very picturesque one. down stream of Kasr an-Nil Bridge, and is crossed by the On the south side of the line The Embâba Bridge stands Upper Egypt Railway. provision has been made for wheeled traffic and foot passengers. It is less solid looking than the Kasr an-Nil Bridge, but it has now been made sufficiently strong for the purpose which it is intended to serve. The Rôda Bridge is up stream of Kasr an-Nil, and its western end is nearly opposite to the "Pyramid Road"; it was built by Sir William Arrol & Co., Limited. The Bridge is 1750 feet long, in a series of spans of 140 feet. The piers have been sunk to a depth of 70 feet below the level of low Nile, and of 92 feet below high Nile; in some cases they were carried to a depth of between 60 and 70 feet below the bed of the river. The aggregate depth through which piers were sunk is over 1600 feet, and the work has been accomplished in 12 working months. The last of the 14 piers was completed in June, 1906. This bridge will form a most useful means of communication between the southern part of Cairo and the village of Gizah and the neighbouring hamlets, and it will relieve the traffic over the Kaṣr an-Nil Bridge, especially in the earlier part of the day. The 'Abbas Bridge, which is named after the reigning Khedive, will be constructed on the pattern of the Tower Bridge in London, that is to say, with a drawbridge for the passage of vessels, and a footbridge at a higher elevation for pedestrian traffic when the drawbridge is raised. The daily "cutting" of the Kasr an-Nil Bridge causes great inconvenience at certain hours of the day; and this the Rôda Bridge was not designed to alleviate. The new bridge will span the Nile between the existing Embâba and Kaṣr an-Nîl Bridges. The design has been prepared by the Public Works Department, the authorities of which have laid down, in the minutest detail, the materials which shall be used in the course of the work. The Nilometer in the Island of Rôḍa. The Nilometer here is a pillar, which is divided into seventeen parts, each representing a cubit, i.e., 21 inches, and each cubit is divided into twenty-four parts. This pillar is placed in the centre of a well about sixteen feet square; the lower end is embedded in the foundations, and the upper end is held in position by a beam built into the side walls. The well is connected with the Nile by a channel. The first Nilometer at Rôda is said to have been built by the order of the Khalifa Sulêmân (A.D. 715-717). The second was built in 861, and 12 years later Tûlûn repaired it and built a fort on the island. At the end of the eleventh century a dome resting upon columns was built over it. When the Nile was at its lowest level it stood at the height of seven cubits in the Nilometer well, and when it reached the height of 20 cubits, the shêkh of the Nile proclaimed that sufficient water had come into the river to admit of the cutting of the dam which prevented the water from flowing over the country. The difference between the highest rise and the lowest fall of the Nile at Cairo is about twenty-five feet. The Cutting of the Dam used to take place some time during the second or third week in August, at which time there were general rejoicings. The ceremony of cutting the dam is no longer observed, and the old Khalig Canal has been filled up. When there happens to be an exceptionally high Nile, the whole island of Rôda is submerged, and the waters flow over the Nilometer to a depth of two cubits, a fact which proves that the bed of the Nile is steadily rising, and one which shows how difficult it is to harmonize all the statements made by Egyptian, Greek, and Arab writers on the subject. As the amount of taxation to be borne by the people has always depended upon the height of the inun dation, attempts were formerly made by the governments of Egypt to prove to the people that there never was a low Nile. Egyptian Antiquities. Tickets to visit Antiquities are available from July 1 for 12 months. A. For the whole of Egypt, 120 piastres (24s. 8d.). B. Gizah Pyramids, ascent or entrance, each, 1. The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities. N.B. The Museum is closed on Fridays, and during Bairâm and Kurbân Bairâm, and on other official holidays. Hours of Opening: May 1st to October 31st, 8.30 a.m. to 9.30 p.m. November 1st to April 30th, 9 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. Entrance Fees: In Summer, I piastre, excepting on Mondays, when it is free. In Winter, 5 piastres. Soldiers pay half a piastre in summer, and 2 piastres in the winter. The nucleus of the great Khedivial collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities of all periods, from about B.C. 6500 tc the end of the Roman rule in Egypt, was formed by the eminent Frenchman, F. Auguste Ferdinand Mariette, a distinguished scholar and archæologist, and an unselfish and indefatigable worker in the cause of Egyptological science. In the course of his excavations at Sakkâra, where he discovered the Serapeum, he brought together a large number of miscellaneous antiquities, which were stored wherever a place could be found to hold them. In the teeth of opposition made by the notables of Cairo and Ministers of Government, he forced the claims of archæology under the notice of the Khedive Sa'id Pâshâ, who, soon after his succession in 1854, ordered that a Museum of Egyptian Antiquities should be founded, and appointed Mariette as its first Keeper. With the important work of the Suez Canal in hand it was unlikely that the Egyptian Government would vote money for the building of a museum to hold the monumental remains of a nation of "ignorant unbelievers," whom every Egyptian believed God had wiped off the face of the earth because of their "unclean wickedness,” and Mariette had therefore to take any empty rooms in any Government building which could be found in which to house his collection. After much difficulty Mariette induced the authorities to transfer to him portions of the old post-office at Bûlâķ, the port of Cairo, and in these the first Khedivial collection of Egyptian antiquities was placed. It goes without saying that the building was unsuitable in every way, for the floors were bad, the walls were too thin, the rooms were small, and the most inexperienced thief could easily break in and help himself to the small objects which were placed in the wretched receptacles which served as exhibition cases. It was found in a very short time that the collection was growing too rapidly for the space which Mariette had at his disposal, and, when all the rooms were filled, he was obliged to store the cases of antiquities in an outhouse or shed near, and to leave them packed up. Whilst the work of collecting was thus going on, Mariette devoted himself to the excavation and clearing out of temples and other buildings in all parts of the country. In 1881 the great collection of royal mummies from Dêr al-Baḥarî arrived, and the interest of these was so great that the cultured opinion of the civilized world demanded that some systematic arrangement of the contents of the Bûlâk Museum should be made, and that steps should be taken for their better preservation, for it was found that the damp in the old post-office was doing harm to the more fragile of the antiquities. The situation of the museum itself was alarming. On the one side flowed the Nile, which more than once threatened to sweep the whole building away, and the waters of which, on one occasion, actually entered the courtyard, and on the other were a number of warehouses of the flimsiest construction, filled with inflammable stores, which might at any moment catch fire and burn down the museum. Early in winter mornings the building was often full of the white, clinging, drenching mist, which is common along the banks of the river, and it was no rare thing to see water trickling down inside the glass cases which held the mummies of the great kings of Egypt. At length the Egyptian Government was compelled to consider seriously the problem of housing the monuments of the Pharaohs, but the authorities were hampered by want of funds; finally, after much discussion, it was decided to transfer the whole collection to the Palace of Gîzah, which stands on the left bank of the Nile, just opposite the Island of Rôda. This palace was built by Ismail Pâshâ to accommodate his harim, and cost between 4 and 5 millions of pounds sterling! The fabric itself was not strong enough for a building of the kind, and the walls of hundreds of its rooms were made of lath and plaster gilded and painted; the outcry usually raised by irresponsible persons against any proposal connected with antiquities was made, but, under |