 484). +t Gerrha (plur. of the Greek gerrhon, a wall, or fortified place) is identified by Brugsch with Anbu (a word also signifying fortified place), which is mentioned as early as the 19th Dynasty. This place was called Shur ('wall') by the Hebrews (Gen. xvi. 7; xxv. 18; Exod. xv. 22; 1 Sam. xv. 7; \xvii. 8). The town lay a little to the S.W. of Pi-hahi- roth, which is mentioned above. to Port Scftd. THE SUEZ CANAL. 7. Route. 427 verged to the interior of the Delta. Three other roads, one from Mt. Casiust leading to the E., the second from Gerrha, and the third from Pelusium, converged in the middle of the isthmus (pro- hahly near the barrier of El-Gisr), joining the route leading thence past the Serapeum and the W. hank of the Bitter Lakes to the ancient Arsinoe, at the N. end of the Gulf of Suez. The Mediterranean was thus connected with the Red Sea by an overland route at a very early period. After the powerful monarchs of Thebes had ex- pelled the Hyksos and subjugated a great part of the W. side of the continent of Asia, the coast districts of S. Arabia, and many is- lands and maritime towns of the Mediterranean , Seti I. and Ramses II. (p. 90), the great and warlike princes of the 19th Dy- nasty, became desirous of establishing communication by water between the Nile and the Red Sea in order that their navies and merchantmen might thus pass between the latter and the Medi- terranean. This project was probably carried out as early as the reign of Seti L, as a representation of his time on the outer N. wall of the great banquet hall of Karnak (see vol. ii. of the Hand- book), elucidated by inscriptions, informs us that, on his victorious return from Asia, Seti had to traverse a canal (ta tenat, or 'the cutting') swarming with crocodiles (so that it must have commu- nicated with the Nile), and defended by bastions, the names of which distinctly indicate that it must have been situated on the frontier of the empire. The construction of the canal is, moreover, attributed by many ancient authors, including Herodotus, Aristotle, Strabo, and Pliny, to Sesostris (Seti I. and Ramses II.). The ca- nal may possibly have led from Lake Timsah to Pelusium, and thus have connected the two seas directly. Blocks bearing the names of Ramses I., Seti I., and Ramses II., found near Kantara (p. 435), seem to favour this conjecture. At a much later period, after Seti's canal had probably been obliterated owing to neglect, Pharaoh Nekho (p. 92) undertook to construct a canal between the Nile and the Red Sea. The new canal quitted the Nile at Bubastis (p. 410), and entered the Arabian Gulf near the ancient Patumos. No fewer than 120,000 Egyptians perished while engaged in the work , and the king afterwards abandoned the work , as he was informed by the oracle that the barbarians alone would profit by the work. By the 'barbarians' were chiefly meant the Phoenicians, whose fleets at that time commanded both the Me- diterranean and the Red Sea. The canal was probably completed, after the conquest of Egypt by the Persians, by Darius, the son of Hystaspes, the great organiser of the Persian empire, and not by Ptolemy Philadelphus, as stated by some authors. Numerous traces t Brugsch mentions that another route traversed the desert of Shur (to the S. of the Sirbonic Lake) to the Gulf of Suez, hut was little fre- quented, heing described by Pliny as ^aspevum montibus et inops aqua rum'' (mountainous and destitute of water). 428 Route 7. THE SUEZ CANAL. From Suez of the work, and fragments of monuments with inscriptions both in the Persian and Egyptian character, have been found (p. 432). Under the Ptolemies the canal system was extended. While one arm led from Phakusa on the Nile to the lakes towards the S. of Pelusium, that is, direct to the Mediterranean through the connected lakes of Balah and Menzaleh, another branch was now constructed from Lake Balah to the Bitter Lakes, into which the fresh-water canal watering the scriptural land of Goshen also fell (p. 409). It was thus feasible in the time of the Ptolemies to travel by water from the Nile to the S. part and also to the N. part of a canal, which, like the modern Suez Canal, connected the Red Sea and the Mediterranean in a nearly direct line. When Antony returned to Egypt after the battle of Actium in B. C. 31, Cleopatra made an unsuccessful attempt to convey her ships across the Isthmus of Suez in order to escape with her treasures from Octavian. As, however, it is very improbable that she would have attempted to transport vessels of considerable size for so long a distance by land, there can be little doubt that the canal still existed in her time, although in a dilapidated and unserviceable condition. The canal is said to have been restored during the Roman period. Another canal, beginning near Cairo, and terminating in the Gulf of Suez, the precise course of which, probably following the earlier channel, is nowhere described, is said to have been called the Amnis Trajanus , and was probably constructed during the reign of that emperor (A.D. 98-117). A canal of Hadrian is also mentioned. It is certain, however, that the chief mercantile route between the Red Sea and Italy did not follow the Nile and the ca- nal thence to the Gulf of Suez. The Indian vessels of the Romans touched at Berenike, a little to the N. of the tropic of Cancer, and still more frequently at Leukos Limen, the modern Kos< : r, or at Myos Hormos in the latitude of Siut ( Lykopolis) on the Red Sea. From these two last-named seaports, which were much frequented, especially in the month of September, goods were conveyed by the great caravan-route to Koptos on the Nile (near the modern Keneh ), and were then transferred to boats which carried them down the Nile to Alexandria, where they were shipped for their ultimate destination. After the Arabs had conquered Egypt, they must have been desirous of connecting the Lower Egyptian part of the Nile as directly as possible with the Red Sea. 'Amr ibn el-'Asi (p. 101) accordingly restored the ancient canal (of which the Khalig at Cairo is said to be a portion), and used it for the transport of grain from I'ostat (p. '241) to Kolzum (Suez), whence it was exported by the Red Sea to Arabia. The bed of the ancient canal is said to have been pointed out to 'Amr by a Copt, to whom a remission of the poll-tax was granted as a reward. The canal is said to have been filled up by the morbidly suspicious Khalif Al-Mansur ibn Mo- hammed (754-775), in order to cut off the supplies of the army of to Port Sa'td. THE SUEZ CANAL. 7. Route. 429 the rebel Mohammed ibn Abu Talib at Medina, but the truth of this statement is questionable. It is at all events certain that the canal became unserviceable after the 8th century. At a later period the Venetians frequently thought of constructing a canal through the Isthmus with a view to recover the trade which they had lost owing to the discovery of the route round the Cape of Good Hope, and several travellers advocated the scheme ; but no one seriously attempted to carry it out. Leibnitz, too, in his proposal regarding an expedition to Egypt, made in 1671 to Louis XIV., the greatest monarch of his age, strongly recommends the construction of such a canal. 'The lord of Egypt', he says, 'is not only in a position to do great injury to the welfare of the world, as the Turks undoubtedly have done by the stoppage of trade ; but he might, on the other hand, confer a great benefit on the human race by uniting the Red Sea with the Nile or with the Mediterranean by means of a canal, in the same way as France has merited the gratitude of Europe by the construction of a ca- nal alnng the foot of the Pyrenees. The statement that the level of the Red Sea is higher than that of the Mediterranean (as Darius was assured) is a mere myth ; and even if such were the case, the opening of such a canal would not expose Egypt to the danger of inundation 1 . Sultan Mustafa HI., the admirer of Frederick the Great, r Ali Bey, the enterprising Mameluke prince, and Buonaparte all revived the scheme, and the latter on his expedition to Egypt in 1798 (p. 105) even caused the preliminary works to be under- taken, but the actual execution of the project seemed almost as distant as ever. Lepere, his chief road engineer, and a man of great ability, surveyed the ground under the most unfavourable circumstances, and not without personal danger, but owing to a serious miscalculation he threw great doubt on the feasibility of the undertaking. While in reality the level of the two seas is nearly the same, Lepere estimated that of the Red Sea to be nearly 33 ft. higher than that of the Mediterranean. Laplace among others pro- tested against the accuracy of this calculation, as being in defiance of all the laws of hydrostatics, but the supposed obstacle was suffi- ciently formidable to prevent any farther steps from being taken, although the scheme still had many supporters, until M. de Lesseps directed his attention to the matter. It was reserved for this shrewd and energetic Frenchman to carry out the task which had seemed impracticable to a series of wealthy and powerful princes. In 1831 he was sent from Tunis to Egypt as a young consular eleve. At Alexandria, where he had to perform quarantine for a considerable time, he was supplied with books by M. Mimaut, the French con- sul. Among them was Lepere's Memoire regarding the scheme of connecting the two seas, which led him to consider its great im- portance, although Lepere himself doubted its feasibility. In 1838 he made the acquaintance of Lieut. Waghorn, an Englishman (p. 419), whose zealous advocacy of the construction of a route between Europe and India via Egypt stimulated his zeal for a sim- 430 Route 7. THE SUEZ CANAL. From Suez ilar project. In 1841 and 1847 Linant Bey, the viceroy's engineer of waterworks, and Messrs. Stephenson, Negrelli, and Bourdaloue, demonstrated the inaccuracy of Lepere's ohservations, and proved that the level of the two seas was nearly the same , so that the construction of a canal between them was possible. In 1854 M. de Lesseps, having matured his plan, laid it before Sa r id Pasha, who was then viceroy, and who determined to carry it out. Diffi- culties were thrown in the way of the enterprise by the English government during Lord Palmerston's ministry, but on 5th Jan. 1856 permission to begin the work was formally granted by the viceroy. A considerable time, however, elapsed before the neces- sary capital was raised, and it was not till 25th April 1858, that the work was actually begun. The viceroy undertook to pay many of the current expenses, and provided 25,000 workmen, who were to be paid and fed by the company at an inexpensive rate, and were to be relieved every three months. In order to provide tbese workmen with water, 4000 water-casks suitable for being carried by camels had to be constructed, and 1600 of these animals were daily employed in bringing them supplies, at a cost of 8000 fr. per day. On 29th Dec. 1863 the fresh-water canal (p. 409) was com- pleted , so that the company was thenceforth relieved of the enormous expense of supplying the w r ork-people with water. The hands now employed, among whom were a number of Europeans, were less numerous, and much of the work was done by machinery, of 22,000 horse-power in all. On 18th March, 1869, the water of the Mediterranean was at length allowed to flow into the nearly dry, salt-encrusted basins of the Bitter Lakes, the N. parts of which lay 26-40 ft. below the level of the Mediterranean, while the S. parts required extensive dredging operations. 'The first encounter of the waters of the two seas was by no means of an amiealjle character; they met boisterously, and then recoiled from the attack ; but soon, as if commanded by a 'quos ego 1 of Neptune, they peacefully mingled , and the ocean once more gained possession of the land which it had covered at a very remote period, but only on condi- tion of rendering service to the traffic of the world'. (Stephen.) The cost of constructing the canal amounted to about 19 million pounds sterling, of which 12,800,000 was paid by the shareholders, while the rest of the sum was almost entirely contributed by the Kin-dive. [In 1875, however, the British Government acquired the Khedive's shares for a sum of 4,000, 000i.] The capital was raised in the following manner : — Original capital, in 400,000 shares of 20L each . 8,000, 0001. Loan of 1867-68, repayable in 50 years by means of a sinking fund 4,000,000*. Loan of 1871, repayable in 30 years .... 800,0001 Total ; 12,800,000*. toPortSa'td. THE SUEZ CANAL. 7. Route. 431 Besides the Canal the company also possesses considerable tracts of land. The opening of the Suez Canal was inaugurated on 16th Nov. 1869, and the magnificent festivities which took place on the occa- sion are said to have cost the Khedive no less than 4,200, 0001. The great mercantile importance of the Canal is apparent from the following data. The distance from London to Bombay via the Cape of Good Hope is 12,548 English miles, and via the Suez Canal 7028 M. only. The saving thus effected is 44 per cent of the distance. From Hamburg to Bombay by the Cape 12,903 31., by the Canal 7383; saving 43%. From Trieste to Bombay by the Cape 13,229 31., by the Canal 4816 M. ; saving 63%. From London to Hongkong by the Cape 15,229 31., by the Canal 11,112 31. : saving 28%. From Odessa to Hongkong by the Cape 16.629 31., by the Canal 8735 31. ; saving 47%. From Slarseilles to Bombay by the Cape 12.144 31., by the Canal 5022 31. ; saving 59%- From Constantinople to Zanzibar by the Cape 10,271 31., by the Canal 4365 31. ; saving 57%. From Rotterdam to the Sunda Strait by the Cape 13,252 31., by the Canal 9779 31. i saving 26%. Tfie traffic on the Canal is rapidly increasing, as appears from the following statistics , and many vessels (not exceeding 425 ft. in length) pass through it at regular intervals. In 1870 . . 486 vessels of an aggregate burden of 493.911 tons. 1871 . . 765 - - - 761,467 - 1872 . . 1082 - - - 1.439,169 - 1873 . . 1172 - - - 2,085,032 - 1874 . . 1264 - - - 2,424,000 - 1875 . . 1494 - - - 2.009,984 - 1880 . . 2026 - - - 4,350.000 - 1881 . . 2727 - - - 5,795,000 - 1882 . . 319S - - - 7.322,125 - 1883 . . 3307 - - - 8,051,300 - In 1883 the British vessels which passed through the Canal were 2537 in number, French 272. Dutch 124, German 122, Austrian and Hunga- rian 67, Italian 63, Spanish 31. Russian 18; and there were also a number of vessels of other nationalities. The number of passengers on board these vessels was about 115,000. The net receipts are also steadily inereasins: — Receipts in 1871 .... 340.000*. sterling - 1872 .... 41S.000*. - 1873 .... 916,000*. - 1874 .... 808,000*. - 1S80 .... 1,600,000*. - 1881 .... 2,043.000*. - 1832 .... 2.409,000*. - 1883 .... 2.625.000*. The fact that the increase in the receipts of the last few years has not kept pace with that of the tonnage of the vessels is explained by the reduction of the tariff. Passage of the Suez Canal. The entrance to the Canal from the Gulf of Suez is not at the N. extremity of the gulf, but much farther to the S., and is approached by a navigable channel in the sea which is indicated by certain landmarks (p. 419). The vessel first passes the lighthouse (red light) at the end of the pier run- ning out from the Asiatic shore, and then a second (green light) near the docks at the end of the great railway pier. It then follows the deep navigable channel , which at the end of the Canal is 300 yds. in width, but gradually contracts. A number of shoals, 432 Route 7. SHALUF. From Suez which are dry at low tide, lie on the E., and others on the W. side of the ship's course. We pass a handsome pier on the left, from the S. side of which the navigable channel to Suez, bordered by shallows, branches off to the N.W., and then, nearly in the lati- tude of Suez, we enter the mouth of the canal. On that part of the W. bank of which the Canal has made an island by separating it from the mainland, rise the workshops and coal magazines of the company and the quarantine establishment. At low tide the shal- lows in the N. part of the gulf are visible, and a series of islands is always to be seen at the extremity of the gulf, which, but for the Canal , might be crossed on foot at low tide. On the westernmost island, situated opposite the railway station and the hotel, is an old burial-ground, and on a larger island farther to the E. are the company's furnaces and workshops. At the 150th kilometre (the 83rd on the fresh-water canal") the desert rises in a slight eminence, on which lie a number of huge granite blocks, the remains of two monuments erected here by Da- rius, during the Persian period, and still bearing traces of hiero- glyphics and of the Persian cuneiform characters. 'They were doubtless intended to arrest the eye of the passenger tra- velling through the canal, and were therefore of imposing dimensions, and placed on a massive pedestal. The bed of the ancient canal is, more- over, traceable in the neighbourhood. It does not seem to me probable that Darius should have limited himself to the three monuments of which there are still remains, particularly as the distance between the second and third (at Shaluf and Serapeum respectively) is much greater than that between the first and second. One other monument at least may there- fore be supposed to have stood between the second and third .... These three monuments have been destroyed by violence, perhaps during the successful rising of the Egyptians in the reign of Artaxerxes, or after they had finally shaken off the Persian yoke. Fire, which is very in- jurious to granite, seems to have been used in destroying them 1 . — (Lepsius.) Near Shaluf et- Tcrrahch (a station on the left, near the 139th ki- lometre, with a village in the midst of vegetation, founded by the company), no less than 40,000 cubic yds. of limestone, coloured red and brown with iron, had to be removed in the course of the excavation of the Canal, and interesting geological formations have been brought to light (comp. p. 60). 'The lower stratum of the bank contains a layer of sharks' teeth (Carcharodon megalodon Ag.) . . . The limestone rock of which the bank c insists, and which is rapidly decomposed by exposure to the air, is mingled with salt and gypsum, and betrays its pure oceanic origin; for not only docs its lowest stratum contain numerous teeth and vertebra oi l In- Carcharodon, but the rock itself contains bivalve shells and remains of Bryozoa, which fall out as the rock disintegrates. Above the limestone lies a layer of loose sand. A thin stratum of the rock, which is full of remains of boring conchylia and crocodiles' teeth, also contains bones and ; lai quadrupeds, Cetacea, and sharks'. — (O. Fraas.) Near. Shaluf is the second of the monuments erected by Darius (see above), which was discovered by MM. Rozicre and Devilliers, two of the savants attached to the French expedition, and was ex- cavated by M. de Lesseps in 1866. The red blocks, which belong to Port Said. SEKAPEUM. 7. Route. 433 to two different monuments, bear Persian cuneiform and hierogly- phic inscriptions. In the latter the name of Darius occurs. The representations still preserved exhibit a curious combination of Persian and Egyptian characteristics. The winged disk of the sun of the Egyptians resembles the 'Feruer' of the Persian monuments. The Persian tiara is adorned with the heads of two kings, opposite to each other. The figures are in the Egyptian style, and between the outstretched hands of each is an Egyptian 'cartouche', or frame for the name of a king. One of the blocks bears hieroglyphics in front (half obliteratedj and cuneiform characters at the back. The Canal now enters what is called the Small Basin of the Isthmus, which consists entirely of shell formations, and thence leads into the Large Basin of the Bitter Lakes + (p. 425). At each end of the large basin rises an iron lighthouse , 65 ft. in height. The water is of a bluish green colour. The banks are flat and sandy, but a little to the left rises the not unpicturesque range of the Gebel Geneffeh (p. 414). A little farther on (near the 89th kilometre) is the cutting which conducts the Canal through the rocky barrier of the Serapeum. The railway station (p. 414) is near the fresh- water canal. A flight of steps ascends to the top of the left bank of the Canal. The village, which was founded in 1860, contains several pleasant little gardens. The ruins from which the station derives its name were formerly supposed to have belonged to a Serapeum, which, according to the itiner- ary of Antonine , once stood in this neighbourhood ; but they can hardly have belonged to a temple of Serapis or to any other sanctuary, and. Lepsius is doubtless right in pronouncing them to be the remains of a third monument erected on the bank of the ancient canal by Darius (p. 432j. He found here a fragment of the wing of a disk in the Persian style, a stone with cuneiform characters, and a third bearing hieroglyph- ics, all of which confirmed his opinion. The blocks of limestone lying on the ground belonged to the pedestals of the monuments. The ruins of the real Serapeum have been probably discovered in the remains of a stone building, about 74 paces long (from E. to W.), and 53 paces broad (from N. to S.j, situated about '/j M. to the S. of the 14th kilometre stone on the fresh-water canal. Excavations made there have brought to light a few Egypto-Roman antiquities , which probably once belonged to a village connected with the Serapeum. In accordance with the rule re- garding the temples of Serapis, the village must have lain entirely beyond the precincts of the sanctuary. At the 85th kilometre is situated Tusiin, which is easily recog- nised by the whitewashed dome of the tomb of a certain Shekh En- nedek, a wealthy chief, who, after having made a pilgrimage to Mecca, is said to have presented his cattle and his gardens to the poor, and to have spent the rest of his life on the Gebel Maryam near Lake Timsah in pious meditation. Excavations in the neigh- bourhood of Tusun have led to the discovery of many interesting fossil remains of large animals belonging to the meiocene tertiary + Brugsch identifies the Bitter Lakes with the Marah of the Bible (Exod. xv. 23) : 'And when they came to Marah they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter'. Baedeker's Egypt I. 2nd Ed. 28 434 Route 7. ISMA'ILIYA. From Suez formation, and pieces of fossil wood have also been found here (p. 338"). ■ — Before entering Lake Timsah we pass the foot of the Gebel Maryam, which an Arabian legend points out as the place where Miriam, when smitten with leprosy for her disapproval of the marriage of Moses with an Ethiopian woman, spent seven days, beyond the precincts of the camp of the Israelites (Numbers, xii.). At the 80th kilometre stone the Canal enters Lake Timsah, or the Crocodile Lake (p. 409), on the N. bank of which lies the town of Isma'iltya. The lake, which is now about 6 sq. M. in area, and of a beautiful pale blue colour, was, before the construction of the Canal, a mere pond of brackish water, and full of reeds. On 18th Nov. 1862 the water of the Mediterranean was let into this basin, which is traversed by two artificial channels for the passage of large vessels. Isma'iliya. Railway Station, see p. 414; steamer to Port Sa'id, see p. 424. — In the Place Champollion, between the station and the harbour, is the 'Hotel Pai-is, a good though very unpretending inn. On the lake is the small * Hdtel des Bains de Me>\ pension 12 fr., bath 1 fr. Post and Telegraph Offices and Chemist's Shop not far from the rail- way station. While the Canal was being constructed this town was the cen- tral point of the works, and the residence of numerous officials and traders, so that its traffic soon became very considerable, and it has even been extolled by modern poets as a 'wonder of the desert'. Its suddenly acquired prosperity declined almost as suddenly when the canal works were completed, but the town has lately regained a little of its former animation. The houses and gardens and the viceroyal chateau, which had fallen into a dilapidated condition, have recently been restored. The climate is pleasant and the air dry , notwithstanding the proximity of the water. The ground, which has been reclaimed from the desert by means of irrigation, has been planted with tasteful gardens. On the N.E. side of the town are the chateau of the Khedive and the waterworks ; on the W. side is the Arabian quarter. The best way of spending a few leisure hours here is to visit the hill of El-Gisr (see below ; i-'2 hrs. ; donkey 1 fr. ). The route to it passes the Pierre Gardens and the engine-house of the waterworks. Canal Journey to Port Sa'id. The steamer (p. 424} at first follows the navigable channel indicated by stakes. To the S. rises the Gebel Abu Balah range. In '/4 ur - we reach the entrance to the Canal, which now intersects the plateau of El-Gisr ( 'the threshold') in .a straight direction. The hills of El-Gisr cross the course of the Canal a little to theN. of Lake Timsah, and presented a serious ob- stacle to its construction. The average height of the 'threshold' is 52ft. above the sea-level, and it is now about 82ft. above the bottom of the ('anal. In order to form a cutting through it, no less than 18,767,000 cubic yds. of earth had to be removed, and 20,000 ii were employed in the work before machinery could be -<"\ yy FOLDOUT BLANK PORT SAID 1:32.000 ■£J° Eng.Tfiles MS 3 lint mta-Tang depth of 3 TatPunnt or 1 i ! /~. Hotels: a Hotel dies Pin-x-Bu.i I) Hotel ./. ■ France. ] Passport, < iistom-Jiause £ Egyptian telegraph Office. ZJnistrian Lloyd .'i .!