Sonnini de Manoncourt, Charles Nicolas Sigisbert: Travels in upper and lower Egypt (Band 2) (London, 1807)

46o TRAVELS IN UPPER

CHAP. XXXIII.

City of Cairo—Its inhabitants—Europeans settled
there—Its situation—Its government—Summary
view of the revolutions of Egypt since the time of
Augustus—Mamelucs—Pacha of Cairo—Ap-
proaching downfall of the Ottoman empire—All
Bey—Mourat Bey.

To suppose Cairo, in Arabic Masr} resembling
one of our large cities in Europe, would be to
entertain a very erroneous idea. The bouses have
neither the form nor elegance of ours. The
streets are very narrow, unpaved, and the houses
fhat form them not ranged in a line. The squares,
vast irregular places, without any buildings that
adorn them, without any work of art to point out
and embellish the centre, are most of them im-
mense basins of water during the inundation of the
Nile, and fields, or gardens, when the river has
reared to its bed. Crowds of men of various
nations post through the streets, jostle one another,
dispute the way with the horse of the Mamcluc,
the mule of the man of the law, the numerous
camels which supply the place of coaches, and
the asses, which are the most common beasts of
the saddle.

This