Pen Pictures of the Holy Land, VII

Pen Pictures of the Holy Land. From Dan to Beersheba. BY HAMILTON GARDNER. VII.—The Land of the Pharaohs. Egypt has been the scene of enough Biblical history that it may be called a part of the Holy Land, in the general sense of the term. Here Joseph, an obscure prisoner, rose to a high posit:on in the kingdom of Pharaoh. The children of Israel were captives in the land until led away by Moses. And it was hither that Joseph and Mary fled when their Child's life was imperiled. But it is not religious interest that brings most travelers to Egypt. The attractions that draw the thousands of foreigners who visit the land of the Nile every year,are its wonderful archaeological treasures and its almost ideal climate during the winter months. My tour of Egypt began at Port Said. This city is at the west entrance to the Suez canal, and its commercial activity is devoted almost wholly to the trade that passes through "De Lesseps' big ditch." Its population is of necessity largely of the seafaring and transient kind, and this may account for its reputation of being the most wicked city in the world. Certainly the dirty, wooden houses, and the ill-favored Levantines one A MOHAMMEDAN FUNERAL PROt'ESSION.

622 IMPROVEMENT ERA. sees in Port Said, do little to refute this reputation. As the railroad from Port Said to Cairo runs parallel with the Suez canal for some distance, I had an admirable opportunity to observe this enterprise that has meant so much to commercial intercourse between Europe and Asia. Big, noisy, clanking dredges, with huge buckets, were keeping the canal clear of sand Ships, flying almost every flag known on the seas, were passing through, from an Arabian sailboat to a British man-of-war. As the train drew away from the canal, we experienced a strange delusion. The banks shut the water off from our view, and to us it seemed as if the ships were sailing along on the sand. The excellent Egyptian State railway soon brought us to Cairo. Cairo is the city of paradoxes. It is an old city and a new city; an Oriental city and an Occidental city; a seat of the greatest luxury and the direst poverty; a centre of the worship of mammon, and a home of some of the most devout and fanatical believers in the world: the goal alike of the learned scholar and the confirmed pleasure-seeker. In addition to the ancient character and old ruins which Cairo inherits from the past ages, the occupancy of the English, and the great number of foreign visitors, have given it a distinctly modern tone. Here the people of the mysterious East meet the people of the active, progressive West. The wonderful winter climate attracts the titled aristocracy of Europe, and the moneyed aristocracy of America, and gives them an almost ideal playground. As a result, some of the cairo—the citadel and mosque of most luxurious and costly MOHAMMED ALI-

PEN PICTURES OF THE HOLY LAND. 623 All the photographs by the author. THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH. hotels in the world are found in Cairo. Rubbing elbows with these idle rich are native Egyptians whose poverty is not surpassed anywhere else in the world. In contrast with the pleasure-loving visitors these people are Mohammedans of the most fanatic and zealous type. And in contrast with the fashionable foreigners, again, are the scientists, who find in Egypt's wonderful store of archaeological treasures the most fruitful field in the world for research. So it is not strange that one finds Cairo has wide, well-paved streets and an excellent street railway system, even though the natives use donkeys as extensively as in any other parts of the Orient. An automobile goes whizzing past a train of camels, English noblemen share the sidewalk with Bedouin laborers, and a party of American tourists wait for a native Mohammedan funeral to pass—conTHE SECOND PYRAMID OP GIZEH VIEWED FROM THE TOP OP THE FIRST.

624 IMPROVEMENT ERA. trasts on every side, great interest to him In Cairo the traveler finds many things of There are mosques galore, an interesting old citadel, in which stands the beautiful m( sque of Mohammed Ali, with two tall minarets overlooking the city; and many richly decorated tombs of the old Egyptian rulers. For the archaeologist, the national Museum, with its priceless store of Egyptian antiquities of every kind, surpasses any other in the world; while for those who are interested in .Arabic culture, there is a museum of Arabian antiquities of inestimable worth, and to see the charm and coloring of oriental life one has only to visit one of the bazars. But by far the greatest of Cairo's attractions are the pyramids of Gizeh and the Sphinx. These colossal monuments of the Egyptian building art have for centuries been world-renowned. They lie across the muddy Nile from Cairo, on the edge of the Lybian desert—three large pyramids and six small ones. Although they have withstood the ravages of time since 3733 B. C, when the largest one was built, they stand today almost as perfect as then. These famous structures are all regular four-sided pyramids. The length of the side of the largest—the pyramid of Cheops—is 750 feet, its perpendicular height 450 feet, and the sloping side THE SPHINX. A SHIP OF THE DESERT AT THE PYRAMIDS.

PEN PICTURES OF THE HOLY LAND. 625 570 feet. It contains 3,057,000 cubic yards, although its contents were originally 3,277,000 cubic yards. Think of a mass of stone covering thirteen acres, and containing over seven million tons of rock, as does the Pyramid of Cheops. The second pyramid is smaller, and the third is only about half as large as the first. The colossal size of these structures can be somewhat imagined by the effect of an attempt made by an Arab ruler of Egypt to tear the third pyramid down. For a number of years he employed all the men he could muster, but he did not succeed in making more than a slight impression on one side. A TYPICAL EGYPTIAN MONUMENT AT ALEXANDRIA. The problem of the construction of the pyramids has always baffled investigators. Even today the theory that the rocks were rolled into place on dirt roadways, still remains only a presumption. How long the work of building lasted, and how many men were employed is unknown, except by the statement of the Greek historian, Herodotus, who says it took twenty years to build the largest pyramid, and that two hundred thousand men worked on it. Modern engineers, however, are inclined to doubt this. As most tourists do, I climbed to the top of the pyramid. It took about fifteen minutes, even with the help of three Bedouins, whose unsolicited services every one must bear. The rocks are

626 IMPROVEMENT ERA. about three feet high, so the climb is still a tiring one. But the view from the top is worth the exertion. To the west is the Lybian desert, absolutely bare of vegetation, to the east the wellwatered plain on which Cairo stands—another of the city's contrasts. A visit to the interior of the pyramid is also a novel experience. With lighted candles and a Bedouin to hold me on each side I passed through the entrance, which is in the face of the pyramid just a short distance above the ground. The passage is very slippery and little niches in the stone furnish the only foothold, hence the value of the assistance of two barefooted Bedouins. For two hundred feet the passage slopes down, then it divides, the upper one leading to the burial chamber of the king, the lower one to that of the queen. It seems incredible that such a monstrous structure should be reared for the mere purpose of serving as a tomb for two people, but such many believe to be the case. The Sphinx, equally as famous as the pyramids, lies to one side of the latter. It is cut out of the solid rock, and represents a crouching lion with a human head. The face was apparently sculptured with great care, but the features are not very plain now, the nose being entirely gone. The inscrutable, questioning look, for which the Sphinx is famous, can still be distinguished, however. With the train passing close to the Nile much of the time, I reached Alexandria from Cairo. From the time of the founding of this city by Alexander the Great to the present, it has been the scene of many important historical events. Here a Grecian school of philosophy rose and flourished, to be supplanted later by the Christian faith. Here Caesar lived for a time, and this was the home of the beautiful and voluptuous queen, Cleopatra. As a commercial city, it is now one of the most important on the Mediterranean. In Alexandria I said good-by to Egypt ''the cradle of civilization," and sailed for Greece. University of Utah. ( TO BE CONTINUED.)