IV 
136 GRAND CAIRO. 
it.i surf ace found to be painted — Discovery of an antient 
Inscription — Custom of painting antient Statues — 
Extract from Pauw. 
ciiAr. Our house in Grand Cairo stood in a principal 
street, near the northern bank of the Canal; so 
that our djerm, being always at hand, served us, 
like a gondola at Venice, instead of a carriage ; 
and we frequently used it to visit the different 
parts of the city accessible by canals. Upon 
the twenty-first of August, the inundation being 
nearly at its height, we attempted a passage 
by water to the utmost extremity of the Amnis 
Trajanus \ in the direction of the Birk el Hadjee, 
(1) The Khalig, or principal Canal of Cairo, believed to be the 
TPAIANOS noTAMOS oi Ptolemy, (Fid. Geog. lib. iv. c. 5.) and called 
also, by some writers, Fossa Traiana. Savari/, upon the authority of 
Elmacin, an Arabic historian, attributes this work entirely to Omar, 
and says it was Adrian, rather than Trajan, who caused a caoal to be 
dug near Cairo. (Lettres sur VEgypte, torn. I. p. 94. Paris, 1785.) 
There is, however, reason to believe that Omar's work w as merely a 
restoration of the antient dyke. It extends eastward of the JVile, to 
the distance of twelve miles, and is terminated by the Pilgrim's Lake. 
Formerly it was continued to HeroopoUs, upon the btrnks of the Red 
Sea. This undertaking was begun by Sesostris, carried on hy Darius, 
and finished by Ptoletny Philadelphus. Its last restoration took place 
in the year 644, under Caliph Omar. fStrabon. Geog. lib. xvii. ^om. II. 
P' 1 140. Edit. Oxon. See also the Notes in the Oxford edition of St}-abo.) 
The history of this great undertaking, in its origin, is thus related by 
Pliny, who says the design was abandoned through fear of inundating 
Egypt with the waters of the Red Sea. " Daneon partus, ex quo 
riavigabilejn alteum pcrducere in Nilum (qud parte ad Delta dictum 
decurrit 
