f the tomb mosque of Kait
Bey).

After centuries of neglect efforts are now made to preserve the monuments
of Arabic art, a commission with that object having been appointed in 1881.
To this commission the government makes an annual grant of L4000. The
careful and syste-matic work accomplished by this commission has preserved
much of interest and beauty which would otherwise have gone utterly to
ruin. Arrangements were made in 1902 for the systematic repair and
preservation of Coptic monuments.

_Museums and Library._--The museum of Egyptian antiquities was founded at
Bulak in 1863, being then housed in a mosque, by the French savant Auguste
Mariette. In 1889 the collection was transferred to the Giza (Ghezireh)
palace, and in 1902 was removed to its present quarters, erected at a cost
of over L250,000. A statue of Mariette was unveiled in 1904. The museum is
entirely devoted to antiquities of Pharaonic times, and, except in
historical papyri, in which it is excelled by the British Museum, is the
most valuable collection of such antiquities in existence.

The Arab museum and khedivial library are housed in a building erected for
the purpose, at a cost of L66,000, and opened in 1903. In the museum are
preserved treasures of Saracenic art, including many objects removed from
the mosques for their better security. The khedivial library contains some
64,000 volumes, over two-thirds being books and MSS. in Arabic, Persian,
Turkish, Amharic and Syriac. The Arabic section includes a unique
collection of 2677 korans. The Persian section is rich in illuminated MSS.
The numismatic collection, as regards the period of the caliphs and later
dynasties, is one of the richest in the world.

_History._--Before the Arab conquest of Egypt the site of Cairo appears to
have been open country. Memphis was some 12 m. higher up on the opposite
side of the Nile, and Heliopolis was 5 or 6 m. distant on the N.E. The most
ancient known settlement in the immediate neighbourhood of the present city
was the town called Babylon. From its situation it may have been a north
suburb of Memphis, which was still inhabited in the 7th century A.D.
Babylon is said by Strabo to have been founded by emigrants from the
ancient city of the same name in 525 B.C., _i.e._ at the time of the
Persian conquest of Egypt. Here the Romans built a fortress and made it the
headquarters of one of the three legions which garrisoned the country. The
church of Babylon mentio