DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11715#0176
THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS.
and the shores were at first lined with their dead bodies. It is said that a few varieties
are becoming familiarized to their new habitat, and are thriving in it. But none of the
larger and more important species have, as yet, made their way through the intensely
salt waters of the Bitter Lakes.
Ismailia, the central station on the canal, is admirably adapted for a sanatorium, and
was designed for this by the engineers of the company. It combines the pure, dry,
exhilarating air of the desert with splendid sea-bathing, and irrigation from the fresh-
water canal produces the most luxuriant vegetation in the gardens and pleasure-grounds
around it. The town was laid out upon a pretentious scale. Here are boulevards, open
squares, promenades, the Grande Rue de I'Empereur, the Boulevard de UImperatrice,
and all the high-sounding titles of a French city. M. Lessepshas a charming residence,
and the Viceroy a palace, in the suburbs. But the scheme is a failure. The houses are
KANTARAH, NEAR THE JUNCTION OF THE CANAL AND LAKE MENZALEH.
empty and falling into ruins. The hotel is without guests. Visitors do not arrive, and
vessels sail past without stopping. But its advantages as a health resort are so great
that it may even yet realize the hopes of its founders.
The only point of historical interest on the canal is Kantarah. Lying just at the
southern end of Lake Menzaleh, it marks the route by which travellers have always
passed to and fro between Egypt and Palestine. Millions of warriors have trodden
these sands aofe after acre, from the time when Rameses crossed the isthmus for the
imvasion of Assyria and Scythia, to that of Omar, when the Moslem conquerors, emerg-
ing from their Arabian deserts, wrested their richest province from the enfeebled hands
of the Byzantine Emperors, or of Napoleon, whose troops, parched with thirst, broke
their ranks to pursue the mirage of the desert. The father of the faithful and his
descendants came hither on their way to Egypt, when the famine was sore in the land
of Canaan. The Midianites merchantmen, coming from Gilead " with their camels bear-
172
and the shores were at first lined with their dead bodies. It is said that a few varieties
are becoming familiarized to their new habitat, and are thriving in it. But none of the
larger and more important species have, as yet, made their way through the intensely
salt waters of the Bitter Lakes.
Ismailia, the central station on the canal, is admirably adapted for a sanatorium, and
was designed for this by the engineers of the company. It combines the pure, dry,
exhilarating air of the desert with splendid sea-bathing, and irrigation from the fresh-
water canal produces the most luxuriant vegetation in the gardens and pleasure-grounds
around it. The town was laid out upon a pretentious scale. Here are boulevards, open
squares, promenades, the Grande Rue de I'Empereur, the Boulevard de UImperatrice,
and all the high-sounding titles of a French city. M. Lessepshas a charming residence,
and the Viceroy a palace, in the suburbs. But the scheme is a failure. The houses are
KANTARAH, NEAR THE JUNCTION OF THE CANAL AND LAKE MENZALEH.
empty and falling into ruins. The hotel is without guests. Visitors do not arrive, and
vessels sail past without stopping. But its advantages as a health resort are so great
that it may even yet realize the hopes of its founders.
The only point of historical interest on the canal is Kantarah. Lying just at the
southern end of Lake Menzaleh, it marks the route by which travellers have always
passed to and fro between Egypt and Palestine. Millions of warriors have trodden
these sands aofe after acre, from the time when Rameses crossed the isthmus for the
imvasion of Assyria and Scythia, to that of Omar, when the Moslem conquerors, emerg-
ing from their Arabian deserts, wrested their richest province from the enfeebled hands
of the Byzantine Emperors, or of Napoleon, whose troops, parched with thirst, broke
their ranks to pursue the mirage of the desert. The father of the faithful and his
descendants came hither on their way to Egypt, when the famine was sore in the land
of Canaan. The Midianites merchantmen, coming from Gilead " with their camels bear-
172