f
blessed memory, and the overseer and clerk of this place of worship is
a venerable old man; he is a man of learning, and they call him Al
Sheik Abu al-Nazr[192]. The extent of Mizraim, which is in ruins, is
three miles.

[p.103]

Thence to the land of Goshen is eight parasangs; here is Bilbais[193].
There are about 300 Jews in the city, which is a large one. Thence it
is half a day's journey to Ain-al-Shams or Ramses, which is in ruins.
Traces are there to be seen of the buildings which our fore-fathers
raised, namely, towers built of bricks. From here it is a day's
journey to Al Bubizig, where there are about 200 Jews. Thence it is
half a day to Benha, where there are about 60 Jews. Thence it takes
half a day to Muneh Sifte, where there are 500 Jews[194]. From there
it is half a day's journey to Samnu, where there are about 200 Jews.
Thence it is four parasangs to Damira, where there are about 700 Jews.
From there it is five days to Lammanah, where there are about 500
Jews[195]. Two days' journey takes one to Alexandria of Egypt, which
is Ammon of No; but when Alexander of Macedon built the city, he
called it after his own name, and made it exceedingly strong and
beautiful[196]. The houses, the palaces, and the walls are of
excellent architecture. Outside the town is the academy of Aristotle,
the teacher of Alexander. This is a large building, standing between
other academies to the number of twenty, with a column of marble
between each. People from the whole world were wont to come hither in
order to study the wisdom of Aristotle the philosopher.

[p.104]

The city is built over a hollow by means of arches. Alexander built it
with great understanding. The streets are wide and straight, so that a
man can look along them for a mile from gate to gate, from the gate of
Reshid to the gate by the sea.

Alexander also built for the harbour of Alexandria a pier, a king's
highway running into the midst of the sea. And there he erected a
large tower, a lighthouse, called Manar al Iskandriyyah in Arabic. On
the top of the tower there is a glass mirror. Any ships that attempted
to attack or molest the city, coming from Greece or from the Western
lands, could be seen by means of this mirror of glass at a distance of
twenty days' journey, and the inhabitants could thereupon put
themselves on their guard. It happened once, many years after the
death of Alexander, that a ship came from the land of Greece, and the
name of th