Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/511

 BARRAGE OF THE NILE. 413 mckyfts, or " Nilometor," which in some years is so anxiously consultcil to ascertain the progress of the inundations. The ancient Nilometer, which hus been replaced by thut of Runduh, occupied a position farther up on the right bunk of the river, over against Memphis. Connected with the capital of Egypt is the watering village of Ifehcan, which is situated 14 miles to the south by rail, near the right bank of the Nile. Its sulphureous waters, which are slightly thermal (74° to 86^ F.), are said to be very efficacious. Numerous palaces are dotted round the village, mostly encircled by parks or gardens, some of which cover some square miles in extent. On the left bank facing Cairo are the palaces of Gize/i and Jezireh, while to the north of the capital stands the palace of S/ttibrah, connected with the railway terminus by a magnificent avenue of sycamores, which is lined by pleasant suburban residences. To the north-east, on the verge of the desert, are visible the palaces of El-Kubhrh and El-Abbmnichf at present occupied by the polytechnic and military schools. This palace is not far from the village of JUatarUh, which covers jwrt of the site of the ancient " City of the Sun," the Pe-Ita of the Pharaohs, the lleliopolU of the Greeks, where the Egyptian priests came to be initiated into the esoteric doctrines of the national religion. Of this city of temples and schools there remain only the foundations of two enclosures and an obelisk, which was raised by Usortesen I. forty-six centuries ago, and which since then has gradually subisided over 30 feet into the ground. It is the oldest of all existing obelisks. In the surrounding marshes still survives the species of heron known as the anlrn garzetta, which has become so famous in the history of symbols and in legend under the name of the phoDnix. At intervals of five hundred years, on the day of the summer solstice the sacred bird was fabknl to return from Arabia or India, and perch on the summit of the Temple of the Sun. Here it was consumed on a pyre of scented wood, ever rising from its ashes with renewed life. The village of Matarieh on the right, as well as that of Enihdheh on the left bank of the Nile, recalls the memory of some famous battles. At the latter place Bonaparte gained the 80-calle<l " Battle of the Pyramids," while a Turkish anny was routed by Kleber at Matarieh and in the ruins of IIelio|)«lis, In a delightful garden at ^latarieh the Coptic monks show the " Virgin's Tree," a sycamore less than three centuries old, beneath which the Holy Family is supjwsed to have rested on the flight to Egypt. Matarieh is the only place in the delta where ostrich farm- ing is at present carried on. Barrage op the Nile. The barrage of the Nile, whoso crenellated towers loom in the distance like the battlements of a citadel, must be included anK>ngst the monumental works of the Egj'ptian capital. Formed of two bridges with one hundred and thirty-four arches altogether and over half a mile — or, including the approaches, more than a mile — long, it runs athwart the stream 8t)mo 12 miles below Bulaq, at the j)oint where the Nile ramifies into two main branches. Ilero the intermediate cutting of the