M A R C H 1 9 4 0 ^ ^ ^ V O L U M E 30 No. 3 - Mines Magazine

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The Mines Magazine
for March. 1940 I
• The Citadel, Cairo. Egypt.
I have ever seen. They would give
you a price and when you got in the
car, they would raise the price or
change drivers or something. Two
hours were spent before we finally
were starting on our way.
Cairo is hot and we arrived there
at the hottest time of the year but we
enjoyed our stay very much in spite
of the heat. The Pyramids are
the greatest attraction, and the most
famous of these is the Pyramid of
Cheops, the largest in Egypt and the
greatest monument that any man has
built for a woman, in this case his
wife. This was built in 3700 B. C.
and is 739 feet at the base and 420
feet high. We climbed up inside 225
feet to the King's tomb. From the
Pyramids we went to the Sphinx. An
item of note is that in the last year
there have been many interesting finds
made near the Sphinx. A trip to the
Pyramids and Sphinx is well worth
any traveler's time.
The alabaster covered Citadel built
in 1166 is by far the most beautiful
mosque in Cairo and is a beautiful
sight. Looking out from the Citadel
over Cairo, a city of one and a half
million people, you will see the historical
and beautiful Nile River and
Valley. In the background looms
the faint outline of the Pyramids. It
gives one a peculiar feeling because
with one glance are seen buildings
completed only j'esterday and buildings
and monuments that have been
built down thru the ages for six thousand
years. It is indeed hard to conceive.
No trip to Cairo would be complete
without a visit to the Museum of
Egyptian Antiquities. A good place
to spend ten very interesting days—
of course we did not have time to do
this. The most famous of all the
collections are those from Tut-
Ankh-Aman tomb, better known as
"King Tut's". There are gold
coffins, jewels, treasures beyond description.
I will not try to describe
the contents of the Museum but will
say just go see for yourself and you
will never regret it.
Our trip from Cairo to Alexandria
was a very hot and dirty one so we
were more than glad to see our ship
waiting in port for us. As dirty and
tired as we were we did take a trip
around Alexandria. The city was
built in 332 B. C. by Alexander the
Great. We enjoyed seeing Alexandria
but I believe we enjoyed the nice bath
on the boat more.
Thirty-five days from Manila wc
arrived at Naples, Italy. Here we
left the boat to continue our trip
overland.
Naples, with its beautiful bay in
3 .
the blue Mediterranean and Mt.
Vesuvius always smoking in the background,
forms a beautiful picture. On
our trip south we visited the ruins of
Pompeii. Walking among the now
silent streets reveals an amazingly
clear picture of this city of 25,000
persons as it was at the moment of its
destruction in 79 A. D.
We continued south along a good
concrete highway lined with grape
arbors, orange and lemon trees, and
fields of corn, with always Mt.
Vesuvius in the background, stopping
now and then to look at a coral and
cameo factory or some spot of scenic
beauty. We finally reached an old
Roman road and proceeded along it
to Amalfi. On the way we passed
thru many picturesque towns with
buildings made of white stone and
built on the sides of very steep lava
cliffs overlooking that gorgeous blue
Mediterranean. Many of these
villas and castles date hack to Grecian
and Roman times.
From Amalfi we went to Sorrento,
the home of Caruso. This is a town
of beautiful linens and carvings. Next
morning we took a boat to the Blue
Grotto, a cave of white lime with the
most beautiful blue water. One must
lie down in a little row boat to pass
the entrance of this cave but the trip is
well worth while. Our next stop
was the famed Isle of Capri. Frankly
it is beautiful but we were disappointed.
Guess we expected too
much. We then returned to Naples
and caught a night train to Rome.
Rome, the Eternal City, filled with
historical ruins, beautiful churches,
art galleries, museums loaded with
treasures of the past and present,
fountains and statues everywhere.
Many beautiful and Interesting things
# Naples Bay, Vesuvius in background.
to see. We were in Rome eight days
and only wished we had planned to
spend more time there. I will make
no attempt to describe the wonders of
this city because space does not permit,
but I will say that Rome and Egypt
are the only two places I would care
to re-visit of all those we saw on our
trip. We were very fortunate to be
in Rome during the opera season, and
we heard "Aida" which was most impressive.
The setting in the old ruins
of Rome made it perfect.
The present government is doing a
great amount of work uncovering and
restoring many of the old ruins.
Our next stop was Florence—
another city of art and culture with
its many churches, galleries, and
museums. Many days can be spent
looking over the priceless treasures of
this city. I believe the best way to
see Italy is to start in the north and
work south, the reason being after one
sees Rome, which overshadows the
rest of the cities so much, some of the
grandeur is taken away. I might
mention the hand-tooled leather goods
and mosaic art of Florence are world
famous.
Venice, the city without streets
where there is nothing to ride except
gondolas. To say the least it Is
unique. A trip thru the early Republic
Palace of the Doges Is well worth
while. The Museum, and the famous
St. Mark's Church with the gold
mosaic domes, are the high lights of
Venice. Venetian glass blowing is a
large and famous Industry. Across the
bay is Lido where one of the best
hotels we saw on our trip Is located.
When we arrived at Milan it was
cold and raining. This city differs
from the other cities of Italy because
it Is more commercial, and the people
seemed different to us—maybe it was
because they were nervous about war
conditions.
We had not heard a word about
war any place except Egypt where
large numbers of soldiers and equipment
seemed to pour in every day.
We knew there was internal trouble
there, so the influx of new soldiers
did not bother us other than we were
glad to get out before anything happened.
As we were waiting for our train
In the station of Milan, I met a
Belgian friend. I was surprised to
see him because he was to spend some
weeks at Capri. I asked him what he
was doing In Milan at that time, and
his words were, "Haven't you heard
of the trouble? The government has
called us all home, and the Italian
government has ordered all Americans
from southern Italy." At that
# St. Mark's Cathedral and square in Venice.
• Leonardo da Vinci, painting "The Last Supper" is in this Cathedral at Milan.