374 



EGYPT. 



opening above where the light can enter, we had, every one, a wax 

 candle. The catacombs consist of a vast number of subterranean 

 apartments which extend a long way. The ground is very uneven 

 and hilly, being filled up greatly with sand and rubbish. In some 

 places one can stand up very well ; in others there is not above four 

 or five feet. There is one grand door that seems to have in its archi- 

 tecture some resemblance to the Doric form ; by this you enter into 

 a large rotunda of considerable height ; there are three other great 

 doors in it, that lead to small rooms. All of these apartments are 

 cut out of a very hard rock. W e staid there sometime to take the 

 plan of some part of it ; but as there are no air-holes we found it very 

 warm and stifling, particularly with such a number of people,, and all 

 with lights ; besides, there were several bones and a dead ass that 

 added to the ungrateful smell. The Arabs in time of war make this 

 a kind of hiding place, as it is capable of containing several thousand 

 people. The entrance is not above twenty or thirty yards from the 

 sea. We came out and found the rest of the company sitting in a 

 large tent, that had been put up on the shore during our absence. 

 Just before the tent there is a convenient bathing place with a room 

 cut out in the rock, and open on one side, to dress and undress in. 

 Less than a musket-shot further there are three or four grand bathing- 

 rooms, cut in the rock ; the water enters by doors made on purpose, 

 and in each there is a seat the length of the room to undress in. They 

 are so fine altogether, that they go by the name of Cleopatra's baths. 

 After dinner we went to another subterraneous place, which for the 

 height and grandeur of it cannot fail of surprising the spectator ; it 

 is high and spacious, cut out of the rock, though the stone seems not 

 to be a hard one. They pretend that the building was used as a gra- 

 nary. We then went to the catacombs where the mummies had for- 

 merly been deposited. A pigeon-house may give one some idea of 

 the form of them. The place is large, and each hole of a size suffi- 

 cient for a corpse. Having measured them, we rode after the rest of the 

 company, who were gone to some more catacombs towards Pompey's 

 pillar ; these we found of the same nature as the last, but much larger. 



