DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4372#0346
330
Minerva; and agreeably to this supposition, the sphinx is a very
common ornament of this goddess on her statues and on medals.
On our return to Cairo we did not take the same route as in
the morning. The sun was set, and we had a most delightful sail
by the light of the moon, sometimes amid fields of green eorn, at
others close on the skirts of the villages, frequently through orange-
and palm-groves, and under the broad shade of the sycamore.
The city of Cairo may be estimated at about eight miles in cir-
cumference, and is surrounded on all sides by a high stone wall,
built under the antient sultans. At intervals the principal gates
are constructed with some degree of taste and elegance, particu-
larly that called Bab-el Nassr, and that which leads to the port
of Bonlac.
The streets are long, narrow, and winding, so narrow indeed
that in many of them two persons on horseback cannot meet
and pass each other without some difficulty ; and when one of
inferior rauk is aware of a Bey or some powerful Arab chieftain
approaching, he is obliged, both from respect to his superior and
from a regard to his own person, to conceal himself in some cross
lane, or in a doorway, till the other with his numerous train shall
have passed. Those streets which are lined with shops present a
gay and busy appearance: the others wherein are the houses of
the Beys, or other principal inhabitants of the town, are dark and
dismal; nothing but the long and high bare walls being seen.
All the windows look either into the court or into the garden.
Before the French invasion, no Frank, or European traveller
was permitted, except by very especial favour, to mount horses
in Cairo. In general they were reduced to go on foot, or to make
use of asses, when they paid their visits, or went in search of
curiosities. When we were there, this distinction had been for
some
Minerva; and agreeably to this supposition, the sphinx is a very
common ornament of this goddess on her statues and on medals.
On our return to Cairo we did not take the same route as in
the morning. The sun was set, and we had a most delightful sail
by the light of the moon, sometimes amid fields of green eorn, at
others close on the skirts of the villages, frequently through orange-
and palm-groves, and under the broad shade of the sycamore.
The city of Cairo may be estimated at about eight miles in cir-
cumference, and is surrounded on all sides by a high stone wall,
built under the antient sultans. At intervals the principal gates
are constructed with some degree of taste and elegance, particu-
larly that called Bab-el Nassr, and that which leads to the port
of Bonlac.
The streets are long, narrow, and winding, so narrow indeed
that in many of them two persons on horseback cannot meet
and pass each other without some difficulty ; and when one of
inferior rauk is aware of a Bey or some powerful Arab chieftain
approaching, he is obliged, both from respect to his superior and
from a regard to his own person, to conceal himself in some cross
lane, or in a doorway, till the other with his numerous train shall
have passed. Those streets which are lined with shops present a
gay and busy appearance: the others wherein are the houses of
the Beys, or other principal inhabitants of the town, are dark and
dismal; nothing but the long and high bare walls being seen.
All the windows look either into the court or into the garden.
Before the French invasion, no Frank, or European traveller
was permitted, except by very especial favour, to mount horses
in Cairo. In general they were reduced to go on foot, or to make
use of asses, when they paid their visits, or went in search of
curiosities. When we were there, this distinction had been for
some