when beyond the dark green foliage of the sycamore and cypress trees
which rise above the orange groves, the domes and minarets of the
native quarter gleam golden in the sunlight. Behind is the citadel,
crowned by Mohammed Ali's tomb-mosque of white marble, whose tall twin
minarets seem to tower above the rosy-tinted heights of the Mokattam
Hills. Even here the noise of the city reaches you in a subdued hum,
for Cairo is not only a large city, but it is densely populated, and
contains nearly a twelfth part of the whole population of Egypt. Away
towards the sunset the pyramids stand out clearly against the glowing
sky, and the tall masts and sails of the Nile boats reach high above
the palm groves and buildings which screen the river from view.

[Footnote 2: A distant suburb of Cairo.]

Cairo consists of two distinct and widely different parts, the
Esbikiyeh and Ismailieh quarters of the west end, built for and almost
entirely occupied by Europeans, and the purely native town, whose
streets and bazaars, mosques and palaces, have remained practically
unchanged for centuries.

At one time the European quarters were in many ways charming, though
too much like some fashionable continental town to be altogether
picturesque; but of late years the shady avenues and gardens of the
west end have entirely disappeared to make way for streets of
commercial buildings, while the new districts of Kasr-el-Dubara and
Ghezireh have arisen to house the well-to-do. Our interest in Cairo,
therefore, is centred in the native quarters, where miles of streets
and alleys, rich in Arabesque buildings, are untouched except by the
mellowing hand of Time.