Letters from Palestine / Written during a residence there in the years 1836, 7 and 8

by J. D. Paxton

Most of the villages we passed were poor and small; the houses for the most part made of mud or unburnt brick; sometimes the brick had straw in it. We saw several places where they had establishments for hatching eggs. This practice has long prevailed in Egypt. They spread the eggs in layers on the floor; and have a way of subjecting them to such a degree and uniformity of heat as perfects the process of incubation. Their fowls seemed to me to be inferior both as to size and flavour.

The Nile seemed to me to be about as large as the Ohio at Cincinnati. It was, however, at its lowest state when I saw it. The rise began while I was at Cairo, but at first it is so slow, that a person not acquainted with the river would probably not observe it for several days. Our boat, which was not as large as a common steam-boat, grounded several times in ascending the river. The boatmen would readily get out in the water and push her off. This was easily done, as there were no rocks in the river, but mud and sand banks. The boatmen are a shameless set and were often, and especially when in the water, in a state of perfect nudity, and this was the common condition of the multitudes which we saw bathing in the river.

We had a daily wind up the river, which at times blew pretty strong. It usually began soon after sunrise, and increased as the day advanced. Towards night it began to abate, and nearly ceased soon after sundown. The causes which give it this regularity we leave to be explained by those wise men in philosophy who feel bound to give reasons for all the phenomena of nature. During one or two months in the year it is said to change its direction, and blow the other way.

I had several times in the south-west a fine view of the whirlwinds of the desert; several of them could often be seen at the same time. A thick column of dust and sand seemed to run up to the clouds, and then gradually disappear; at times they would pass with considerable rapidity; and while thus in quick motion, had a pretty, but rather singular appearance. While considerably below Grand Cairo, we had a view of the pyramids. Their tapering points ran high in the air, and broke the smooth outline of our southern horizon.

Grand Cairo stands on the western bank of the Nile, and at the distance of above a mile from the river. One of its large suburbs, called Bulack, is on the river, and may be considered its port. There the boats lie, and there much of the business of the town is transacted. For several miles before we reached Cairo, we were passing gardens and country-houses, some of which are of a superior kind. Cairo is rather an assemblage of towns than one great and continuous city; its parts lie contiguous to each other, as chance and caprice may have decided. Close to the south-east side of it a range of hills rises, the first and almost the only hills that we saw in Egypt—those back of the pyramids of Gheza excepted—on a part of these hills the citadel is situate, which commands the city, and is a place of considerable strength.

Between the town and the river there lies a large open space—immense piles of rubbish disfigured some parts of it. The Pasha is making improvements here that will add much to the beauty of this open space—he is levelling it, and with the rubbish filling up low places, and making wide, elevated roads across it in various directions, and having it planted with trees. A large canal crossed this place; many people were employed in cleaning it out, and putting it in order to receive the waters from the Nile. There is also within the city, and before the palace, an open space of considerable size, which has lately had much labour bestowed on it. Elevated roads or causeways are made round it and through it, and their edges set with trees, which give the whole a pretty appearance. The water from the Nile, when at its height, is let into this square; but the elevated parts are designed to be above the waters, and afford pleasant walks for the idlers and loungers, which are found even in Egypt.

The pyramids, so much talked of, lie near Grand Cairo, and it would have argued a great want of curiosity not to have visited them when so near. A few days ago, we made a visit to those of Gheza, which lie on the west side of the Nile, and in full view of the city. We set off about six in the morning, and rode up the river to the upper part of old Cairo; this took us about an hour. We then crossed the Nile in boats, to a small old village called Gheza, which gives its name to this cluster of pyramids. We then had the wide river bottom of the Nile to cross; this took us about two hours. The river being low, there was no water in the several deep and wide canals that pass through this river bottom, and we were able to cross them. This shortened our ride much. We passed several remains of villages on this plain. As we drew near the last village, which seemed little better than a pile of ruins, several Bedouin Arabs came out, with nothing but a long shirt on, and ran as hard as they could until they met us, and urged us to employ them as our guides. It now appeared, that it was a race among themselves, on the plan that those who first reached us, were considered as having the right to be employed as a guide and get the pay. As we had a cawass with us, whom we brought from Cairo to manage all such matters, and among other things to save us from the annoyance which these Bedouins at times give travellers, we left it for him to make such a bargain with them as he thought best. He engaged one or two, and let the remainder know that we did not need their aid. We saw, at a distance on our right, a line of arches on the plain, and a bridge-like place over them, the uses of which we could not ascertain.

