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1012 HISTORICAL ANNOTATION

431.27 Cairo] The capital of Egypt, Cairo was founded in 969 across the Nile
River from the ancient capital, Memphis. The first railroad in Africa, built in 1855,
linked Cairo and Alexandria, respectively the administrative and economic centers of
Egypt. Karl Baedeker, Egypt: Handbook for Travellers; Part First, lower Egypt, with
the Fayum and the Peninsula of Sinai, 2d ed. (Leipzig, 1885), 241-44; idem,Egypt
and the Sudan (Leipzig, 1908), 64; Cohen, Columbia Gazetteer, 1:495.

431.28 Citadel] Construction of Cairo's citadel was begun in 1176, reputedly
using stones taken from the small pyramids at Giza. At the time of Douglass's visit.
only the outer east wall and several towers remained. Among the structures within the
Citadel is the Alabaster Mosque, completed in 1857. From a parapet on the southwest
side of the mosque is a view of the Pyramids of Giza. Baedeker, Lower Egypt, 62.
264, 344, 355; Cohen, Columbia Gazetteer, 1:495.

431.30 the Pyramids] The pyramids of Egypt were constructed as burial tombs
for Egyptian rulers from the third to the sixth dynasties, between 2686 BCE and 2133
BCE. Most were built on the desert's fringe west of the Nile River near Memphis.
Nineteenth-century conventions concerning the purpose of the pyramids varied. One
suggested that the pyramid shape was merely a representation of a primitive mound.
Another theory held that the shape of the burial pyramid aimed to represent in stone
the symbol of the Egyptian sun god. Baedeker, Egypt and theSudan, 121-35; I. E. S.
Edwards, The Pyramids of Egypt, rev. ed. (New York, 1985), 278-83.

431.33 sepulchral] Pertaining to a burial place or a burial; or something appropri-
ate to a tomb.

431.36 the Libyan desert] Douglass perhaps refers to the eastern portion of the
Sahara Desert, which extends into Egypt. La Verle Berry, "Thc Society and Its
Environment." in Libya: A Country Study,, ed. Helen Chapin Metz, 4th ed.
(Washington, D.C., 1989), 64-09.

432.15-16 the great unexplained ... wonders of Sakkara] Locatcd fifteen miles
south of Cairo, the plateau of Sakkarah with a village of thc same name was one of
the principal sites of the pyramids and other burial memorials of the ancient Egyptian
rulers of Memphis. The famous Egyptian Sphinx, however, is located on the plateau
of Giza about three miles southwest of Cairo. Murray, Handbook for Travellers in
Egypt, 173, 177-79, 193-96, 201-02.

432.18 Memphis] The ancient capital city of Lower Egypt, Memphis lies about
ten miles south of modern Cairo beside the Nile River. Murray, Handbook for
Travellers in Egypt, 202-05.

432.18 Heliopolis] Near the site of the nineteenth-century village of Matareeah,
about ten miles northeast of Cairo, the ancient Egyptian town of Ei-Re, or "Abode of
the Sun," was called Heliopolis by the Greeks. In Douglass's time, tourists visited the
site of Heliopolis to view its obelisks, a sphinx, and a temple of the sun. Murray,
Handbook for Travellers in Egypt, 157-61.

432.30-31 Two hundred millions of people follow Mahomet to-day] The accu-
racy of Douglass's demographic estimation cannot be verified, as scholarly sources