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SCIOPTICON MANUAL.
as hazardous as going on foot. The streets of Cairo are
watered several times a day, and are nearly always cool
and free from dust.
Ferry at Old Cairo.—Old Cairo is situated about two
miles from modern Cairo. The wonderful clearness and
brilliancy of the Eastern atmosphere ; the absence of
smoke, charcoal alone being burned ; the picturesque
etfect of the ruin into which many of its great monu¬
ments are falling; the rich, green valley of the Nile; the
river; the Pyramids in the distance; and the fading
of the landscape into the boundless haze of the Lybian
desert, constitutes a scene which, for splendor and inter¬
est, is perhaps unequaled in the world. The taste for
gaudy and fantastic coloring has been for ages a distin¬
guishing feature of Eastern embellishment. The alter¬
nate red and white stripe is conspicuous on the sails of
the ferry boats, which are constantly passing back and
forth between Cairo and the island of Khoda opposite.
Here we have a group of Arabs from the desert, with
their camels, dealers in oranges, vegetables, sugar-cane,
&c. For picturesqueness of costume, there is nothing
like the East; the flow of the drapery so simple and
natural, the coloring so deep and brilliant.
Tombs of the Memlook Kings at Cairo.—These
tombs are fine specimens of Saracenic architecture, and
were erected in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
Pyramids.—The Pyramids of Gizeh, three in number,
are situated about eight miles from Cairo, and should be
visited by the tourist before entering on his river cruise.
They stand on a ridge of stone, which has been so cut as
to form part of the basement. The great Pyramid is
mainly composed of blocks of limestone brought from the