/■•. ■..(.Fre,teii Post Office. VI Eastern Teleyraph. lit. .s'laa./ liter House . to Port Sa'id. LAKE MENZALEH. 7. Route. 435 brought into operation. At the top of the hill is the deserted village of El-Gisr, with a chapel to the Virgin of the Desert, a small Swiss house, and a mosque. A flight of steps ascends to this point from the Canal. In clear weather the view hence embraces a great part of the Isthmus, the frowning r Ataka Mts. rising above Suez, the majestic mountains of the peninsula of Sinai , the course of the Canal, and the green expanse of the Bitter Lakes. The Canal is flanked with high banks of yellow sand. At the next passing-place we obtain a glimpse of the desert. Near Ei- Ferddn (at the 63rd kilometre stone) the Canal passes through a cutting, and then traverses Lake Balah, from which it is separated by a low embankment. We next reach El-Kantara ('the bridge'), or properly Kantarat el-Khazneh ('bridge of the treasure'), situated on a rising ground between the Menzaleh and Balah lakes, and forming a kind of natural bridge between Africa and Asia. The caravans starting from the town of Salihiyeh , situated on the old Pelusiac arm of the Nile, and the point where the chief commercial routes of the N.E. part of the Delta unite, pass this way, and the projected Egypto-Syrian railway will take the same direction. The old bridge was removed by the Canal Company , and replaced by a ferry. The station here contains several restaurants [Hotel de la Poste , dejeuner 4 fr., very fair; opposite to it are '•Refreshment Rooms' and a 'Buffet des Voyageurs' ; halt of V2 -3 /4 ^ r 0- ^ ne hill to the left commands a tolerable survey of the environs. About V/-> 31. from Kantara He a number of large blocks of the same sandstone conglomerate as that of which the colossal figures of the Mem- non consist. They appear to have been used as altars in some mon- umental edifice, which, as the inscriptions inform us, was erected by Seti I. in honour of his father Ramses I., and completed by Ramses II., the son of Seti. To what ancient town these ruins belonged has not been ascertained. A moderate day's journey distant are situated the extensive ruins of Pelusium, the celebrated eastern seaport and key to Egypt, which now contains no objects of interest. The ruin-strewn Tell el-Hew, and the more extensive Geziret el-Farama, which is also covered with debris, were once occupied by the ancient fortress. Immediately beyond Kantara begins Lake Menzaleh, through which the Canal is constructed in a perfectly straight line to Port Sa'id (45 kilometres). 'The brackish waters of this lake extend over an area of about 1000 sq. M., covering what was once one of the most fertile districts iu Egypt, and was intersected by the three most important arms of the Nile in ancient times, the Pelusiac, the Tanitic, and the Mendesian. Among the numerous towns and villages situated here were the important cities of Avaris, the name of which, afterwards changed to Pelusium, is connected with several important and stirring historical events ; Tanis (p. 452), situated on the Tanitic arm and on a canal connecting that arm with the Mendesian, a place where trade and science once prospered •, and Tennis (p. 452), of the ruins of which there are still traces on an island in Lake Menzaleh. Not only has this vast tract been lost to cultivation , but the environs of the lake also are in a miserable condition from long neglect ... I have rarely seen a more desolate region than this, which was once so smiling. In the midst of the interminable expanse of sand, swamp, and water, the only relief to the eye was afforded by immense flocks of pelicans and 28* 436 Route 7. PORT SA'ID. silver herons and a few herds of buffaloes. The right of fishing here is farmed out by government at a rent of 1.500,000 frs. per annum, but what a paltry sum is this compared with the value of the lost land I 1 (Stephan). The operation of draining the lake has been begun , particu- larly of the part adjoining the Canal. Curious mirages are some- times observed here. Ras el-Esh is the last (15th) station. We soon come in sight of the numerous masts of Port Sa'id, which we reach in 3 / 4 hr. more. To the N.W. are the white stones of the cemetery, the tombs in which are constructed in the form of vaults of masonry above ground , as the soil is saturated with salt water at a depth of 2 ft. below the surface. Port Said. Hotels. "Hotel des Pats-Bas (Netherlands Hotel, PI. a), 'pens. 1 15 fr. ; Hotel de France et dd Louvre (PI. b), 'pens.' 12 fr. — The Eldorado and the Grand Casino are two much-frequented music halls, which may be visited by ladies ; theatrical performances are given at the former in winter. Cafi Paradis, Quai Francois-Joseph. Egyptian Post Office, PI. 15; French, PI. 16; Egyptian Telegraph Of- fice, PI. 1 ; Eastern Telegraph Co., PI. 17. Consuls. American, Mr. Broadbent; Austrian, Mr. v. Jleglia; British, Mr. Burrel; French, M. Dobignie; German, Hr. Bronn; Greek, M. Poly- 7neris: Holland, Count van der Ihiyn ; Italian, Dr. Yiilo; Sweden & Norway, Mr. Wills; Belgium, M. Holbecke; Denmark, Mr. O' Connor; Spain, Sen. de la Corle; Russia, Hr. Bronn. Banks. Agencies of the Anglo-Egyptian Banking Co., the Credit Lyon- nais, and the Banque Ottomane. Steamboats , see p. 7. Voyage to Jaffa or to Alexandria 15 hrs. — On arriving at Port Sa'id by sea, as in the case of Alexandria (p. 203), the traveller sees nothing of the low, sandy coast until the steamer reaches the yellowish-green water near it, which is rendered turbid bj the mud of the Kile. The lighthouse ami the masts of vessels at anchor in the roads first come into view, after which we observe the massive piers (see below) which protect the entrance to the port. The custom house examination takes place immediately on landing. Passports, though asked for, are not indispensable. If the vessel does not lay to at the quay, '/2 fr. is charged for taking each passenger ashore. Travellers wishing to se- cure a passage in one the steamers bound for Syria during the travelling season (February to April) had better do so by telegraph. — Regular com- munication with Isma'iliya is maintained by the small screw-steamers of the Suez Canal Co. and of the Egyptian Post Office. Lake Menzaleh (see p. 435) affords excellent Wild Foicl Shooting in March and April. Flamingoes are observed among many other species. The charges for the necessary boats vary greatly according to the demand. If possible, the sportsman should return to Port Sa'id every evening, as the nights arc often cold and rainy; but, if provided with a tent, a cook, and other necessary appliances, he may camp out on several of the dif- ferent islands in succession. The town of Port Sa'id, which owes its origin to the Suez Canal , lies at the E. extremity of an island which belongs to the narrow strip of land separating Lake Menzaleli from the Mediter- ranean. It is the seat of the general manager of the Suez Canal. It was expected that tin' prosperity of the place would increase ra- pidly, but its progress lias hitherto been very gradual. The broad, PORT SA'ID. 7. Route. 437 regular streets consist chiefly of light and temporary hrick build- ings. The population (17,058, including 6000 Europeans) is similar in character to that of Suez, but the French element preponderates here still more. The construction of the harbour was attended with immense difficulty. It occupies an area of 570 acres , and has been excavated to a depth of 26 ft. by means of laborious dredging. It is protected by two massive piers ; the eastern run- ning out into the sea towards the N. for a distance of an English mile; and the western, running towards the N.E. for l 1 /^ M., being still unfinished. Where they start from the land these piers are 1440 yds. apart, but their extremities approach within 770 yds. of each other. The navigable entrance , marked by buoys which are lighted at night, is only 100-160 yds. in width. (Those who have leisure may hire a boat for a cruise in the harbour or for the purpose of visiting one of the large steamers lying at anchor.) The most serious risk to which the harbour is exposed is that of being choked up with the Nile mud which is deposited on the Pelusiac coast by a current in the Mediterranean, constantly flowing from the west (comp. p. 207). The western pier is intended to ward off these accumulations of sand and mud, and also to shelter the harbour from the N.W. winds which prevail during two-thirds of the year ; and it is therefore of great length and so- lidity. Both piers were constructed by the Freres Dussaud of blocks of artificial stone, manufactured of seven parts of sand from the desert and one part of hydraulic lime imported from Ardeche in France. The concrete was mixed by machinery and poured into large wooden moulds, in which it remained for several weeks. The moulds were then removed, and the blocks exposed to the air to harden them more thoroughly. Each block weighed 20 tons, and measured about 13Y 3 cubic yards in solid content. Thirty of them were manufactured daily, and 25,000 in all were required. 'Above the wooden moulds, which covered an extensive piece of ground, was constructed a tramway, bearing a steam-crane, which could be moved to any required spot, for the purpose of hoisting the blocks and conveying them to their destination. After having been hoisted by the crane, the blocks were transported to a boat, where they were placed on an inclined plane in twos or threes, and secured by means of wedges. They were then conveyed to the place where they were to be sunk, the wedges were removed, and the huge masses then slid down the incline, splitting the wood and emitting sparks of fire on their way. and plunged into the water with a tremendous splash, while the boat staggered from the effects of the shock and was lashed by the waves thus artificially caused. These huge 'pierres perdues\ as they are technically called, were thus gradually heaped up until they reached the surface, and the last layers, rising a little above the level of the water, were finally deposited by means of a crane on board of a steamboat'. On the strip of land separating Lake Menzaleh from the Medi- terranean rises the *Lighthouse, constructed of concrete, 164 ft. in height, and one of the largest in the world. Its electric lights are visible to a distance of 24 M. To the E. of it are quays and work- shops. The streets extend along the W. side of the Inner Harbour, 438 Route 8. MANSURA. Towns of the which consists of tliTee sheltered basins in which vessels discharge and load. The first of these, beginning on theN. side, is the basin of the commercial harbour, the second is that of the quays, and the third the 'Bassin Che'rif '. The last is flanked with handsome build- ings, which were erected by Prince Henry of the Netherlands as a depot for facilitating the Dutch goods and passenger traffic between Europe and the colonies of Holland; on his death, however, which happened in 1882, they were purchased by the English government, and they are now used a military depot and barracks. 8. Towns of the Central and Northern Delta. A tour in the inland and i orthern districts of the Delta, inclnding a visit to the towns of Mansura, Damietta, and Rosetta, and the exploration of some of the ruins of towns near the embouchures of the Nile, is at- tended with considerable difficulty and discomfort, with which the at- tractions are by no means commensurate. A week at least is required for the excursion, unless the traveller confine himself to places lying close to the railway. Those who are unacquainted with the language, and propose to pene- trate into the interior of the country, should be provided with a dragoman or a servant (p. 13), a tent, and a cook, as there are no tolerable hotels except at Tanta, Damietta, and Rosetta. Introductions should be ob- tained through the consulate at Cairo to the consular agents at Mansura, Rosetta, and Damietta, and to the shekh of the fisheries at Tanis. As wet weather and cold nights are not uncommon in the Delta in winter, the traveller should be well provided with warm clothing and rugs. A moderate supply of provisions and wine will also be found useful. Disposition op Time. The railway traffic in the Delta has much in- creased of late, so that the following tours can now be accomplished with much less loss of time than formerly. The hours of starting and the fares are so often changed, that it is useless to give them here, 1st Day: From Cairo to Mansura. — 2nd Day: At Mansura; excursion to Behbit el-Hager; and start from Talkha, opposite Mansura, for Da- mietta. — 3rd Day: Forenoon at Damietta; in the afternoon, by train (1.45 p.m.) to Tanta. — 4th Day: From Tanta to Rosetta. — Oth Day: From Rosetta to Alexandria. — A visit to Tanis takes two days more, and to Sais also two days. The tour may also be made in the reverse direction, and some trav- ellers will find it convenient to proceed from Tanis direct to Port Said. The journey itself presents little attraction. The chief characteristics of the monotonous scenery are extensive and often remarkably fertile fields, canals, and dirty villages surrounded by palm-trees. a. From Cairo to Mansura. 02 M. Railway in 6 hrs. : fare 69 or 40 piastres tariff. From Cairo to (47V 2 M.) ZakdzVc, see It. 5 ; halt of 1/2 ' ir - C* Re " freshment Room). The Mansura train crosses the Pelusiac arm of the Nile and proceeds to the N.N.E., following the E. bank of the. Mu'izz Canal, the ancient Tanitic branch of the Nile, and travers- ing a fertile district. Stations (56 M.J Mchiyeh and (02 M.J Ahu Kebtr. From Alni Kebir a branch-line runs to the E. via Tell Fdtus. anciently a 1 p. 451), to CJit>/'j M.t Es-Salihtyeh, situated on the' old Pelusian arm of tin- Nile (p. . r >Dl and on 'the caravan road to Syria. — Route via Tell Pakus tn Tanis, see p. 151. Beyond Abu Kebir the line turns to the N.W., crosses the Northern Delta. MANSURA. 8. Route. 439 Mu'izz Canal and a number of other smaller canals, and next reaches (66 M. ) El-Buha and (Tl'/o M.) Abu Shekuk (route thence to Tanis, see p. 451). — 79 M. Sinbeldwtn. — 92 M. Mansura. A shorter route from Cairo to Mansura is to fake the train (leaving Cairo at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m.) to Tanta and TaUha (p. 442), and then to cross the Nile to Mansura. Mansura [Hotel de France; Hotel Papathanasi ; Hotel du Nil; Filiciano's Restaurant; consular agents for Great Britain, Germany, etc.), a town with 16,000 inhab., surrounded by cotton-fields, lies on the right bank of the ancient Bucolic or Phatnitic arm of the Nile , now the Damietta branch, from which diverges the Ashmun or Sughayyar ('the little') canal. Next to Tanta, Mansura is the most important provincial town in the Delta ; it is the residence of the Mudir of the province of JDakahllyeh , and is the chief depot of the bread-stuffs, cotton, indigo, tobacco, hemp, and flax which this part of the Delta produces. There are several large manufactories here, and many European inhabitants, chiefly Greeks. Most of the houses are badly built and in a dilapidated condition. History. Mansura (i. e. 'the victorious"), a comparatively modern place, was founded by Sultan Melik el-Kamil in 1220, after the capture of Damietta by the Christians (p. 443), and doubtless as an advantageous substitute for that place in a strategic point of view, as it lies securely ensconced in the angle formed by the Damietta arm of the Nile and the Ashmun Canal. The new fortress, according to the chronicles of Jor- danus, was called New Damietta, to which the epithet of Mansura, or 'the victorious', was afterwards added. Melik el-Kamil constructed the place with great care, and threw a bridge, strengthened with iron, across the Nile, which served both for the purpose of communicating with the opposite bank and as a barrier to prevent the Christians from forcing their way farther up the Nile. The first serious attack made on Jlan- sura was by the Crusaders under Louis IX. of France in 1250. After en- countering great difficulties they succeeded in crossing the Ashmun Canal, and on the first day of battle, after a severe struggle, they were even- tually victorious. In the neighbourhood of Mansura, however, they were repeatedly defeated by the young Sultan el-Mo f azzam Tnranshah. Their fleet was destroyed, and 'famine-fever 1 broke out. Negociations of peace proved fruitless, and when the ill-fated Crusaders attempted to escape they were intercepted by the vigilant Turks , who thinned their ranks terribly and captured the king with his brother Charles of Anjon and a number of the knights attending them. Louis thus expresses him- self regarding this misfortune in a letter which is still extant: — 'The Saracens with their whole army and in immense numbers fell upon the Christian army during our retreat, and thus it happened that by divine permission, and as our sins merited, we fell into the hands of the enemy. We ourselves, our brothers the counts Alphonso of Poitiers and Charles of Anjou, and all who were retreating with us by land, fell into cap- tivity, though not without many losses by death and much shedding of Christian blood, and not one escaped 1 . During his captivity at Mansura Louis IX. was treated with consideration, even after the young Mo r ajzam Turanshah had been assassinated before his eyes, and the crown of Egypt had passed from the house of Saladin to the so-called Bahrite Mamelukes (p. 104). On 6th May, 1250, Louis and his barons were released on pay- ment of a heavy ransom, and on surrendering the town of Damietta. Leaving the Mudiriyeh and following the curve described by the street, we pass a small mosque on he left and the German con- 440 Route 8. BEHBIT EL-HAGER. Towns of the sulate on the right, and after a few hundred paces reach a lane on the left, containing the Garni' es-Sign (here pronounced Sagna), or 'mosque of the prison', which is pointed out as the prison of Louis IX., although Ahulfida has stated that the king was con- fined in the house of Ihn Fakhreddin, the scribe of the town, situated on the Nile. (A small room on the hank of the Nile is shown as Fakhreddin's house, but without the slightest authority.) The mosque contains columns brought from older edifices, with Byzantine capitals of Corinthian tendency, bearing Saracenic ar- ches. The Mambar (pulpit) and ceiling are still embellished with remains of fine wood-carving, which was originally painted. An- other, and probably correct tradition points out an old house of Saladin's time, next door to the El-Muwafik Mosque, as the true prison of Louis IX. The town contains no other sights. The palace of the Khedive is a large and unpleasing building. Excursion to Behbit el-Hager. The excursion by boat takes 2 hrs. up the river, and l!/ 2 hr. in the reverse direction, so that, including a stay of 2 hrs., it occupies 6-7 hrs. in all. The charge for a good boat is 6-8 fr. ; bad walkers should take donkeys with them. In ascending the stream, the boat passes the town on the left, lying close to the bank of the river. On the right is the vil- lage of Goger, also known from an early period as Tell el- Yehudtyeh ('hill of the Jews'), inhabited by Arabs. Many of the Jews of Man- sura still cause their dead to be interred here. The next places are Mit Ndbit on the right, and Ka.fr Wtsh on the left. The Shekh el- Beled (mayor of the village) of the latter place possesses a pleasant garden, which is often visited by the inhabitants of Mansura, par- ticularly on feast-days, for the purpose of 'smelling the air'. Nearly opposite this village we land (on the right) at an old bulwark of blocks of limestone and bricks, near the Kantarat el- Wish, a bridge across a canal which joins the river here. — From the river to the ruins is a pleasant walk of 40 minutes. The luxuriant trees on the route have quite a European appearance, as they include lime-trees, silver poplars, and willows, besides the sunt-tree, the lebbek, the tamarisk, and the bernilf shrub. We traverse well-cultivated fields, and soon reach the distinct traces of a wall enclosing a heap of ruins, known to the Arabs as i llagcr cl-Gamtis (buffaloes' stone), which form the remains of the once magnilicent Isis Temple of &: Hebt or Hebit, or Pa Hebit, i. e. the town of the panegyr- ics or festive assembly. The words Pa Hebit were corrupted by the Arabs to Behbit. The Copts knew the place by its sacred name of Naisi (n«s.HCl), and the Romans called it Iseum or Isidis Op- pidum. It lay in the Sebennytic nome, the capital of which was Sebennytus , situated on the same site as the modern Semennud (p. 445), once the home of Manetho , and about 6V2 M. distant Northern Delta. BEHBIT EL-HAGER. 8. Route. 