Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1914-06-10
A. C. BAKER WRITES
ABOUT TRIP TO CAIRO
1t is a Country of Much Interest for
Him Who Thirsts for
Information.
GINGERBREAD, A DONKEY
PROVED FINE TRANSPORT
Mr.. Baker Describes Very Interest,",
ingly the Many Places of Inter.
est i'm This Far off Country.

The Nile is that small at Cairo
that most excursionists prefer to go
by train to Luxor. We travelled by
train that far; it is fourteen hours
ride, about four hundred miles.
AS one leaves Carlo he sees those
great pyramids in the distance for
about sixty miles, when he has passed
out of the zone of pyramids, as the
building of this kind of burial tomb
was confined to the lower valley.
| We are passing through a country
of great interest to him that thirsts
for information. AS one looks out
of his compartment the animal sur
rounding impresses one as a menag-
erie. Never before had the writer
seen such a number of odd looking
domestic animals in so confined
territory. Look out on this field,
not more than five acres, how many
hundred goats, sheep, asses, camels
and water buffalo; I would not at
tempt to estimate lest you think it
an eXaggeration. They are trained to
not tread in the standing feed, but
eat it clean, not green thing left
where they stand; it would not seem
possible. But outside of the water
buffalo which they stake with a rope,
the rest of the herd never tread out
into the growing feed. The shepherd
stands among them and they seem to
follow his every command. What is
this we see, those women and child
rem doing, gathering that stubble and
droppings from the herd. Here we
see them with arms up to the elbow
mixing this filthy mess and patting
out and spreading in the sun to dry.
This is their fuel: we have seen little
else fefft tuel in all our Atsditerranne-
an journey. Imagine the flavor OF
that steak broiled over this perfumed
fuel, how appetizing.
Barley seems tos2have the largest
acreage of any crop, but forage crops
seem to cover large tracts and all is,
fed to the vast herds. Some times
the valley is quite narrow and again
it gets wider and when we arrive at
Luxor we are in the widest portion
of the bed of the Nile at overflow
season.
In coming up to Luxor we pass
many interesting ancient scenes, but
around Luxor and Thebes center the
most interesting locations on the
Nile. 1t was here that the Pharaohs
builded so large that one can hardly
believe what he sees.
Luxor is a mud Arab town ofsa
few thousand. 1t has some good no
tells, of which the winter palace is a
beauty; it's patio and beautiful
grounds seem like an eden in this des-
ert surrounded river bed. Just in the
IN the town is the ruins of the tent
pie of Luxor As this once stood with
| it's beautiful carved sandstone coll
umns and granite statues 1t must
have created awe in the heart OF
those half civilized of that age.
About seventy years B. c. terrible
disturbances seem to have taken
place in all Mediterranean countries
and these great temples were shak-
en- to the foundation, and for all
those years since the vandal has car
ried away and destroyed, so far as
was in their power, their great beau
ty. But still as one looks on those
beautifully carved lotus columns he
is filled with amazement, and those
statues of solid granite of Ramises
the Third, standing over thirty feet
high, so beautifully executed, he IS
impressed with what these 4 people
must have been. After these ,tem-
pies were shaken down the natives
built their mud huts within the
walls, and as they fell in they
brought more mud from the river
bed and again built, not removing
the ruins VI Iuelr loTineI nut anu
this was kept up for hundreds OF
years until these ruins were entirely
buried. For the last fifty years ex-
cavating has been going on, a great
number Of men digging and remov-
ing this great accumulation, and now
large portions have been entirely
cleared. In many places this accu-
mutation of earth had reached a
depth of thirty feet. All of these an
cient temples of which l will describe
were built of sandstone floated down
the river over one hundred miles,
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