BAERAGE OP THE NILE. 413 



mekyas, or " Nilometer," which in some years is so anxiously consulted to ascertain 

 the progress of the inundations. The ancient Nilometer, which has been replaced 

 by that of Randah, occupied a position farther up on the right bank of the river, 

 over against Memphis. 



Connected with the capital of Egypt is the watering village of Helwan, which 

 is situated 14 miles to the south by rail, near the right bank of the Nile. Its 

 sulphureous waters, which are slightly thermal (74° to 86° F.), are said to be very 

 efficacious. Numerous palaces are dotted round the village, mostly encircled by 

 parks or gardens, some of which cover some square miles in extent. On the left 

 bank facing Cairo are the palaces of Gizeh and Jczireh, while to the north of the 

 capital stands the j^alace of Shuhrah, connected with the railway terminus by a 

 magnificent avenue of sycamores, which is lined by pleasant suburban residences. 

 To the north-east, on the verge of the desert, are visible the palaces of El-Kuhhch 

 and El-Abhassieh, at present occupied by the polytechnic and military schools. 



This palace is not far from the village of Matarieh, which covers part of the 

 site of the ancient " City of the Sun," the Pè-Ra of the Pharaohs, the Hcliopolis 

 of the Greeks, where the Egyptian priests came to be initiated into the esoteric 

 doctrines of the national religion. Of this city of temples and schools there remain 

 only the foundations of two enclosures and an obelisk, which was raised by 

 Usortesen I. forty- six centuries ago, and which since then has gradually subsided 

 over 30 feet into the ground. It is the oldest of all existing obelisks. In the 

 surrounding marshes still survives the species of heron known as the ardea garzetta, 

 which has become so famous in the history of symbols and in legend under the 

 name of the phœnix. At intervals of five hundred years, on the day of the 

 summer solstice the sacred bird was fabled to return from Arabia or India, and 

 perch on the summit of the Temple of the Sun. Here it was consumed on a pyre of 

 scented wood, ever rising from its ashes with renewed life. 



The village of Matarieh on the right, as well as that of Embaheh on the left 

 bank of the Nile, recalls the memory of some famous battles. At the latter place 

 Bonaparte gained the so-called " Battle of the Pyramids," while a Turkish army 

 was routed by Kleber at Matarieh and in the ruins of Heliopolis. In a delightful 

 garden at Matarieh the Coptic monks show the " Virgin's Tree," a sycamore less 

 than three centuries old, beneath which the Holy Family is supposed to have rested 

 on the flight to Egypt. Matarieh is the only place in the delta where ostrich farm- 

 ing is at present carried on. 



Barrage of the Nile. 



The barrage of the Nile, whose crenellated towers loom in the distance like the 

 battlements of a citadel, must be included amongst the monumental works of the 

 Egyptian capital. Formed of two bridges with one hundred and thirty-four arches 

 altogether and over half a mile — or, including the approaches, more than a mile — 

 long, it runs athwart the stream some 12 miles below Bulaq, at the point where 

 the Nile ramifies into two main branches. Here the intermediate cutting of the 