441 from Pa Hebit. Some idea of the immense changes which have taken place in the vegetation of this region since the era of hiero- glyphics may be formed from the fact that, while the papyrus plant was sedulously and successfully cultivated on both banks of the Nile in the neighbourhood of Sebennytus, not a single specimen of this useful plant is now to be met with, either here or in any other part of the Delta. On the N.W. side of the ruins of the temple lies the village of Behbit, and adjoining it still exists the sacred ■ lake of the temple. The ruins of the venerable sanctuary of Isis form an imposing and most picturesque mass of blocks, fragments of columns and architraves, ceiling slabs, and other remains, al- together about 400 paces in circumference. We are reminded of the animal sacred to Isis by the reliefs of cows and of figures with cows' heads on several of the blocks of stone. The name of Ptolemy II. Philadelphus I. (B.C. 284-246), the founder of the temple , occurs in several places. The structure must have been a very costly one, as it consisted entirely of beautiful granite, chiefly grey, and partly red in colour, brought from a great distance. The sculptures (hautreliefs and reliefs en creux) are most elaborately executed. Several of the female heads and busts, and some of the cows' heads also, are remarkably fine. In some of the inscriptions the hieroglyphics are unusually large , in others they are of small and elegant form, and in all they are executed in the somewhat flourishing style peculiar to the age of the Ptolemies. The chief deities revered here were Isis, with Osiris andHorus, besides whom occur Seb and Nut, Hathorand Khunsu, the triad of Sehu, Tefnut, and Anhur, Sebek, Ilapi (the Nile), and Anubis in the form of Horus, as the avenger of his father. We may also remark here that Anubis, the martyr, was a native of Naisi, or the Iseum, on the site of which we now stand. On the W. side of the ruins is an inter- esting large slab of grey granite, veined with red, on which is represented the king offering a gift of land to Osiris and Isis, 'the great divine mistress of Hebit'. Higher up there is another block of grey granite, with a representation of Isis enthroned, and of the king offering to 'his mother' two small bags of the green mineral called mafkat and mestem, or eye-paint. The inscriptions consist of the usual formula; regarding offerings. None of them are perfect, but many must still be concealed among the ruins. The pylons have disappeared, and with them the historical inscriptions also. One of the sculptures represents a procession of the gods of the nome, but unfortunately their names are not given. In one case Isis calls the king 'her brother'. Adjoining a figure of the goddess is the inscription : — 'Isis, mistress of Hebit, who lays everything before her royal brother'. On a grey block of granite, lying in an oblique position, is represented the sacred bark of Isis, resembling those seen elsewhere in bronze only. The cabin is like a house of two stories, in the upper of which sits the goddess, with cow's horns 442 Route 8. DAMIETTA. Towns of the and a disk, on a lotus flower, and attended on her right and left by female genii with long wings. Each of the genii hears in her hand the pen of the goddess of truth. The ruins of the temple are now so confused that it is impossible to form even an approximate idea of its original form. A number of blocks resembling mill- stones show that the shafts of the columns were round. The capitals were embellished with the Hathor mask. On the N. side lies an unusually large capital, in granite, and upwards of 7 ft. in circumference. Numerous remains of pillars and architraves also still exist. The steps which led to the roof of the temple, and pro- bably resembled those at Dendera and Edfu, were also of granite. A huge block is still to be seen here with four steps attached to it. The ruins of Mendes, 11 M. to the E. of Mansura, whence they may be visited in one day , have recently been excavated , and it is not unlikely that they may afford a rich spoil to the learned explorer. b. From Mansura to Damietta. 40 M. Railway from Talkha (on the left bank of the arm of the Nile, opposite to Mansura; ferry in 5 min., l fe fr.). The trains leave Talkha at 2.55 and 11 p.m. and reach Damietta at 4.35 p.m. and 1.20 a.m.' (fares 29 pias. 20, 19 pias. 20 paras). — From Tanta (whence the train comes to Talkha) to Damietta, 7iy 2 M., in 3'/3-4'/3 h'rs. (fares 54 or 36 pias.). The train follows the left bank of the Damietta arm of the Nile. The land is carefully cultivated in the neighbourhood of Mansura, and we observe a number of steam engines which are used for the irrigation of the soil. The train stops at (14 M.) Shirbin , an insignificant little town built of crude bricks. The next stations are Rds el-Khaltg and Kafr el-Battikh. The latter lies in a monoton- ous, sandy plain, extending as far as Lake Burlus, and covered in summer with crops of water-melons. An important melon market is held here in July. The railway-station of Damietta lies on the left bank of the arm of the Nile (ferry in 5 min. ; 1 fr."). 40 M. Damietta, Arabic Dumyat, situated between the Da- mietta branch of the Nile and Lake Menzaleh, about 4 M. from the sea, possesses a harbour, annually frequented by about 500 vessels of an aggregate burden of 40,000 tons. ''Bektkand's Inn, small; French ,landlord. European Ctt/4 kept by Oosti, a Greek, who also lets a few rooms. Post-office and Arabic telegraph office. A Roman Catholic and a Greek church. Seen from the railway station, situated near the harbour, Da- mietta, which now has a population of 43,630 souls, presents an imposing appearance, with its lofty houses flanking the river. The interior of the town, however, by no means fulfils the traveller's expectations. On every side lie ruinous old buildings and walls; many of the houses seem to be uninhabited ; and new edifices are sought for in vain. There are few European residents here, the insignificant trade of the place being chiefly in the hands of native merchants (Arabs and Levantines). Small vessels only can enter Northern Delta. DAMIETTA. 8. Route. 443 the Damietta arm of the Nile, as the har at its mouth is constantly altered in form hy the wind and waves, so that vessels are liahle to a long detention in the open roads. Under the most favourahle circumstances the navigable channel varies from 6 to 16 ft. in depth. The industries to which the town was indebted for its former pros perity (see below) still exist to some extent, and the traveller will find it interesting to visit one of the streets inhabited by the silk and cotton weavers. History. Little or nothing is known of the early history of Damietta. It is mentioned by Stephanus of Byzantium as Tamiathis, a name which has been preserved in the Coptic Tamiati. The town must, however, have been a place of some importance during the Roman period, if we may judge from the numerous and occasionally very handsome columns in the mosques, many of which were found on the spot, though others were brought by the Arabs by sea from Alexandria or Pelusium. Domitian seems either to have visited Damietta, or to have been one of its patrons, as a stone bearing his name, doubtless found in the ancient town, now stands in front of the kadi's house. At a later period there were pro- bably a good many Christian residents, as a remarkably fine Christian church, which was destroyed by the Crusaders, once stood in ancient Damietta. During the Arabian era Damietta attained a great reputation on account of the resistance it offered to the Crusaders ; but the town of that period stood farther to the N. than its modern successor (see below). It was besieged for the first time , but without success, about 1196 by Amalarich and the troops of Manuel, the Greek emperor. Saladin devoted special attention to the fortification of the place. In 1218 Damietta was besieged by King John of Jerusalem with a German, Dutch, English, and French army, under the generalship of the Count of Saarbriick, aided by the knights of three ecclesiastical orders. The Christian army , which was afterwards reinforced by a number of Italian troops, is said to have consisted of 70,000 cavalry and 40,000 infantry, and although this account is probably much exaggerated, it was doubtless very numerous. With the aid of an ingenious double boat, constructed and fortified in accor- dance with a design by Oliverius, an engineer of Cologne, the Frisians, Germans, and others of the besiegers succeeded after a fight of twenty- five hours in capturing the tower to which the chain stretched across the river was attached. The success of the Christians was however con- siderably marred by the interference of the ambitious, though energetic Pelagius Galvani, the papal legate, and by the vigilance of the Egyptian prince Melik el-Kamil. In 1219 many pilgrims, including Leopold of Austria, quitted the camp of the besiegers, believing that they had done their duty. At length, after varioiis vicissitudes, the Christians captured the place. They obtained valuable spoil, sold the surviving townspeople as slaves, and converted the mosques into churches, but in 1221 they were compelled by a treaty to evacuate the town. In 1249, when Louis IX. landed near Damietta, it was abandoned by its inhabitants, who had set all the warehouses on fire. Without Striking a blow, t lie Crusaders marched into the deserted streets of the fortress, but in the course of the following year they were obliged to restore it to the Saracens as part of the ransom of Louis IX., who had been taken prisoner at Mansura (p. 439). During the same year, by a resolution of the Emirs, the town was destroyed, and re-erected on the E. bank of the river, farther to the S., on the site which it now occupies. The new town soon became an important manufacturing and commercial place. Its staple products were leather-wares, cloth, and essence of jasmine, for which it was famous, and its harbour was visited by ships of many different nations. After Mohammed 'All's victory over the Turks at Damietta in 1803, he con- structed the Mahmiidiyeh Canal with a view to restore Alexandria's an- cient importance. Damietta thus lost most of its trade, and its decline was farther accelerated by the foundation of the ports on the Suez Canal. 444 Route 8. DAMIETTA. Towns of the The town contains no attractions. The principal mosque is a huge, shapeless edifice, the only redeeming features of which are the lofty minarets and the spacious dome. All the houses of more stories than one are provided with handsomely carved wooden jut- ties and lattice-work, which differ materially in style from the inushrebiyehs of Cairo. The principal street, which is upwards of 1 M. long, forms the husy and well-stocked bazaar of the place. An interesting excursion may he made to the mosque of El- Gebaneh, situated near a cemetery, to the N. of the town (see below). The building appears to date from the period of the old town of Damietta, and has Cufic inscriptions in front. The interior con- tains numerous columns dating from the Roman period, the bases of which are about 3 ft. below the level of the pavement of the nave. Two of the columns bear curious inscriptions. Some of the shafts are of beautiful verde antico , and others of porphyry. The capitals, including several in the Corinthian style, are partly of Roman and partly of Byzantine workmanship. Two columns stand- ing on the same base are believed, like those in the Mosque of 'Amt at Cairo, to possess miraculous powers. (Fever-patients, for example, are said to be cured by licking one of them.) The minaret is embellished with early Arabian ornamentation. About 3/4 M. farther from the town is a hollow containing a cemetery and a number of brick houses. The soil here and on the slopes of the adjoining hills is of a dark red colour, whence the place derives its name of Bahr ed-Dem, or 'sea of blood'. According to tradition, 30,000 martyrs of El-Islam were once massacred here. The neighbouring hills, particularly those on the right, are called Tell (plur. tulill) el-'Azm, or 'hills of bones', being said to contain multitudes of human skeletons. Reminiscences of the siege of Damietta by the Crusaders in 1219, and of the victory gained here by Mohammed r Ali over the Turks in 1803 , are curiously mingled in the minds of the natives, and have given rise to various un- founded legends. It is not improbable that part of ancient Dami- etta once stood on the Tell el- r Azm. Sportsmen and fishermen will find much to repay them in a visit to Damietta and Lake Menzaleh (p. 435), 3 /i M. distant. The town is built on both banks of the arm of the Nile, the deposits of which have formed a terrace-like embankment, sloping down to the deeply indented salt lakes at ilii-' mouth (if the river. In the environs are extensive fields of rice, the harvest of which takes place in Sept. and Oct. The fields are intersected in every direction by cuttings and canals, which are crossed by numer- ous bridges for the use of the cattle. Cows are extensively reared here, and the milk and butter of Damietta are the best in Egypt. A walk in the environs will be found interesting. The fields are pleasantly shaded at intervals with plantations of sycamores, Cordia, and other trees. The ditches are filled with beautiful white and blue water-lilies (Nyni- phsea Lotus, N. cperulea, and N. stellata) and other aquatic plants. The larger canals are bordered with lofty reeds, the haunt of the ichneumon, which often surprises the traveller by its tameness. Notwithstanding its girdle of inundated plains, canals, and lakes, Damietta enjoys a remarkably healthy climate at all seasons. The atmosphere is never so Northern Delta. SAIS. 8. Route. 445 damp here as at Alexandria, which lies in more immediate proximity to the sea, and even in the height of summer it is often refreshingly cool. A trip by boat down to the Mouth of the Nile (Boghaz) takes 3-3 Y2 brs., or, if the wind is favourable, 1^2 hr. only (fare 5 fr.). Numerous dolphins will be observed in the river near its mouth. From Damietta to Rosetta (p. 449), via. Lake Burlus (Burollos), a route which is not recommended , takes 2-3 days at least , and sometimes much longer. c. From Damietta to Tanta. 7ii/ 2 M. Railway in 3 I A-4 1 /4 hrs. (two trains daily, starting at 7 a.m. and 1.45 p.m.) ; fares 54 or 36 piastres. To Mahallet-Ruh (junction of the line to Desuk) in 3-3 3 /4 hrs. ; fares 47 pias. 10, '31 pias. 20 paras. From Damietta to (40 M.) Talkha (Mansura), see p. 442. Beyond Talkha the train runs at a little distance to the W. of the Damietta arm, and next reaches (51 hrs. ; fares 24 pias. 30,' 16 pias. 20 paras (from Tanta 31 pias. 20 paras, or 21 piastres). Those travellers only will take this route who intend proceeding from Desuk to Rosetta. The train runs towards the N.W. , crossing numerous canals. Sta- tions KotUr; Neshart, a village on the right bank of the Bahr Kalin, which the train crosses; Shabbds; and Desiik. the ancient Naukratis, on the right bank of the Rosetta arm, which is here of considerable width. No accommodation is procurable here , and it is not easy to hire a boat for the whole journey to Rosetta. A small boat may, however, be hired as far as FSa, where a larger craft for the rest of the route is more easily obtained. d. Sals. From the Kafr ez-Zaiydt station (p. 225) an excursion may be made to S3. el-Hager, the site of the ancient Sais, the cradle of several royal families (24th, 26th, and 28th Dynasties); but there is no great induce- ment to visit the place , and even the scientific traveller is not likely to be rewarded unless prepared to make costly excavations. At all events a visit to this spot had better be paid in the course of a tour in the Delta, and not on the traveller's first journey to Cairo. A donkey may 446 Route 8. SAIS. Towns of the be hired at Kafr ez-Zaiyat for 15 piastres per day. For a party it is pleasanter and cheaper to make the excursion by boat (easily procured; fare for two days about 25 fr.). The journey by land takes 5 hrs. , by water 3-8 hrs. , according to the wind. The plain watered by the Rosetta arm of the Nile is extremely fertile. A little to the N. of Kafr ez-Zaiyat the river describes a long curve ; and somewhat farther to the N. , on the W. bank , a little inland , but visible, from the water , rise the ruins known as Ed-Daharlyeh , a series of heaps of debris which mark the site of a town of considerable size. On the W. bank, farther on, is the pleasant village of Nakhleh. The village of Sd el-Hager (on the E. bank), at which we disembark, lies to the S. of the ruins. The ancient Sais is mentioned in history at a very remote period, and as early as the 18th Dynasty it was regarded as a cradle of sacerdotal wisdom. The goddess Neith , whom the Greeks iden- tified with their Athene, was the tutelary deity of the place. She was one of the maternal divinities, a manifestation of Isis (p. 135), and was named the 'great cow' which gave birth to the sun. She ■was worshipped both by the Egyptians and the Libyans. On the Roman coins of the Sa'ite Nome is seen a figure of Minerva with an owl in her right hand and a lance in her left. It was this identification of Neith with Athene that probably led Pausanias to suppose that Pallas-Athene originally came from Libya, to which Sa'is was frequently considered to belong. According to an ancient tradition, Athens is said to have been founded by Cecrops of Sais, and a fanciful corroboration of the myth is sought for in the fact that the letters of A-neth-a and Athena are identical. Most of the Greek scholars who repaired to Egypt for purposes of study went either to Heliopolis or to Sa'is. According to Plato, Solon as- sociated here with the learned men of Egypt, Herodotus obtained much information here, and the fame of the Saite knowledge of mysteries was maintained down to a late period. The 36th Dynasty originated in the city of Neith , and its kings were specially devoted to that goddess, to whom they erected monuments of great splendour. Cambyses also visited Sa'is after his conquest of Egypt, and showed himself favourable to the temple of the goddess and her rites. It is not known when the town was destroyed. It was probably an episcopal see at a very early period. There is now no trace of the famous buildings erected here by Amasis and others (p. 93), or of the chapel formed of a single block of granite brought from Elephantine to Sais, which must have weighed at least 250 tons. The site of the temple of Neith, which was connected with the royal palace and with a mausoleum for the Pharaohs of the 26th Dynasty, cannot now be identified with any certainty. The columns with palm-capitals, the tomb of Osiris, the obelisks, statues, and androsphihx.es, mentioned by Herodotus, have all entirely disappeared. The sacred lake, however, on which, according to Herodotus, mystery-plays were acted at night in Northern Delta. CANOPUS. 8. Route. 447 honour of Osiris , is probably identical with a sheet of water to the N. of a huge wall enclosing an open space, on the E. side of which the wall is upwards of 500 yds. long and nearly 65ft. in thickness. The outline of the lake was probably once elliptical, but is now of very irregular form. On its S.E. side rise vast heaps of rubbish , marking the site of the royal palace and the temples connected with it. It is, however, impossible to trace the outline of a single building , either here or among the ruins between the village of Sa el-Hager and the enclosing wall of the Acropolis, lying to the N. of the cluster of humble fellahin dwellings which have inherited the proud name of Sa'is in the form Sa. Mariette's excavations at this spot brought a few antiquities to light, but led to no discovery of importance. e. Rosetta. 44 M. From Alexandria to Rosetta by railway in 2 l /z brs. ; fares 33 pias., 22 pias., 13 pias. 10 paras (two trains daily). The station is out- side the Porte Moharrern-Bey, whence the Cairo trains also now start (see p. 206). — From Damanhur (p. 224) to Rosetta is a journey of one day only, but the start should be made at an early hour. As far as Fumm el-JIahmudiyeh a donkey takes 2'/2-3 brs. (charge about 4 fr.); thence to Rosetta by boat in 5-7 hrs., according to the wind (20-30 fr. ; or, including stay, which must be specially bargained for, and return, about double that sum). From Alexandria to Rosetta there is a recently opened railway, skirting the coast, from which short branch-lines are to be constructed to the various coast fortresses. The famous towns which lay on this coast in ancient times have entirely disappeared. As far as Stdi Oaber (p. 223), the second stopping-place, the train runs parallel with the railway to Cairo, which then diverges to the right, while our line follows a N.E. direction. The next station of any importance is (Q l fa M.) Ramleh (p. 222 ; the station lies l/j M. to the E. of the town). Stations El-Mohammadiyeh and 'Azabet es- Siyuf, the latter of which is a considerable village. Near ($ l /<> M.) El-Mandara the train enters upon the neck of land which separates the Lake of Abukir (Beheret Ma'adlyeh) from the Mediterranean, and reaches (12 M.) Abukir (6 M. to the N.E. of Ramleh), an insigni- ficant village , famous for the naval battle of 1st Aug. 1798 , in which the English fleet under Nelson signally defeated the French, destroying thirteen of their seventeen vessels. The precise site of the ruins of Heracleopolis and Canopus is unknown. The latter, which lay 120 stadia from Alexandria, was probably situated a little to the E. of Abukir. Between that village and an opening in the neck of land which separates Lake Edku from the sea are some heaps of ruins which perhaps belonged to the ancient Canopus. The city of Canopus, which, according to the decree ofTanis (p. 313) passed here, was known by the sacred name of Pakot , and by the popu- lar name , still existing in the Coptic language , of Kali en-Nub , or 'golden soil 1 , was a very famous place in ancient times. The resemblance of the name Kahennub to Canobus , the helmsman of Menelaus , gave rise 448 Route 8. ROSETTA. Towns of the to the Greek tradition that that pilot was interred here. Strabo describes the pleasure-loving town as follows : — 'Canobus is a city which lies 120 stadia from Alexandria, if one goes by land, and is named after the helmsman of Menelaus who died there. It contains the highly revered temple of Serapis , which, moreover, works such miracles that even the most respectable men believe in them, and either sleep in it themselves, or get others to sleep there for them. Some persons also record the cures, and others the effects of the oracle dreams experienced there. A particularly remarkable thing is the great number of parties of pleasure descending the canal from Alexandria ; for day and night the canal swarms with men and women , who perform music on the flute and licentious dances in the boats with unbridled merriment, or who, at Cano- bus itself, frequent taverns situated on the canal and suited for such amusements and revelry 1 . — The jars known as 'canopi' (p. 301) derive their name from this place. On the shore of the semicircular hay of Abukir are several small forts, and on the promontory rises a lighthouse. The train continues to traverse the narrow neck of land between the Lake of Abukir and Lake Edku beyond it , on the right, and the Mediterranean on the left. Stations (20 M.) El-Ma adty eh, near the former Canopic mouth of the Nile (p. 59), and (28 M.) Edku, a village situated on a sand-hill to the right. The train finally traverses a dreary expanse of sand, and reaches Rosetta (p. 449). From Damanhtjb. to Rosetta. We ride past several wells and along the bank of a small canal , traverse some fields, leave the ruins of Kom ez-Zargun to the right, and in l!/ 4 hr. reach the Mahmudlyeh Canal (p. 223), which lies between lofty banks, and is traversed by barges and small steamers plying between Alex- andria and Rosetta. After a ride of about lOmin. more, we observe, on the opposite bank of the canal, a long, desolate-looking, one- storied house , which was used for the accommodation of the work- men employed in cleaning the canal in the reign of Sa'id Pasha. The canal, which connects Alexandria with Cairo and the Delta, and at the same time supplies the former city with water from the Nile (see p. 215), was constructed by Mohammed Ali in 1819 at a cost o~il l lim\X\\Q\i francs. In the execution of the work he employed theforced labour of 250,000 fellahin, of whom no fewer than 20,000 are said to have perished from disease and over-exertion. We fol- low the bank of the canal, and about l'/s M. from liimni cl-.Mah- mudiyeh reach two rows of remarkably fine trees, under the shade of which we continue our route. Near Fumm el- Mahmudlyeh, "where the canal receives its supply of water from the Rosetta arm of the Nile, its banks are lined with solid brick masonry, and at this point we observe a number of barges awaiting the opening of the lock-gates which separate the canal from the river. The engines by means of which an impetus is given to the water so as to cause it to flow towards Alexandria are four in number, each being of 100-horse power. The large and handsome engine-rooms may be risited by the traveller. Adjacent is a workshop for repairs. The banks of the Rosetta arm are monotonous, but are enlivened by a considerable number of towns. The first place on the right Northern Delta. ROSETTA. ■ 8. Route. 