This city is said, by some, to have been founded by Semiramis, when she
invaded Egypt; others suppose it to have been erected by the Persians
under Cambyses in the place where Latopolis formerly stood. Strabo,
however, asserts, that it was built by some barbarians who had retired
thither by permission of their sovereign; and that in his time the
Romans kept in garrison there one of the three legions that were kept in
Egypt.
It is now called Fostat, and is situate between Grand Cairo and the
Nile. It succeeded Memphis as the capital of Egypt; the history,
therefore, of this place merges in the general one of Egypt.
According to Elmanim in his history of the Arabs, Amrou, son of Eleas,
built Masr Fostat on the spot where he had formed his camp previously to
his besieging Alexandria. The governors sent by the caliphs afterwards
made it their place of residence. The situation on the banks of the
Nile, and near to land that communicated with the Red Sea, soon made it
very flourishing.
It was about two leagues in circumference, when, five hundred years
after its foundation, it was delivered up by Schaonar, king of Egypt, in
order to prevent its falling under the French (during the crusades), who
set fire to it. The conflagration lasted fifty-four days. The
unfortunate inhabitants quitted the ashes, and took refuge in New Cairo,
which then assumed the name of Masr, and the former one of Fostat was
lost.
Its environs are now scattered over with ruins, which indicate its
ancient extent; and which, were history defective, would sufficiently
attest it to be comparatively modern. They want the majestic character
the Egyptians gave to their edifices, and the impression of which time
cannot efface. Neither sphynx, column, nor obelisk, can be found among
those heaps of rubbish.
At this place, however, are still to be seen Joseph's granaries; if this
appellation may be given to a large space of ground, surrounded by walls
twenty feet high, and divided into courts, without any roof or covering.
But the only things worth seeing in the ancient Cairo are the castle,
and the aqueduct that conveys the water of the Nile into the castle. It
is supported by three hundred and fifty narrow and very lofty arcades.
These are thus described by Rollin:--The castle of Cairo is one of the
greatest curiosities in Egypt. It stands on the hill without the city,
has a rock for its foundation, and is surrounded with walls of a vast
height and solidity. You go up to the castle by a way hewn out of the
rock, and which is of so easy ascent, that loaded horses and camels get
up without difficulty. The greatest rarity in this castle is Joseph's
Well; so called, either because the Egyptians are pleased with ascribing
their most remarkable particulars to that great man, or because there is
really such a tradition in the country. This is a proof, at least, that
the work in question is very ancient; and it is certainly worthy the
magnificence of the most powerful kings of Egypt. This well has, as it
were, two stories, cut out of a rock to a prodigious depth. One descends
to the reservoir of water between the two wells by a staircase seven or
eight feet broad, consisting of two hundred and twenty steps, and so
contrived, that the oxen employed to throw up the water, go down with
all imaginable ease; the descent being scarcely perceptible. The well is
supplied by a spring, which is almost the only one in the whole country.
The oxen are continually turning a wheel with a rope, to which buckets
are fastened. The water thus drawn from the first and lowermost well is
conveyed by a little canal into a reservoir which forms the second well,
from whence it is drawn to the top in the same manner, and then conveyed
by pipes to all parts of the castle.
The remains of Egyptian Babylon merit attention, says Mr. Wilkinson;
and, among other objects shown by the monks, who live there, is a
chamber of the Virgin, the traditions concerning which have been treated
by the credulous with the same pious feelings as the tree at Heliopolis.
The station of Babylon is evidently of Roman construction, and probably
the same that is mentioned by Strabo, in which one of the three Roman
legions was quartered. It formed part of the town of Fostat, built by
Amer, near the ruins of Babylon, and the mosque, called after him, marks
the spot of his encampment, which subsequently became the centre of the
city he had founded. The exterior of the Roman station still reminds us
of its former strength, which defied the attacks of the Arab invaders
for seven months, and its solid walls still contain a village of
Christian inhabitants. Over the triangular pediment of the doorway,
which is on the south side, appears to have been an inscription, long
since removed; and in an upper chamber above one of the bastions of this
now-closed entrance, is an old Christian record, sculptured on wood, of
the time of Dioclesian, which is curious from its material and the state
of its preservation.
Near Cairo are some ancient catacombs. These are situated beneath a
mound in the middle of a plain, adjoining the pyramids of Saccara, which
lies beneath the sandy surface. Dr. Clarke ascended into them by means
of a rope-ladder. "The first chamber he entered contained scattered
fragments of mummies, which had originally been placed on a shelf cut
out of the rock, and extending breast-high the whole length of this
apartment: there are two tiers or stories of these chambers, one above
the other, all presenting the same appearance of violation and disorder,
and smelling very offensively. At some distance from these, which were
apparently appropriated to man, are those in which the sacred birds and
animals were deposited; one apartment of which Dr. Clarke found filled
with earthen jars entire, laid horizontally in tiers on one another,
something like bottles in a wine-bin. They were about fourteen inches
long, and conical in form, the cover being fixed on by some kind of
cement; when opened, they were found to contain the bodies of birds (the
ibis), with white feathers tipped with black, or the heads of monkeys,
cats, and other animals, all carefully bandaged up in linen.
Old Cairo sustained all the evils of a great famine in the year of
Christ 597. We adopt the account given of this calamity from the
Encyclopædia Londinensis:--"Of the number of poor who perished with
hunger," says Abtollatiph, "it is impossible to form any probable
estimate; but I will give the reader some information on this subject,
whence he may form a faint idea of the mortality with which Egypt was
then afflicted. In Mesr, and Cairo, and their confines, wherever a
person turned he could not avoid stumbling over some starved object,
either already dead, or in the agonies of death."
From Cairo alone nearly five hundred were daily carried out to the
burying-ground; and so great was the mortality in Mesr, that the dead
were thrown out without the walls, where they remained unburied.
But afterwards, when the survivors were no longer able to throw out the
dead bodies, they were left wherever they expired, in the houses,
shops, or streets. The limbs of the dead were even cut in pieces, and
used for food; and instead of receiving the last offices from their
friends, and being decently interred, their remains were attended by
persons who were employed in roasting or baking them.
In all the distant provinces and towns the inhabitants became entirely
extinct, except in the principal cities, and some of the large towns,
such as Kous Ashmunein, Mahalla, &c., and even there but a few survived.
In those days a traveller might pass through a city without finding in
it one human creature alive. He saw the houses open, and the inhabitants
dead on their faces, some grown putrid, and others who had recently
expired. If he entered into the houses, he found them full of goods, but
no one to make use of them; and he saw nothing wherever he turned, but a
dreadful solitude, and a universal desolation. This account rests not on
the information and authority of a single person, but of many, whose
several assertions mutually confirmed each other. One of these gave
information in the following words:--"We entered a city, where no living
creature was to be found; we went into the houses, and there we saw the
inhabitants prostrate and dead, all lying in a wretched group on the
ground,--the husband, the wife, and the children. Hence we passed into
another city, which contained, as we had heard, four hundred shops of
weavers: it was now a desert like the former,--the artificer had expired
in his shop, and his family lay dead around him. A third city, which we
afterwards visited, appeared like the former,--a scene of death and
desolation. Being obliged to reside in this place for some time, for the
purpose of agriculture, we ordered persons to throw the bodies of the
dead into the hole at the rate of ten for a diakem. Wolves and hyenas
resorted here in great numbers to feed on the corpses[166]."