353 
this I was favoured by an atmosphere perfectly trail* 
sparent. 
We know that ancient Alexandria, one of the great- 
est dep6ts of commerce, was the seat of the court of 
Egypt, and an immense city, which contained more 
than a million of inhabitants. Its custom-house, in 
those times of opulence, produced an enormous reve- 
nue, equal to sixty or sixty-five millions of francs; 
which sum, according to the present depreciation of 
money, may be estimated at a hundred times its value, 
or equal to a thousand millions at this time. It pro- 
duces now no more than about five hundred thousand 
francs. 
Historians relate, that at the epoch of the conquest of 
the country by the Arabs, in the time of caliph Omar, 
this city contained four thousand palaces, an equal num- 
ber of public baths, four hundred markets, and forty 
thousand tributary Jews. They no longer exist. The 
spots which all these edifices covered are hardly known. 
Historians also speak of the infinite number of gar- 
dens and orchards with which the environs of the city 
were adorned. A sandy moving desert, quite sterile, 
encompasses it at this time. 
In a word, this fine daughter of the great Alexander, 
this opulent court of Ptolemy, this delightful abode of 
Cleopatra, is only the shadow of its past greatness. An 
immense accumulation of ruins, which are for the most 
part buried in the sand, upon a surface of several 
leagues; Pompey's pillar;, the needles of Cleopatra; the 
cisterns; the catacombs; and home columns, entire or 
broken, scattered here and there, are the sad remains of 
this once rich, splendid, and famous city. A space of 
vol. i» y y 
