DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5295#0062
HOLY LAND, AND CYPRUS. 43
Egypt. This Pasha was absent on an expedition against the
Arabs of the Western Desert; but his Kaya Bey acceded to
my Avishes for further letters of protection, to proceed beyond
the cataracts. He may be considered as having European
ideas with respect to women : he had no pleasure in the
society of such as the customs of the East obliged him to im-
mure in a harem ; and was the first, perhaps, who had honesty
enough to confess, that the love of a woman preserved by
bolts and bars from temptation was hardby worth having.
He ruled with absolute sway during the absence of Ibrahim.
His chief employment seemed to be to enrich his master at
the expense of the Egjrptians. I met at his divan Arabs
from Cairo, who gave me the sign of freemasonry.
The town of Siout, now made the capital of Upper
Egypt, instead of Girgeh, is about a mile from the river-side
on the^west bank; the Mokattam forms an amphitheatre of
hills behind it, that render it picturesque. It was fortified, in
the time of the Mamelouks, by low walls, flanked with round
towers of unbaked brick, with a ditch in front of the whole;
gardens and palm-trees appear mixed with the buildings of
the town. The ancient excavations, described by Denon and
others, are all that remain of the city of Lycopolis. Under-
neath them, at the foot of the Mokattam, runs a range of
modern Mahometan tombs for nearly a mile, in a grove of
sount, or Egyptian thorn, bearing a tufted yellow flower. In
g 2
Egypt. This Pasha was absent on an expedition against the
Arabs of the Western Desert; but his Kaya Bey acceded to
my Avishes for further letters of protection, to proceed beyond
the cataracts. He may be considered as having European
ideas with respect to women : he had no pleasure in the
society of such as the customs of the East obliged him to im-
mure in a harem ; and was the first, perhaps, who had honesty
enough to confess, that the love of a woman preserved by
bolts and bars from temptation was hardby worth having.
He ruled with absolute sway during the absence of Ibrahim.
His chief employment seemed to be to enrich his master at
the expense of the Egjrptians. I met at his divan Arabs
from Cairo, who gave me the sign of freemasonry.
The town of Siout, now made the capital of Upper
Egypt, instead of Girgeh, is about a mile from the river-side
on the^west bank; the Mokattam forms an amphitheatre of
hills behind it, that render it picturesque. It was fortified, in
the time of the Mamelouks, by low walls, flanked with round
towers of unbaked brick, with a ditch in front of the whole;
gardens and palm-trees appear mixed with the buildings of
the town. The ancient excavations, described by Denon and
others, are all that remain of the city of Lycopolis. Under-
neath them, at the foot of the Mokattam, runs a range of
modern Mahometan tombs for nearly a mile, in a grove of
sount, or Egyptian thorn, bearing a tufted yellow flower. In
g 2