or GRAND CAIRO, the capital of Egypt, situated in a plain at the foot of a mountain, in long. 32. 0. E. lat. 30. 0. N. It was founded by Jawhar, a Mogrebin general, in the middle of the tenth century. He gave his new city the name of Al Kahira, or the Victorious. It became the residence of the caliphs of Egypt, and of consequence the capital of that country, which it has ever since continued to be. It is divided into the new and old cities. Old Cairo, on the eastern bank of the Nile, is now almost uninhabited. The new city, which is properly Cairo, is seated in a sandy plain about two miles and a half from the old city, and on the same side of the river. It is extended along the mountain on which the castle is built, having been removed hither, it is supposed, in order to be under its protection. Bulac may be called the port of Cairo, for it stands on the bank of the Nile, and all the grain and other commodities destined for Cairo are landed there. Some travellers have assigned to Cairo a most enormous magnitude, by taking in the old city and Bulac along with the new; the real circumference of the latter, however, is not above ten miles, but it is extremely populous. The first thing that strikes a traveller is the narrowness of the streets, and the gloomy appearance of the houses, built of mud walls, without any exterior windows. Besides, as the streets are unpaved, and always full of people, walking is very inconvenient, especially to strangers. The number of the inhabitants has never been ascertained with any precision. Volney thinks it may amount to 200,000; but some later travellers estimate it as high as 300,000 or 400,000. The houses are from one to two or three stories in height, and flat at the top, where the inhabitants take the air, and often sleep all night. Those of the more wealthy have a court in the inside; but the poorer classes reside in very little space.

There is a canal, called khalis, derived from the Nile, which runs along the city from one end to the other, with houses on either side, which makes a large street. It forms in its progress several small lakes, which are called birks in the language of the country. The principal of these, which is in the great square near the castle, is five hundred paces in diameter. The most elegant houses in the city are built on its banks; but being filled from the inundation of the Nile, it contains water only for a few months of the year, and during the others it appears covered with a charming verdure. When there is water sufficient, it is always full of gilded boats, barges, and burks, in which people of rank amuse themselves by sailing, especially in the evenings, at which time there are curious fire-works, and a variety of music.

New Cairo is surrounded with stone walls, on which are handsome battlements; and at the distance of every hundred paces there are very fine towers. The walls were never very lofty, and are in many places gone to ruin. The fortified palace built by Saladin seven hundred years ago, on part of the famous mountain Mokattan, is the only place of defence in Cairo; and yet the Turks took no notice of its falling, insomuch that it was becoming a heap of rubbish, till the present pasha gave it a thorough repair. The principal apartment in it was a magnificent hall, environed with twelve columns of granite, brought from the ruins of Alexandria, of a prodigious height and thickness, which sustained an open dome, under which Saladin distributed justice to his subjects; but in the repairs made upon the edifice it was judged necessary to demolish this part of it. From the palace the whole city of Cairo may be seen, and above thirty miles along the Nile, with the fruitful plains that lie near it, as well as the mosques, pyramids, villages, and gardens, with which these fields are covered. The present pasha, however, no longer resides there, but has removed to a still more splendid palace, which he has reared in the vicinity. It contains a pavilion two hundred and fifty feet by two hundred, each wall of which is adorned with colonnades of white marble. The pasha has founded a military college and other institutions, with the view of introducing European arts and improvements. The gates of Cairo are three, which are very magnificent. There are about three hundred public mosques in the city, some of which have six minarets. That of Sultan Hassan is the finest structure in modern Egypt, and is extremely light and elegant. There is in the neighbourhood an extensive necropolis, containing many splendid tombs, particularly one built by the pasha for his family, adorned with five spacious domes. The khans or caravanserais are numerous and large, with a court in the middle, like the houses of the people. Some of them are several stories high, and are always full of people and merchandise. Cairo is a great centre of the trade of interior Africa; and caravans at short intervals depart from it for Fezzan, Darfur, and other quarters. The slave market of Cairo exhibits natives brought from almost every region of that great continent.

Old Cairo has scarcely any thing remarkable except the granaries of Joseph; which are merely a high wall, lately built, including a square spot of ground where the owners of land deposit wheat, barley, and other grain, as tribute to the pasha. There is likewise a tolerably handsome church, which is made use of by the Copts, who are Christians, and the original inhabitants of Egypt. Over against old Cairo there is an apartment built above the river, into which the water is admitted, and a column, which has lines at the distance of every inch, marks at every two feet as far as thirty. When the water rises to twenty-two feet, it is thought to be of a sufficient height; when it rises much higher, it becomes very injurious. There is much pomp and ceremony used in letting the water into the khalis or canal which leads to Cairo. Joseph's well is in the fortified palace, and was made by King Mohammed about 700 years ago. It is so called, because the Egyptians attribute everything extraordinary to that remarkable person. It is cut in a rock, and is two hundred and eighty feet in depth. The water is drawn up to the top by means of oxen, placed on platforms at proper distances, which turn about the machines that raise it. The descent is so sloping, that, though there are no steps, the oxen can descend and ascend with ease. The inhabitants of Cairo are a mixture of Moors, Turks, Jews, Greeks, and Copts.

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