The Irish standard., 1886-05-22
The LAND OF The PHAROAHS.
They Have No Pullman Palace Oars There
and Fifteen Persons is All That Ore
Carriage Will Hold.
FL KAHlRA, "CITY OF VICTORIES"

Things You Gan See in Egypt's 0api-
tai City and at the
Pyramids.
(Written for The Irish Standard by David NJ.
Carley.)
@ 1t was O'Clock in the morning of
February S, 1885, when the writer, after
an unpleasant nights ride on the
Egyptian railway, line extending
from Alexandria to Assiout, landed at
Boulac station, a distance of two miles
from Cairo and about eight miles from
the pyramids. Before speaking of Ell
Kahira, or the Getty of Victories" I
shall state that riding on an Egyptian
railway is not a thing of beauty nor joy
forever. The cars used are of an in
ferior quality, worse, in fact, than a
cattle car in America. About fifteen
persons is all that one carriage will ac-
commodate. The seats flour in num-
ber) extend the full length of the car.
The sides are open, and between the
jolting Of the car over road as rough
as corduroy and the sand as 1t blows
off the desert makes ride upon the
Egyptian railway anything but one Of
pleasure, and has tendency to remind
the American traveller of the adyan-
tages aud luxuriance of our palace
cars. After few moments delay
at Boulac station, breakfast was par
taken of and q carriage secured, and the
writer started out on a visit to
CAIRO AND THE PYRAMIDS.
Driving along beautiful road, each
side of which is thickly studded with
trees, we pass over the Kassr-el-Nil
bridge and by the barracks bearing the
same name, thence to Abdin Square,
the Mosque Sultan Hassan, the Citadel,
Mosque Of Mohamet Ali and Jacobs
Well, the depth of which is over $50
feet. Cairo undoubtedly possesses
more interest for the Biblical scholar
than any other city in the world, for it
must have been convenient to here that
Moses, the commander of 600,000,"
first saw the light of day, and Joseph
after being sold into bondage by his
brethren rose to the dignity Of chief
ruler of the land. The Mohammedan
traditions, many of which contain
highly amusing though scarcely sacri-
legious allusions to Moses, state posi-
lively that the Hebrew child was born
at the ancient city of Memphis, in
close proximity to the present Cairo,
and they certainly have as good
grounds for their assertion as any other
theory on the subject that has ever been
advanced. The
OLD CITY OF CAIRO
was formerly surrounded by high and
massive walls and entered by wide
gate, both Of which have disappeared,
while broad boulevards open an easy
way into the city and out to the desert.
Passing over where gate and wall once
stood and comparing the ancient
buildings with the more recent struc-
lures the visitor is convinced that q
great improvent must have taken place
in the city Of late years. Where once
waved the branches of the stately syca-
mores planted by Mohamet Ali are now
to be seen only solid blocks of houses
with arcades in imitation Of those of
the Rue de Rivoli at Paris. Over three
fourths of the space formerly occupied
by that primitive garden wilderness, so
dear to the memory of s'the oldest in
habitants,' y who used to sit every even.
ing and night under it's grand trees,
slipping coffee and smoking nargilehs,
on those Cairenne nights, brighter than
western days. while an endless process
sion of natives and Levantines passed
under it's leafy arcades, are imitation
EUROPEAN HOUSES AND SHOPS,
streets of lofty and latticed houses
abounding in carved balconies and
ford arcades; the mosques with deli
cate domes and airy minarets, covered
with tracery and a.besques; the houses
of beys and grandees: the fortified
abodes Of the stern old Marmelukes,
now those of Egyptian mobiles, recalling
in their architecture Moorish glories of
the Alhambra and the Alcazar of Car
dova-a perpetual dream of the Ara
Nights. AS you proceed along the
narrow, crowded streets, very frequent
lyEyou meet, sitting astride donkey,
women, with their faces con-
cealed, according to the customs pre-
1yailing among the better classes. Ali
that can be seen OF their physiognomy
is ID . pair Of piercing black eyes, and by
taking side view, surreptitiously, the
IpolrobOscis ID sometimes observable.
Among the g 20 eooorer, classes, and particu-
lIsIrilys those who aye not devoted belie,y-
sla,si srsi the achings Of Mohamet, this
lsilIt ct,st ton of ealing the face is not
tsIstlY t bit law vas en-