449 bank is Sindyun, with a handsome minaret. Opposite to it is Derut. uigular pieces of wood at the top of the minarets are used for hearing lamps on festive occasions. Numerous pumps are observed on the banks. The next places on the left are Minyct-es-Sa'M and and on the right Shemslur; then, on the left Adflneh, with a palace erected by Said Pasha, and on the right Metubis. Farther towards the N., Dibeh lies a little to the left, and on the right are Kuni, Minyet el-Murshid, and the important-looking little town of Berimbdl. On the same bank are Yeggartn and the village of Kasha , and opposite , to the left, is the town of Mdhallet el-Emir, crowned with two minarets. On the right we next observe Far as, and on the left Shemdsmeh and El-Khimmdd ; then , on the right, El-Basreh, and on the left El-Qedlyeh. The citadel of Rosetta I Reshid), usually known as the KaVa (/castle') next comes in sight. Near it, also on the left , we observe a fine grove of palm-trees rising close to the town, and the hill of Abu Mandur (see below). Rosetta, Arabic Reslud (a Coptic name, Ti Rashit signify- ing "city of joy"), the ancient Bolbitine, with 19,392 inhab., almost exclusively natives, lies at the mouth of the Bolbitinic arm of the Nile, which was also called the Taly (TdX'j). As the Rosetta Stone (see below) was found near Fort St. Julien, 4 M. to the N., it is supposed that the ancient town lay in that neighbourhood. — There is no inn at Rosetta, but, if necessary, the traveller may apply for accommodation to the hospitable Franciscan monks. History. Little is known regarding the early history of the town. It was founded on the site of the ancient Bolbitine , and early in the middle ages attained considerable mercantile importance. It continued to flourish down to the beginning of the present century, but its prosperity declined rapidly in consequence of the construction of the Mahmudiyeh Canal and the improvement of the harbour of Alexandria. The rice trade of Kosetta is of considerable importance , and shipbuilding is car- ried on with some success. The town possesses numerous gardens, which yield excellent fruit. The hill of Abu Mandur, to the S. of the town, which com- mands a tine view, is supposed by some topographers to have been the site of the ancient Bolbitine. The interesting streets contain many small, but substantial houses in a peculiar , half-European style, with projecting stories and windows towards the outside. Numerous columns from edifices of the heathen and Christian periods , many of them of granite and some of marble , are seen lying in various open spaces, particularly one of considerable size near the river, and a number of others are built into the houses. The very spacious Mosque of Sakhlun is embellished with many ancient columns, but is otherwise uninteresting. The fortifications to the N. of the town are not shown except by permission the commandant. In 1799 M. Bouchard, a French captain of engineers, discovered in Fort St. Julien the celebrated Rosetta Stone, which afforded European scholars a key to the language and writing of the ancient Egyptians, which had been lost for nearly 14 centuries. Baedeki i:s Egypt I. '2nd Ed. 29 450 Route 8. ROSETTA. Towns of the The Rosetta Stone, now preserved in the British Museum, is a stele of black basalt, the corners of which are unfortunately damaged, bearing three different inscriptions on its face. The subject is the same in each case, but the first is in the sacred hieroglyphic language and character of the ancient Egyptians, the second in the demotic, or popular, language and writing, and the third in the Greek language and character. The 54 lines of the Greek text, which is written in 'xinciaF letters, are well preserved, but of the 14 hieroglyphic lines all on the right side and twelve on the left are seriously damaged. The subject of the inscription is a decree of the priests in honour of Ptolemy V. Epiphanes (B. C. 204-181), issued on 27th March, 195, when the king was still a boy of fourteen. The high- sounding titles of the king, the date, and the place (Memphis) where the resolution was passed are first set forth in eight lines. Next follow in twenty-eight lines the motives which induced the hierarchy to issue the decree, — viz. the numerous benefits conferred by the king on his country, the gifts presented by him to the clergy and the temples, the reduction and remission of taxes, the indemnity granted to criminals, his leniency towards the rebels who had 'returned to peace', !his vigorous resistance to enemies approaching by land and by sea and to the town of Lycopolis, his prudent conduct on the occasion of an inundation which took place in the eighth year of his reign, and his liberal contributions towards the support of the sacred animals and the repair and adornment of the temples. The remainder of the inscription gives the resolution itself, to the effect that a statue, a chapel of gold, and an image of the king should be placed in every temple, decorated on feast-days, and revered ; and farther, that the decree, inscribed on a slab of hard stone in hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek writing should be placed in every temple of the first and second rank. — The last paragraph of the Greek inscription in- forms us that we shall find the two translations, one in the sacred, the other in the popular language of the Egyptians, adjacent to it. The first step towards deciphering these last was to endeavour to discover the alphabet of each kind of character. The demotic part was first scrutinised, and M. S. de Sacy and Hr. Ackerblad, a Swedish scholar, first succeeded in determining the groups which contained the word Ptolemy. In the hieroglyphic part (p. 110) some of the groups were framed, and, as had been ascertained from the Roman obelisks and other sources before the finding of the Rosetta Stone , it was inferred that these were names of kings. Dr. Th. Young, an Englishman, and M. F. Champollion, the French Egyptologist, then succeeded, independently of each other, the former in 1819, the latter in 1822, in discovering the missing alphabet by means of a comparison of the names of the different kings. Champollion afterwards prosecuted his researches with such marvellous success, that he justly merits the highest rank among the decipherers of hieroglyphics. Taking the framed group which recurred most frequently on the Rosetta Stone to be Ptolemaios, as the Greek inscription indicated, he compared it with other framed symbols on an obelisk found at Philfe contempora- neously with the Rosetta inscription. The symbols on the obelisk, which occurred in connection with the name of Ptolemy, he conjectured to sig- nify Cleopatra, as the number of letters also indicated. He then pro- ceeded to compa re the two '.'roups: — (1) [ ~ *L j (J I he took to be Ptolemy, Cleopatra. The first symbol in the second of these groups is a triangle, which he supposed to represent ft, and which does not occur in the first group (Ptolemy). The second symbol in the second group, a lion, he took to bi / and lie was confirmed in this view by the fact that (lie same syni- Northern Delta. TANIS. 8. Route. 451 bol occupied the fourth place in the first group. The third symbol in the second group, a reed, according to his hypothesis, would be e, and this again was confirmed by the two reeds in Ptolemaios, representing the Greek diphthong at. The fourth symbol in the second group, a cord with a loop, was also, according to his expectation, found to occupy the third place in the first. So, too, the square, representing p in the sec- ond group was found to correspond with the first letter of the first group. The sixth letter of the second group, a bird, did not occur in the first group, but was repeated in its proper place in the second. The seventh sign in the second group, a hand, would be <, but the same letter was represented in the word Ptolemy by a semicircle. This discrepancy might have misled the decipherer, had he not rightly conjectured that two different symbols might possibly exist for the same letter, and that the semicircle at the end of Cleopatra represented the Coptic feminine article t, which, as he afterwards found, is placed at the end of many female names. The eighth letter in the second frame lie took to be r, and this letter did not occur in the first frame. By this process the nine letters of Cleopatra's name, or ten including the article, were ascertained, while the different letters in the case of Ptolemy were afterwards verified by comparing them with the nam es of other kings, and partic ularly with other steps in the task of deciphering the hieroglyphics have already been noticed at p. 111. f . San ( Tunis). A visit to the ruins of Tanis is not only somewhat, tedious and trou- blesome, but will not repay the ordinary traveller, as they are now covered by sand. The finest relics discovered there have, moreover, been carried oflf to grace the museum of Bulak. Most travellers will require a dra- goman, a tent, and rugs for the journey. Down to the middle of January, that is before the Nile is too low, the traveller may proceed by the Mu r izz Canal from the AbxL Shekiik station (p. 439) to San. Enquiries as to the state of the water should previously be made at Zakazik. The train from Zakazik arrives at 4.27 p.m. at Abu Shekiik, where the party embarks in a boat previously ordered by the dragoman. San may be reached the same day (7-8 hrs., but more in the reverse direction), and the night should be spent in the boat. The boats are large, but dirty. The charge for the voyage to San is about 45 fr., and for the journey there and back about i>0 fr., including stoppages, which must be specially stipulated for. If the water in the canal is too low for navigation, the traveller should proceed to the Abti Kebiv station only (p. 438), and there take the branch-line to (9 M.) Tell Fakils, a village on the left bank of the Nile, which is reached at 3.30 p.m. On the op- posite bank of the canal, about 1 M. from the ruins of the ancient Phacusa, and near the modern Mil el-'Azz, is a cotton factory belonging to an Egyptian bey. Mr. Robertson, the manager, an English engineer, accords a kind reception to travellers. The ruins of Tell Fakus, the site of the ancient Phacusa (n/*//\ top, 7.////' vet c/--lrn///\ iAIRO .V//7.V/ fuTTflh ^"fcaj/^l Ksh -Sfi Bart Kuti-Htiiutiiil f:,.\ Salt ti\AvAt\ yletjih'fjwfi 'Slu-rdlW, °-J:r/iij ago Tibnive/t ,rrH t >iUuiJt e/iuitd seyhir OMcn.tJu'vvh. ^■/-Al/atis, 'sfiAr/- tint Gortehfltlk^Scnnr^ W" 1 I ^T^ 7 '^©*-- Xeztv/i X n^lfeBQJ Jittsrhwim | ^ ~«^_^- .,.- , "^/VT^ Ckrtfiah > rl-jditldi tyr. ■liihihai o 'iihivrh Attn., 7 -Xtl.SU- °X""f fornuin llahiui >,,:. A.ui Kc/'rMuijrttib M,',lm,.'Mui AllU.Nl < Bash ' Oith St drmeiil aJiunseh ') JBeUIA . U.!i/ui.\d/jii'i'if/i lienWii HlRAKlCtRPOLIS Jlf>rutrt'h o[ VeshgheA ^ Ar '" XaMda '/«/- c'KuO: Sella ;.va<>\ ' - UaJarUi-en Cttuboh fa&S6 ■'■/. ,1-Jitdanluli o >i- °Sa*aX -\; ''<.,. rl llnrahs!,,- Gemjritr G.el-Tei il fiapi Grojniph.TnMit uf U'.ijnn S D.'bt s.Inpug Situation. FAYUM. 9. Route. 457 luxuriant crops fur which the province is famous; while the western- ii-l chiefly consists of sterile desert land. To the W. and N. of the liirket el-Kuriin rise precipitous limestone hills, beyond which lies the immense sandy desert of Sahara. The Fayum must have been reclaimed from (he desert at a very early period, probably during the early empire, in the reign of Amenemha III. , as monuments of his period indicate that ho was perhaps the first of the Pharaohs who sought to regulate the whole course of the Nile. On the Upper Nile Prof. Lepsius has found Kilometers constructed by that monarch, and in the Fayum, on the site of the Labyrinth, a number of blocks of stone inscribed with bis name. The Greeks called him Ameris, or Moei'is, and believed that the lake known to them as 'Lake Mceris', which they regarded as a marvel of engineering skill, was named after him. The word meri, however, is the Egyptian for lake or overflow, so that the great basin of the Fayiini was simply 'the lake'; and it was from his exertions in connection with the irrigation works that Amenemha obtained the name of Mceris. We learn from several inscriptions, and from a papyrus roll treating of the Fayum, that the province was known in the time of the Pharaohs as Ta sliet, or the lake-land, and that Lake Mceris was called hun-t, signifying the discharge or posterior lake. On its bank rose the celebrated Laby- rinth, which was probably renewed by the Bubastite monarchs of the 22nd Dynasty. About the same period the town of Crocodilopolis, situat- ed on Lake Mceris, and afterwards called Arsinoe after the wife of Pto- lemy Philadelphus, was so extended and embellished by Osorkon I. that it is called the 'city of Osorkon I.' in the inscription on the celebrated stele nf Piankhi. The whole province was at first called the lake-land, then the district of Crocodilopolis, and lastly the Arsinoite Nome. The deity most highly revered here was the crocodile-headed Sebek, the rep- tile sacred to whom was carefully tended in Lake Moeris. At the same time the voracious and dangerous monster, notwithstanding the reverence paid tn it on account of its connection with the inundation, was also regarded as Typhonic, and the Crocodilopolitan nome was therefore uver in the lists ofnomes. — At, the period preceding that of the Psamtikides of the 26th Dynasty the Labyrinth appears to have been used as a hall for great imperial assemblies. At the period of the Ptolemies and the Romans the products of the Fayum were much extolled. 'The Arsinoite Nome', says Strabo, 'is the most remarkable of all, both on ac- count lit' its .scenery and its fertility and cultivation. For it alone is planted with large, full-grown, and richly productive olive-trees, and the oil is giind when carefully prepared; those who are neglectful may in- '1 ill "Main nil in abundance, but it has a bad smell. In the rest of Egypt the olive-tree is never seen, except in the gardens of Alexandria, where under favourable circumstances they yield olives, but no oil. Vines, corn, podded plants, and many other products also thrive in this district in mi small abundance'. — Stralms description is still applicable at the present day. The oranges and mandarins, peaches, olives, figs, cactus fruit, pomegranates, and grapes grown here are much esteemed, and the beautiful, rich-coloured red roses of the gardens of the Fayum, which were once so lavishly strewn at the banquets of Cleopatra, still thrive here. At the station of Medinet el-Fayum small phials of attar of roses, of inferior quality, are frequently offered for sale. Isma r il Pasha devoted special attention to this favoured part of his dominions. The fields, which are watered by means of wheels of peculiar construction, yield rice, sugar, cult ii. flax, and hemp, besides the usual cereals. The beginning of No- vember is probably the season at which the traveller will obtain the most distinct idea of the fertile character of the district. — The Inhabitants are fellahin , or tillers of the soil, and Beduins. To the latter race be- long the poor fishermen who inhabit the banks of the Birket el-Kuriin. Many of tin' peasants also call themselves 'Arabs 1 , and the wealthier of I In: in are generally well mounted. The Railway Journey is preferable to the voyage up the Nile in point of speed, and the passenger obtains a good view of the 458 Route!). MEDINHT EL-FAYUM. FayHm. left bank of the river, and sometimes of the opposite bank also. The Nile with its lateen sails is frequently visible to the left, while on the right we obtain glimpses of the Pyramids, rich corn-fields, canals, water wheels, palm-groves, and villages with tall dovecots in rapid succession. The journey has already been described as far as (14 M.) Bedrashen (see p. 372). We next observe on the right the pyramids of Dahshur and the so-called false pyramid of Meduin (see p. 467). Abu Rag wan, Kafr ed-Dabai, Kafr el-'Ayat, Kafr Amar, and Gizeh are unimportant stations. 51 M. el-Wasta (post and telegraph office) lies in the midst of a large palm-grove, a few hundred yards to the left of the line, in the direction of the Nile. Travellers coming from Cairo change carriages here; stay of 20 min. in the forenoon, 17 min. in the afternoon. The branch-line to the Fayum runs towards the W., across cultivated land, to the village of Abu Rddi, beyond which it tra- verses a desert tract for 35 min., and then crosses the low and bleak Libyan chain of hills, reaching its highest point at a level of 190 ft. above the sea. We then descend, cross the Bahr el-Warddn, which flows towards the Bahr Yusuf from the N., and then the water- course of el-Bats (p. 460), and near the station of (19 M.) el-Adweh (69 ft.), on the right, we again perceive cultivated land. On the left is a cemetery with the dilapidated tombs of several shekhs. Numerous palm-branches are placed by the tombstones as tokens of affection. On the right stretches an ancient dyke, which once may have belonged to the embankment of Lake Mceris (p. 462). We pass the station of el-Maslub, traverse rich arable land, and soon reach (23 i/ 2 M.) — Medinet el-Fayfim, the 'town of the lake-district', situated to the S. of the site of Crocodilopolis-Ardnoe , the ancient capital of the province (Hotel du Fayoum, 10s. daily; with a letter of intro- duction from Cairo quarters may also be obtained at the American mission-station or at the house of the Italian cure). It contains about 40,000 inhab., and is a not unpleasing specimen of an Egyp- tian town. Between the station and the town we observe a peculiar, undershot sakiyeh, or water-wheel driven by the water itself. The very long covered bazaar contains nothing of special interest. The traveller, even if unprovided with an introduction, should pay a visit to the mudir, who will protect him from extortion in case of .■m\ difficulty with the owners of horses and others (comp. p. 34). A broad arm of the Bahr Yusuf (p. 456) Hows through the middle of the town. The mosque of Knit Bey, on the N. side of the town, now somewhat dilapidated, is the only interesting building of the Kind. It contains numerous antique columns, brought from the ancienl ^rsinoe, some of which have shafts of polished marble with Arabic inscriptions, and Corinthian and other capitals. Below the mosque, on the bank of the Bahr Yusuf, are some remains of ancient Fayiim. BIHAMU. 9. Route. 459 masonry. No ancient inscriptions have been discovered here, hut the walls of some of the houses contain fragments which must have belonged to ancient temples. At the W. end of the town the Bahr Yusuf radiates into numerous branches , which water the country in every direction. The dilapidated mosque of Soft situated here forms a picturesque foreground. To theN. of the town are the extensive ruins of Crocodilopolis- Arsinoe, which has been entirely destroyed. The site is now called Kom Fdris. Many antiquities, both of the Roman and the Christian period, have been found here, including numerous small terracotta lamps and many thousand fragments of papyri, intermixed with pieces of parchment. Most of the papyri are Greek (among them fragments of Homer, Euripides, Thucydides, also of a Christian catechetical book), many are Arabic from the 2nd cent, of the He- gira down to 943 A.D. ; and others are in Coptic, Pehlevi, Sassa- nide-Persian, and Meroitic-Ethiopian characters. Several fragments in hieratic and hieroglyphic characters, the oldest from the time of Ramses III. (about 1300 B.C.), have also been discovered. As the writings are for the most part tax-papers, it has been supposed that they belonged to a tax office of the town of Crocodilopolis, where old papyri also were used. A large number of the papyri found here were acquired by Consul Travers for the Berlin Museum, and even a larger nvimber by Theod. Graf and Archduke Rainer for the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry at Vienna. The very exten- sive cemetery of the town, with its picturesque tombstones, covers part of the site of the ancient city ; the highest of the mounds of rubbish command a survey of the whole of the Fayum. At the N. end of the ruins, about l 1 ^ M. from Medineh, M. Schweinfurth discovered the remains of a large temple with a pylon, in front of which is a sitting figure of Amenemha I., the founder of the 12th Dyn. , and inside several slabs with the name of Ramses the Great. A head with Hyksos features, now in the museum of Gizeh, has also been found here. According to Mr. Flinders Petrie, the temple proper, which was 490 ft. wide and had a double colonnade, be- longs to the 26th Dynasty. The village of Bihamu , about 4 31. to the N. of Jledineh , was doubtless once situated on the bank of Lake Moeris. It still contains some shapeless ruins of ancient origin , destitute of inscription, but sup- posed to be the remains of the pyramids which according to Herodotus once stood in the lake. They are now called Kursi F(v r i"/n, or chair of Pharaoh, and resemble dilapidated altars rising above other fragments of solid masonry. If they were once pyramids, the greater part of them must have been removed, as the walls are now but slightly inclined inwards. Distinct traces of the water in which they once stood are to be seen on their bases, and they are still surrounded by remains of walls, the purpose of which is unknown. In the fields near Ebgig, or Begig, 2'/2 M. to the S.W. of Medineh, lies a fine obelisk, broken info two parts, which must have once been at least 46 ft. in height (route to it rough and dirty). Like other obelisks, it is, horizontally, of oblong rectangular shape, and its summit is rounded. The inscriptions, which are damaged at many places, inform us that the MA) Route 9. HAWARA. Fayum. monument was erected by Userteseu I. , Who also founded the olnli.sk of Eeliopolia (p. 333), and belonged to the same family (12th Dyn.) as nilia III., the founder of the Labyrinth. — A visit to Bihamu and Ebgig is chiefly interesting to archseologists, and perhaps to bota- nists also. Excursions. A whole day is required for a visit to the Pyramid of Hawdrah and the Labyrinth (horse 10, donkey 5 fr.). The route leads at first for 3 /,ihr. along the hank of the Bahr Yusuf. The first village of any importance is Vhdfeh. Our path traverses well cul- tivated land with numerous water-wheels. The corn and cotton fields are shaded hy numerous sycamores, lehheks, palms, and other trees. Ahout ] /2 I 11 '- from Uhafeh, and beyond two smaller villages, we reach a bridge of ancient brick masonry. Traversing the slightly undulating tract a little farther, we reach the Bahr Bold Ma ('river without water), also called el-Bats, a deep chan- nel, extending in a wide curve, and terminating near the N.E. end of the Birket el-Kurun (p. 465). In winter the water, which trick- les down from its lofty hanks, forms a few scanty pools. At the bottom of the channel grow reeds and tamarisks. The S. bank rises at places nearly perpendicularly to a height of 26 ft., so that the sequence of the strata of the soil is distinctly observable. We now ascend the plateau (the highest in the province, 88 ft. above the sea level) on which lies Hawaret el-Kasab or Hawdret el- Makta, a considerable village, with a mosque (reached inl 3 / 4 hr. from Medinet el-Fayfim). The traveller may apply to the Shekh-el- Bcled (prefect of the village) for a guide to the pyramid of Hawara. If the water is high, and the canals have to be avoided, we have to make a circuit of nearly 2 hrs. to the Labyrinth, but by riding through the water, where necessary, it may be reached in 3 / 4 hour. The longer route is preferable, as it passes several relics of antiquity. A little beyond the village rises the bridge of Kandtir el-Ayani, the ten buttresses of which rest on a foundation of mas- sive stone. We continue to ride along an ancient embankment, and thus reach the Katasanta structure, which consists of a terrace of six carefully jointed steps of large and well-hewn blocks, but bears no inscription whatever. We cross the Bahr el-Warddm, which now intersects the ruins near the Pyramid of llawarah, and which is sometimes called by the Arabs Bahr el-Melekh or Bahr esh-Sherki, i.e. river of the East. On the E. side lies the mass of buildings, which, according to Lcpsius, was probably the Labyrinth (see be- low). In order to obtain a survey of these interesting ruins the traveller is recommended to ascend at once the Pyramid of Ha- wara. This consists of unburnt bricks of Nile mud mixed with straw (comp. p. IJ70), and, when its sides were perfect, covered an area of upwards of I Hi sq. yards. It has been ascertained that the nu- cleus of the structure is a natural mass of rock, 39 it. in height. The
