DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17#0289
PYRAMIDS AND PROGRESS.
\K. i1-^ A-DAM1ETTA BARRAGE
^§N£>* ' >s. WIDTH 535 MCTRES
SKETCH MAP
BARRAGES
NEAR CAIRO
^BARRAGE
DTH *65 METRES
III.—THE OLD BARRAGE NEAR CAIRO.
One of the pleasantest of many excursions from Cairo is a picnic to the
Barrage. You can go by railway ; you might anticipate purgatory by going by
road riding on a donkey or a camel ; but a wise man gets invited with a pleasant
picnic party, on pleasure bent alone, and goes by water all the way there and back
in a commodious steam launch. The trip on the Nile is delightful. You run down
stream with the soft olive-green waters brightened by picturesque sailing-boats,
like flocks of giant white-winged birds ; the domes and minarets of Cairo, with
its many mosques, recede from view, and the rich fringe of palm groves extends
along the river bank. The Gezireh Palace {one of Ismail's many extravagances),
transformed into an hotel, and a very comfortable one, is now passed. Then
palace after palace of modern shoddy construction, but bright as stucco and
paint can make them, and each in its park-like garden. You start early and
return late, to avoid the burning sunshine. The rapid motion provides plenty of
air, while awning is well supplied to veil the sun at tiffin time, or when the
refreshing cup of afternoon tea appears. It was my good fortune to be invited
to an engineers' picnic. We were about thirty, and the company were mostly
fine, stalwart men, with due accompaniment of fair English ladies in the coolest
and most attractive costumes. It was an official holiday, and some magnates
\K. i1-^ A-DAM1ETTA BARRAGE
^§N£>* ' >s. WIDTH 535 MCTRES
SKETCH MAP
BARRAGES
NEAR CAIRO
^BARRAGE
DTH *65 METRES
III.—THE OLD BARRAGE NEAR CAIRO.
One of the pleasantest of many excursions from Cairo is a picnic to the
Barrage. You can go by railway ; you might anticipate purgatory by going by
road riding on a donkey or a camel ; but a wise man gets invited with a pleasant
picnic party, on pleasure bent alone, and goes by water all the way there and back
in a commodious steam launch. The trip on the Nile is delightful. You run down
stream with the soft olive-green waters brightened by picturesque sailing-boats,
like flocks of giant white-winged birds ; the domes and minarets of Cairo, with
its many mosques, recede from view, and the rich fringe of palm groves extends
along the river bank. The Gezireh Palace {one of Ismail's many extravagances),
transformed into an hotel, and a very comfortable one, is now passed. Then
palace after palace of modern shoddy construction, but bright as stucco and
paint can make them, and each in its park-like garden. You start early and
return late, to avoid the burning sunshine. The rapid motion provides plenty of
air, while awning is well supplied to veil the sun at tiffin time, or when the
refreshing cup of afternoon tea appears. It was my good fortune to be invited
to an engineers' picnic. We were about thirty, and the company were mostly
fine, stalwart men, with due accompaniment of fair English ladies in the coolest
and most attractive costumes. It was an official holiday, and some magnates