Travels in Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria, and across the desert into Egypt ...

SYRIA, EGYPT, GERMANY, &C. l6 5
ble degree of antiquity, and is very curious in its construction. Its
origin is carried back to the reiart of Caliph Salad-Ed-din, whose
name properly signifies Joseph; and it is reasonable to suppose
that it has received from this circumstance the denomination of Jo-
seph's well, rather than that it was named, as some have supposed,
after the patriarch Joseph, the reputed father of our Saviour.
Within the citadel there is a very extensive building, which, as it
is conjectured to have been formerly the residence of the Caliph
and contains se-
Joseph, or Salah-Ed-din, is called Joseph's palace,
veral vestiges of its ancient splendor. One apartment in particular
is ornamented with beautiful mosaic work, but tin's room is at pre-
sent converted into a cloth manufactory; it leads into another apart-
ment, the ceiling of which was formerly embellished with paintings
in fresco. What renders the remote of this
antiquity palace,
which has been without doubt the residence of the Caliphs of
Egypt, unquestionable, is, that the names of the ancient monarchs
of Egypt are engraven on its walls, in characters which leave no
uncertaintv as to the time of their being wrought.
To return to Joseph's well. It is in depth no less than two hun-
dred and eighty English feet, and in circumference forty, with a
winding gallery, by which the men and cattle employed to procure
the water ascend and descend at pleasure. Both the well and
the
gallery leading
to it are hewn out of the solid rock, an under-
taking which could not have been accomplished without a considerable
share of labour and difficulty, notwithstanding the substance
of the rock consists in that part of a calcareous stone, which is not
of the hardest texture. The water, which is brackish,
up by the means of large wheels,
is drawn
to which earthen vases are fas-
tened, and which are worked by oxen and buffaloes. The vases
empty themselves into a trough, where the water is collected for the
various purposes for which it is destined.
The inhabitants of Cairo are also supplied with water from
the Nile'; and in this way employment is found for a considera-
ble number of men, who bring it into the citv in leathern skins
made water tight, and thrown across the backs of camels and asses.
The women and children of the poorer classes, who cannot af-
ford to purchase the water thus procured, although it is sold at a
very cheap rate, repair to the river to seek their supply, which
they carry on the head in large earthen pitchers, with great case
and dexterity, and, in some instances, with a considerable portion
f grace.
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