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

SYRIA, EGYPT, GERMANY, &C. 299
The 21st being the anniversary of the day on which British va-
lour overcame the efforts of the French, in the ever memorable
battle before Alexandria, by which the fate of Egypt was decided,
it was celebrated with every demonstration of joy by the Bri-
tish army. At noon the guns of the forts, and those of the ships
in the harbour, were discharged; and this was repeated at sun-set,
with the addition of a fine display of sky-rockets, &cc.
On this occasion the Indian army gave a sumptuous dinner to
the British commander in chief, and to all the officers, still in
Egypt, who were present at the above glorious action, in a mosque
fitted up for the purpose. The persons who were thus assembled
amounted to an hundred and eighty, and were distributed at eight
tables.
I paid a visit to .the Capitana Bey, on the 22d, to request a passage
to Rhodes, which he was so obliging as to promise us in a
corvette about to sail for that destination.
On the 23d I visited the temple of Diana, the catacombs, and
the baths of Cleopatra, situated to the westward of Alexandria,
at the distance of about two miles. The temple, which is subter-,
raneous, is cut out of the solid rock, and in entering it we were
under the necessity of having recourse to candles. The entrance
had formerly been very small and narrow, and the access to the tem-
ple proportionally difficult; but in consequence of the numerous
visits it had latterly received, the opening had been enlarged with
considerable labour. Within the temple there is a fine dome hewn
in the rock; it has four gates, one of which served for the entrance,
while the others formed niches for the tombs, or sarcophagi.
These gates had been adorned with sculpture, a part of which still
remained. The substance of the rock is a calcareous stone. The
passages and catacombs, which continue beyond the temple, afford
a presumption that there may be more of these temples within.
These passages were now, however, in many parts nearly choked
up with earth, and with the bones of animals: but few human
bones were discoverable. In the vicinity of the temple we de-
scended into a lofty and capacious cavern, conjectured to have
been ancientlv the place in which the bodies were embalmed, be-
sides the passage on the land side, there appears to have been ori-
ginally an access to the temple by water, a small creek running
near to its entrance in front. Such an undertaking as the construc-
tion of a temple hewn in a rock, and provide! with a lofty dour*,