  • (aa) and y\ C u )i are 8tl ^ recognisable. From the traces still ex- isting, the whole structure would appear to have occupied an area of 8800 sq. yds. , and the large inner court an area of about 60 acres. The Ancient Labyrinth. According to Brugsch, the Greek name Laby- rinthos, which has been differently interpreted, is derived from 'erpa 1 , or 'elpa-rohunf, i. e. the 'Temple of the mouth of the Lake 1 . The in- scriptions found, here by Lepsius prove that it was founded by Amen- emha III. of the T2th Dynasty. Herodotus declares that the Laby- rinth, which was afterwards reckoned as 'one of the wonders of the world , was so vast as to surpass all the buildings of the Greeks taken together and even the Pyramids themselves. For the best description we are indebted to Strabo , who visited the Labyrinth in person. He says: 'There is also the Labyrinth here, a work as important as the Pyramids, adjoining which is the tomb of the king who built the Laby- rinth. After advancing about 30-40 stadia beyond the first entrance of the canal, there is a table-shaped surface, on which rise a small town and a vast palace, consisting of as many royal dwellings as there were formerly nomes. There is also an equal number of halls, bordered with columns and adjoining each other, all being in the same row, and form- ing one building, like a long wall having the halls in front of it. The entrances to the halls are opposite the wall. In front of the entrances are long and numerous passages which have winding paths running through them , so that the ingress and egress to each hall is not practicable to a stranger without a guide. It is a marvellous fact that each of the ceilings of the chambers consists of a single stone , and also that the passages are covered in the same way with single slabs of extraordinary size, neither wood nor other building material having been employed. On ascending the roof, the height of which is incon- 462 Route 9. LAKE M(ERIS. Fayum. siderable, as there is only one story, we observe a stone surface con- sisting of large slabs. Descending again, and looking into the halls, we may ob erve the whole series borne by twenty-seven monolithic columns. The walls also are constructed of stones of similar size. At the end of this structure, which is more than a stadium in length, is the tomb, consist- ing of a square pyramid, each side of which is four plethra (400 ft.) in length, and of equal height. The deceased, who is buried here, is called Ismandes. It is also asserted that so many palaces were built, because it was the custom for all the nomes, represented by their magnates, with their priests and victims, to assemble here to offer sacrifice and gifts to the gods, and to deliberate on the most important concerns. Each nome then took possession of the hall destined for it. Sailing about a hundred stadia beyond this point, we next reach the town of Arsinoe', etc. This description of Strabo is confirmed by the contents of two papyri, one of which is in the museum of Gizeh, the other in private possession (Mr. Hood). The deities of 66 districts are enumerated here, 24 of whom be- long to Upper Egypt, 20 to Lower Egypt, and 22 to the Fayum. It is very doubtful whether we should consider these buildings of Nile bricks as remains of the ancient Labyrinth, or rather as tombs. Certainly nothing is left that recalls in any way the splen- dour of the old 'wonder of the world'. Except some blocks of lime- stone, nothing remains of the extensive structures once erected here, save the pyramid 'at the end of the labyrinth'. To the N. of the pyramid Mr. Flinders Petrie discovered some mummy coffins with carefully painted heads (now in London). Of still greater value are the portraits found at el-Rubaydt, 13 M. to the N.E. of Me- dinet el-Fayuin, which were purchased and brought to Europe by M. Theo- dore Graf. Lake Mceris. The object of Lake Mueris, which has long since been dried up, was to receive the superfluous water in the case of too high an inundation, and to distribute its contents over the fields when the overflow was insufficient. Strabo describes Lake Moeris in the follow- ing terms: 'Owing to its size and depth it is capable of receiving the superabundance of water during the inundation, without overflowing the habitations and crops ; but later, when the water subsides, and after the lake has given up its excess through one of its two mouths, both it and the canal retain water enough for purposes of irrigation. This is accom- plished by natural means, but at both ends of the canal there are also lock-gates , by means of which the engineers can regulate the influx and efflux of the water.' The lock-gate , which in ancient times ad- mitted the water conducted from the Nile by the canal into the lake, was probably situated near the modern el-Lahiin (see below), the name of which is supposed to be derived from the old Egyptian '■Ro-hun' or i Lo- hun.\ i.e. 'the mouth of the lake', and the site of which was probably once occupied by the town of Ptolemais. There is a difference of opinion as to the Situation and Form of the Ancient Lake. Linant-Bey, arguing from the considerable difference of level between the two lakes, maintains that the Birket el-Kuriin (Lake of the Horns, p. 4(15) could never have formed part of Lake Miens, as was formerly supposed, and he assigns to the latter a much smaller area than was attributed to it under the earlier theory. Placing it farther to the S.E., nearer to the Labyrinth and el-Lahun, he makes its boundary-line run towards the S.S.W. of Medinet el-Fayuni to the Birket el-Oharak, and intersect the desert of Shekh Ahmed, where the ancient height of the wa- ter, which far exceeds the level attained in modern times, has left, its it then leads to Kalamsha, turns to the N. to Der, and then to the E. and S.E. to DiTtrishktneh, follows the embankment of Pillaiedneh, Taw&ret < t-Kebir and the bridge of el-L&h&n (see below). Hence the boundary leads by JHmmo towards the N.E. to Seleh, and thence to the W. to Bihamu (p. 459 > : then again to the S., and thus returns to Medinet el- \ what fatiguing journey of 2-3 days will enable the trav- Fayfim. EL-LAHUN. 9. Route. 463 eller to complete this circuit of the bed of the lake, which is now dried up. Recently, however, Mr. F.Cope Whitehouse, relying upon the great circumference assigned by Herodotus (II, 149) to the lake, of 3000 stadia (reduced by Linant to 360) or about 335 M. (Pliny says 230 ML), and upon measurements made by himself on the spot, ascribes a considerably larger area to the lake than Linant, and maintains that it extended on the S.W. to the Wddi Ray an. It is not improbable that in ancient times nearly the whole of the Fayum could be laid under water, so that even the Birket el-Kunln belonged to Lake Moeris, but that the entire system was meant for' the watering of the Fayum alone and not of the Nile valley or the Delta. Considering that the bed of the lake must annually have been raised by the deposit of Nile mud, it follows, that as Boon as the raising of the embankments and the removal of the mud were discontinued, the lake must have become unserviceable, especially after the lock-gates at el- Lahiin fell to decay, each opening of which, as Diodorus informs us, cost 50 talents (i.e. about 11,250*.?). The discharge of the superfluous water probably ran through the Bahr Bela Ma. which has already been mentioned (p. 400), or through the Wadi Nezleh (p. 464), both of which fall into the Birket el-Kurun. The ancient conjecture, that the latter discharged part of its water into the Sahara (or, as Herodotus says, the 'Libyan Syrte'), was not an unnatural one. A visit to the Pyramid of el-Lahun or Illahun is only interesting to those who are desirous of convincing themselves of the truth of Linanfs hypothesis, and to make the circuit of the boundaries of the old bed of the lake (see above). The pyramid, which is built of Nile bricks, may be reached from Hawaret el-Kasab in 4-5, or from the Labyrinth in 3-4 hours. It has been recently been opened by Fraser. The discovery of an ala- baster altar with the name of Usertesen II. renders it probable that the pyramid was built by that monarch. A smaller pyramid lies to the N.E. The remains of tire ancient embankments, which were tolerably well preserved in the time of the Khalifs, are not without attraction. Those who are interested in hydraulic engineering should also inspect the en- trance of the Bahr Yiisuf into the Fayum. About y 2 M. 'to the E. of the pyramid of el-Lahun, Mr. Flinders Pe- trie discovered a temple in 1889. and close beside it the ruins of the town ffa-Usertesen-hotep, now called Eahun. The latter was founded by V.-er- tesen II (12th Dyn.) for the labourers on his pyramid. Among the articles found here were pottery, flint and copper implements of the 12th Dyn., numerous papyri of the same period, a statuette of Si-Sebek (13th Dyn). a wooden stamp of Apepi, and a large wooden door of Osorkon I. Gu>-ob, 11/2 M. to the W.S.W. of Illahun and close to the edge of the desert, owed its origin to Tutmes III., who built a temple there. Many of the inhabitants were foreigners. Mr. Petrie discovered here fragments of pottery of the time of Tutankhamon and Ramses II., resembling the most ancient potsherds found at Mycente. The coffin of Amentursha, discovered here, is now at Oxford. The pottery bears Egyptian stamps, but also letters of the Cyprian, Phoenician, and other alphabets. Birket el-Kurun and Kasir Kurun (tent, horses, provisions, etc., comp. p. 456). The Railway from Medinet el-Fayum via Senru and Abu Oonsheti to (15 M.) Abuksa (see below) and thence to Sen- hur and (T 1 /^ M.) Tirseh is used almost exclusively for the con- veyance of sugar-cane to the manufactories of the Khedive. Trav- ellers going by railway (one train daily from Medineh to Abuksa, starting about noon, and performing the journey in about 1 hr.) must take horses with them for the continuation of their journey. The following routes are all practicable, but the third is to be preferred : — (1) We proceed by land via. Nezleh (where boats must be ordered or the passage of the lake) to Kasr Kurun; then by water to 464 Route 9. RENHUR. Fayam. Dimeh, and again by water to the S. bank of the lake, situated in the latitude of Senhdr, which lies about 4 M. inland. The horses should be sent on from Kasr Kurun to the lake (unless the some- what refractory guides refuse to obey), in order that we may ride to Senhur, and thence to Medinet el-Fayum. Four or five days arc required for the excursion ; the points of interest are mentioned in the third route. The road from Nezleh (see below) to Kasr Kurun (4 hrs.) leads through the desert, past the remains of a small temple, called by the Arabs Kasr el-Bendt, or 'Maidens' Castle'. (2) If the traveller renounces Dimeh and Kasr Kurun, and is satisfied with the sport to be obtained in the Bahr el-Wadi, he may easily make the excursion in 2'/ 2 -3 days. On the first day the route skirts the railway (see above) to (2 hrs.) Senru; it then leads through a plantation of opuntia, the growth of which is so gigantic that it almost resembles a forest, and across a sandy tract overgrown with tamarisks to (2 hrs.) Abuksa, situated on a hill, and com- manding a fine survey of the lake and the Libyan mountains. At the N. base of the hill near the railway station (sue above) is a sugar manufactory, superintended by a Frenchman, who accords a kind re- ception to travellers. We now proceed to the S.W. across meadows, and through a somewhat marshy district, to (2Y2 hrs.) Absheh, sit- uated close to Nezleh. (The traveller is recommended to spend the night in a tent rather than among the Beduins.) Next day we fol- low the valley of the Bahr el-Wadi (or Bahr Nezleh), which is bounded by large mud-hills, to the lake (2'/ 2 hrs.), where we spend the middle of the day. (The numerous dead fish on the bank of the lake render its proximity unpleasant ; boats are to be had from the Beduins.) In the evening we return to Absheh, and on the third day to Medinet el-Fayum. (3) Four days at least are required for the somewhat longer route via, Senhur and the lake to Kasr Kurun, if the traveller wishes to visit Dimeh, and shoot on the lake. The route first skirts the railway and the villa of Mahmud Bey, and then passes the tomb of a shekh, where a draught of good water is offered to the traveller by a dervish. A number of dry ditches must be crossed, and also several canals, where the traveller on horseback will hardly escape from wetting his feet when the water is high ; if he rides on a donkey, he should get the Arabs to carry him and his saddle across. The fields which we pass are remarkably well cultivated, and the eye rests with pleasure on trees of various kinds, including fine olives in the gardens, with hedges of cactus. The vegetation is most luxuriant in the neighbourhood of Fidmm, a village picturesquely situated on a slope, but inhabited by a thievish population. The Bahr et-TdhUneh ( 'mill river'), one of the broader canals, must be crossed here. Beyond this point the country is, at places, green and well irrigated, and at others dry and sterile. One part of the route, which is Hanked by luxuriant gardens of olives, pomegranates, and Fayiim. BIRKET EL-KURUN. .9. Route. 465 figs, is very muddy. After a ride of fully three hours we reach the locks and the bridge Kanatir Hasan. The large body of water of the canal, which is conducted from the Bahr Yusuf, here falls into a channel, which, with many ramifications, conveys it to the fields of Senhur. The large village of Senhur (rail, station, see p. 463) lies on the border of the second plateau of the province. Those who visit Ha- wara(p. 460) reach the first plateau, while the second is crossed on the way to Senhur ; the third lies at our feet when looking down on the Birket el-Kurun from the great Kdm, i.e. the ruin-strewn hill to the N. of the village. The handsome house of the Shekh el- Beled offers good accommodation, and even quarters for the night. The traveller should make a bargain here for a boat with the shekh of the fishermen. About 30 fr. for the day, and a bakshish for the rowers (of whom 6-8 are necessary for speed), are demanded. Senhur stands on the site of an ancient, and not unimportant, town, of which large heap3 of ruins still remain. Roman walls are traceable in many places. A large building has recently been ex- cavated by the peasants for the sake of obtaining the hard bricks of which it is built, but part of it has already been removed. No remains of columns or inscriptions have been met with. From Senhur to the Birket el-Kurun takes about l'/2 hr. The route leads through sugar-plantations. We reach the l:\ke near the peninsula known as el-Gezireli, on which stands a heap of ruins. A short distance to the W. are the scanty remains of el-Hammdm. The traveller, after having ridden to the lake, should not forget to order his horses, which return to Senhiir, to await him for the return-journey at the spot where he has quitted them, or to order them to meet him in good time on the bank of the lake by Nezleh (see p. 464). The Birket el-Kurun ('lake of the horns') owes its name to its shape, which resembles that of slightly bent cows' horns. It measures 34 M. in length, and, at its broadest part, is about O 1 ^ M. wide. It is situated on the same level as the Mediterranean, and its depth averages 13 ft. The greenish water is slightly brackish (scarcely fit for drinking) , and abounds in fish , some of which are very palatable. The right of fishing is let by government, and the whole of the fishermen dwelling on the banks of the lake are in the service of the lessee, who receives one-half of the catch. The boats (merkeb) are very simply constructed, being without deck or mast ; the traveller must take up his quarters on the floor- ing in the stern ; none of the boats have sails, for, as the fish al- ways go in the same direction as the wind, the fishermen have to row against the wind in order to catch them. Numerous pelicans, wild duck, and other water-fowl, frequent the lake. The banks are extremely sterile ; on the N. side are barren hills of considerable height. In the middle of the lake rises a mass of rock, resembling a table, and serving as a landmark. Near the S. bank, from E. to W., lie the villages of Kafr Tamiyeh, Tirseh, Senhur, Abuksa, Be- shuai, and Alu Gonsheh ; the ruins of Dirneh are situated on the N. Baedeker's Egypt I. 2nd Ed. 30 466 Route 9. KASR KURUN. Fayum. bank, but there are no other villages of importance A the S.W. end of the lake is the promontory of Khashm Khaltl, overgrown with tamarisks and reeds, the creeks of which afford good landing- places. Ascending thence across the desert, we reach the temple in ahont IV4 hours. The fishermen object to pass the night on the hank in the neighbourhood of Kasr Kuriin, being afraid of the Be- duins and the l AfrW (evil spirits"). Kasr Kurun is a tolerably well preserved temple, probably of the Roman, or, at the earliest, of the Ptolemaic period. Before reaching it we observe numerous traces of an ancient town, which has now disappeared. The ground is strewn with blocks of hewn stone , burnt bricks , broken pottery , and fragments of glass. A circular foundation wall indicates the site of an ancient cistern, while other walls seem to have belonged to vineyards. The walls of the temple consist of carefully hewn blocks of hard lime- stone. This temple, like almost all the shrines in the oases, was dedicated to the ram-headed Ammon-Khnum, as is proved by the only two figures of this deity which still exist. They stand opposite to each other at the highest part of the posterior wall of the upper story of the open roof. The temple is 20 yds. in width across the facade, and 29 yds. in length. The entrance, facing the E., is approached by a lofty and carefully con- structed platform, 14 yds. in length, forming a fore-court, on the 8. side of which rises a massive structure resembling a tower. Adjoining t lie facade of the temple, to the W. of the entrance door, rises a massive, semicircular projection, resembling the half of a huge column. < >n the lower floor are the apartments of the temple which were dedicated to worship, divided into a triple prosekos, and leading to the Sekos or anc luary. In the first three rooms the ground slopes down towards the sanc- tuary, which, built in the form of a cella, adjoins the third room of the prosekos, and (as in the case of other temples) was divided into three small rooms at the back. The sanctuary is flanked by two narrow pas- sages, each of which is adjoined by three rooms. The rooms of the pro- sekos also have adjacent chambers from which we may enter the cellars, or ascend by two flights of step? to the upper floor with its different apart- ments, and thence to the roof, whence we obtain an extensive view of the remains of the ancient city, of ihe lake, and the desert. Each gate of this curious building is surmounted by a winged disc of the sun ; ami over the doors leading into the second and third rooms of the prosekos and into the sanctuary, instead of the ordinary concave cornice, there is a series of Urseus snakes, which, with their outstretched head;- and bend- ng necks, together form a kind of cornice. The names of several trav- ellers are engraved on the stone of the first room, including those, of Paul R. Pococke, Jomard, Boux, d'Anville, Coutelle, Bellier, Burton, Belzoni, Hyde, and Paul Martin. Kasr Kurun has also been visited by Lepsius. There are no ancient inscriptions remaining. To the E. of the large temple are .situated two smaller Roman tei in tolerable preservation, the larger of which, situated 300 paces from the r, is not without interest. Its walls (IS ft. b\ L9 ft.) CO) ■ unit bricks, and its substructures of solid stone; the cells ter- minates in a niche resembling an ;<\<■ Dragoman. PENINSULA OF SINAI. 10. Route. 