Having seen so many of the tombs, parties took an especial interest in the Cairo Museum, wherein they inspected wonderful statuary; mummies of men, women, cats, dogs, monkeys, and crocodiles; also coffins and other relics going back in origin, some of them, to a period nearly 4,000 B.C. The jewellery, said at one time to have been worn by Queen Cleopatra, attracted much attention, as did also specimens of boomerangs--a weapon which almost every Australian had thought was peculiar to his own country. Time did not permit of visits up the Nile to the ruins at Luxor, Thebes, Philae, and Karnak, so the programme of viewing ancient remains had to be somewhat restricted. Consequently little was now left to do except to visit Mataria (about four miles north of the camp), view the Tree and Well associated with the Flight out of Egypt, and then proceed to the obelisk near by, which marks the site of the old Heliopolis--the City of the Sun. Other and more modern buildings and structures, connected with the early Christians and the Saracens, are plentiful in Cairo, and to these the visitors now turned. Chief amongst them is the Citadel, the erection of which Saladin began in A.D. 1166. From its walls a fine view of the city and its environs can be obtained. To the south the Aqueduct built by the Saracens comes under observation; and near by, on the east side, the Moqattam Hills--scarred by quarries and surmounted by a fort from which Napoleon silenced the guns of the Citadel. Within Saladin's walls are to be seen Joseph's Well--some 300 feet deep; the costly mosque of Mehemet Ali with its dome and twin minarets; two or three smaller and older mosques; and, on the wall, the hoof print of the escaping Mameluke's horse. Opposite to the main entrance to the Citadel, and without the walls, are two mosques of unusual size. One, the mosque of the Sultan Hassan--noted amongst other things for its wonderful arches, doors inlaid with gold, and a cannon ball still sticking in the wall facing the hills which bear Napoleon's fort; the other containing the tombs of the Khedivial family and distinguished by the richness of the decorations and inlay of sandalwood, ebony, silver, and ivory. Mosques and shrines in Cairo number nearly 500. There is plenty to see in this respect, but after a few of the principal ones, including the Blue Mosque of Ibrahim Agha, had been inspected, and similar calls paid on some of the old Coptic churches, interest waned and the soldier, looking for a change, sometimes turned to the Roman and Arab remains in Old Cairo and Fustat, or else visited the Tombs of the Khalifs and Mamelukes on the edge of the desert. Here he was, perhaps, successful in obtaining genuine souvenirs of the "Dead City." [Illustration: CAIRO AND ENVIRONS]