A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

68 MOSQUE OF SULTAN HASSAN.
airy grace. As no objection is made to Chris-
tians entering any of the mosques of Cairo, save
two (El Azher, and El Hassenyn, to which no
person not professing the Mahometan religion,
or at least wearing the Mahometan dress, can be
admitted), and no Firman is required for that
purpose, as in Constantinople, we have been
making a round of the religious structures, in the
course of our morning rides. Of these the first
to be sj^ecified is the mosque of Sultan Hassan,
as it is considered the most beautiful specimen of
Arabian architecture in Cairo ;
in short, the most
perfect religious structure in the country. It
was built in the fourteenth century, and the
blocks used in its construction were brought from
the Pyramids, which have also afforded materials
for many other of the public buildings of Cairo
the Egyptian Caliphs having had as few scruples
as the Roman Pontiffs in rifling and defacing the
precious monuments of antiquity within their
reach, in their zeal to leave behind them sub-
stantial proofs of their own piety and magnifi-
cence. The harmonious outlines of Sultan Has-
san's mosque, the symmetry of its proportions, the
beauty of its arches, and the richness of the
stalactite ornaments of its roof, recall to mind
the Moorish structures of Seville and Granada,
;