885 



EGYPT. 



EIFEL. 



888 



in dates, senna, &c., and has in its vicinity extensive granite-quarries; 

 Koum Ombou, with a fine temple ; and Selseleh, with its quarries. 



For the principal towns of Egypt see the respective heads 

 ALEXANDRIA, KAHIRA (Cairo), DAMIETTA, ROSETTA, &c. The popu- 

 lation of the smaller towns is very difficult to be ascertained, as no 

 census is taken or register kept. 



The whole of the cultivable land of Egypt, in the valley of the Nile 

 and the Delta, is reckoned at 17,000 square miles. The population, 

 according to the most careful recent estimates, does not exceed 

 2,000,000, of whom probably the proportions are nearly the same as 

 those given by Mr. Lane in his ' Modem Egyptians,' namely, 1,750,000 

 Mohammedan Egyptians, including the fellahs or peasants and the 

 townspeople; 150,000 Copts or Christian Egyptians; 10,000 Osmanlees 

 or Turks and Albanians, as yet the ruling race ; 5000 Syrians, 5000 

 Greeks, 5000 Jews, and 2000 Armenians ; with about 70,000 black 

 slaves, Nubians, Moghrebins, &c. In this calculation the nomadic 

 Arabs of the neighbouring deserts, whose number cannot be ascer- 

 tained, are not included. The language of the natives is Arabic, but 

 Turkish is still the language of the government. The great bulk of 

 the Mohammedan natives is of Arab stock, but many Copts or 

 aborigines have at different times embraced Mohammedanism, and 

 numerous intermarriages have taken place between the Arab settlers 

 and the Copts, Nubians, Sec. The townspeople may be considered as 

 having attained as high a degree of civilisation as any in the east ; 

 and " Cairo," says Mr. Lane, " must be regarded as the first Arab city 

 of our age. There is no other place in which we can obtain so com- 

 plete a knowledge of the most civilised class of the Arabs." The 

 men re generally well proportioned and muscular, and about five feet 

 eight or five feet nine inches in height ; the women are well formed, 

 and not too fat. Their complexion in Cairo and the northern provinces 

 is clear though yellowish, and their skin soft ; the lower classes are 

 darker and coarser. The people of middle Egypt are of a more tawny 

 colour, and those of the southern provinces are of a deep bronze 

 complexion. Their countenance in general is of a fine oval form ; the 

 no*e is straight though rather thick, the lips rather full, the eyes 

 block and brilliant, the beard commonly black and curly but scanty. 

 For the dress and habits of the various orders see Lane's ' Modern 

 Egyptians,' vol. i. 



The climate of Egypt during the greater part of the year is salu- 

 brious. The khamseen, or hot south wind, which blows in April aud 

 May, is oppressive and unhealthy. The exhalations from the soil after 

 the inundation render the latter part of the autumn less healthy than 

 the summer and winter, and cause ophthalmia and dysentery, and other 

 diseases. The summer heat is seldom very oppressive, being accom- 

 panied by a refreshing northerly breeze, and the air being extremely 

 dry. The thermometer in Lower Egypt in the depth of winter is 

 from 50 to 60 in the afternoon and in the shade ; in the hottest 

 season it is from 90 to 100, and about 10 higher in the southern 

 parts of Upper Egypt. The climate of Upper Kgypt, though hotter, 

 is more healthy than that of the lower country. The plague seldom 

 ascends far above Cairo. Ophthalmia is also more common in Lower 

 Egypt. The houses of the wealthier classes in the principal towns 

 are substantially built, roomy, and commodious ; but the dwellings 

 of the lower orders, especially of the peasants, are of a very mean 

 description, being mostly built of unbaked brick cemented with mud. 

 Many of them are mere hovels. Most of the villages of Egypt are 

 situated upon eminences of rubbish, the materials of former buildings, 

 and thus rise a few feet above the reach of the inundation : they are 

 surrounded by palm-trees. 



