The Pyramids of Geezeh, the most striking objects in Egypt, are seen, beyond the 
Nile, at a distance of about six or seven miles; and the long line of the Libyan 
hills, as they subside to the Delta, bound the horizon. 
All and everything is Oriental in the scene,— the flat roofs of tlie dwellings, the 
handsome domes, and the numerous and elegant minarets of the mosques, have no 
resemblance to Western architecture; we have in delicacy of structure a few examples 
of light towers and steeples, but none which does not suffer in comparison with the 
minarets of Cairo: these are carried to a great height, and finish in some with forms 
as elegant as the monument of Lysicrates at Athens, but slighter in the columns of 
marble which support them, and raised on a pinnacle which, while it increased the 
danger of construction, makes the success of their erection more striking. 
THE HOLY TREE OF METEREAH. 
Tins is believed by the Coptic and Greek Christians to be the very tree beneath 
which the Holy Family rested when they fled from Bethlehem into Egypt to avoid 
the persecution of Herod. The extreme age of this sycamore is so obvious, and the 
tradition is from so remote a period, that, however improbable the tradition, the feeling 
is scarcely to be envied which would destroy so harmless and so sacred a superstition. 
This tree is situated in the village of Metereah, close to Heliopolis, the On of Scripture; 
at its foot is a fountain of water, said to have been originally salt, but converted to a 
pure and sweet spring by the sanctity of those who were sheltered here. 
Devotees, however, have not been deterred by its holiness from cutting their names 
and initials on every available spot on its withered trunk; yet neither such folly, nor 
time, which has left its ruins only a cluster of vast fragments, has been able to check 
the luxuriant foliage of some still vigorous and spreading branches which mark its 
truly perennial character. 
