'A JOURNEY IN THE EAST: 239 



which seizes upon every one who has lived within their bounds. 

 Not in the raw, gloomy, frozen North, but in the smiling 

 ever-blooming East, in the land of eternal summer, and 

 there alone, could have stood the cradle of the human race. 



A very good road runs from Kubbeh to Cairo ; so we soon 

 reached Kasr-el-Nusha, where dinner, followed by a refreshing- 

 night's rest, invigorated us for the morrow. 



On the 22nd we started in the morning with Baron Saurma, 

 and drove through part of the European quarter and then up 

 the long Muski to the last houses of the town, where the 

 carriage-road ends and the waste barren district of the old 

 tombs begins. There the broad tract of stones and sand that 

 lies between Cairo and the steep cliffs of the Mokattam hills is 

 completely filled up by a regular city of old mosque-like 

 tombs and Mussulman graves of every description, some of 

 which are very fine. A similar colony of the dead con- 

 taining the tombs of the Mamelukes lies on the further side 

 of the Citadel, but it is far less worthy of inspection. 



Among the many large and small mosques of the tombs of 

 the Caliphs, the most remarkable is the Gamah Kait-Bey a 

 tolerably well-preserved building, with a richly ornamented 

 dome, and in its sanctuary two blocks of stone on which are 

 the prints of the Prophet's feet ! These stones are said to have 

 been brought from Mecca by Kait-Bey himself, the builder of 

 the mosque. 



Altogether this ride through the city of tombs presented 

 many highly interesting points of view. In front of us were 

 the frowning precipices of the mountain, to our right the 

 rock-built Citadel adorned with slender towering minarets, and 

 around us a maze of tombs, gravestones, and mosques, all in a 

 ruinous condition and half-buried by the desert sands. Among 

 them rose bare mounds, crowned with tower-like Arab wind- 

 mills built of stone ; while the whole scene bore the stamp of 

 gloom, and the many tracks of hyaenas, jackals, wolves, and 



