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]."