106 
DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
has approached within three leagues of the coast, 
that the palm trees of Egypt, and the sand-hills on 
which they grow, seem to emerge from the waters. 
Advancing from the shore, a vast plain, naked and 
unbounded, opens to the view, under a horizon 
flat and unvaried, where the eye, searching in vain 
for an interesting object, wanders among the slen- 
der date trees, and thinly scattered palms, or rests 
on groups of huts composed of brick and mud. 
Such is the vast plain of Lower Egypt, which com- 
prehends all the country bounded by Cairo, the 
Mediterranean, the isthmus of Suez, and the Li- 
byan desert. Upper Egypt, or the Sahid, com- 
mences at Cairo, and extends to the cataracts of 
Syene, between two chains of mountains which 
run frotn north to south. The western range, 
which separates Egypt from Libya, terminates near 
Alexandria, and consists chiefly of hills of sand 
piled on a base of calcareous stone. The eastern 
range, which verges towards the Red Sea, is more 
elevated and rocky, though, from its naked and 
barren aspect, it may be properly denominated a 
desert. The basis of Egypt, from Syene to the 
Mediterranean, is a continued bed of a whitish, 
soft, calcareous stone, containing such shells as 
are found in the contiguous seas ; and of the same 
stone the mountains are composed. Beyond these 
mountainous ridges, arid deserts expand on every 
side \ but though the fierce and wandering tribes 
