CAIRO, FROM THE GATE OF CITIZENIB, LOOKING TOWARD THE DESERT OF SUEZ

THIS, and the previous view of Cairo looking towards the West, * presents nearly a panorama of the City of the Caliphs; in that the view lay towards the pyramids and the lower range of the Libyan chain, this, on the opposite side, is directed towards that Desert which so many of our countrymen now traverse in their journey to the Red Sea in the short course to India by Egypt.

This view is taken from the high ground immediately without the gate of Citizenib, which leads to old Cairo (the Egyptian Babylon) and Geezeh. One of the finest objects in the scene is the citadel rising boldly in this magnificent view, from its foundation on the rock , which is a spur of the Mokattim range, but isolated wholly or in a part by a deep artificial trench. The range of the Mokattim strectches as far as the eye can reach to the Desert.

From this elevation, between the citadel and the extreme left, are seen to rise the minarets and noble dome of the vast pile of the mosque of the Sultan Hassan; and to the right, stretching to the foot of the Mokattim range, that part of the western Desert, which, near Cairo, forms the vast cemeteries of the city; for, unlike our desecration of the graves of our forefathers, the Arab holds the spot once occupied by the dead to be sacred, and extends the burial-ground over unbroken depositories. Here are seen the graves of thousands of the humble among those structures of singular and picturesque beauty, the ruins of the mosques and tombs of the Memlooks.

The narrowness of the streets of the city prevents the observer from distinctly tracing their course, and from such a point of view acquiring any accurate knowledge of the plan of the city; but the character of the domestic architecture may be seen in the flat roofs and in the open spaces which are the gardens to the dwellings; on the former the Caireens enjoy the cool of evening, and the observer is reminded of the "Arabian Nights," "Anastasius," "Zohrab," and every Eastern tale whose author has laid his plots amidst the domestic privacies of the Turks and Arabs, and made the roofs of their dwellings the scenes of the adventures and and perils of lovers, of intrigue and revenge, and the catastrophes of Eastern romance.

*Erroneously printed "from the west" in the title.

Robert's Journal.