Hints for invalids and travellers, with observations on the climate of Luxor and Egypt : made during a three years' residence 1877-78-79 / by T.E. Maclean.

  • Maclean, T.E.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hints for invalids and travellers, with observations on the climate of Luxor and Egypt : made during a three years' residence 1877-78-79 / by T.E. Maclean. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    the ruins of Karnak on one side of the river, and Thebes on the other. Here it was that Lady Duff Gordon passed several seasons, and wrote many of her interesting letters. Here also stood the obelisk which now graces the Place de la Concorde in Paris. Along the river front stands the ancient temple, which is almost hidden from view by the houses which have been built into and amongst its ruins. Nearly all the houses are built of mud-bricks, with a foundation of either stone or burnt brick. Some few are whitewashed, but the greater part are uniform in colour with the soil upon which they stand. The native popula- tion of Luxor is estimated at between two and three thousand, a large number of whom are Copts, though the Muslims are said to outnumber them. Every nation except the Greek is represented by a consular agent, whose duty it is to arrange disputes between travellers and their drago- mans, when they occur, or similar small affairs. At present the resident Europeans are two or three Greeks, who, with the enterprise peculiar to the present race, have opened stores, where tinned provisions of all kinds, and all sorts of odds and ends can be procured, together with wines and spirits, which are consumed very freely by the Copts^ and often by the Muslims. In addition to these there is a photographer, and the agent of an English firm in Alexandria. The Post Ofifice faces the river, but the tele- graph station is on the Thebes side of the Nile. The streets are very narrow—just wide enough to allow two donkeys to pass. The Bazaar or Sook is very small and poor, and scarcely anything of interest to the traveller can be obtained in it. On Tuesdays a grand market is held in an open space in the town, and from early in the morning till about four in the afternoon presents a very busy scene. After spreading a mat or shawl on the ground the shop- man squats down and undoes his bundle of goods. Some hundreds of such shopmen are to be seen ranged in parallel rows forming little streets. Some are grocers or tobacco- nists, and some sell the produce of the soil; but the greater number are drapers, and deal in materials of various qualities for the most part bearing the English stamp. In one corner sheep, oxen, and camels may be seen for sale. Perhaps the most profitable of the local industries is the manufacture of antiques, and of earrings and brooches, with copies of hieroglyphic writing upon them. There are, of course, native craftsmen, such as the weaver, tailor, smith, etc. The hotel is a large square building, standing in the centre of a large garden, and distant about 350 yards from