471 remedied, the less likelihood will there be of subsequent annoyance. The traveller is particularly cautioned against trusting to the promises of Orientals. The cost of the journey for a party of 3-i persons, including camels, tents, accommodation in the monastery of Mt. Sinai (and at the Hotel at Sue/, it necessary i. provisions (exclusive of spirits), the dragoman's fee, and all gratuities payable to attendants, will amount to 40-50fr. a daj for each person, according to the requirements of the party, and the demand for camels. The expense is proportionally less for a large party, but in this case, delays and differences of opinion are more likely to occur. The following Contract will probably meet the requirements of most travellers. Contract. Mr. X. and his travelling companions on the one hand, and the Dragoman V. on the other, have mutually entered into the following contract: — (1) The Dragoman V. binds himseli to conduct Mr. X. and his party safely through Arabia Petreea to the .Monastery of Sinai, and hack, by the following route . .. (naming the principal points), at a chs ... shillings per day. For the three days, during which the cam travelling from Cairo to Suez the Dragoman shall receive one-third only of the stipulated daily charge. The Dragoman Y. undertakes to await at Suez the arrival of the travellers, in perfect order for starting, on the . . . day of the mouth of . . . The day of Starting from Suez shall be deemed the first Complete travelling day. For each day alter the first twenty days, reckoned from the Starting of the camels, and also for days oi rest, the right to appoint which is reserved to Mr. X., the daily i I a shall be reduci d to . . . for each person. (It is advisable to lay down the whole route very precisely, mention- i the iralleys which have to be traversed, but the stages must of course depend on the situation of the springs. We may again mention hat the Orientals, and the Beduins in particular, attach no value whatever to their time, SO that little or no compensation need lie made for delay s. I I'il The whole travelling expenses of the party, for the journey by land and bj water, camels, boats, etc.; for food, for tents, or for accommo- dation at hotels (to he chosen by Mr. X.l in case of any stay at Suez; for lights, service, guides, bakshish to all persons whatsoever, and parti- cularly the fees foe escorting the party paid to the Beduins whose terri- tory is traversed, shall be defrayed exclusively by the Dragoman Y.. who shall also bear all outlay tor the stay in the Monastery, including the usual contributions to the monks. Bach traveller shall he entitled, without extra charge, to ' ■_■ T bottle of wine per day, hut Mr. X. shall provide any spirituous liquors required bj the party. (Or the party may prefer to purchase their own wine, as well as spirits, in which case the Dragoman Y. shall be required to carry it free of expense. A few bottles of good claret or Burgundy, aud of Cognac, should also be taken by each traveller to mix with the water, which is often unpalatable, or to be used in case of illness.) (3) The Dragoman Y. shall provide a good cook, and a sufficient number of servants, and shall take care that they are always polite and obliging to Mr. X. and his party , and that they are quiet at night so as not to prevent the travellers from sleeping, and he shall also maintain order among the camel drivers , as well as the other attendants. The Dragoman Y. also undertakes to be himself at all times obliging to Mr. X. and his party (p. 13), and to comply with all their wishes so far as possible. (It is customary for the attendants to ask a bakshish for every trilling service, but no attention should be paid to their demands. An- other hail habit of theirs, to be carefully provided against, is that of tying up their beasts too close to the tents, and of chattering beside them half the night.) (4) The Dragoman Y. shall provide . . . tents for 2-3 persons each (to 472 Jioutt 10. PENINSULA OF SINAI. Camels. which may be added , if required , a tent to be used by the whole party during the day) , and for each traveller a complete bed with clean mat- tresses, blankets, sheets, and pillows; each person shall have two clean towels every five days, and clean sheets once a week. A sufficient supply of water for washing shall be supplied every morning, and as much drink- ing water per day as the traveller desires. (The Beduins of .Sinai carry the water in small, long-shaped casks. The traveller will find it convenient to have one of these appropriated to his private use. Kullehs are best for keeping the water cool, but are easily broken.) (5) The traveller's breakfast shall consist daily of eggs , with tea, coffee, or chocolate; lunch shall consist of cold meat (roast-meat, fowls, etc.), and fruit; dinner, at the end of the day, shall consist of . . . courses. The travellers shall be provided with oranges and dates whenever they desire. (The traveller may adjust the bill of fare according to his taste. As the air of the desert is bracing, a liberal diet should be prescribed; pre- served meats may also be stipulated for. Nothing is to be had on the route except at the monastery, where rice, lentils, bread, dates, and ex- cellent date-brandy may be purchased. The dinner hour should always be fixed for the evening, after the day's journey is over. It need hardly be said that wine and spirits are apt to make the traveller drowsy in hot weather. Cold tea quenches the thirst better than anything else. The bread which the dragoman proposes to take should be tasted beforehand. The Arabian bread , consisting of thin, round cakes, is only palatable when fresh, so that a supply of European bread should be stipulated for. — An abundant supply of ordinary to- bacco (p. 27) should be taken to give the attendants and Beduins , but the traveller should beware of being too liberal with it at first, lest this attention should be demanded as a right.) (6) The Dragoman Y. shall provide a sufficient number of good and serviceable camels; the riding camels (see below) for Mr. X. and party may be tried by them before starting, and in case they do not suit, may be exchanged for others. The same stipulation applies to the saddles (the condition of which should be carefully examined). (7) In case of the illness or death of any of the camels, Mr. X. and party shall to no extent be responsible. (8) Neither the Dragoman Y. nor the Arabs, who escort the travellers, shall, without the special permission of Mr. X., allow anyone whomsoever to join the party. (9) The Dragoman Y. binds himself to conduct Mr. X. and party to any point within Arabia Petrsea which they may desire to visit, to allow them to break their journey, whenever, and for as long a time as they may wish, and to provide each member of the party, when making ex- cursions off the main route, with guides and luncheon. The Dragoman Y. shall not, however, be bound to provide more than one dinner, and one lodging fov the night. (10) The Dragoman Y. forfeits all claim to payment for any day when he is the cause of a stoppage for more than half a day; but no such for- feiture shall take place, if Mr. X. himself, or unfavourable weather, should be the cause of the delay. Any accidents happening to the camels, or difficulties caused through the fault of the Arabs, shall be reckoned among the delays for which the Dragoman Y. is answerable. (This last stipulation is quite fair, as the Arabs in Arabia Petrsea can always procure fresh camels within a few hours.) (11) The day for starting from Suez shall be the . . .th day of . . .; for any postponement caused by the Dragoman Y., contrary to the wishes of Mr. X. and party, he shall be liable to a fine of . . A.stg. per day. The Camels (p. 12) used for riding are of an entirely different race from the camels of burden, and are called '■Hegiri', or in Syria 'DeliW (i.e. docile). The Deluls, properly speaking, are selected animals of noble breed, and very superior to the ordinary camels of the caravans. The Preparation. PENINSULA OF SINAI. 10. Route. 473 saddle, which is placed upon the hump of the animal, consists "fa kind of WOOden frame, from which two high round crutches project in front and behind. Upon the frame is placed a leather cushion (which is rendered more comfortable by the addition of rugs), and in front of the foremost crutch there is a second cushion. The traveller sits with one lei round the foremost crutch, somewhat in the way in which ladies ride, and rests the heel of one foot against the instep of the other. The camel is urged on by the rider's heel, or a switch. The camels generally march in a long string, one behind the other, with deliberate but long steps, always snatching at herbs by the way-side when they have an opportunity. Their trotting and galloping paces are unpleasant. A camel can also carry two or more persons in a litter, and may also be made to carry the traveller's luggage. Mounting is not easy at first. When the animal kneels down, the rider grasps the two crutches, and places one knee on the cushion; he then swings the Other leg into tin- saddle over the hindmost crutch. The camels have a trick of getting up while tin- rider is in the act Of mounting, but the drivers prevent this by putting their I one of the animal's benl fori first movements are always somewhat violent, and the novice must hold fast by the crutches; as the camel always gets up with its hindlegS first . the rider should at first lean back, and afterwards forward. The walking motion is very pleas- ant, and those who are accust uned to it prefer a camel t I a horse for a urney. The rider can read comfortably if he wishes, and need not hold the reins in his hand. Arahian Saddle-bags (Khtirg) should be purchased for the journey, as they are very convenient for carrying the requirements Of the toilet, books, tobacco, and other articles. With regard to Dress, see pp. 14. 15. Overcoats, cloaks, or bour- nouses Cabayeh', see p. 40), and slippers, should not be forgotten. The traveller should also he provided with Stbong Shoes, if hi' intends to make mountain ascents, as the rocks of the Serhal and .lebel Miisa are very sharp and angular. Lastly a few hints with regard to Health (p. 15: eh ists, p. 234) may he acceptable to tin' traveller, although tin- climate of the peninsula is extremely healthy, especially if the traveller walk an hour or two in the mornings and evening*. A pair of bin,' or grey spectacles, with perhaps a second pair in reserve, will be found to protect the eyes against tin' in- flammation which is apt to be caused by the glare of the sun. A supply of zinc or other eyewash will often be useful. Castor oil (two table- Spoontuls) is a good remedy for diarrhoea, even when serious. Seidlitz powders are a specific for indigestion. Pills of quinine should be taken in cases of fever (which frequently attacks the Beduins) , and gly- cerine is useful for softening the skin when cracked by the hei supply of lint, sticking-plaster, ami linen bandages, may also sometimes be useful. — A cup of tea or coffee will be found refreshing at luncheon; fuel for heating water (camel dung, and dry plants) can always be obtained by the Beduins. Good cocoa is also considered wholesome and nutritious, and is easily prepared. A supply of Liebig'S extract of meat should not be omitted. At Cairo (or at Suez) the traveller should procure through his consul a letter id' introduction from the Monastery of the Sinaites at Cairo to those of tin.' Monastery of St. Catharine, where he will then receive every attention. Those who intend to visit r Akaba, should, if possible, be pro- vided with an introduction to the commandant of the fortress there, especially if they propose to proceed thence to Petra. — Enquiries should also be made at Cairo whether a journey to Petra is considered safe. The following are the principal routes (distances see below): — (a) Land Route. This route leads bv Wadi Maghara (p. 491), Wadi Mokatteb (p. 493). Wadi Firan (p. 494), and Xakb el-Hawi (p. 501), to the Monastery of Sinai, and returns by Wadi esh-Shekh (p. 520). Sarbut el- Khadem (p. 522), and Wadi el-Homr (p. 523) near the sea , and to the road leading to Suez. In this way the traveller does not retrace his steps. except on a portion of the route. 474 Route 10. PENINSULA OF SINAI. Plan of Excursion. (The journey from Mt. Sinai to 'Akaba, and from Petra to the Holy Land, is very rarely undertaken , and should not be attempted without careful enquiry regarding the safety of the route.) (b) Sea Voyage. A boat conveys the traveller down the Red Sea to Tar (p. 515), whence he rides to Sinai in 2V2 days. When the N. wind, which almost always prevails on the Red Sea, is strong enough, the voy- age takes about 20 hrs. ; but it may take much longer if the breeze subsides. As the vessel skirts the coast, and as violent storms in the Red Sea are very rare, except during the prevalence of the Khamsin in April and May, the voyage in a boat of sufficient size (about 20 tons' burden) is unattended with danger, though far from, pleasant in a bad vessel. The return-journey should on no account be made by water, for, owing to the prevalence of the N. wind, constant tacking is necessary, so that the voyage takes 8-10 days or more. The trip may be made in a vessel of 20 tons 1 burden, with a crew of four men, for 100-150 fr. The master of the vessel should be required to provide himself with the necessary ship's documents. The traveller's consul will perhaps give him a letter of introduction to Shekh Hennen , a respectable and oblig- ing Arab who lives at Tur. Even without an introduction the traveller should apply to this shekh, who will assist him in getting camels. The shekh speaks Arabic only, but his son speaks a little French and Italian. Travellers who can speak modern Greek or Arabic should go direct to the Greek Convent, show the monks his letter of introduction to the convent on Mt. Sinai, and hire from them the camels necessary for the completion of his journey. The most favourable time for starting is towards evening; we em- bark from the quay near the Suez hotel. After traversing the narrow arm of the sea at the upper end of which Suez is situated, we reach the end of the Suez canal, and the roadstead shortly afterwards. On the right rise the r Ataka mountains (p. 415), with the promontory of the same name, and to the left are the palms of r Ain Musa (p. 419), beyond which is the low chain of the hills of Tih. Beyond Cape r Ataka opens the broad W&di Milsa, and the hills recede. On the left lies the desert extending between the Tih hills and the sea; to the right, in the foreground, is the lighthouse of Rds Za'/erdneh, opposite to which, on the left, is the Jebel Ilamm&m Far r Hn (see p. 488), abutting on the sea. For some distance hills on the left now rise close to the coast (see p. 489). The bay ex- pands. To the right, in the foreground , rises the huge and picturesque Jebel Ghdrib (about 5900 ft. in height) , at the foot of which is a second lighthouse. On the left are the conical peaks of the Jebel el-'Araba , the base of which we now skirt. Beyond the Jebel Ghfirib, which becomes more and more prominent , rises the table-land of Jebel ez-Zet , which yields petroleum. The chain of Jebel el- r Araba is prolonged by the sandy Jebel NdMs (p. 516), and the Jebel Hammdm MiXsa (p. 516). We at length come insight of the palm-groves and buildings of Tur, beyond which lies the sterile desert of El-Kd'a (p. 517); above the latter tower the im- posing mountains of Serbal' on the left, and of Unim Shomar on the right, between which appear the mountains of Sinai. THr, see p. 515. Tur is now the quarantine station for the Mecca pilgrims and is con- sequently called at by the steamers, which may be used for the journey to this point and back. This considerably decreases the trouble and ex- pense of the expedition, but it is necessary to find out beforehand the season and duration of the quarantine, which of course varies with the lunar year of the Arabs and with the state of health of the pilgrims. In 1880-81 it lasted from November to January. The advantages of the sea-voyage consist in the saving of time and money effected by avoiding the fatiguing and monotonous journey between Suez and Wadi Shebekeh , while we make the acquaintance of Tilr and the picturesque route through the Wadi es-Sleh (p. 517), and have an opportunity of ascending the Umm Shomar (p. 515) without mak- ing any digression. On the other hand we miss the route by Sarbut el- Kkadem (p. 522); but this is of no consequence provided we r.iuin the whole way by land, for the sake of seeing the majestic Serbal (p, Ul<), Plan of Excursion. PENINSULA OF SINAI. 10. Route. 475 the oasis of Firan (p. 495), the Wadi Mokatteb (p. 493) with its in- scriptions, and the mines of Wadi Maghara (p. 491), all of which are pi lints of much interest. Camels are always to be had at Tur, hut as good saddles are rare, the traveller's dragoman should take an ample supply of rugs from Cairo; moreover it is not so easy to make a satisfactory bargain at Tiir as at Cairo, though Shekh Hennen (see above) will render ev< sistauee in his power. If the party is numerous, or if the traveller wishes to provide against the possibility of delay, camels should be sent on from Suez to Tur, a journey of three days for unladen animals, the cost of which is not very great. To the above directions may, lastly, be added a few hints for which we are indebted to a traveller who is well acquainted with the Arabic language, and is accustomed to associate with the Beduins: — Take the railway from Cairo to Suez. Dispense with tents and beds; but take at least a couple of warm rugs to fold over the saddle, and to lie used at night. A hammock will also be found very serviceable, and the camp may be pitched where the trees are large enough to give it- support. Before leaving Cairo the traveller should lay in a stock of preserved meats and wine, and buy a lamp and a few cooking m Pack these in palm-leaf baskets, which are well adapted for the i If necessary the stock of provisions may be reinforced at Tur by fresh bread, a few fowls, lobsters, and tish , and some date paste. At Suez procure introductions to tin monks of the Greek convent at Tur and to Shekh Ilennen. Proceed from Suez to Tiir by boal or bj Steamer (during the quarantine period). Sleep at Tur in Hennen's house, or in the Greek convent. Hire a camel through Hennen with a Beduin atten- dant on foot. Start very early and traverse the desert to Wadi es- Sleh isee p. 517), reaching the Sinai monastery next evening. Thence travel slowly to Wadi Ba r ba r . Lastly, return to Suez by forced marches, taking about two days ami a night. The whole journey may thus be accomplished in eight days, without reckoning the stay at the monastery, and perhaps at Firan; and as a sheltered resting-place may always be found among the mountains, the protection of a tent will never be missed, excepting perhaps on the last day of the, expedition. Distances and Disposition op Time. There are of course several land-routes to the Monastery of Sinai, but we need only describe the most, interesting of them, and those which are generally taken by tra- vellers. As a standard of distance we adopt the time usually occupied by the camels in performing the journey. Their average rate of travelling is about -' 2 M. per hour. When a journey in the East is to last for several days, it will be found impossible to induce the boatmen on the Nile, or the 'Children of the Desert', to start early in the morning, as they invariably seem to think that a late hour in the afternoon is the most suitable time, so that a very short distance only is performed on the first day. So on the tour to Sinai the party seldom gets farther than c Ain Musa (see below) on the first day. but on the second and following days more satisfactory progress is made. Patience is therefore indispensable at starting. The journey is usually made without any prolonged halt, except at the mines of Wadi Maghara in the Wadi Mokatteb , in which we spend 3-4 hrs., riding at a slower pace; at the Jebel Serbal. if it is to be ascended, for one day; and at Sarbut el-Khadem, fur l /z-i day. Mount Sinai, being the great object of the journey, requires a stay of 2-3 days. Routes to Mount Sinai. Route I. By Land via Suez, Wadi Maghara, and Wadi Firan. 1st Day. From Suez to r Ain Musa (p. 419), V/., hrs. A longer journey cannot well be accomplished on the first day, but the camels and attendants may be sent on thither, while the traveller 476 Route 10. PENINSULA OF SINAI. Routes. may follow alone in the evening or early on the following morning, by boat, and there mount his camel for the first time. '2nd Day. From r Ain Musa to the beginning of the Wadi Werdan (p. 485), 8 hrs. From c Ain Musa to the beginning of the great plain 3 hrs. ; thence to the beginning of the Wadi Werdan 5 hrs. 3rd Day. From the beginning of the Wadi Werdan to Wadi Gha- randel (p. 487), 73/ 4 hrs. From Wadi Werdan to Wadi 'Amara (p. 486), 3 3 | 4 hrs. From Wadi "Amara to Wadi Hawara (p. 486), 2 hrs. From Wadi Hawara to Wadi Gharandel, 2 hrs. 4th Day. From Wadi Gharandel to Ras Abu Zenimeh (p. 489), 83/ 4 hrs. From Wadi Gharandel to Wadi el-Homr (where Route ii. diverges see p. 524), 5 '/a hrs. Thence to Ras Abu Zenimeh (p. 489), 3 l /4 hrs. The 4th day may be divided into two days, if the .Tebel Hanimam Far'un (p. 488) is to be visited. The best camping place is at the mouth of the Wadi Kuweseh. 5th Day. From Ras Abu Zenimeh to the mines in the Wadi Maghara (p. 491), 8y 4 hrs. From Ras Abu Zenimeh to Hanak el-Lakam (p. 490), 3 s /i hrs. Thence to the mines in the Wadi Maghara (p. 491), 4'/2 hrs. 6th Day. From Wadi Maghara to the hill of El-Meharret in the Wadi Firan (p. 495), 9 hrs. From the mines to the Wadi Firan, S l /t hrs. Through the Wadi Firan to El-Meharret, 5 3 /4 hrs. The 6th day's journey should be divided into two parts by those who are specially interested in the mines of Wadi Maghara and the inscriptions in the Wadi Mokatteb. On the 7th day we then arrive in good time at the foot of Mt. Serbal, or at the Oasis of Firan (p. 195). 7th Day. From the hill of El-Meharret to the end of the Wadi Selaf (p. 501), 73/ 4 hrs. From El-Meharret to the beginning of the Wadi Selaf, 2 hrs. Thence to the end of the valley, b' 6 /i hrs. The traveller who desires to ascend Mt. Serbal fp. 497), should devote this day to the excursion, giving notice to the Beduins of this intention on the previous day. They will then provide guides, and pitch the tents near the best starting-point for the ascent, which should be begun at an early hour. 8th Day. Over the Nakb el-Hawi (p. 501) to the Monastery of Sinai, 4y 2 hrs. If the easier route from the oasis of Firan through the Wadi esh- Shukh (see below) to the monastery (l'2 3 /t hrs.) is preferred, the party should encamp on the 7th day by the defile of El-Watiyeh 1 9 hrs. ; p. 521). Two or three days at least should be spent at the Monastery of Sinai (p. 503). Route II. From the Monastery of Mount Sinai via Sarbut el-Khddem to Suez. 1st Day. From the Monastery of Sinai to the Wadi et- Tan (p. 521), in the Wadi esh-Shekh, 7% hrs. From the Monastery of Sinai to Kl-Watiyeh, 3 3 /i hrs. Thence to the Wadi et-Tarr, 4 hrs. This is ;i moderate day's journey only, as the traveller seldom Topography. PENINSULA OF SINAI. 10. Route 477 succeeds in getting off early from Sinai, especially if the halt is made at the monastery itself. The monks will, if requested, aid the tra- veller in overcoming difficulties raised by the Beduins. 2nd Day. From Wadi et-Tarr, via Wadi Solef, Wadi Berah, and Wadi Lebweh, to the lower end of the Wadi Barak (p. 521), 83/ 4 hrs. ^ From Wadi et-Tarr to the top of the Nakb Wadi Barak, 6'/2 hrs. Thence to the lower end of Wadi Barakj 2V4 hrs. 3rd Day. From the lower end of the Wadi Barak to the beginning of the Wadi el-Homr (p. 524), 9i/ 4 hrs. From the Wadi Barak to the Wadi Merattameh in the Wadi Suwik (p. 522), 4>A hrs. Thence to the Wadi el-Homr, 5 hrs. 4th Day. Through the Wadi el-Homr to the Wadi Gharandel (p. 487), 91/4 hrs. Through the Wadi el-Homr to its union with the Wadi Shebekeh, 3 3 /4 hrs. Thence to the Wadi Gharandel (see Route i.), 51/2 hrs. 5th-7th Days. From the Wadi Gharandel to Suez, see Route i. Those who desire to visit the monuments of Sarbut el-Khadem (p. 522) should go on the 3rd day as far as the Wadi Merattameb (Bee above), and devote the afternoon to the antiquities. They would then proceed on the 4th day as far as the junction of the Wadi el-Homr and the Wadi Shebekeh (S 3 /4 hrs.). Beyond that point, see K. i. Route III. From Suez by Sea to Tur, and by Land to Sinai. 1st Day. Sea-voyage from Suez to Tur (p. 474), 15-30 hrs. 2nd Day. Preparations for the journey in Tur (p. 515). 3rd Day. Visit the Jebel Nakus (p. 516). Under favourable cir- cumstances this may be managed on the second day. From Tiir to the Monastery of Sinai, 2'/2 days. The pass used by the monks is much shorter than the route described below, but is extremely rugged. 4th Day. By the plain of El-Ka r a (p. 518) to the Wadi Hebran (p. 518), 9 hrs. 5th Day. Through the Wadi Hebran by the Nakb el- f Ejjawi to the Wadi Selaf (p. 501), 10 hrs. 6th Day. Over the Nakb el-Hawi (p. 501), and through the Wadi er-Raha (p. 502), to the Monastery of Sinai, 5'^ hrs. Formation of the Peninsula. At the N. end of the Red Sea two long, narrow bays extend into the mainland, the Gulf of Suez on the W., and the Bay of r Akaba on the East. The peninsula thus formed, which belongs to Arabia, is called the Peninsula of Sinai, or Arabia Petraa, after Petra, its capital. It consists entirely of sterile ranges of mountains, furrowed by Wadis, or valleys with water- courses, which are scantily filled after rain only. The geological formations of the peninsula are extremely interesting. The S. pro- montory of the peninsula is called Ras, or Cape Mohammed. This large, triangular region is 9400 sq. M. in area, i.e. about the same size as Sicily. It is appropriately called the Peninsula of Sinai, because 'Mount Sinai constitutes the nucleus of its formation, and presents physical features entirely distinct from those of the sur- 478 Route 10. PENINSULA OF SINAI. Inhabitants. rounding regions. Isolated by the sea and desert from the rest of the earth and its history, it has yet, from a very remote period, formed the highly revered vestibule of all the temples of the civi- lized world'. (C. Ritter.) The Mount Sinai group, with its masses of granite, forms the S.W. half of the peninsula, while the long limestone range of Jebel et-Tih, beginning at the Isthmus of Suez, first turns to the S.E., and then sends forth a number of ramifica- tions to the E. and N.E. The Sinai group forms a watershed from which wadis descend to the E. and W., i. e. to the gulfs of Suez and r Akaba respectively; while the 'River of Egypt', which is men- tioned as the boundary of Palestine in the Bible, and is now the "Wadi el- r Arish, descends from the Jebel et-Tih towards the N. to the Mediterranean. Those parts of the Tth Mountains across which our route lies rise to a moderate height, and are formed of limestone, chalk, and, to a smaller extent, of sandstone. The Mount Sinai Group. 