Near the Third Pyramid there are the ruins of a Græco-Roman village.

Besides the ride to Sakkárah, excursions may be made to the Pyramid of Abu Roash, or to a petrified forest seven miles away.

MATARIYEH.

Five miles to the north-east of Cairo, and now connected with it by train and telephone, is the village of Matariyeh, which has lately become a popular suburb among some of the European and native residents.

On Easter Monday, 1889, which is a national holiday in Egypt, 19,000 people were conveyed to it by train. At other times it is dull and empty, though two small hotels have lately sprung up, besides restaurants and many private villas. There is some talk of building an English hotel near the plain where, in A.D. 1517, the battle of Heliopolis made the Turks masters of Egypt, and where Kleber regained Cairo for a short time in 1800. The attractions offered to the guests would be camel-riding in the desert to Abbassiyeh, which was a suburb built in 1849 to please the Bedouin sheiks who declined to enter the city of Abbas, the then Khedive, or to the ostrich-farm and orange-groves in the neighbourhood. Then there are the petri

fied forest; the Virgin's Tree, which was planted in 1672; the oldest Obelisk in Egypt, and the mounds which represent Heliopolis, the celebrated town where Joseph married the high priest's daughter, where Moses became learned in the wisdom of the Egyptians, where Jeremiah wrote his Lamentations, and where Plato pondered over the new doctrine of the immortality of the soul.

CHAPTER VII.

VOYAGE UP THE NILE.

THE traveller who wishes to visit Luxor, Thebes, Philæ, or Abu Simbel, is dependent upon the great water-way of Egypt. He may go up all the way by steamer or by dahabiyeh, or he may, if he chooses, save himself 230 miles by taking the train from Cairo to Assiout. In 1891, the Upper Egypt railway will have a station in Cairo itself, and will be pushed on to Girgeh, ninety-two miles south, so that patients will be able to leave Cairo one morning and sleep in Luxor the second night. But at present we are dependent on a railway station three miles outside Cairo, and a tiresome dusty journey of eleven hours is necessary to reach Assiout. Moreover, the invalid has the double disadvantage of starting from Cairo before the day is warmed by the sun, and of reaching Assiout after sunset. On the other hand, he has the advantage of getting without delay into the warmer latitude, and of escaping all risk of cold and

draught on the river north of Assiout. Each individual case must be settled upon its own merits, and care taken to secure the minimum cold and fatigue.

There are many people who make the Nile trip without leaving their steamer or dahabiyeh, and some even make two steamer trips up the Nile in one winter. Cook's steamers are made as comfortable as possible, and he does everything he can to minimize the draught and cold for delicate passengers. His firm has what is almost a complete monopoly of the river traffic south of Cairo, and, as some 1500 visitors proceeded up the Nile in the winter of 1888-9, those intending to do so would be wise to secure accommodation in advance.

The

Four large steamers, luxuriously fitted up, ply between Cairo and Assouan between November and March, and on each of them there are two rooms nine or ten feet high specially reserved for invalids who are obliged to keep their cabins until they reach the universal sunshine of Luxor. ordinary cabins have one or two berths, and convey fifty first-class passengers, and are provided with electric bells, and windows protected by glass, Venetians, and wire gauze. There are also ladies' saloons, piano, and library, and a plentiful supply of fresh food of all kinds.

Every steamer, large and small, carries an

English doctor, whose services are seldom required; a huge medicine-chest; a European manager; and a dragoman, who arranges the details of the sightseeing.

The whole trip from Cairo to Assouan and back to Cairo in these steamers takes three weeks; or it may be arranged that the traveller shall break his journey for a long or short time at Luxor or elsewhere. For those who desire to visit all the temples and to devote a longer time to their study, a special steamer makes the trip in four weeks instead of three, and is provided with perfect accommodation for twenty-five passengers. The length of the smallest of these steamers is 160 ft.; the breadth, 20 ft.; the horse-power, 275; and the usual speed, eleven miles an hour.

But it has been found that there are many who cannot afford the time or the expense for the three weeks' trip, and therefore some cheap express steamers have been constructed to ply twice a week between Assiout and Assouan, so that tourists can go from Cairo to the First Cataract and back in fourteen days for £25, including a stay of four days at Luxor; or they may go to Luxor and back for £20 in eleven days, four of which can be devoted to seeing Thebes and Karnak. These cheaper steamers carry thirty first-class passengers, and are very useful for those invalids who wish to