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[Page 58]
brought from the Soudan & the natives believed it flew from there & by touching it they received certain benefits One ruler did not believe this & to stop it had the rails put round it : In the centre is a building in which is a washing place to clean up before they pray : General Amyrs son is buried here. Then we drove through slums to the Tombs of the Marmeluks otherwise called the City of the dead. It is a beautiful place there being about 8 rooms & the tombs in them are splendid. The one of the Ibraham pasha grandfather of the present Sultan is a splendid one being 20 ft high & beautifully engraved. The chandelies & carpets were beautiful also the big clock. I got a string of the carpet as a souvenir. These are really the more modern tombs of the high men & take their name from the City of the dead which is the real tombs of the mameluks & is all round. The "mameluks" means slaves of the Arabs : The texts from the Koran hung round the walls & we also had a look at the Koran : had to wear sandals & a fair few people were there praying : They take their boots & socks off : Then we went to the mosques we seen yesterday "Blue" Sultan Hassan : & St Raffai mosques which I described yesterday : St Raffia the £3.000.000 one & some of the lamp globes cost thousands of pounds alone : the colours in the stained glass windows are beautiful & now alost art the pulpits beautiful : One door in sultan Hassan mosque about 25 by 10 ft copper & silver : then we drove to the bazaar untill the streets got too narrow for the gharris so we alighted & wandered through the bazaars pricing things. Some of the streets are only wide enough for two to walk abreast: we also passed a wedding : band in front then a lot of people