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THE CITY OF CAIRO. — EGYPT. 279
nologists. Under the administration of the Turkish Khedive,
or reigning viceroy, the city is rapidly improving.
The palaces, the public buildings, and the substantial bridge
across the Nile, are fine specimens of architectural masonry.
Old Cairo is three miles from the new, and yet there is no
real break of buildings between them. Modern Cairo seeks
its model in Paris, not only in extravagance, fashions, and
luxuries, but in its amusements, gardens, sparkling fountains,
marble walks, mosaic pavements, and reception-rooms inlaid
with porphyry and alabaster. The viceroy is still building
for himself new palaces. Those who wish to see the Cairo
of the past should not delay. The weird old houses, with
their polished and fantastic lattice-work, are fast disappearing.
All day long the remorseless chipping and hammering
of the mason is heard. The constructor is upon his heels ;
and soon boulevards and flowering gardens will cover alike
the ruins of the Chi'istian Coptic and the more ancient
Egyptian.
THE CITADEL AND THE MUSEUM.
Rising above the rest of the city, is the grand mosque,
called the citadel. Standing by this Mohammedan structure,
one may catch a panoramic view of the whole plateau
the Nile, fringed in living green, rolling at your feet ;
at the
right the tombs of the old caliphs and Mamelukes ; on the
left the ruins of ancient Cairo ; in the distance emerald islands,
dotting the now swollen Nile ; and, farther off, scores
of monuments and pyramids pushing their gray shafts up
toward the heavens. The prospect is magnificent.
During the day we visited one of the old Coptic churches,
said by our guide to have been built in the seventh century.
The paintings of Bible scenes were unique and fantastic, the
crypts cold and gloomy.
Among objects of deep interest to travelers is the Egyptian
jMuseum, situated upon the banks of the Nile, and
enriched with rarest specimens from ancient Memphis, Heli-