PHYSICAL STRUCTURE. 109 
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 unva- 
ried, where the eye, searching in vain for an inte- 
resting object, wanders among the slender 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 comprehends 
all the country bounded by Cairo, the Mediterra- 
nean, the isthmus of Suez, and the Lybian desert. 
Upper Egypt, or the Sahid, commences at Cairo, 
and extends to the cataracts of Syene, between 
two chains of mountains which run from 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 whitish, soft, calcareous stone, 
containing such shells as are found in the conti- 
guous 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 which inhabit 
