by the
French under General Kleber in 1800. At Mataria was a sycamore-tree, the
successor of a tree which decayed in 1665, venerated as being that beneath
which the Holy Family, rested on their flight into Egypt. This tree was
blown down in July 1906 and its place taken by a cutting made from the tree
some years previously. Less than a mile N.E. of Mataria are the scanty
remains of the ancient city of On or Heliopolis. The chief monument is an
obelisk, about 66 ft. high, erected by Usertesen I. of the XIIth dynasty. A
residential suburb, named Heliopolis, containing many fine buildings, was
laid out between Mataria and Abbasia during 1905-10.

On the west bank of the Nile, opposite the southern end of Roda Island, is
the small town of Giza or Gizeh, a fortified place of considerable
importance in the times of the Mamelukes. In the viceregal palace here the
museum of Egyptian antiquities was housed for several years (1889-1902).
The grounds of this palace have been converted into zoological gardens. A
broad, tree-bordered, macadamized road, along which run electric trams,
leads S.S.W. across the plain to the Pyramids of Giza, 5 m. distant, built
on the edge of the desert.

_Helwan._--Fourteen miles S. of Cairo and connected with it by railway is
the town of Helwan, built in the desert 3 m. E. of the Nile, and much
frequented by invalids on account of its sulphur baths, which are owned by
the Egyptian government. A khedivial astronomical observatory was built
here in 1903-1904, to take the place of that at Abbasia, that site being no
longer suitable in consequence of the northward extension of the city. The
ruins of Memphis are on the E. bank of the Nile opposite Helwan.

_Inhabitants._--The inhabitants are of many diverse races, the various
nationalities being frequently distinguishable by differences in dress as
well as in physiognomy and colour. In the oriental quarters of the city the
curious shops, the markets of different trades (the shops of each trade
being generally congregated in one street or district), the easy merchant
sitting before his shop, the musical and quaint street-cries of the
picturesque vendors of fruit, sherbet, water, &c., with the ever-changing
and many-coloured throng of passengers, all render the streets a delightful
study for the lover of Arab life, nowhere else to be seen in such
perfection, or with so fine a background of magnificent buildings. The
Cairenes, or native citizens, differ from