128 GRAND CAIRO. 
notwithstanding Savnrys Oriental researches, 
the Citadel of Cairo may stand upon the spot 
once occupied by the Acropolis of the Egyptian 
Babylon: this opinion, maintained by Shaw in 
opposition to Pococke, who assigned a different 
position for the Babylonian fortress', is further 
confirmed by the style of the work used in the 
structure; by the skill manifested in hewing 
the rock upon which it stands, for the way up 
to it; for the well: and for other purposes. 
Pococke affirmed that the hill itself seemed to 
have been separated, by art", from the eastern 
extremity of Mount Mokatam; and this name, 
according to Shaiv^, signifies " a mountain heivn, 
or cut through.'" Such immense labour is more 
characteristic of an Assyrian colony, than of the 
Arabiaris, in any period of their history: and 
that such a settlement w^as actually made many 
ages before the conquest of Egypt by the Arabs, 
is clear from the evidence of Diodorus Siculus^, 
o^ Strabo\ and of Josephus^. But long before 
(1) Old Cairo seems to have succeeded to the town and fortress of 
Bahylon, which I imajine to have been on Mount Jekusi, at the south 
end of Old Cairo." Pocoche's Description nf the Easty vol. I. p. 25. 
Tjond. 1743. 
(2) Ibid. p. 32L 
(3) Shaw's Travels, ubi snpra. 
(4) Diod.Sic. lib. i. p. 52. Hanov. 1604. 
(5) Strahon. Geo^. lib. xvii. p. 1143. Ed. O.ioyi. 1807- 
(G") Josrphus de Antiq. Jud. lib. ii. v. ),"). Ojlon. l€9l. 
