s which serve the newer parts
of the town. From the Place Atabeh a narrow street, the Muski, leads E.
into the heart of the Arab city. Another street leads S.W. to the Nile, at
the point where the Kasr en Nil or Great Nile bridge spans the river,
leading to Gezira Bulak, an island whereon is a palace, now turned into a
hotel, polo, cricket and tennis grounds, and a racecourse. The districts
between the bridge, the Ezbekia [v.04 p.0954] and the Ismailia canal, are
known as the Ismailia and Tewfikia quarters, after the khedives in whose
reigns they were laid out. The district immediately south of the bridge is
called the Kasr el-Dubara quarter. Abdin Square, which occupies a central
position, is connected with Ezbekia Gardens by a straight road. The narrow
canal, El Khalig, which branched from the Nile at Old Cairo and traversed
the city from S.W. to N.E., was filled up in 1897, and an electric tramway
runs along the road thus made. With the filling up of the channel the
ancient festival of the cutting of the canal came to an end.

The government offices and other modern public buildings are nearly all in
the western half of the city. On the south side of the Ezbekia are the post
office, the courts of the International Tribunals, and the opera house. On
the east side are the bourse and the Credit Lyonnais, on the north the
buildings of the American mission. On or near the west side of the gardens
are most of the large and luxurious hotels which the city contains for the
accommodation of Europeans. Facing the river immediately north of the Great
Nile bridge are the large barracks, called Kasr-en-Nil, and the new museum
of Egyptian antiquities (opened in 1902). South of the bridge are the
Ismailia palace (a khedivial residence), the British consulate general, the
palace of the khedive's mother, the medical school and the government
hospital. Farther removed from the river are the offices of the ministries
of public works and of war--a large building surrounded by gardens--and of
justice and finance. On the east side of Abdin Square is Abdin palace, an
unpretentious building used for official receptions. Adjoining the palace
are barracks. N.E. of Abdin Square, in the Sharia Mehemet Ali, is the Arab
museum and khedivial library. Near this building are the new courts of the
native tribunals. Private houses in these western districts consist chiefly
of residential flats, though in the Kasr el-Dubara quarter are many
detached resi