A thousand miles up the Nile, with upwards - NYU | Digital Library ...

CAIRO AND THE MECCA PILGRIMAGE. ig
The whole structure is purely national. Every line and
curve in it, and every inch of detail, is in the best style of the
best period of the Arabian school. And above all, it was designed
expressly for its present purpose. The two famous
mosques of Damascus and Constantinople having, on the con-
trary, been Christian churches, betray evidences of adaptation.
In Saint Sophia, the space once occupied by the figure of the
Redeemer may be distinctly traced in the mosaic-work of the
apse, filled in with gold tesserae of later date ; while the magnificent
gates of the great mosque at Damascus are decorated, among
other Christian emblems, with the sacramental chalice. But the
mosque of Sultan Hassan, built by En Nasir Hassan in the high
and palmy days of the Memlook rule, is marred by no discrep-
ancies. For a mosque it was designed, and a mosque it remains.
Too soon it will be only a beautiful ruin.
A number of small streets having lately been demolished
in this quarter, the approach to the mosque lies across a
desolate open space littered with debris, but destined to. be
laid out as a public square. With this desirable end in view,
some half dozen workmen were lazily loading as many camels
with rubble, which is the Arab way of carting rubbish. If
they persevere, and the Minister of Public Works continues to
pay their wages with due punctuality, the ground will perhaps
get cleared in eight or ten years' time.
Driving up with some difficulty to the foot of the great
steps, which were crowded with idlers smoking and sleeping,
we observed a long and apparently fast -widening fissure
reaching nearly from top to bottom of the main wall of the
building, close against the minaret. It looked like just such a
rent as might be caused by a shock of earthquake, and, being
still new to the East, we wondered the Government had
not set to work to mend it. We had yet to learn that
nothing is ever mended in Cairo. Here, as in Constantinople,
new buildings spring up apace, but the old, no matter how
venerable, are allowed to moulder away, inch by inch, till
nothing remains but a heap of ruins.
Going up the steps and through a lofty hall, up some more
steps and along a gloomy corridor, we came to the great court,
before entering which, however, we had to take off" our boots