'This huge range, composed of primaeval gneiss and granite, or, in more precise geological terminology, of colourless quartz, flesh-coloured felspar, green hornblende, and black slate, rising in majestic and precipitous masses and furrowed by vertical clefts, extends from Serbal to the Om Shomar, and from the Om Shomar to the Ras Moham- med. Since the time of their formation these crystalline masses have undergone no geological change, but have reared their summits above the ocean from the beginning of time , unaffected by the transitions of the Silurian or Devonian , the Triassic or chalk periods. At the base only do these venerable mountains show any trace of alteration. Thus the Red Sea has on one side thrown a girdle of coral around Mount Sinai, and so in recent times produced a coast district ; while towards the N. the sea, during the chalk period, has formed the limestone plateau of the desert of Tih (4000 ft. above the sea-level), which stretches across the whole of Sinai to Mount Lebanon. The crystalline masses of the Sinai chain, which extend from N. to S. for a distance of about 40 M., exhibit no great variety. The whole range forms a central nucleus traversed by diorites and porphyries.'' (O. Fraas.) Inhabitants. Amid the sterile mountains and valleys of the peninsula, some 4-5000 Beduins manage to obtain a livelihood. They generally have remarkably slight figures, and regular, sharply marked features. The boys, who follow the camels and wait upon travellers, are particularly graceful and engaging ; the men are employed in conveying millstones, charcoal, and other wares to Egypt; they supply travellers (who are chiefly pilgrims of the Greek faith) with camels, hunt the mountain goat, celebrate festivals, and, in the W. part of the peninsula at least, rarely indulge in the sanguinary feuds which the different tribes formerly waged with one another. Those occupying the E. and the N.E. of Arabia Petrsea are of a wilder and more warlike character; the boys and girls, and occasionally the men, drive the goats and the speckled sheep, which call to mind the artifice resorted to by Jacob, to the meagre pastures in summer, while the women remain in the tents to look after their children and household work. In the best watered parts of the peninsula, the Beduins have built themselves huts, and cultivate plantations of dates, the must productive of which are in the Wadi Firan (p. 495), and in the neigh- bourhood of Tur on the Red Sea. In all other districts the inhabitants live in tents." The Tawara are good-natured, honest, and generally of noble bearing; they a're quite free from the sordid cupidity of the lower in Egypt, and the name of 'Fellah 1 is used by them as a term of reproach. They \ stratagem (p. 604). In the time of the Crusades, Aila i p. 519.) became one of the chief scenes of the battles between Saladin, History. PENINSULA OF SINAI. 10. Route. 481 who captured it in 1170, and the Franks, who were afterwards unable to maintain possession of it , notwithstanding the efforts made by Count Rainold. After the Crusades the history of the peninsula was merged in that of Egypt. Its sequestered valleys were traversed by hosts of Mecca pilgrims, while there was also, as at the present day, no lack of Christian pilgrims of the Greek faith, wending their way to the monas- tery of Sinai. The Exodus. Until recently the Bible was the only source of infor- mation regarding the emigration of the Jews from Egypt, but the monu- ments and papyrus-scrolls which have been handed down to us by the ancient Egyptians, and deciphered by modern ingenuity, now convey to us a distinct idea of the condition of Egypt at the time of the Exodus, which we may compare with the contemporaneous Biblical accounts. On collating the Bible narrative with the monuments , we find that they agree on all material points. On the other hand, however, it seems obvious, that the vicissitudes undergone by the Israelites in Egypt and during the Exodus, must have been gradually embellished by legendary and poetical additions, before they were recorded in writing. These embellishments doubtless originated in the fertile imagination of the people, and in their profound gratitude, which prompted them to paint in the most glowing and picturesque colours the great things which God had done for them, Most of the camping -places of the people seem, as we shall see, to be capable of identification, since the list of stations in the wilderness, as given by Moses (Numb, xxxiiij, was doubtless made from contemporaneous records f. The Period of the Oppression. After Joseph's death the Israelites had multiplied greatly, and, together with other Semitic tribes, occupied the whole of the N.E. part of the Delta, whilst the early Pharaohs of the 19th Dynasty were constantly at war with the nations whose territory adjoined the Delta on the N.E. It was therefore natural that the Egyp- tian kings should fear that, during their absence and that of the Egyp- tian army, the Jews should ally themselves with the enemies of Egypt, who were of cognate race, and this apprehension is distinctly mentioned by Pharaoh in the Bible narrative. Ramses II., after whom one of the scenes of the compulsory labour of the Israelites was named , was the Pharaoh of the oppression, and his son Merenptah (the Menephthes of Manetho) was the Pharaoh of the Exodus. The monuments inform us , that these two monarchs decorated Tanis, the ancient city of the llyksos, anew with magnificent monuments , the place having long been shunned by their t The following theory regarding the Exodus, which was started during last century by G. II. Riehter, and maintained more recently by Schleiden, has again been adopted by Brug:sch(comp., however, the observation at p. 470.). 'According to the monuments , the Sethroitic nome was also called Suku or Succoth. This region was covered with marshes, lakes, and ca- nals, so that it was impossible to erect towns in the Interior of the district, and accordingly the Egyptian texts, as well as the classic au- thors, mention towns on its boundaries only. The three following are those oftenest mentioned. One named Khetam (i.e. fortress) of Succoth lay to the N., near Pelusium, and was intended to protect the N. fron- tier. A second, bearing the Semitic name of Segal . or Segor (i.e. key), of Succolh, and situated on the S.W. frontier of the district, was intended to protect the district of Tanis -Ramses against invasion. The third, known by the Semitic name of Migdol (i.e. tower), or by the Egyptian name of Samul (also signifying a tower), lay on the outskirts of the Arabian desert, on the E. frontier of the district of Succoth , the site being probably identical with that of the modern Tell es-Samtit (see Map of the Suez Canal to the E. of Kantara). Brugsch identifies the Bib- lical Succotli with Segol in Succoth, and Migdol with the above-mentioned Migdol-Samut. The Biblical Etham, however, which is wanting to com- plete the list of the stations, is also capable of identification, for it can be no other than the Egyptian Khetam. which signifies fortress, the same word being preserved also in the Khetam of Succoth (see above). Baedekee's Egypt I. 2nd Ed. 31 482 Route 10. PENINSULA OF SINAI. History. predecessors on account of the Semitic religious rites practised there. Tanis is the Zoan of the Bible, where Moses performed his miracles in the presence of Pharaoh. This place was doubtless often visited by Ramses II., who was a powerful conqueror and founder of cities, not only when on his way to battle, and on his return as a victor, but because his presence must often have been necessary for the prevention of rebellion among the nu- merous foreigners resident in these E. districts. The Israelitish records only mention the oppression they underwent towards the end of their sojourn in Egypt. Ramses, however, was far from being a capricious tyrant, but was a wise, though severe military prince, who employed the Semitic settlers in his kingdom in the construction of useful works , in order to prevent them from endangering his empire. The Jews, perhaps, also assisted in strengthening the double series of bastions, known as the wall of Sesostris, but constructed before the time of Ramses , which closed the Isthmus of Suez and afterwards obstructed the progress of the emigrants. The 'Egyp- tian wall' with its forts and frontier fortresses also afforded protection against the Asiatics, and commanded the district of Goshen. The Pharaoh of the Exodus. Ramses II. was succeeded by his thir- teenth son Merenptah (p. 90) , a man of mature age. At the beginning of his reign Merenptah came into serious collision with the Libyans, who had allied themselves with the warlike inhabitants of the Mediterranean islands, and had attacked the coast of Egypt. He succeeded, however, in subduing them, and was thus enabled to inarch victoriously to Thebes, where he caused spacious buildings to be erected , and encouraged the scientific labours of the priests. Like his father, he also occasionally resided at Tanis, as the monuments inform us, and seems to have accorded greater liberty to the Semitic inhabitants of the Delta than his predecessor. Being, however, less powerful and resolute, he was more exposed to danger from his Asiatic neighbours than Ramses , who had not only rendered them tributary, but had leagued himself with them by intermarriages and treaties of peace, of which valuable records are still preserved. More- over, before his accession to the throne the fortification of the E. fron- tier of the empire had been completed. He continued, nevertheless, to employ the bondsmen in Goshen , and to keep them in check, as they might have become very formidable if they had succeeded in uniting their forces against Egypt. Accordingly, when Moses requested Pharaoh to allow him to lead his people into the desert, Merenptah \s policy was to refuse, his great object being to prevent the union of the Israelites with other Now the monuments mention a Khetam called Khetam in the Province of Zor {i.e. Tanis-Ramses, p. 452), to distinguish it from other fortresses of the same name. A representation of this Khetam is preserved on a mon- ument of Seti I. in Karnak, in the form of a fortress on both banks of the river (the Pelusiac arm of the Nile), the opposite parts being con- nected by a bridge (Kantara),*while a town, named Tabenet, lies in the vicinity. [This Tabenet is probably to be identified with the l Pelusian Daphnae' 1 (the plural form being applied to the double fortress), of which Herodotus (ii. 30) expressly says, that it was occupied in his time, and before it, by an Egyptian garrison for the protection of the frontier to- wards Arabia and Syria.] This Khetam, together with the town of Ta- benet, is probably to be sought for in the ruins of Tell Defennch (see Map of the Canal of Suez, W. of Kantara, p. 424). The memory of the bridge (kantara) connecting the double fortress still survives in Kantara (see p. 435), which lies a little to the E. of Tell Defenneh. The' accuracy of this theory, according to Brugsch, is also proved by the Egyptian and classical accounts of the roads which led to the E. from Ramses (i.e. Tanis-San). Two such roads are said to have existed; one of these led to the N.E. by Pithom (p. 412) through the marshy district of Succoth, with its numerous canals, and, according to the Egyptian texts and the authority of Pliny, was unsuitable for caravans and there- fore but little frequented ; the second was used by the Pharaohs when they marched towards the E. with their chariots and horsemen, and led from Ramses to Segol in Succoth, Khetam, and Migdol. In the British History. PENINSULA OF SINAI. JO. Route. 483 cognate tribes. This accounts for his obstinate resistance to the ap- parently simple request of Moses. The story of the plagues, and the destroying angel is well known. The historical foundation of the embel- lished narrative is corroborated by Egyptian and Greek records, which state that Merenptah was compelled by various disastrous occurrences to allow the foreigners (or 'lepers 1 , as they are called in'Egyptian reports) to quit the country. The Exodus. Moses and his people doubtless started from Eamses; but it is difficult to follow the route taken by the emigrants during the first few days. Notwithstanding the ingenious theory ofBrugsch (see Note, p. 481), there seems little doubt that it was the Red Sea which the Israelites crossed, when we consider that their route to the E. was obstructed by a line of fortifications. Believing this, we at once succeed in identifying the stations at which they halted, and in accounting for the apparently eccentric route chosen by Moses. The following passage occurs in Numbers xxxiii. 5, et seq.: — 'And the children of Israel removed from Rameses, and pitched in Succoth ; and they departed from Succoth and pitched in Etham, which is in the edge of the wilderness. And they removed from Etham , and turned again unto Pi-Mahiroth, which is before Baal Zephon; and they pitched be- fore Migdol. And they departed from before Pi-Hahiroth, and passed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness'. — Ramses (Maskhuta), on the fresh- water canal between Tell el-Kebir and the Lake of Timsah, was their rallying point ; the Israelites assembled here from On (Heliopolis), Belbes, Bubastis, and Pithom, from the E. and S.E., and joined those coming from Tanis and the N. pastoral districts. The various detachments were here united; their hearts were filled with joyous hopes of reaching the happy, promised land, and, with their swords ready to resist opposition, if ne- cessary, the Israelites thus departed from Egypt 'armed 1 , and with a 'high hand'. On leaving Ramses they took the road to Syria, and encamped at Succoth, to the S. of the modern Lake Balah. On the following day they passed Etham (or Khetam, 'the entrenchment'), i.e. the line of for- tifications above mentioned. Here their march was arrested by towers, moats, and troops of well-armed soldiers. Hereupon the people, who while under the yoke of their oppressors had little opportunity of learn- ing to use their swords, lost courage and desired to return. Moses knew the character of the multitude under his care, and was aware that they were as yet unable to resist disciplined forces, and to defy death for the sake of gaining their liberty, and now 'God led them not 1 , we are Museum is preserved a papyrus letter upwards of 3000 years old, in which an Egyptian writer describes his departure from the royal palace at Ramses, observing that his object was to follow two fugitive servants. The writer mentions that he started from Ramses on the 9th day of the third summer month, that he arrived on the 10th at Segol in Succoth, and on the 12th at Khetam, and that he there learned, that the fugitives had taken the route in the direction of the wall (i.e. Anbu-Gerrha-Shur, see p. 426), to the N. of Migdol. If Moses and the Israelites are substi- tuted for the two fugitive servants, and the pursuing Pharaoh for the writer, the route is precisely the same as that followed by the Hebrews on their Exodus. As the writer arrived on the first day at Segol, and on the third arrived at Etham, and as the fugitives took the route thence to Migdol and Anbu-Gerrha-Shur, so also did the Israelites. On their arrival there the Israelites were then on the bank of the Sirhonic Lake (see p. 426, and the Map), a long sheet of water to the E. of Port Sa'id. This lake was well known to the ancients, but has long since been filled with sand, and has therefore fallen into oblivion. According to ancient accounts the lake was in the form of a long strip, separated from the Mediterranean by a narrow barrier only, and extending along the coast. Diodorus informs us that the lake was entirely overgrown with reeds and papyrus plants , and that it was very dangerous to tra- vellers, particularly when a violent S. wind drove the sand of the desert over its surface so as entirely to conceal the water, as the surface might then easily be taken for land, and thus lure the ignorant to their de- 31* 484 Route 10. PENINSULA OF SINAI. History. informed by Exodus xiii. 17, 'through the way of the land of the Phili- stines, although that was near; for God said, lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt: But God led the people about (before Ethani) through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea 1 . Moses, accordingly, made them leave the route to Syria, and turn towards the S. in the neighbourhood of the fortifications, probably near the modern Bir Makhdal, anciently called Migdol, which, like the Egyp- tian Khetam (Ethani), signifies a castle and the tower of a fortress. During his long sojourn in the wilderness, after he had slain the Egyp- tian, their great leader had become familiar with all the routes in this region, and as soon as he observed the weakness of his people, almost the only course open to him was to avoid the forts, and turn towards the S., in order to lead them round the N. end of the modern Gulf of Suez, and through the wilderness of Arabia Petrrea to Canaan. From the outset he appears to have had a twofold object in view, the first being to emancipate the people from the Egyptian yoke with the least possible loss, and the second to discipline them, and accustom them to order, obedience, and nobler pursuits in life, in a locality suited for his purpose. At Elham ('the bastions') the wanderers accordingly changed the direction of their route, and turned to the S. between the W. bank of the bitter lakes and the E. slope of the Gebel Ahmed Taher, and, after a long and fatiguing march, encamped at Pi-Hahiroth, the name of which has been identified, with the modern 'Agritd ('pi' being the Egyp- tian for place). They then camped for the last time in Egypt near the Red Sea, between Migdol, a frontier fort, near the ancient Kambysu, where a Roman military hospital afterwards stood (about 9 M. to the N. of the bead of the bay and the scanty remains of the ancient Arsinoe), and the r Ataka mountains. This range was anciently called Ba'al Zephon, and on its commanding summit the Phoenician sailors used to offer sacrifices to Ba r al Zephon, or the N. wind, which wafted their ships towards the South. — When Pharaoh heard that the people had not crossed the line of fortifi- cations , and had quitted the route to Syria, on which lay the famous temple of the desert on Mount Casius, where Moses had intended sacrificing to his God, it was natural for liim to say — 'they are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in' (Exodus xiv. 3). His mistrust was next aroused. — 'And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled: and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and struction. Diodorus also mentions an expedition undertaken by Arta- xerxes, King of Persia, against Egypt, during which part of the Persian army was lost in the Sirbonic lake, with the dangers of which they were entirely unacquainted. The main route from Egypt to Syria traversed the narrow neck of land between the Sirbonic lake and the Mediterranean (see p. 426). The Jews, after their arrival at the lake, first encamped at Pi-JJahiroth (i.e. the 'mouth of the chasms covered with reeds 1 ), and then followed the usual military route between the waters to the shrine, of Ba r al Zephon (see p. 4'26). They then turned to the S. in consequence of the divine command, traversed the desert of Sh&r (see p. 426), and arrived in three days at Marah [i.e. bitter), or the three bitter lakes in the isthmus (see p. 433). They proceeded thence to Elim, which is doubtless identical with the Aa-lim or Tentlim (i.e. town of the fishes) mentioned by the monuments, a place situated near the Gulf of Suez. The Egyptians, however, in the course of the pursuit, as they were tra- versing the narrow neck of land between the Sirbonic lake and the Med- iterranean, were overtaken by a storm and inundation , lost their way, fell into the Sirbonic lake, and were drowned. The occurrence of such floods in this district is borne out by an observation of Strabo, that a great flood took place during his residence in this region near Mount Casins (see Note, p. 426), overflowing the country to such an extent, that Mount Casius appeared like an island, and that the road to Pales- tine near it was navigable for vessels. The sea mentioned in the llilile, through which the Israelites passed, would, according to this theory, noi be the Red Sea but the Sirbonic lake'. WADI WERDAN. 10. Route. 485 they said : why have we done this, that, we have let Israel go from serving us? 1 (Exodus xiv. 5). The pursuit now began; 'he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him : and he took 600 chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel'. Whilst the Israelites were encamped at Pi-Hahiroth the disciplined army approached; they departed hastily, and succeeded in crossing the head of the gulf at low tide, as was frequently done by the caravans before the construction of the canal The Egyptians, in hot pursuit, reached the ford before the tide had begun to set in ; but a violent gale from the S.W. sprang up, the waters rose suddenly and 'covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them ; there remained not so much as one of them From Suez to Mount Sinai by Maghara and Wadi Firan. From Suez to Qitysj hrs.) anariyeh 446. Dahshur 402. 34 530 INDEX. I >;i Kahliyeh , Mudiriyeh 439. Dakhel, Oasis 63. Damietta (Dumyat) 442. Damanhur 224. Dancers, female 20. Daphnae 482. Darabfikeh 19. Dar-Fflr 29. Darius , monuments of 432. 433. Date palm, the 77. Dealing with the Na- tives 12. Dehbet el-Kerai 524. — er-Ramleh 522. Debebet Shekh Ahmed 522. Defenneh, Tell 482. Delta, the 225. etc. Demo 463. Demotic Writing 111. ed-Denuri 74. Der (in the Fayurn) 463. ed-Der, Jebel 513. 520. — , Wadi (in the Wadi Firan) 495. (near the Jebel Musa) 502. Der el-Arba r in 514. — Sikelyih 498. Derb Far'un 485. — el-Harj 519. Derut'449. Dervishes 150. 239. Descent of the Egyptians 37. Desert, the 62. Desuk 445. Diarrhoea 15. Dibeh 449. Dikkeh 184. Dimeh 467. Dimishkineh 463. Diodorus 346. etc. Dionysias 466. Diospolites 87. Distribution of land 35. Divisions of the country 31. Doctrines of El-Islam 140. I'.i'i-headed ape 134. Dog 17.79. Domestic animals 78. Donkeys 11. 78. Donkola 34. 50. 55. 68. Doplikah 493. 496. Doseh, procession 237. Dragomans 13. 233. 470. r,l. [Oman. < traci with 171 Dress L4. 473. i dromedaries 78. Duktaan, Gebel 62. Diim palm, the 78. Dumyat (Damietta) 442. Durka'a 186. Dwelling Houses, Ara bian 181. 185. Dynasties, the Pharaonic 85. Dysentery 15. Easter Week, the Mus liin 238. Ebgig 459. Edbai 45. Edku 448. — , Lake 447. 448. Egib, Bahr 460. Egypt, River of 47S. Kuvi'tian empire, extent of 29. Egyptians, origin of the 36. Ejeleh, Wadi 495. r Ejjawi, Wadi 501. Elath 519. Elijah's chapel (Sinai) 511. Elim 484. 486. 487. Embabeh 294. Equipment 14. el-Esh 30. — , Ras 436. Elham 481. 483. Ethiopians 45. Etiquette, oriental 25. Etrib 227. Eunuchs 51. Europeans in the East 53. Eutvchians 43. 101. Eve's Tomb 423. Exodus of the Israelites 419. 481. 483. 486. 493. 496. 499. Eyyubides, the 103. Fakaka Si. Fakir's 151. Fakiis.Tcl] ( r/iacusa)b3S. Fantasiyas is. Kara Ira. Oasis of 63. el-Farama, Geziret 435. Faras 449. Farm Produce 71. Kar'u.i. Bahr 121. — , Geziret' 519. . Mastaba 402. Fash a 't's'l. Faskiyeb 21. L86. Fast's, Muslim MS. Fatha, the 1 18. Fatimites, (lie 102. Fatireh, Gebel 62. Fauira 30. Fauna of Egypt 78. Fayid 414. Fayum, the 456. Feilahin 39-41. — , villages of the 39. — , food and clothing 40. el-Ferdan 435. el-Feri r , Jebel 512. 521. ' Fertility 70. el-Fesheheh. Wadi 494. Festivals, religious, of the Mohammedans 236. Fevers 15. Fez (tarlmshl 11. 253. Fe/.ar 119. Fidimin 464. Firan, Oasis of 495. — , Wadi L94. Firman, viceregal 16. Fish 83. Flint tools 370. 405. 185. Fossils 60. 336. 365. etc. Fustat, 241. 320. Fre'a. Jebel 513. French, the, in Egypt 01. French Expedition. I lie, of 1798, 105. FreshwaterCanal,the 409. Fruit trees 77. Fua 445. Fumm el-Mahmudiyeh 448. Funerals 155. Gabari 220. Galabat, the 29. Gami r 183. G a rari sheh-Red u ins 479. Gardens 75. Gazelles 79. el-Gebaneh. Mosque 444. Gebel Abu Suba'a 422. — Abu Tiyur 422. — el-Ahmar 337. — Ahmed Daher 414. — 'Ataka 414. 415. — Rarkal 55. — Duklian 62. — Fatireh 62. — Geneffeh 414. 