DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11715#0047
ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO.
surrounding barracks. Resistance and escape were alike impossible. They galloped
round the narrow inclosure, seeking, in vain to find a way of escape or an enemy
whom they might attack. Men and horses fell in heaps in the courtyard. Only one
of them, Emin Bey, survived. He leaped his horse over the precipice which forms the
western front of the Citadel. The animal was killed by the fall, but he escaped as by a
miracle, and reached a camp of Arnauts in the plain below, who refused to surrender
him to the Pasha; and he succeeded in making his way from the country in disguise.
The soldiers who had taken part in the massacre were rewarded by being permitted to
plunder the houses of their victims and to complete the extermination of the Mamlukes
by slaughtering those who had not been present at the ceremony. Upwards of twelve
COFFEE-HOUSE IN THE SUBUKBS OF CAIRO.
hundred are said to have perished. As we visit the splendid Mosque of Mohammed
Ali, close to the scene of the massacre, it is impossiple not to remember with horror
this frightful tragedy.
Though few or none of the remains of the Egypt of the Pharaohs are to be found in
Cairo, yet it stands in close proximity to some of the most important cities of the
ancient dynasties. The site of Memphis, which we shall visit on our journey up the
Nile, is only a few miles to the south. Heliopolis is still nearer. Passing out from
the city, and leaving the Citadel and the tombs of the Caliphs on our right, the road
leads, under avenues of tamarisk and acacia, through a richly-cultivated district.
Soon, however, the limits of vegetation are reached, and we enter upon the vast tract
43
surrounding barracks. Resistance and escape were alike impossible. They galloped
round the narrow inclosure, seeking, in vain to find a way of escape or an enemy
whom they might attack. Men and horses fell in heaps in the courtyard. Only one
of them, Emin Bey, survived. He leaped his horse over the precipice which forms the
western front of the Citadel. The animal was killed by the fall, but he escaped as by a
miracle, and reached a camp of Arnauts in the plain below, who refused to surrender
him to the Pasha; and he succeeded in making his way from the country in disguise.
The soldiers who had taken part in the massacre were rewarded by being permitted to
plunder the houses of their victims and to complete the extermination of the Mamlukes
by slaughtering those who had not been present at the ceremony. Upwards of twelve
COFFEE-HOUSE IN THE SUBUKBS OF CAIRO.
hundred are said to have perished. As we visit the splendid Mosque of Mohammed
Ali, close to the scene of the massacre, it is impossiple not to remember with horror
this frightful tragedy.
Though few or none of the remains of the Egypt of the Pharaohs are to be found in
Cairo, yet it stands in close proximity to some of the most important cities of the
ancient dynasties. The site of Memphis, which we shall visit on our journey up the
Nile, is only a few miles to the south. Heliopolis is still nearer. Passing out from
the city, and leaving the Citadel and the tombs of the Caliphs on our right, the road
leads, under avenues of tamarisk and acacia, through a richly-cultivated district.
Soon, however, the limits of vegetation are reached, and we enter upon the vast tract
43