The pyramids stand on the first rise after leaving the river flats. The ridge of that place may be from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet. The ground on which the large one stands (the Cheops) is nearly level. The pyramid is square, and stands to the four cardinal points. Each side, its base is said to be seven hundred feet, while its height is only six hundred. It seems to be a solid mass of rock, excepting the small rooms which I shall presently mention. The plan on which it is built is singular. A large platform is laid down, seven hundred feet square—this is the first row; the stone is nearly three feet in thickness. A second row is laid on of a similar size. This row is not laid out to the edge of the other, but falls back all round about eighteen inches. The third and fourth and following rows are laid in the same manner—forming stairs. There are about two hundred rows of stones, which average nearly three feet in thickness, and terminate in a small flat at the top of about thirty feet square. The ascent is usually made at the north-east corner. About half-way up there is a small room, which seems designed as a resting place. There have evidently been some stones thrown from the top, a part of one row being left, and possibly one stone of a second row at the south-east corner. It took me not quite half an hour to ascend; this included the several stops in order to rest. From the top I had a most splendid view, as to space—Grand Cairo and all the villages and gardens about it; the valley of the Nile far to the north; the several groups of pyramids, and the palm trees that lay to the south, and in the region of ancient Memphis. The descent required about as much time, but was attended with less difficulty than the ascent. The whole, with the time spent on the top, occupied about an hour, and did not seem to have half the peril or labour that some have represented. The entrance to the interior is on the north side. We went to the mouth and examined it, but, on the whole, concluded we would not go in; the descent is long, and nothing to be seen within, but one or two empty rooms. While the rocks of which the pyramids are built, are limestone of the secondary formation, as is manifest from the shells in it, the passage is lined with polished Egyptian granite; the same is said to be the case with the rooms. The entrance of the passage may be fifty feet above the ground, but it descends as one enters.

A little to the south-west is a second pyramid, nearly as large as that of Cheops. It is sharp at the top, and cannot, with ease, be ascended. To the south is a small one. There were in all directions tombs, many of them of most enormous size. The pyramids are in the midst of a large grave-yard. We went up the hill to the north-west some distance, and visited several rooms that were full of hieroglyphics. Passing round the southern side of the pyramids, we examined several places where excavations had recently been made. Some old monuments, that had been covered with sand, were laid bare; and, from the bottom of some deep well-like places, several most beautiful sarcophagi had been raised—two of black porphyry, beautifully polished, and covered with hieroglyphics, lay on the ground; others had probably been removed. We then visited the Sphynx, and took our lunch under the shade of its head. It has a lion's body, in a couching posture, with the head and face of a Nubian female, and is of most enormous dimensions. The head about ten feet in diameter. The height from the ground, and the length of the body, in proportion. It is hewn out of a rock, which is the soft limestone, and has much disintegrated; the features are much injured. The back is almost wholly covered with sand, which has blown in from the desert. As we crossed the low grounds to the river, on our return, we had a fine specimen of that wonderful phenomenon called the mirage. From some cause, the air near the ground assumes the appearance of water; the similarity is such, that persons are often deceived, and are confident that it is water, when seen at a little distance. We had crossed the plain about nine or ten o'clock A.M., and there was no appearance of water; but now, between one and two P.M., there were many places, at some distance, that had the precise appearance of water. In some cases, the spots that had this appearance were but a few inches, or one or two feet in width, and looked precisely like puddles of water after a rain: at other places whole acres seemed covered with water, and on several occasions, it was round the roots of trees; which seemed growing out of it. I had, on one or two occasions, seen the same as I came up the Nile. At a considerable village on the western side of the river, just below where the sands come in so near the river, our boat stopped, and while the captain and part of the crew went into the village, I ascended the bank, and walked to a place at a little distance that was more elevated than the other parts of the plain. It gave me a fine view of the face of the country; but I was surprised to see, towards the north-west, an extensive portion, as far as the eye could reach, that appeared a lake of water. In several places there were clusters of palms growing out of it. I had not seen on any map a lake marked in that place, nor had I heard of any such thing. I wondered if it could be the mirage; the appearance was so perfectly like water, that it was hard to believe it could be anything else. On returning to the bank, I inquired of some one if it was water that I had seen, and was assured that there was no water in that direction, but that it was a curious appearance in the air. I will leave it to the philosopher to explain this matter. The ruins of what is said to be ancient Heliopolis lie but a short distance from Cairo; we did not, however, visit them; the remains above ground are so few, as hardly to repay the trouble of a ride to them. The sandy deserts are to the east and south of Cairo, and the whole way from that city to Suez on the Red Sea, a distance of about sixty miles, is a cheerless waste of barren sand. The remains of an old canal can be traced, it is said, most of the way from the Nile, a little south of Cairo, to Suez, and it is supposed that it might be reopened. Much has lately been said about the Pasha's making a railroad from Cairo to that point, and I was assured some materials for that purpose were brought from England; but nothing as yet has been done, and probably years will pass before the plan is carried into effect.

We had several pleasant interviews with the mission families at Cairo; less, however, than we had hoped, and would have had, but for the sickness of some of their number. They are mostly Germans, in the employ of the Church Missionary Society. Their attention is principally, but not exclusively, directed to the Christian sects in the country. Miss H. has lately, at the special invitation of the Pasha, opened a school in the harem, and is giving instruction to the females of the Pasha's family. Thus far it has been well received; what may be its result, time alone will show. About the time we reached Cairo, several of the missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, who had for some years been labouring in Abyssinia, returned from that country. Some difficulty had arisen, growing out of the intrigues of persons unfriendly to them, which made it advisable for them, for a time at least, to leave that country. It was hoped that before long they would be able to return and resume their labours.