MOSQUE OF AYED BEY, IN THE DESERT OF SUEZ


THESE fine objects, so strikingly characteristic of the East, are so highly picturesque that the artist can scarcely help adding to his collection of drawings every fresh mosque that he visits, or selecting new points of view of these beautiful structures. This, which is one of those commonly called the Tombs of the Caliphs, is known to be the mosque-tomb of Ayed Bey, and is one of the numerous buildings of this class raised by the Memlooks. that are situated without the Bab en Nasr in the Desert, across which lies the road to Suez.

The courts, domes, and minarets of these mosques, offer in their elegant forms, which cut vividly against the clear atmosphere of Egypt, an endless impression of beauty; but so rapidly are they now decaying, that the chief record of their having ever existed may, in another age, be found only in such a work as these illustrations.