4© TRAVELS TO DISCOVER. 



laft 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 SherrifTe of Mecca, to the Naybe 

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

 Sennaar, and his minifler for the time being. 



Having obtained all my letters and difpatches, as well 

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

 f jr my journey. 



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

 of it. It is in lat. 30 2 1 30'* north, and in long. 31 p i6 ! eaft, 

 from Greenwich. I cannot affent to what is faid of it, that 

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

 dens and all, in three hours and a quarter, upon an afs., at 

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



The Galiili f, or Amnis Trajanus, panes through the 

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

 firfl 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 fay, from there having been 

 a bridge there ; Geeza fignifies the Paflage. 



About eleven miles beyond this are the Pyramids, call- 

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



every 



Ptol. Geo^raph, lib. 4 Cap. 5. f Shaw's travels p. 294, 



