before the Greeks came into that country, who displayed all their art and magnificence in the building of that city.

Near the middle of the castle is a large court, on the South side of which are the apartments of the bashaw or viceroy, and also the great Divan, in which are to be seen several leathern shields fastened together, each of them almost an inch thick, with the javelin sticking in them, with which they were pierced by sultan Amurath, being preserved as a monument of his strength. Not far from hence is the mint, where they coin their gold, and some small pieces of three farthings value, called Medines, which are bits of iron washed over with silver.

In this castle they likewise pretend to show us the prison in which Joseph was confined; but what has been represented by travellers as the most surprising curiosity of all, is the well which they call Joseph's, not perhaps from the patriarch Joseph, as it has been generally understood, but from a Grand Vizir of that name, who had the direction of the work about seven hundred years ago. However this be, the well certainly deserves the attention of the curious, and therefore requires a particular description. It is cut down through the natural rock; but the stone indeed is soft, and it would have been more difficult to have dug it if the soil had been earth or sand, and to have built a wall round within. We descend to the bottom of this well by a staircase that goes winding round it, above six feet wide, the rock being left at least half a yard thick between this passage and the well, by which we are prevented from falling, or even looking into it, unless it be

through holes that are cut to let in light at convenient distances. The descent is very easy, each step being about six inches high, and five feet broad; but the place is so dirty, that in most parts the steps are hardly perceivable. In this. manner we go down to the bottom of the first part of the well, which is a hundred and fifty feet deep; when turning to the right, we come into a large chamber (if I may call it so) cut out of the rock, where oxen, by means of wheels, raise the water out of the lower part of the well to the bottom of the upper part, from whence it is drawn to the top by another set of oxen above. This lower well is not so wide as the former, and the descent is difficult and dangerous, the stairs being narrow, wet, and dirty, and no partition left between them and the well to prevent your falling. It is likewise dug through the rock, and is a hundred and twenty feet deep, which added to the number of the upper part make two hundred and seventy feet in all; and yet this falls short of the calculation of other travellers. As the bottom of this well is probably on a level with the bed of the Nile, or rather lower, it is constantly supplied with water; but passing through the salt șoil, it is not good to drink, being a little brackish, and fit only for common uses; however, it is distributed in pipes to different parts of the castle.

Having described this well, it seems natural to say something of the aqueduct, by which a supply of better water is brought to the castle from the river itself. At the North end of Old Cairo is a plain but magnificent hexagon building, each side of it being above fourscore feet in length, and as many in height,

said to have been erected by Campion, the last but one of the Mameluke kings of Egypt. It has an easy ascent on the outside for the oxen to go up, that turn the wheels which raise the water to the top of it from the reservoirs below, into which it is let from the Nile by a channel cut for that purpose. Five oxen, and the same number of wheels, are employed in drawing the water to the top of the buildings, where it runs into a large bason, and from thence into the aqueduct that conveys it to the castle. The aqueduct itself, which is built in the rustic style, makes a grand appearance, though uniformity has not been regarded in it, the arches and piers being of different dimensions; but the latter are mostly about ten feet wide, and the former from ten to fif teen. The arches are about three hundred in number*, and some of them are very lofty, but grow lower as they approach the hill, where the water running into a reservoir is from thence raised up to the castle by several wheels one above another.

To the South of the castle lies a kind of ancient suburbs called Caraffa, at the entrance whereof are some magnificent tombs covered with cupolas, supposed to. be the monuments of Egyptian kings, or of the caliphs, the relations of Mahomet, who conquered this country; and the people have such a veneration for them, that they will not permit either Jews or Christians to pass by them without alighting from their

Travellers are not agreed as to the number of these arches Thevenot reckoning no less than three hundred and fifty, whereas Dr. Pococke makes them only two hundred and eighty-nine; and others vary from both these computations.

asses, as an expression of their respect. Caraffa seems to have been anciently a sort of university for the study of law and divinity, but great part of it is now in ruins, especially the colleges and convents of Dervises, of which there were formerly a surprising number. About forty of these religious now live together in a convent at a place called Cassaraline, a little way North from the mouth of the Khalis, where there are fine gardens planted with orange, lemon, and other fruit-trees. Their mosque is a handsome square building, covered with a beautiful cupoia; and at the entrance of it, are hung up several curiosities, chiefly of the wonderful kind, collected by the Dervisés in their travels; particularly a giant's boot, a pipe of an extraordinary size, and such-like trifles. These monks affect no uncommon sanctity, and are civil and communicative to strangers. They are not the dancing Dervises, of which sort there are none in Egypt, if I am rightly informed.

One day we took the pains to climb up to the top of Jebel Duise, a mountain which perhaps has been separated by art from that whereon the castle stands, and by which it is commanded, as has been already observed. At the East end of it are several grottos, some of which are inaccessible, but those we could come at were rooms of ten or twelve feet square, and pretty lofty. Here is likewise a mosque which takes it name, as well as the hill, from the sheck Duise, who was buried in it; as were his children at a little distance from it, together with the sons of several bashaws. Not far from the mosque is a solid building of stone, ascended by ten steps, and about a yard square at the top, on which a sheck (or priest)

goes to prayers upon extraordinary occasions, as at the commencement of a war, or when the Nile does not rise so high as is requisite to make a plentiful season; and such oratories they have about most towns in the Turkish dominions. On the NorthWest summit of the hill, are two caves cut out of the rock, with holes through the roof to let in light; and above these is a place to which people ascend for the sake of enjoying one of the finest prospects in Egypt, taking in the castle and city of Cairo, and all the country round, especially the Delta, as far as the eye can penetrate. We descended the hill on the North side by a very easy way, practicable by camels themselves; whereas the ascent on the South is nothing but a winding foot-path up the side of the mountain, where it is almost perpendicular. There is a quarry of good free-stone in this hill, which is much used in the buildings of Cairo.

After we had pretty well satisfied ourselves with viewing what was most remarkable in the city of Cairo and its neighbourhood, we determined to cross the Nile, and pay a visit to the famous pyramids, those wondrous monuments of the wealth and grandeur of the ancient kings of Egypt. With this intent we hired asses, took with us three days provisions, and two Janizaries armed with sword and musquet, each of us also carrying a fowling-piece, as well for our diversion, as for a security against the Arabs. We set out betimes in the morning for Old Cairo, where we made a short stay to take a view of the granaries commonly called Joseph's, which indeed are nothing but square courts encompassed with walls about five yards high, strengthen