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Appendix III 363
picturesque on account of its narrowness and its overhangings
and its windings ; but when you get down to the Bab-el-
Sharia Police Station, you come across a glorious old Arab
house with a superb courtyard and rows of ineshrebiya oriels
outside. A little lower down there is a lovely fifteenth-
century mosque with ancient Roman cippolino columns.
It is called the mosque El-Ahmah, and has a sort of
Pompeian peristyle. The gaily coloured door at No. 31
Sharia Emir-el-Giyuchi-el-Guani—for that is the full name
of that now quite humble street— is a native hotel affected
by the Arish people, which signifies the Bedawins of the
Eastern Desert. At No. 17 is one of the two havwiams
which I have described as being the best I know in Cairo.
It too has very gay colours and ines/irebtya-\vor^ outside.
My notice was first attracted to it by them. No. 20 is a
mosque with rather a taking, ancient-looking exterior, but
though it has some antique columns inside it is not worth
taking trouble to get into it, and is generally closed. No. 12,
Sharia el-Shana—a name which seems to designate another
portion of that street, though it is not marked on the map
has some of the finest vieshrebiya oriels in Cairo. They are
very large and very lovely. No. 33 has a very rich Moresco
doorway. No. 19 is rich and fantastic and ancient outside,
but not so good inside.
There is an eating-shop here with tiles of just the Sicilian
patterns, and a Mohammedan prayer and a picture of the
Virgin Mary next to each other so as to suit all classes
of customers.
I fear that before this is printed the fine old Mameluke
mansion which stood in the angle between the Sharia Emir-
el-Giyuchi and the Sharia el-Barrani on the left-hand side,
just at the bottom of the former, will have been completely
torn down. For months and months it stood with the
beautiful facade of its courtyard nearly all torn away, showing
the most glorious woodwork inside. There was a sort of
hall on the ground floor, a little back from the porch, which
had a coffered wooden ceiling richer than anything to
compare with it in Cairo, and beautifully panelled walls.
—