orientalcairocit00sladuoft

20 Oriental Cairo
XIV, The Beit-Gamal'ed-Din
From here tell the cabman to drive to tiic Beit-Gamal-ed-
Din in the Sharia Hoche Kadam, the house built for the
chief of the merchants in the bazar a little before 1650, which
the Wakfs have put into thorough order for exhibition to the
public, with a caretaker at the door to demand mosque tickets
for admission. This is a beautiful, perfect, and very richly
decorated building, only inferior to the Palace of the Sultan
Beybars.
XV. The Coptic Churches of the Bazar; the best Bazars
While you arc in this neighbourhood tell the cabman to
drive to the two antique Coptic churches—which are quite
near, in a little back street called the Haret-er-Rum on the
same side of the Sharia El-Akkadin, one of which is dedicated
to St. George, and the other to the Virgin— if you are going
to make a study of Coptic churches. Then turn back into
the Sharia El-Akkadin, and, sending your carriage round to
meet you in the Sikket-el-Gcdida (which is the continuation
of the Muski), turn to the left yourself up the Sharia El-
Menaggidin, which leaves the Sharia El-Akkadin where
it joins the Sukkariya. This will take you through a
little maze of the olde.st and best bazars, the Cotton
Bazar, the Scentmakers* Bazar, the Silk Bazar, and the
Tunisian and Algerian Bazar, and bring you direct to where
your cab is waiting by the mosque of El-Ashraf. You only
have to walk straight on past the tiny dens of the silk-weavers
and scent merchants, and between the gaudy stalls of the
Tunisian Arabs, and follow the windings of the street.
XVI. The Greek Cathedral
You will pass quite close to the Greek Cathedral, but it is
not interesting ; it is merely like a handsome congregationalist
church hung with the devotional pictures of the orthodox
.saints. The chief difference is that the gallery here is
reserved for the women and the women arc reserved for the