The agricultural produce of Egypt consists of the following winter 

 plants, which are sown after the inundation and reaped in about three 

 or four months : wheat, barley, beans, peas, lentils, vetches, lupins, 

 clover, flax, coleseed, lettuce, hemp, cummin, coriander, poppy, 

 tobacco, water-melons, and cucumbers ; and of the following summer 

 plants, which are raised by artificial irrigation by means of water- 

 wheels and other machinery : durrha, maize, onions, millet, henueh, 

 sugar-cane, cotton, coffee, indigo, and madder. Rice is sown in the 

 spring and gathered in October, chiefly near Lake Menzaleh. Of the 

 fruit-trees, which grow mostly in gardens near the principal towns, 

 the mulberry and Seville orange ripen in January ; apricots in May, 

 peaches and plums in June ; apples, pears, and caroobs at the end of 

 June; grapes at the beginning of July; figs in July; prickly pears 

 at the end of July ; pomegranates and lemons in August ; dates in 

 August ; citrus rnediea in September ; oranges in October ; sweet 

 lemons and banana in November. 



The modern Egyptians being essentially an agricultural people, arts 

 and manufactures are not pursued to any great extent. The domestic 

 manufactures are chiefly of carpets, woollen cloths, pottery, glass, and 

 other articles of home consumption, chiefly of a rude kind. The 

 larger manufactures are for the most part a government monopoly. 

 Thi-y consist of upwards of twenty cotton-factories, several large 

 dyeing ami printing establishments and woollen cloth factories, and 

 one or two extensive iron-foundries, with manufactories of carpets, 

 red caps, and fire-arms, mostly at Cairo and Boulak. 



The trade with Europe is carried on through ALEXANDRIA. The 

 traffic with Africa, which is very large, is carried on by means of 

 caravans, which carry European and Egyptian produce in exchange 

 for elephants' tusks, gold-dust, ostrich feathers, skins, wools, and 



gums. The revenue, derived from land and capitation taxes and 

 from the government monopolies, amounts on an average to about 

 2,225,000^. ; the expenditure to somewhat less. There is no public 

 debt. The army consists of about 148,000 regulars, of whom about 

 11,500 are cavalry; and an equally large body of irregular troops, 

 militia, &c. The contingent which Egypt is bound to supply to 

 Turkey, if required, amounts to about 40,000 men. The government 

 may be regarded as absolute in the strictest sense of the word. 



(For Ancient Egypt, the works of Champollion, Andreossi, Heeren, 

 Lepsius, Buuseu, Kenrick, Sharpe, Gliddon, and especially Wilkinson, 

 and the volumes on ' Egyptian Antiquities ' in ' Library of Entertain- 

 ing Knowledge,' should be consulted ; for Modern Egypt, see especially 

 Lane's ' Modern Egyptians,' and Murray's ' Handbook of Egypt ' by 

 Wilkinson ; with the volumes of Plauat, Mengin, &c.) 



EHRENBREITSTEIN, a town on the right bank of the Rhine, in 

 the circle of Coblenz, and in the Prussian province of the Rhine. It 

 is called Thal-Ehrenbreitstein (Vale Ehrenbreitstein) from its situation 

 at the foot of a precipitous height 772 feet above the river, opposite to 

 Coblenz, with which it is connected by a bridge of boats, in 50 23' 

 N. lat., 7 36' E. long. It occurs in records of the year 1210 under the 

 name of Mulne or Mullenheim; but in 1533 the name appears to have 

 been changed into Muhlheim and Miillenthal. It contains two 

 Roman Catholic churches, a synagogue, several mills, and 2400 

 inhabitants. The town has a tobacco manufactory, and a brisk trade 

 in wine, corn, iron, clay for tobacco-pipes, &c. Above the town stands 

 the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein (Honour's broad stone), one of the 

 strongest fortified places in Europe. The platform of the rock is 

 said to have been occupied in ancient times by a Roman castle or fort. 

