71. From Alexandria or Port Said to Cairo

From Alexandria to Cairo, 130 M., express in 3, ordinary train in 6–6¾ hrs.; 1st cl. 87½, 2nd cl. 44 pias.—From Port Said to Cairo, 145 M., express (with dining-car) in 4–4¼, ordinary in 5 hrs.; 96 or 48 pias.—As to transport of luggage, see p. .—The buffets at the intermediate stations are poor.

Alexandria, see p. . The Cairo railway, the oldest in the East (1855), rounds Lake Mareotis (p. ), which during the Nile inundation rises at places to the permanent way. On the left is the Mahmûdîyeh Canal (p. ).

On the right beyond (17 M.) Kafr ed-Dâwâr appear the first cotton-fields.—38 M. Damanhûr (pop. 22,100), the ancient Egyptian Timē-en-Hor (town of Horus) and Roman Hermopolis Parva, is now the capital of the province of Beheireh, which extends from the Rosetta arm of the Nile (p. ) to the Libyan desert.

The soil becomes more fertile. Villages of wretched mud-huts and a few groups of trees appear. We cross the Rosetta Arm. 64½ M. Kafr ez-Zaiyât.

76 M. Tanta (Buffet; Hôt. Khédivial, etc.; Brit. cons. agent, E. Erba; pop. 80,000), capital of the province of Gharbîyeh, between the Rosetta and Damietta arms (p. ), possesses a palace of the Khedive and an unfinished mosque of Seiyid el-Bedawi, a popular Egyptian saint, born at Fez (12th cent.). The great August fair (el-Mûlid el-Kebîr; ‘the great mûlid’, or nativity of the saint) is often attended by half-a-million persons, including a number of European merchants.

Farther on we pass several cotton-cleaning mills, evidencing the prosperity of this region, and then cross the Damietta Arm.

101 M. Benha (Buffet), junction of the Port Said (see below) and Suez lines, is noted for its fruit. 120½ M. Kalyûb (or Qualioub).

The Libyan hills become more prominent; so also the Mokattam Hills (p. ) and the citadel with the slender minarets of the mosque of Mohammed Ali (p. ). Gardens and villas appear. On the left are the site of ancient Heliopolis (p. ; obelisk not visible), Matarîyeh with its sycamores, Kubbeh, the residence of the Khedive, and the suburb of Abbâsîyeh (p. ).

130 M. Cairo (chief station), see p. .

Port Said, see p. . The Cairo line at first skirts the W. bank of the Suez Canal (p. ). 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. ).

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.

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. ), 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).

116 M. Benha, and thence to (145 M.) Cairo, see p. .