DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4592#0088
88 TOMBS OF THE CALIPHS.
deposited in the same and adjoining room, together
with other near relatives. All the monuments are of
the same material, constructed very nearly alike, and
highly ornamented with gildings. The stillness of
the place, with its peculiar trappings, cannot fail to
strike the visitor with a kind of solemn awe. In the
second room of the tombs, a vacant place is reserved
for the Pacha's body when he dies.
Leaving the Pacha's tomb, we now returned across
the same extensive burial ground and entered the city
by the Victory gate. Near this place are the cele-
brated tombs of the caliphs. They are large and
beautiful buildings, displaying the taste of the Sara-
cens, in whose times they were erected. But they,
too, are fast going to decay. Just after passing the
gate of the city, we met a funeral procession. The
corpse was placed on a kind of litter, and borne by
three men. It was preceded by six other men, and
immediately followed by a train of women, with faces
entirely covered, who were making a most hideous
wailing noise. These were followed by a small pro-
cession. Afterwards I saw several funeral processions
in Cairo, all of which were similar to this. The
wailing women who follow the corpse are always
hired on the occasion to howl by the hour.
At a short distance further, we came to one of the
largest mosques in Cairo, that of Sultan Hassan. I
dismounted and ascended a long flight of steps in front
of it, and advanced a few feet within the door. The
inside presents a beautiful specimen of workmanship.
Its vast columns, highly decorated and arching from
each other, in Gothic form, throughout the vast edifice,
deposited in the same and adjoining room, together
with other near relatives. All the monuments are of
the same material, constructed very nearly alike, and
highly ornamented with gildings. The stillness of
the place, with its peculiar trappings, cannot fail to
strike the visitor with a kind of solemn awe. In the
second room of the tombs, a vacant place is reserved
for the Pacha's body when he dies.
Leaving the Pacha's tomb, we now returned across
the same extensive burial ground and entered the city
by the Victory gate. Near this place are the cele-
brated tombs of the caliphs. They are large and
beautiful buildings, displaying the taste of the Sara-
cens, in whose times they were erected. But they,
too, are fast going to decay. Just after passing the
gate of the city, we met a funeral procession. The
corpse was placed on a kind of litter, and borne by
three men. It was preceded by six other men, and
immediately followed by a train of women, with faces
entirely covered, who were making a most hideous
wailing noise. These were followed by a small pro-
cession. Afterwards I saw several funeral processions
in Cairo, all of which were similar to this. The
wailing women who follow the corpse are always
hired on the occasion to howl by the hour.
At a short distance further, we came to one of the
largest mosques in Cairo, that of Sultan Hassan. I
dismounted and ascended a long flight of steps in front
of it, and advanced a few feet within the door. The
inside presents a beautiful specimen of workmanship.
Its vast columns, highly decorated and arching from
each other, in Gothic form, throughout the vast edifice,