78 
A TRIP TO EGYPT. 
The Citadel 
is built on a bill overlooking the town, close to which is the 
Mosque of Mohammed Ali, 
built in 1829. Its ceiling is a vast cupola, surrounded by four 
demi-cupolas and four small domes at the corners ; there are two 
elongated minarets, which can be seen many miles away in the 
desert. The floor was covered by Turkey carpet, on which the 
Arabs prostrate themselves during their acts of worship. There is 
a fine court-yard, containing the Fountain of Ablutions, and from 
near here there is a splendid prospect of Cairo and Lower Egypt 
which is claimed to be one of the finest views in the world. 
The Mosque of Sultan Hassan, 
dating from 1587, is perhaps the finest in the city. It cost £600 
per day for three years to rear this building, and it is asserted that 
the architect’s hands were cut off by the Sultan to keep the 
edifice unique. There are altogether about four hundred mosques 
in Cairo, most of them open every day, Friday, however, being the 
great day of the week. 
The Palaces of Cairo, 
of which there are several, are all modern. We went over the 
palace of Gezeereb, which stands on an island on the banks of the 
Nile, and was built by Ismail Pasha, where the Empress Eugenie 
was entertained. The ball room, reception rooms, great hall, and 
staircase are very fine, but at the present time the palace is 
unoccupied. 
The Museum at Ghizeh 
is probably the most valuable Egyptian Museum in the world. 
This remarkable collection was founded in 1858 by Mariette Bey 
at Boulak, and was removed to Ghizeh in 1890, to an old palace 
which was much extended so that the collecti on of antiquities could 
be classified and arranged from the earliest to the latter periods. 
Unwearied digging has enabled Mariette to reach the records of the 
ancient empire, and show what we never suspected—that the glory 
of Egyptian art belongs to the age of Cheops, and only its decadence 
to the age of Rameses II. Not only the art, but the culture, the 
religion, the political organisation of Egypt are carried back to the 
April, 1893. 
