14S DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
cannot be compared with the idea of its ancient 
glory, when it was the metropolis of Africa, the 
second capital of the east, the scene of the wonders 
of Arabian romance, and of the real incidents of 
Arabian history, scarcely more credible than those 
of Oriental fiction. From the castle of Cairo, 
founded on Mount Mokattam, the eye, at one 
view, commands a prospect of the immense cres- 
cent which the city forms. It surveys none of 
those public or private edifices which display the 
genius of the architect, none of those regular 
squares or uniform streets which mark the taste of 
a polished people, but, amid the confused multitude 
of houses, it attempts in vain to trace the direction 
of the streets, which are crooked and narrow. Va- 
cant spaces appear at intervals, which are lakes at > 
the inundation of the Nile, and gardens during the 
rest of the year. In September, the natives sail 
over the ground, which in April is covered with 
flowers and verdure. The city is surrounded by a 
multitude of tombs ; it is without a pavement, and 
without walls ; and the rubbish which has accumu- 
lated during a series of ages, rises in hillocks around 
it. The lofty minarets of the numerous mosques, 
are the only objects which interrupt the uniformi- 
ty of the flat and terraced roofs. The houses, 
which consist of two or three stories, are for the 
most part composed of earth and brick, though, in 
some instances, a soft species of stone, of a fine 
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