Egypt of the Pharaohs and of the Khedivé

by F. Barham Zincke

Cleopatra’s Needle had originally stood at Heliopolis, where it had been set up by Thuthmosis III., and afterwards seen by Joseph and Moses. It was transplanted from Heliopolis to Alexandria by one of the Roman Emperors, after the time of Cleopatra. It had been cut from the granite quarries of Syené. It has, therefore, travelled from the John o’Groat’s House to the Land’s End of Egypt.

Its deservedly world-famous library recurs to every one who thinks about Old Alexandria. No other library had ever such a history. It was founded two hundred and eighty-three years before the Christian era; that is to say, before Rome had entered on her Punic wars. While those wars were raging the Alexandrians must, within the walls of this library, have canvassed the news of the day with much the same feelings with which we were ourselves, but just now, talking over the last intelligence from Sedan and Metz, from the Loire and the Seine. In the Greek world a public library had never before been heard of. It was connected with a great mass of buildings called the Museum, which was a kind of institution for the promotion of study, discussion, and learning. Eventually it contained 700,000 volumes. Of these 400,000 were at the Museum; the remainder were in a building connected with the great Temple of Serapis. With the Ptolemies the enrichment of this library was always a great concern. They dispersed their collectors wherever books were to be obtained; and were ready to pay the highest price for them. It was the boast of the city that the library contained a copy of every known book. At last it was overtaken by the fate which awaits all the works of man. In Cæsar’s attack on the city the great library of the Museum was accidentally burnt. The library, therefore, which is supposed to have been destroyed by the command of the Caliph Omar, could only have contained the books, that might have remained to his time, of the inferior library of the Serapeum. This we know had been very much dilapidated by neglect, and in other ways, during the intervening seven centuries of occasional violence, and of constant decay. One, however, is hardly disposed to acquiesce in the opinion on this subject of the historian of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; for, among so large a collection of books, there must, one would suppose, have been some precious works of antiquity, which we should now value highly, but which were then lost to us irreparably.

While we regard with reverence this great library, both for the antiquity of the date of its establishment, and for the useful and noble purposes it was intended to serve, those of perpetuating, and of extending, knowledge, we should be guilty of an injustice if we were to forget that it was not the first institution of its kind. The idea of establishing a public library, which the Ptolemies deserve much credit for carrying out liberally and thoroughly, had nothing original in it in one country, at all events, of the world, and that one was Egypt. Eleven centuries before their time, as we have already seen, the Great Rameses, in his temple-palace at Thebes, had erected a public library. The walls of it are still standing. We need not repeat what we have said elsewhere about the sculptures on its walls, the inscription over its doors, the manuscripts dated from it still in existence, and the tombs of its librarians. This was done more than three thousand years ago. Perhaps, then, other ideas and practices, we may be in the habit of regarding as modern, were also familiar to the Egyptians of that remote day. Those times, indeed, may, in some not unimportant matters, be virtually nearer to us than the times of our Edwards and Henries.

CHAPTER LVIII.
CAIRO.

Mores hominum multorum, et urbes.—Horace.

Just as the interest of Alexandria belongs to what we call antiquity, so does Cairo derive the whole of its interest from existing sources. I say what we call antiquity, for by that word we mean the classical period of Greece and Rome; but this classical period is, in reality, only the connecting link between our modern world and the old primæval world of Egypt; it is thus the true middle ages of universal history; while true antiquity is the domain of Pharaohnic Egypt. But as to Cairo: El Islam is of the things that now are, and Cairo was never anything but a Mahomedan city. Its most interesting memories are of the mighty Saladin, who fortified it, and preferred it to all other cities. It is the true capital of Arabdom. Not its holy city, but its Paris. Its history is all of Caliphs and Khedivés.

But the first thing to understand about any famous city is how it came to be where it is. Cairo is where it is, because Memphis was where it was. Its site is the natural centre of Egypt. It occupies, by the dispensation of Nature, the place in Egypt which the heart does in the human body. Being situated at the apex of the Delta, it commands the axis of communication throughout the whole of the upper country, and all the divergent lines of communication which traverse the Delta. He who establishes himself here has cut the country in two; and can concentrate all its resources, or assail any point, at his will. It is the vital centre. Just so was it with Memphis under the old Monarchy, and the Hyksos, and during the subsequent history. No sooner had an invader got a firm footing here than the rest of the country was prostrate, and helpless. The master of Cairo is the master of Egypt.

The city is situated on the right bank of the river, at the foot of a spur of the Mokattam, or Arabian, range of hills. In order to get drinkable water it was necessary that it should be placed so low as that the water of the river might be brought into it. The reader is now aware that there are no springs in Egypt, and that the water of the wells, from the nature of the soil, is brackish and undrinkable. There is, however, in the citadel of Cairo a well of sweet water; the well is sunk through the limestone, of course to somewhat below the depth of the height on which the citadel stands; and so it came to suggest to me the thought that, if borings were made of sufficient depth to pass completely through the nitrous alluvium of the valley, and to perforate the subjacent strata, it might be possible to find water fit for drinking anywhere, and everywhere. It might not often be worth while to go to this expense, because in most places it would still be cheaper to get water from the river; but it would be interesting to ascertain whether or no good water could be obtained in this way. If so, there would then be one small matter, at all events, which had escaped the sagacity of the old Egyptians.

But to return to the site of Cairo: the level ground, on which it stands, beginning at Boulak, its harbour on the river, reaches back about a mile, where it is met by the high ground, which enters the city at the south-east angle. On this point stands the citadel commanding the city. The hills of the range which throws out this spur are seen rising, to a considerable height, on the east of Cairo. They are utterly devoid of vegetation; and being of about the colour of the sand of the desert (they are of limestone), they glare in the sun, and are very striking and conspicuous objects in the scenery of the place. Wherever you leave the city, except at its north-west angle, and in the direction of the river, you enter at once on the absolute desert.