406 NOETH-EAST AFEICA. 



left bank of the Nile, Cairo would form a simple northern extension of Memphis, 

 It would even seem more natural that the capital, like nearly all the other cities of 

 Middle Egypt, should stand on the west side, which comprises over three-fourths 

 of the arable lands, and which gives more easy access to Alexandria, the chief out- 

 port of the country. But Cairo is not an Egyptian foundation. It was built by 

 Asiatic conquerors, who naturally could not think of founding their chief strong- 

 hold on the wrong side of the river for them. Thus the very position of Cairo on 

 the right bank of the Nile suffices to show that Egypt is a conquered land. 



The name of El-Kahirah, or the Victorious, officially given to the capital of 

 Egypt, is not current amongst the people themselves. Jlasr, the old name of the 

 whole country, to which is often added the epithet of " Mother of the World," is the 

 expression more usually employed in speaking of the city. Nothing but g, small 

 fort bearing the name of Babelun (Babylonia) occupied a site a little above the 

 present capital down to the nineteenth year of the Hegira, when it was caj)tured 

 by Amru. After this event it began to extend northwards by the addition of the 

 El-Fostât, or " Tent," which afterwards became the Masr el-Atikah, or "Old 

 Cairo." Again besieged and reduced, over three centuries afterwards, it continued 

 still to expand in the same direction by absorbing a third quarter, the so-called 

 military encampment of El-Kaireh. Here was developed the modern city, whose 

 name has been slightly modified to Cairo and other forms in the European idioms. 



Towards the north-west the right bank of the Nile is skirted by the wretched 

 hovels of Bulaq, a large and industrial suburb now connected with the city by a 

 new avenue lined with buildings. The old walls have been in great part destroyed 

 or overlapped by new structures ; but they are still standing towarda the east and 

 south, half buried amid heaps of refuse. The cliffs of the Jebel-Mokattam extend 

 to the south-east angle of the city, where their advanced spurs are crowned with 

 the citadel, which was occupied by the British forces in 1883, immediately after 

 the battle of Tel- el-Kebir. From this eminence, flanked by sustaining walls and 

 ramparts, a view is commanded of the whole city, with its cupolas and minarets, 

 its party-coloured buildings, its groves and gardens. Eound this city of bright 

 colours and throbbing life, stretches the grey and silent plain overlooked from a 

 distance by the pyramids. 



Cairo had been built on the bank of the Nile ; but since the tenth century the 

 stream has been displaced, and until recently the city was separated from the river 

 by a belt of groves and gardens, nearly two miles broad in some places. It is, 

 however, traversed in its entire length by the narrow Khalig Canal, which runs 

 dry for a part of the year. The Ismai'lieh Canal, another and broader channel, 

 deep enough to remain flooded throughout the year, rims north-west of the city in 

 the direction of Suez, through the Wady-Tumilât. The Nile, 1,320 feet wide 

 between its embankments, is here crossed by a modern iron bridge resting on stone 

 foundations, and continued westwards by a long viaduct across a branch flooded during 

 the inundations. But for the palms fringing the left bank, the dahabiyeh and other 

 craft moored along the quays, one might almost fancy at the sight of this bridge 

 that he was surveying the outlying quarters of some European city. The whole 



