CAIEO. 407 



of the new town — which has been constructed between the native quarter and the 

 Nile — including barracks, government offices, palaces, and hotels, also presents a 

 European aspect. The vegetation alone, enclosed by railings in the gardens, and 

 the shady lebek acacias planted on both sides of the broad streets, remind the 

 observer that he is still in Egypt. Elegant structures, surrounded by verdure, 

 present a pleasant contrast to the commonplace buildings of this new quarter. 



Some broad and straight thoroughfares, lined by houses in a vulgar style of 

 architecture, have recently been opened through the heart of the old quarters ; but 

 with these exceptions, Cairo has almost everywhere preserved its characteristic 

 physiognomy. These irregular streets, some broad, some narrow, winding at abrupt 

 angles between buildings facing in all directions, present an endless variety of 

 perspective. Here we come upon irregular " squares " or open spaces, flanked by 

 the painted arcade of some picturesque mosque ; elsewhere the two sections of a 

 palace meet overhead by vaulted galleries thrown across the street ; right and left 

 are gates leading through intricate byways to blind alleys, or traversing court- 

 yards surrounded by overhanging balconies gay with strips of tapestry fluttering 

 in the breeze. Here and there marble colonnades or carved porticoes project from 

 walls of grey or red brick. 



The musharabiehs all differ in the patterns of their gratings or lattice-work. 

 Unfortunately these musharabiehs (meshrebîyehs) are gradually disappearing, at 

 least from the more frequented thoroughfares. They are simply projecting 

 windows or casements made of ingeniously designed lattice-work, or else, in the 

 poorer houses, merely of rough boards ; and there are still not a few houses where 

 the passenger stops to admire tier upon tier of these singularly picturesque 

 contrivances. The name is derived from a root meaning to drink, as in " sherbet," 

 and is applied to the musharabiehs because the porous water-bottles are often 

 placed in them to cool. " The delicately turned knobs and balls by which the 

 patterns of the lattice- work are formed, are sufficiently near together to conceal 

 whatever passes within from the eyes of opposite neighbours, and yet there is 

 enough space between them to allow free access of air. The musharabieh is indeed 

 a cooling place for human beings as well as water- jars, and at once a convent 

 grating and a spying-place for the women of the harem, who can watch their 

 enemies of the opposite sex through the meshes of the windows without being seen 

 in return." * 



The different stories even of the same house at times present a variety of 

 contrasts in their architecture and their projecting lines, corbels, and gables. In some 

 quarters all the upper part of the structure spreads out like a huge Chinese folding- 

 screen, furnished with numerous nooks and corners, whence the inmates may survey 

 the passing scenes at their leisure. The very temperature is varied by the different 

 character of these edifices, with their supporting beams and matting suspended at 

 different elevations above the roadway. Gloomy passages are here and there sud- 

 denly relieved by a flood of dazzling light, and the wayfarer's progress is constantly 

 arrested by heajjs of unsavoury refuse, pools of stagnant water, or whirlwinds of 



* " Social Life in Egypt," p. 9. 