133. — Giyushi 335. — Khashab Gl. 338. — el-Khdf 339. — MarJ am i.".i . — Mokattam 335. er fcaha L19 — Selseleh 55. til. 63. — et-Tih 419. 485. — Tura 108. — Drakam G2. INDEX. 531 Gebel TJwebid 414. — Zebara 62. — ez-Zet 61. 471. — , see also Jebel. el-Gebel. Babr 56. el-Gediyeh 449. Gef 423. Gene ff eh 4 14. — , Gebel 414. 433. Genoa 10. Geographical Outline 29 Geology GO. Gerrha 426. Geziret Bulak (Palace of Gezireh) 328. — el-Farama 435. — Sar'iin 519. — Iii'ida 318. el-Gha'bsheh, Jebel 513. el-Gharabi, Jebel 522. el-Gharak, Birket 403. Gharandel. Jebel 187. — . Wadi 487. Gharbiyeh. Mudiriyeh 225. Gharib, Jebel 474. 515. Gharkad shrub, the 486. Ghazal, Wadi 511). el-Ghazal. Bahr 30. 56. Ghawazi. or Gh&ziyeh 20. el-Ghor 519. el-Gimsah, Ras 61. 422. Ginn, the 142. Girgeh 169. Girzeh 458. el-Gisr 434. Givushi, Gebel 335. Gizeh 341. — . Pyramids of 340. Pyramid, the Great (of Cheops) 354. — , the Second (of Che- phren) 35S. — , the Third (of Myce- rinus) 360. Pyramids, small 369. Sphinx, the Great 362. Tombs (Mastabas) 36S. 369. Campbell's Tomb 367. Tebehen, Tomb of 369. Tomb of Numbers 366. Granite Temple 365. Goat, the 78. Gods, the Egyptian 124. Goger 440. G Is agents 25. Goshen, the, of Scripture 411. Gozeh 17. 20. drain, k, _^S of 74. Granite Temple, the. near the Sphinx 365. Greeks in Egypt 53. Guns tfor sport) 79. Gurandela 487. Hadendoa-Beduins 45. el-Hagg. Birket 335. Hajer Musa 514. — er-Bekkab 486. Hakl 519. Haifa, Wadi 55. Hambalites 149. Hamites 37. Hammam, r Ain 64. llammam Far'iin, Jebel ' 488. — Sidna Musa, Jebel 516 el-Hammamat 62. 467. Hanafiyeh 21. 184. Hanak el-Lakam 490. 524. Hanehtes 149. Harar 29. Ilarara, the 21. Harem 185. 187. Harmachis 125. 127. 133. Harun, hill of 502. Harvest 73. Hashish 18. Hathor 135. Ha-nar (Abaris) 453. Hawadat-Beduins 47. Hawal (dancers) 21. Hawara el-Akilan 463. — el-Kebir (el-Kasal or el-Ma'ata) 459.' — . Pyramid of 460. — , Wadi 4S6. Hawi (jugglers) 21. Hazeroth 519. Hazion 426. Head-dress 14. Health 15. 473. Hebit (Behbit cl-Hager) ' 440. Hebran, Wadi 518. Hebt (Behbit el-Hager) ' 440. Hcjaz, the 422. — , Bahr el- 421. Hekel,'the 322. Heliopolis 333. Helwan 403. Hemali 248. Henna 75. 246. Hephaistopolis (Memphis) 373. Heracleopolis Magna 469. — Parva S7. 412. 447. Heracleopolitan Nome. the 469. Hererat el-Kebir 495. Hermopolis Parva (Da- manhur) 224. Herodotus 344 etc. Heroopolitan Bav 425. el-Herr. Tell 435". Hesi el-Khattatin 495. e'l-Hesweh 495. Hieratic Writing 110. Hieroglyphic Writing L10. ' History 85. History of Egyptian Art 157. Hobuz. Wadi 524. Hodeda 423. Hokmdar 34. e'l-Homr, Wadi 489. 524. Ilo'reb. Mount 499. 514. Horses 7S. Horus 28. 130. 132. Hosan Abu Zenneh 488. Hosh 185. Hospitality 17. Hotels 17.' Houses, Arabian 181. 185. Howali 21. Ilnwi'mirat. Wadi 519. Huwetat-Beduins 519. Hyenas 80. Hyksos, the 88. 163. 453. Hyksos sphinxes 167. 298. Il/adiveh lands 35. Ibis, the 82. 134. Ibrahim. Port 419. Ibrahim Pasha 107. Ichneumon, the 80. el- r Id el-Kebir 149. 238. — es-Sughayyir 149. 238. Illness 15. Imam Shafe r i 237. Imhotep 126. Immortality, Egyptian doctrine of 139. Inhabitants of towns, Arabian 48. Inscription friezes, Ara- bian 179. Insects 84. Inshas 409. Intercourse with Orien- tals 25. el-Tran, Wadi 485. Irrigation 5S. 71. Iseum (Behbit el-Hager) 440. el-Tshsh, Wadi 521. Isis 130. 135. Islam, Doctrines of 140. 34* 532 INDEX. lsleh. see es-Sleh. Ismail Pasha 29. 35. 1U7 etc. lsma'iliya 434. Isthmus of Suez 425. Isthmus, ancient canals through the, 90. 92. 427. 428. Italians in the East 54. Jacobites 43. Jassur plant, the 498. Jebel Abu r Alaka 493. — Abu Balah 434. — Abu Rumll 515. — Abu Shejer 515. — el-'Araba 474. — Aribeh 512. — Ba f ba r 490. — Barghir 520. — Beda r 524. — el-Benat 488. 497. — Bishr 485. — ed-Dgr 513. 520. — el-Feri r 512. 521. — Fre'a 513. — el-Ghabsheh 513. — el-Gharabi 522. — Gharandel 487. — Gharib 474. 515. — Hammam Far'iin 488. — Hammam Sidna Slusa 516. — Katherin 514. — Khizamiyeh 520. — el-Markha 490. — el-Me r allawi 512. — Mokatteb 493. 516. — el-Munaja 500. 515. — Musa 510. — Nakus 516. — Nes'rin 494. — el-Nokhel 490. — en-Nur 520. — er-Rabba 512. — er-Raha 419. 485. — es-Sanna r 512. — Ser'bal 497. — Sona 513. 520. — Sudur 485. — et-Tahuneh 497. — Tayyibeh 489. — e't-Tih 419. 485. 488, etc. — Umm Skoniar 515. — UaSt 488. — ez-Zafariyeh 512. — Zebir 515. — ez-Zet 474. Jebeliyeh 503. Jedda 423. Jetbro, valley of 502. 514. Jews in the East 53. Jugglers 21. St. Julien, Fort 449. Jupiter Ammon, Oasis of G3. Justinian 503 etc. Justice, administration of 6. Ka'a, the 187. el-Ka f a, desert of 517. Kabileh 45. Kabkab 21. Kadi', the 34. Kadiriyek Dervishes ' 150. Kafr Amar 458. — el- r Ayat 458. — el-Batti'kh 442. — ed-Dabai 458. ed-Dawar 224. Dawud 225. Tamiyeh 465. — Wish 440. ez-Zaiyat 225. 445. Kahafeh 459. Kahennub (Canopus) 447 Kahira 243. Kahwa's 17. Kalamsha 463. Kalantika, the 454. Kal'at el- r Akaba 519. — Sa'idiyeh 406. — et-Tiir 516. Kalin,' Bahr 445. Kalyub 227. 406. Kanatir (Barrage du Nil) ' 406.' Kanatir el-Agani 460. — -Hasan 464. el-Kantara Hsthmus) 435 4'82. * Kariin, Kasr 465. Kasab, Wadi 521. Kasha 449. Kashif, the 34. Kasr ul-Benat 463. — Dakhel 64. — Kariin 465. — el-Kayasereh 222. 223. Kasriyeh 373. el-Kasrun, Ras (Cusium) 426. Kassala 34. 423. Katasanta 4G0. Katherin. Jebel 514. Kawwases 6. el-Kayasereh, Kasr 222. 223. el-Kebir, Tell 413. el-Eedi 73. Kef 23. Keffiyeh 14. 255. Keneh, Wadi 490. Kenus 50. Kerdiisa 370. Kerkasoros 59. el-Khadra, 'Ain 519. Khafra' (Chephreu) S6. 345. etc. — , statues of 159. 305. 307. Khalifs, the 101. Khalig, the 242. 317. el-Khalig, Ras 442. Khamileh, Wadi 522. Khamsin, the 2. 69. 470. Khans 24. 251. Khankah 335. Kharag (land tax) 35» 36. Khargeh, Oasis of 63. Khartum 30. 31. 34. 55. Khashab, Gebel 61. 338. Khashm Khalil 465. Khatib 182. Khedive, see Tewflk. Khepera 125. Kheta, the 89. Khetam 481. 483. el-Khimmad 449. Khizamiyeh, Jebel 5'J0. Khnum 125. 129. Khof, Gebel 339. Khont-ab 452. Khufu (Cheops) 86. 344. 491. etc. Khunsu 138. Khurg (Arabian saddle- bag) 473. Kibla 178. 184. Kings, names of Egyp- tian 118. — , lists of 85. — , palaces of 167. Kirsh, Grotto of 170. Kisweh 238. Kitchens, public 249. Klysma 417. Knuphis 129. Kol/.um (Suez) 417. — , Bahr 421. 125. Kom el-Aswad 342. — el-Atrib (Athribis) 227. — Faris 459. — Hamadeh 225. — e'l-'Olzum 417. — ez-Zargiin 448. Koran, the 144. 269. Kordofan 29. Korusko 46. Koser 422. ^-,'Wadi 495. Kotur 445. Kubbeh 332. Kullehs 181. 326. INDEX. 533 Kuni 449. Kureyeh 519. Kursi 184. Kursi Far r un 459. Kurudati 21. el-Kurun, Birket 465. Kus (Phacusa) 412. 451. Kuweseh, Wadi 48S. Labyrinth, the 460. el-Lahun 462. 463. — , Pyramid of 463. Land-tax 35. Language, Arabic 188. Lebbek-tree, the 76. Lebweh, Wadi 521. Legal System, reformed 6. Leghorn 10. el-Leja, Wadi 514. Lelet el-Kadr 237. — el-Mi r rag 237. — en-Nukta 69. 239. Lepsius 85! 171. 350. etc. Lessens, F. de 429. Lnukos Limen 423. Levantines 52. Libyan desert, the 62. 456. Literature on Egypt 200. Liwan, the 184. 186. Lloyd, Austrian 9. Lohaya 423. Lotus columns 162. Lunar year 149. Ma 129. el-Ma'adiyeh 448. — , Beheret 223. 447. Ma'azeh-Beduins 47. Mafkat 491. Maghara, Wines of 491. — , Wadi 490. Magherat, Wadi 521. Maghta 21. Mahailet el-Emir 449. — el-Kebir 445. — Ruh 445. Maha.s'50. Mahdi, the 145. 153. 109. Mahuial, the 236. Mahinudiyeh Canal, the 2i5. 220. 223. 448. Mahsameh 413. Mai'ze 74. Mak r ad Nebi Musa 521. Makaukas 227. 374. Maksura 184. Mal'e'kites 149. Maltese 54. Mambar 184. Mameluke Sultans 104. el-Mandara 447. Mandara, the 185. Manetho 85. Manna 500. Mansura 439. Mar Antus, Monastery of 515. Marah 433. 486. Mareia 223. Mareotis, Lake 223. Mariette, A. 85. 384. 383. etc. el-Markha, Jebel 490. — , Plain of 490. Marra, Wadi 519. Marriages of Muslims 154. Marseilles 10. Mary, chapel of, on Mt. Sinai 510. Maryam, Gebel 434. Maryilt, Wadi 223. Ma'sara 403. , Quarries of 405. Masau r a 423. el-Maskhuta, Tell (Ram- ses) 413. Maslub 458. Masr el- f Atika 317. — el-Kahira' 243. — , Biiad 30. el-Masri, Bas 519. Massowah, see Masau r a. Mastabas 24. 170. 185. 379. — of Sakkara 379. Mastab'a' of Ti 388. — of Ptahhotep 401. — of Sabu 401. — Far'un 402. Mas'udi 349. Matariyeh (near Cairo) 333. — (Lake Menzaleh") 452. el-Me'allawi, Jebel 512. Measures 28. Mecca 423. Mecca-Caravans 14S. 236. 335. el-Medawwa 498. Medical hints 15. 473. Medina 424. Medinet el-Fayum 458. Medresehs 177. 184. Medum 467. el-Mehair, plain of 489. el-Meliarret, hill of 495. Mehiy'eh 438. Mehkemeh 35. el-Mekherif 34. Meks 221. Melekites 452. Memnonia 171. Memphis 372. 373. el-Menashi 225. 406. Mendes 442. Menes, the Pharaoh 8G. 373. Menfi (Memphis) 373. Menkaura(Mycerinus)86. 346. 347. etc. Menufiyeh, Mudiriyeh 227. Menzaleh, Lake 435. 444. 452. Merakh, Wadi 519. Merattameh, Wadi 522. el-Merayih, Wadi 522. el-Merg 335. Merisi 69. Mesakkar, Wadi 522. 524. Alesent 452. Messageries MaritimeslO. Messina 10. Metubis 449. Mezeneh, the 479. Migdol 470. 481. Mihrab 184. Minarets 177. Minyet el-Murshid 449. — es-Sa c id 449. Misraim 30. Mission. American 44. 234. Mit el- c Azz 451. — Nabit 440. Mitrahineh 372. Mnevis-bull, the 127. 334. Moballigh, the 184. Moeris, Lake 457. 462. Mohabbazi 21. Mohadditin 1!). el-Mohammad iych 147. Mohammed, the Prophet 140. etc. Mohammed r Ali 106. etc. Mohammed, Baa 477. 515. Moharrem 236. Mokattam, Gebel 335. Mokatteb, Jebel 493. 516. — , Wadi 493. Mokha 423. Mokheres, Wadi 494. Mokullu 423. Molid en-Nebi 237. Monarchy, the primaeval 86. — , the middle 87. — , the new 90. Monasticism, Christian 99. 385. Monetary system 4. Money 3. Money-changers 4. 03. 232. Monophysites 43. 100. Months, the Muslim 194. Uosaics, Arabian 181. Moses 144. 512. etc. 534 INDEX. Hoses Spring, near Cairo 337. 338. — near Suez 419. Moses, rods of 498. 512. Moses, stone of 514. Mosques LSI. Dikkeh 183. Fanus 184. Fasha 184. Han'efiyeh 184. llasireh 1S4. Kibla 184. Kindil L84. Kursi 184. Liwan 184. JIaksura 184. Mambar 184. Medreseh 177. 184. Mihrab 184. Satin el-Gami f 184. Sel'jil 177. 184. Mourning 155. Mudir, duties of 35. jimli'-iyehs 34. JIueddiL- 147. Mu r izz-Canal 409. 438. Muk'ad, the 187. Mules 78. M mnmies 139. Mummy-shafts 379. el-Munaja, .Tebel 500. 502. 515. 3Iiisa, r Ain,nearCairo 337 — , near Suez 419. — . .Tebel 510. — , Wadi 474. Mushrebiyehs 181. Music, Arabian 19. Musical instruments 24. Musicians, Arabic 19 Muslim Saints, tombs of 153. SIul.ii' 127. 135. Mwutan Lake 56. Mycerinus,seeMenkaura Myos Sormos 42S. Mystics, Muslim 149. Mythology, Egyptian 124. Nabatseans 494. n Nabari 74. A'rtisi (Behbit el-ITager) ' Nakb el-Bndra 400. — — , Wadi 490. — Wadi Barak 521 — el-'Ejjawi 518. — el-Iliiwi 501. Nakhleh fin the Delta) — (Dei erl of Tih) 520. Jebel 516. Naples 10. Nargileh 17. 27. Nasb, Wadi 523. Naukratis 445. Navigation 8. Nawa 40S. Nawamis 501. 522. Nazir el-Kism 34. Neba r , Wadi 493. Nebk-tree, the 77. Nedi'yeh, Wadi 494. Nefer-Tum 128. Nefisheh 414. Negada 42. 44. Negroes 51. Nehban, Wadi 495. Neith 135. 446. Nephthys 132. Neshart 445. Nesrin, Jebel 491. Nezleh 463. 465. — , Bahr 464. Nicopolis 222. Night of the dropping 69. 239. Nile', the 55-60. 239. etc. — , the Blue 55. — , the White 30. 55. Nile, arms of the 59. Bolbitinie arm 449. Bucolic — 439. Canopic — 60. 448. Mendesian 59. Pelusiac — 60. 438. Phatnitic — 439. Sebennytic — 59. Tanitic — 438. 453. Nile. Sources of the 56. — , Current of the 58. — , Inundation 57. 131. 239. 319. Nile mud 57. 60. Nile mud-pyramid, the 370. Nile, cutting of the 239. — , rise of the 57. 239. 319. — , valley of the 56. el-Nokhel, Jebel 190. Nomads 45. K nines. the ancient Egyp- tian 31. Nubians 50. Numbers, the Arabic 192. Nun 125. en-Nur, Jebel 520. Nut 125. Oases, the Libyan 63. Oasis Major 63. — Minor 63. obelisks 189. 222. 334. Okellas 251. Okka, the 28. i >maj j adi 9 L01. On (Ileliopolis) 333. el-'Ordeh 34. 68. Origin of the Egyptians 37. Ornamentation of Ara- bian buildings 175. r Oshr, the 65. Osiris 130. Osiris pillars 165. Ostrich feathers 294. Outrunners (Sais) 233. Ox, the 78. Pahebit 440. Pa'kot (Canoput) 447. Palms 77. Papyrus columns 164. Papyrus plant, the 441 . Passports 6. Pasht (Bast) 136. Patumos 427. St. Paul. Monastery of 170. 480. Pearl shells 416. Pelmium 120. 435. Pelusiac arm of the Nile 438. Persian Kings 93. Petra 520. Petreea, Arabia 1G7. Petrified Forest, the Great 338. — , the Little 61. 338. Phacusa (Tell Fakils) 438. 451. Pharan 496. Pharaoh of the Oppres- sion 90. 4S1. — of the Exodus 90. 482. Pharaoh, Baths of (Jebel Hammam Far'un) 48S. Pharaohs, lists of 85. Pharos, Island of 207. Pharbaethus (BelbSs) 109. Phatnitic arm of the Nile 439. Phoenix, the 127. 334. Physicians 15. . Piastres, current and ta- riff 4. Pi-bust (Pibcsclh, B&bas- tis, Tell Basta) HO. Pig, the 79. 79. Pi- Haiti roth 488. 484. Pilgrimage to Mecca I is. 238. Pillawaneh 463. Pipes 17. Pithom 87. U2. 418. Pliny 344. 348. etc. INDEX. 535 Pofyiamy 146. Population 36. Port Ibrahim 419. — Sa'id 436. Post-office 28. Prayers, Muslim 147. Prosecus 108. Pn i to-Doric Column 160. 164. Provinces, the Egyptian 34. Ptah 125. 126. 373. Ptolemies, the 96. Pylon-gates 168. Pyramids, construction of the 15S. 350. — , history of the 343. — , object, of the 351. — , opening of the 352. Pyramids of Abu Roash 370. — of Abusir 370. — of Dahshur 402. — of Gizeh 340. Great Pyramid (of Cheops) 354. .•ud Pyramid (of Chephren) 358. Third Pyramid (of My- cerinus) 360. — of Sakkara 382. Pyramid of Cochome 382 — of Hawara 460. — of el-Lahun 463. — of Medum (False Pyramid) 467. — of Pepi I. 383. — of Pepi II. 402. — of Sokar-em-saf 402. — of Teta 376. — of Unas 383. — of Zawyet el-' Aryan 370. Quails 80. Ra 125. 127. 137. er-Rabba, Jebel 512. Radaniyeh-Beduins 479 er-Raha. Jebel 485. — , plain of 502. 513. Rahabeh, Wadi 515. 517 Rai-fields 71. Railways 11. Rain 67. Ramadan 40. 148. 237. Rainleh. near Alexandria 227. 447. — , sandy plain of (Sinai peninsula) 522. Ramses 413. Ramses (Tell el -Mas khuta) 414. 483. Ramses (Tunis) 452 Ramses II.. Pharaoh 90. 374. 481. Ras Abu Zenimeh 4 • Benas 423. ■ el-'Esh 436. el-Gimsah 61. 422. el-Kasrun (Casiuin) 426. — el-Khalig 442. el-Masri 519. — Mohammed 477. 515. es-Safsaf 502. 512. Suwik 522. Za'feraneh 474. Rattameh, Wadi 500. Red Sea, the 416. 421. Reliefs, ancient Egyp- tian 172. Religion of the Ancient. Egyptians 124. er-Remmaneh, Wadi 494. Rephidim 496. Reptiles 83. Reshid (Rosetta) 449. Rfiakoiis 207. Rhinocolura (el-'Arish) 426. Rhodopis 346. 348. er-Rif 30. 50. Rifa'is, or Rifa'iyeh 21. 150. Riga 370. Rigabeh 412. Rikka 467. er-Rimm, Wadi 497. 501. River of Egypt 478. Rock-tombs 381. Roda, Island of 318. Rodents 81. Romans, the 98. Roses 77. — , land of 457. Rosetta (Reshid) 449. . Stone of 450. Routes 2. er-Ruwehibiveh , Wadi 519. Sa el-Hager (Sais) 446. es-Sab'a, Birket 227. Sacred Buildings. Mo bammedan 174. es-Sadad, Wadi 515. 518. Safekh 134. Safety, public 16. es-Safsaf, Ras 502. 512. Satiat>; Wadi 521. Sahn el-Gfimi' 184. Sahara, desert of 60. 63 ' 457. Sa'id l Upper Egypt) 34 ga'id-Pasba 107. Sa'idiyeh, Kal'at 406. Sa'idiyeh Bednins 479. Sais (Sa el-Hager) 416. Sais (runner's) 233. Sakiyehs 71. Sakkara 378. Tombs of the Apis- bulls 385. Mastaba Far'iin 402. — of Ptabhotep 401. — of Sabu 401. — of Ti 389. Pyramid of Pepi I. 3S3. 402. — of Pepi II. 402. — of Sokar-em-saf 402. — of Unas 383. Serapeum 383. Step-pyramid 382. San, Wadi 518. Salaheddin (Saladin) ' 103 etc. Salihiyeh 43S. Salutations, oriental 199. Samghi, Wadi 519. Samum. the 69. Samut 481. es-Samut, Tell 481. San (Tunis) 451. es-Sanna r , Jebel 512. Sarabub 67. Sarbut el-Khadem 522. — el-Jemel 488. 524. Sarcophagi 295. 307. 386. Sarrafs 53. 232. Sati 129. Sauakin 423. Sawaliha-Beduins 479. Sawarkeh-Beduins 47. Scarabsei 84. 125. Schools, Arabian 250. Sculpture, Egyptian 159. — , Arabian 183. Seba r iyeh, Wadi 515. 518. Sebek 136. Sebennytic Nome, the 445. Sebennulus (Semenniid) 445. ' Sebils 177. 184. es-Seii 73. Segol 481. Sekhet 136. 410. Selaf, Wadi 501. Seleh 463. Selseleh, Gebel 55. 61. 63. Semennud (Sebennytus) 445. Senhur 464. Sennar 29. Senusi order, the 67. Serabit, see Sarbut. 536 INDEX. Serapeum i Csthmus) 433. Hi. Serapeum atSakkara 383. — , Egyptian 383'. 385. — , Greek 384. Serapis 383. Serapis worshippers 384. Serbal, Mt. 497. Serdab 379. Sesostris 90. — , wall of 482. Seth 132. Sethroitic Nome 87. 412. 453. 481. Seti I. 89. Seyal tree, the 486. Shabbas 445. Shadufs 72. 225. Shafe r ites 149. Shahid 185. Shahin-Beduins 479. Skfi'ir, see Sho r ara. Shalfif et-Terrabeh 432. Sharaki fields 71. Shebekch, Wadi 4S9. Sheep 78. Shegiyeh 50. esh-Shekh, Wadi 501. 520. Shekh el-Beled 35. — et-Tumn 35. Shekh Ahmed, desert of 463. ' — Ennedek, Weli 433. — Salih, Weli 520. Shekhs' tombs of 153. 184. Shelal, Wadi 490. Shemasmeh 449. Shems, r Ain 334. Shemshir 449. esh-Sherki, Bahr 460. Sherkiyeh, Mudiriyeh 410'. Shi'b, Wadi 521. Shibin el-Kanatir 408. — el-KSm '226. ' Shibuk 26. Shiflik lands 35. Shi'ites 153. Sliirbin 442. Shisheh 17. bitawi 72. 3ho r ara (story tellers) 18. Sh6beh 69. Shoberment 370. Shoes 15. 473. Shooting 79. Shopping 24. Shu'aib, Wadi 502. 513. Shubra 331. S/uir (Qerrfta) 426. Shilr, desert of 484. Sibjanedder, the 479. Sid'i Gaber 222. 223. 447. Sidr, Wadi 490. Sik, Wadi 522. Sikelyih, Monastery of ' 498. Sin, desert of 493. Sinai, Mount 478. 511. Sinai of the Bible 499. 512. 513. 520. Sinai, Peninsula of 470. 477. — , Monastery of 503. Sinaitic Inscriptions 493. 514. 522 etc. Sinbelawin 439. Sindyun 449. Sineru 464. Singers, female 20. Singing, Arabian 19. Singing birds 82. Sinus Aelanites 421. — Arabicus 421. — Heroopolites 421. Sirbonic Lake, the 420. 426. 483. Siwa, Oasis of 63. Slave-trade 51. en-Sleh, Wadi 517. Snakes 83. Snake-charmers 21. Snefru 86. 491 etc. Sobat, the 56. Sodom, apple of 65. Sokhot Zoan 453. Solef, Wadi 521. Somali coast 29. Sona, Jebel 513. 520. Songs, Arabian 19. 20. Sunt a 445. Sotliis periods 90. Souakin 423. Sphinx, the Great 362. Sphinxes 167. Sphinx-avenues 167. Stambulina, the 49. Stations of the Israelites in the desert 486. Statistics 36. Steamboat lines 7. Egyptian 10. English (Peninsular and Oriental Co.) 10. French (Meesageries Maritimes) 10. Italian (Florio-Rubat- tino) 10. Austrian Lloyd 9. Russian 10. Step-pyramid of Sakkara 382. Story-tellers, Oriental 18. Succoth , Sukut (Suchot, Suku) 412. 481. 483. Sudan, the Egyptian 29. 34. Sudur, Wadi 485. Suez 414. — , Bahr 421. Suez-Canal, the 424. 430. 431. Suez, Isthmus of 425. Sugar-cane 75. Sughayyar, Canal 439. Sullus-writing 179. Summer-crops 73. Summer-solstice 69. Sun, winged disk of the 133. 169. Sunnites 153. Sunstroke 15. Sunt tree, the 77. Sute'kh 132. Suweriveh, Wadi 521. Suwik," Wadi 522. — , Ras 522. Sycamore, the 75. 77. Symbolic signs 173. Taba f , Wadi 519. Tabenet (Daphnae) 482. et-Tahuneh, Bahr 464. Y Jebel 497. Taif 423. taka 29. Takhta Bosh 187. Takiyeh 14. e't-Talbiyeh 342. falkha 439. 445. Taly (Bolbitinic arm of the Nile) 449. Tamiathis (Damietta)443. Tunis (San) 452. Tanitic arm of the Nile 438. 453. Tanta 225. 445. Tarbush 14. 253. Tarfa, Wadi 517. Tarfa shrub, the 500. fit-roue (Troja. Tura) 405. et-Tarr , Wadi (Wadi Firan) 495. (Wadi esh-Shekh) 521. ct-Taryeh 225. Tawara-Beduins 478. 497. ' 519. Taxes 35. Tayyibeh, Jebel 489. — , Wadi (near Ras Abu Zenimehl i (Wadi Barak) 522. Teb I'll outer [Sebennytus) 445. INDEX. 537 Tebehen, Tomb of 309. Telegraph, Egyptian 28 — . English 28. Tell Abu Suleman 413. — el-'Azm 444. — el-Barud 224. — Basta (Bubastis) 410. — Def'enneh 482. — Fakus (Phacusa) 438 451.' — el-Herr 435. — el-Kebir 413. — el-Blaskhuta (Ramses) 414. — es-Samut 481. — el-Yehudiyeh (near Shibin el-Kanatir) 408. (nearMansura) 440 Tema eraifoc(Danianhur) 224. Temples, Egyptian 167. Temperature 69. Tenis 452. Tennis 452. Tentlim 484. Terabiyin-Beduins 47. et-Terrabin, f Ain 519. Tewflk, the Khedive 108 eth-Thal, Wadi 489. Them, Wadi 519. Thermometers 70. Thoth 133. Thousand and One Nights 19. Ti, Mastaba of 388. et-Tih,'Jebel 485. 488. — , Wadi 339. Time, Muslim reckoning of 149. Timsah. Lake 434. Tiran, 'Island of 512. Tiyaha-Beduins 47. 468. Tobacco 27. Tomb of Numbers 366. Tomb temples 159. 170. Tombs, ancient Egyptian 160. — , Arabian 155. 185. — , visits to the 185. 292. Tour, plan of 2. Tpek (Atfih) 469. Transfiguration, Church of the, on Bit. Sinai 506. Travelling equipment 14. — companions 2. — expenses 3. — season 2. Trees 75. 77. — , plantations of 75. Tree of the Virgin (near Blatariyeh) 333. Tribunals, international 6. Trieste 9. Troglodytes 46. Troja (Tura) 405. Trunks '15. Tukh 227. tulunides, the 102. Turn 125. 128. Tumbak 18. 27. Tumilat, Wadi 413. Tur 474. 575. — , Kal f at et- 516. Turbans 246'. Turks, the 52. 105. Tura 403. — , Gebel 403. — , Quarries of 405. Tusun 433. typhon (Seth) 130. 132 Ughret el-Blehd 513. r Uhdeh estates 36. Ukerewe, Lake 56. r Ulama, the 246. Umm el-Kiman 459. — Sa'ad 518. — Shomar, Jebel 515. — Takha, Wadi 501. — Theman, Wadi 490. Unas, pyramid of 383. Un-Nefer 131. Urakam, Gebel 62. Urfeus snake 133. Uset, Jebel 488. — ', Wadi 488. Ufa eyes 128. 139. 310. f Uwebid, Gebel 414. c Uyun ( r Ain) Blusa 419. Vegetables 75. Vegetation 70. Venice 10. Victoria-Nyanza 30. 56. Vine, culture of 77. 223 Vocabulary, Arabic 192 el- Wadi (near Tur) 516 — , Bahr 464. Wadi Abu Gerrayat495, Abu Hamad 498. Abu Talib 501. el-Akhdar 500. 521. — el- r Akir 521. 'Aleyat 495. 498. el-'Amara 486. el- r Arish 478. Ba f ba r 490. 524. — Barak 521. — Bayad 470. — Berah 521. — Bu-lra 490. — ed-Der (in the Wadi Firan) 495. Wadi ed-Der (near the Jebel Blusa) 502. 518. — Ejeleh 495. — 'Ejjawi 501. — el-Fesheheh 494. — Firan 494. — Gharandel 487. — Ghazal 519. — Haifa 55. — Hawara 486. — Hebran 518. — flobuz 524. — e'l-Homr 489. 524. — HuwSmirat 519. — eVlran 485. — el-'Ishsh 521. — Kasab 521. — Keneh 490. — Khamileh 522. — Koser 495. — Kuweseh 488. — Lebweh 521. — el-Leja 514. — Blaghara 490. — Blagherat 521. — Blarra 519. — Blaryut 223. — Blerakn 519. — Blerattameh 522. — el-Blerayih 522. — Blesakkar'522. 524. — Blokatteb 493. — Blokheres 494. — Blusa 474. — Nakb el-Budra 490. — Nas'b 523. — Neba r 493. — Nediyeh 494. — Nehban 495. — er-Raha 513. — Rahabeh 515. 517. — Rattameh 500. — er-Remmaneh 494. — er-Rimm 497. 501. — er-Ruwehibiyeh 519. es-Sadad 515. 518. Sahab 521. Sa'l 518. Samghi 519. Seba'iyeh 515. 518. — Selaf 501. Shebekeh 489. — esh-Shekh 501. 520. Shelal 490. Shi r b 521. Shu r aib 502. 513. — Sidr 490. — Sik 522. — es-Sleh 517. Solef 521. — Sudur 485. — SuwSriyeh 521. 538 INDEX. Wadi Suvvik 522. — Taba' 519. — Tarfa 517. — e*t-Tarr (Wadi Firan) -195. ' — — < W. esh-Shekh) 521. — Tavyibeh (near Eas Al.u Zenimeh) 489. ■ — (Wadi Barak) 522. — eth-Thal 489. — Them 519. — el Till 339. — Tiimilat 413. — Umm Takha 501. — Umm Theman 490. — Uset 488. — Werdan 4S5. — Zerakij eh 515. — Zrtiin 515. Wahhabites 153. Wakf 35. el-Wardan 225. Wardani, Balir 40U. Wast:. 458. Water-carrieie 248. pipes L7. 27. Water-wheels 71, el-Watiyeh, Pass 521. Weapons 17. Weather 2. Week , Arabian days of the 194. Wefa en-Nil 239. 319. Weights 28. el-Wejj 424. Wekil, the 34. Weli's 153. 184. Wells 64. 71. Werdan. Wadi 485. Wheat 74. Wilkinson , Sir G. 85. etc. Winds 68. Winter-crops 72. Women, Oriental 23. 26. 146. 246. Worship of Saints 152. Writing, ancient Egyp tian modes of 110. Wuta-hills, the 485. Tear, the ancient Egyp- tian 90. — , the Arabian 149. 5feggarin 4i9. i'1-Yi'hudiyeh, Tell (near Shibin el-Kanatir) 408. el-Yehudiyeh (near Han s lira I 440. Yemen 423. Yenba r el-Bahr 424. — en-Nakhl 424. Yusuf, Bahr456.4G Zabnuti ( Sebennvttis) 445. ez-Zafariyeh, .Tebel 512. Za'feraneh, Ras 474. Zaku/.ik 409. Zah (Tanis) 452. Zawiyeh 469. Zawyet el-'Aryan 370. Zebara, Gebel 62. Zebir, .Tebel 515. ZGla r 29. Zerakiyeh, Wadi 515. ez-Zet, Gebel 61. 474. Zetun, Wadi 515. Zens Casius, Temple of 426. 484. Zibb el-Baher Abu I'.alia- riyeb 52i. Zifteh 445. Zikrs of the. Dervishes 151. 236. 239 Zoan (Tanis) 152. Zor (Zoru, Tanis) 452. 482. Leipsic. Printed by Breitkopf & Hiirtel, Syr unff-'i , At- 1 ia iie - _,_,„. ^H., I University of California Library Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. Phone R 310/825-9188 OCT 1 5 2002 i l\\ L 007 673 4 51 UC SOUTHERN RE< *J^SmiB|J| A A 001 428 657 9 -i*c««.v- m