Ibn Batuta's description of the pyramids is very curious, and we can account for it on no other supposition than that he merely saw them in the distance (probably from the citadel of Cairo), relying on hearsay for further particulars. After stating that they were built by the ancient Hermes, whom he supposes to be identical with Enoch, as a repository for the antediluvian arts and sciences, he says: 'The pyramids are built of hard, well-cut stone. They are of a very considerable elevation, and of a circular form, capacious at the base and narrow at the summit, in the fashion of cones. They have no doors, and one is ignorant of the manner in which they have been constructed.'
In his journey up the Nile, Ibn Batuta never fails to give an account of every Moslem saint or theologian whom he meets, but only in one or two instances does he mention the antiquities, which, in that age, must have been still more conspicuous than now. He even passes over the plain of Thebes without the slightest notice of the great temple of Karnak. Disappointed in his plan of crossing the Red Sea to Jidda, he returned to Cairo, and at once set out for Syria. Here, the first place of interest which he visited was Hebron, where he performed his devotions at the tombs of the patriarchs. We learn that there were archæcological writings in those days, for he quotes from a work entitled 'The Torch of Hearts, on the Subject of the Authenticity of the Tombs of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' Unfortunately, the evidence adduced would not be very satisfactory to us, for it rests entirely on the following statement made by Mohammed to a certain Abou Horairah: 'When the angel Gabriel took me on the noctural journey to Jerusalem, we passed above the tomb of Abraham, and he said to me, "Descend, and make a prayer of two genuflexions, for here is the sepulchre of thy father Abraham!" Then we traversed Bethlehem, and he said also, "Descend, make a prayer of two genuflexions, for here was born thy brother Jesus!"'
Of Jerusalem, which he calls 'the noble, the holy—may God glorify it!' he says: 'Among the sanctuaries on the borders of the valley known under the name of Gehenna, east of the city and on an elevated hill (the Mount of Olives), one sees an edifice which is said to stand on the spot whence Jesus ascended to heaven. In the middle of the same valley there is a church where the Christians worship: they affirm that it contains the sepulchre of Mary. There is also another church, equally venerated, to which the Christians make a pilgrimage. The reason whereof, however, is a lie, for they pretend that it contains the tomb of Jesus. Each person who goes thither as a pilgrim is obliged to pay a certain tribute to the Mussulmans, and to undergo divers sorts of humiliations, which the Christians perform very much against their will. They there see the place where the cradle of Jesus stood, and come to implore his intercession.'
I have not space to follow our traveler through all the cities of the Syrian coast, northward to Aleppo, but I can not omit offering one flower from the garland of poetical quotations which Ibu Batuta (or rather his amanuensis, Ibn Djozay) hangs on the citadel of the latter capital. I presume the city then occupied the same position as at present, on a plain surrounding the rocky acropolis, which is so striking and picturesque a feature as to justify the enthusiasm of the Oriental bards. Djemal ed-deen All, however, surpasses them all in the splendor of his images. Hear him:—
'So lofty soars this castle, so high its summit stands,
Immense and far uplifted above the lower lands,
It lacks but little, truly, that with the heavenly sphere
Around the earth revolving, its towers would interfere.
And they who dwell within it must seek the Milky Way;
There is no nearer cistern which win their thirst allay: