* * * * *
_Port Said_, see p. 436. The Cairo line at first skirts the W. bank of
the _Suez Canal_ (p. 437). On the right lies _Lake Menzaleh_.
Beyond (28 M.) _El-Kantara_ (‘the bridge’), the isthmus between lakes
Menzaleh and _Balah_, traversed by the time-honoured military and
caravan route from Egypt to Syria, we cross the bed of the latter lake,
now largely drained.
We next cross _El-Gisr_ (‘the barrier’), a hill 52 ft. high, between
lakes Balah and _Timsâh_ (‘crocodile’), once the most serious obstacle
in the way of the canal.
49 M. =Ismaîlîya=, or _Ismaïlia_ (Buffet; pop. 7000), junction for Suez,
a quiet little town on the N. bank of Lake Timsâh.
The train now runs to the W. through the _Arabian Desert_, intersected
here by the _Wâdi Tûmîlât_, and skirts the _Ismaîlîyeh Canal_ (p. 454).
Near (85 M.) _Abu Hammâd_ begins the well-watered and well-planted E.
part of the Nile Delta. To the S. of the railway lies the Biblical land
of _Goshen_ (Gen. xlv. 10), which was miserably neglected during the
Turkish period, but has now awakened to new life.
[Illustration: CAIRO (LE CAIRE)]
97 M. =Zakâzîk= (Buffet; Brit. cons. agent, G. Diacono; pop. 60,000),
capital of the E. Egyptian province of _Sharkîyeh_, favourably situated
at the junction of several railways and on the _Muizz Canal_ (part of
the ancient Tanite arm of the Nile, see p. 418), is a rapidly improving
place. It is the chief seat of the Egyptian cotton and grain trade. The
large cotton-mills give some quarters of the town quite a European
look.—Near _Tell Basta_, ½ hr. to the S.E. of Zakâzîk, are the ruins of
the ancient _Bubastis_ (Egyp. _Per-Bastē_, the _Pi-beseth_ of Ezekiel
xxx. 17).