 During the middle ages it was a stronghold of the electors of Treves, 

 who in later times had a palace at the foot of the rock, which is now 

 used as a flour store. The French, under Marshal Boufflers, iu vain 

 besieged the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein in 1688, but they took it 

 after a fourteen months' siege in 1799, and on their evacuation of it 

 at the peace of Luneville (1801) they blew up its defences. Since 

 1814 however Prussia has spent large sums in reconstructing the 

 fortress, the escarped rocks and steep slopes on three sides of which 

 are defended by many mouthed batteries, numbering a total of about 

 400 guns. The weak point of the fortress towards the north-west is 

 protected by three successive lines of defences. The platform ou the 

 top of the rock serves for a parade-ground, and covers vast cisterns 

 capable of containing a three years' supply of water for the garrison, 

 furnished from springs without the walls. A well also 400 feet deep 

 cut in the rock communicates (it is said) with the Rhine. Ehren- 

 breitstein is included in the great system of fortifications which 

 surround Coblenz. Strangers are admitted to visit it ou presenting an 

 order from the military governor of Coblenz. The views from the 

 summit are extensive and beautiful. The road up to it from the town 

 is about 1200 paces long; it is fortified, and rests almost entirely 

 upon arches built over the chasms in the rock of which the height 

 consists. [COBLENZ.] 



EICHSTADT, a handsome town in Bavaria, is situated iu a narrow 

 but productive valley on the left bank of the Altraiihl, in 48 53' 

 N. lat., 11 10' E. long., and has about 7500 inhabitants. The town 

 stands nearly in the centre of a triangle, in whose angles are the 

 towns of Augsburg, Nurnberg, and Ratisbon, from each of which it 

 is 40 miles distant. It is the capital of a small principality of about 

 116 square miles in extent, which was bestowed upon Eugene 

 Beauharnois, duke of Leuchtenberg, in 1817. The town gives title 

 to a bishop, and the family of the duke of Leuchtenberg resides here 

 in the summer. The town is walled round, aud has four suburos. 

 It has an ecclesiastical seminary, a grammar-school, a capuchin 

 monastery, a nunnery, an hospital, an orphan asylum, and other 

 charitable institutions, a cathedral church, and four other churches. 

 Among the buildings of note are the duke of Leuchtenberg's palace, with 

 the celebrated Brazilian cabinet, a library and museum of antiquities, 

 &c. : the cathedral of St.-Willibakl, which dates from the 13th 

 century, is built in the gothic style, aud contains many curious 

 monuments of the bishops aud canons of Eichstadt; the Willibalds- 

 burg, a castle on a height above the town, which was the residence 

 of St. Willibald and of his successors in the see of Eichstitdt ; and 

 the church of St. Walpurgie, a British saint, whose remains are 

 interred beneath the high altar. Willibaldsburg, which is built on an 

 eminence 1200 feet high, is said to occupy the site of Aureatum, a 

 Roman castle, and was the abode of the first bishop, Willibald, who 

 was the builder of the cathedral church and the adjacent dwellings 

 for his clergy, in the middle of the Sth century. For this purpose 

 he cleared an area covered with oaks, whence tho town derives its 

 name of Eichstadt, or town of oaks. In the romantic grounds called 

 Aumiihlwald, near this place, is a tablet of cast-iron, set iu a block 

 of marble, 198 feet square, and laid into a mass of rock: it was 

 erected by tho citizens in memory of Eugene Boauharnois. The 

 manufactures of Eichstadt are woollen-stuffs, earthenware, beer, 

 iron-ware, &c. 



EIFEL, a wild highland region in the Prussian Rhein-Provinz, 

 extends along the left bank of tho Rhine between Bonn and Coblenz. 

 Its proper geographical boundaries are the Rhine ou the enst, which 

 divides it from the Westerwald ; the deep valley of the Mosellu on 

 the south, which separates it from the Hochwald and tho Hunsdrack 



