Identifier: roundworldletter00fogg_0 (find matches)
Title: "Round the world." : Letters from Japan, China, India, and Egypt
Year: 1872 (1870s)
Authors: Fogg, Wm. Perry (William Perry), b. 1826
Subjects: Voyages around the world
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Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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aying much. The last three miles ofthe road is on a dyke or embankment whichsaves it from overflow by the river. Thedate-palms which we see scattered over theplain are now in blossom, and produce thefinest dates in the world. We meet hun-dreds of donkeys and camels plodding slowlyalong towards the city, bearing immenseloads of vegetables and fresh cut grass. Oneither side of the road are fields of grain,maize, clover and lentils, growing mostluxuriantly from a soil so rich that it actuallylooks greasy, It is entirely an alluvial de-posit from the Nile, and on it the cropsspring up very swiftly, having a peculiarlybright green appearance, and are very ten-der to the touch irom their rapid growth.Two crops of grain, sometimes three, and ofgrass and vegetables usually four crops aretaken from the same soil every year. For a long time the pyramids were rightbefore us, and so deceptive is their appearanceunder the cloudless sky, with no other objectupon the vast plain with which to compare
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235 them, that they seemed actually to growsmaller as we approached. We drove to thevery foot of the great pyramid of Cheops,and our carriage was at once surrounded bya crowd of Arabs. We drove them all awayand demanded to see the Sheik, who liveshere and professes to control these wildchildren of the desert. We told him to se-lect for each of us two good men from theexpectant crowd, and commenced at oncethe ascent. Figures can convey but an in-adequate idea of the immensity of this vastpile. It is 480 feet high; higher than thetallest spire in Europe; 200 feet tallerthan Trinity Church steeple. The base is764 feet on each side, and it covers an areaof twelve acres. The Public Square inCleveland, including the streets that sur-round it, is, I believe, but ten acres. Tobuild the causeway to carry the stone fromthe Nile, would require 100,000 men foi tenyears, and to build the monument, 360,000men for twenty years. The difficulty ofclimbing the pyramid is not so muchfrom the steepness o

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