RUINED MOSQUES IN THE DESERT WEST OF THE 
CITADEL. 
These are the minarets of some of the ruined mosques which are seen scattered 
over the Desert, just without the walls of Cairo, and are generally called the Tombs 
of the Mamlooks, — Wilkinson says erroneously, and his authority is great; hut this 
name is so commonly given to them, that it is scarcely desirable to change it. These 
beautiful and ever-varied architectural objects are numerous, and at no remote period 
must, with their tombs and mosques, have given to this district a striking character; 
but they are nearly all falling to decay, and some are hi ruins. The mosque of 
the principal minaret in this sketch has disappeared; its dome and tomb no longer 
exist. That the minarets, which are generally light and fragile in their structure, 
should remain, is remarkable. There is little doubt that the mosques have been 
destroyed by violence, but history has not preserved when or why; some religious 
feeling, perhaps, preserved the minarets, when the tombs, and names of the founders 
of the mosques, were devoted to oblivion. 
Roberts's Journal. 
