4 o TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



lafl places, as their garrifons are from that body at Cairo, 

 which they call their Port. I had alfo letters from Ali Bey, 

 to the Bey of Suez, to the SherriiTe of Mecca, to the Naybe 

 (fo they call the Sovereign) of Maftiah, and to the king of 

 Sennaar, and his miniiler for .the time being, 



Having obtained all my letters and difpatches, as well 

 from the patriarch as from the Bey, I fet about preparing 

 fjr my journey. 



Cairo is fuppofed to be the ancient Babylon*, at leaf! part 

 of it. It is in lat. 30 ° 2' 30" north, and in long. 31 iG' eaft, 

 from Greenwich. I cannot aflent to what is laid of it, that 

 it is built in form of a crefcent. You ride round it, gar- 

 dens and all, in «:hrpe hours and a quarter, upon an afs, at 

 an ordinary pace, which will be above three miles an hour. 



The Califh f, or Amnis Trajanus, pafTes through the 

 length of it, and fills the lake called Birket el Hadje, the 

 firlt fupply of water the pilgrims get in their tirefome jour- 

 ney to Mecca. 



On the other fide of the Nile, from Cairo, is Geeza, fo call- 

 ed, as fome Arabian authors lay, from there having been 

 a bridge there ; Geeza ilgnities the Paflage. 



- About eleven miles beyond this are the Pyramids, call- 

 ed the Pyramids of Geeza, the defcription of which is in 



every 



*Ptol. Geograph. lib. 4 Cap. C- t Shaw's travels p. 294. 



