EUROPEANISED EGYPT.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XLIII, Issue 2285, 19 February 1912, Page 2

EUROPEANISED EGYPT.

THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE NILE VALLEY.

The old river life of Egypt is passing away. European capital, and the European notion that nothing in the world is so sacred as the making of money, have given industrial Egypt an impulse such as she has not received since the days of the Polemies, and the immediate effect is uot picturesque. Alexandria has always been as the great conqueror whose name it perpetuates determined it should be, a European rather than an African city ; but from the other three towns in Egypt frequented by Europeans civilisation, with its blessings and curses, is every year spreading outward like oil on water, and it is doubtful how long even the desert will remain untouched by it. Cairo, Sir Gaston Maspero tells us in his " Egypt: Ancient Sites and Modern Scenes," " like all rich cities, is beginning to build suburbs ;" and he now finds

•within a few miles of the Nile bridge " verdure and groups of wellbuilt houses where, my memory tells me, was the uninterrupted yellow of the sands and a cluster of wretched hovels." On the outskirts of the native village at Luxor " an enterprising landlord has built an esplanade fronting the Nile, with a row of shops all resembling one another In one of the houses dwells a photographer, in another a chemist and druggist, and in a third wily and insinuating Indians offer to tourists bargains of woven stuff, and exotic kmick-knacks at two hundred per cent profit. Two stuffed gazelles flank the door of a shop for antiquities ; and drinking-bars with flaring signs try to attract customers with the promise of incomparable whist ty." To Assuan, the Post boat formerly brought up a dozen tourists, and twice a month Cook's parties arrived in a big steamer, and rioted in excursions, until

" one fine day the whistle announced their departure, and, a mid the sound of paddle-wheels, civilised man set out again for the North as noisily as he had come. The town, delighted with its gains, but tired of the hubbub, g a ve a sigh of relief, and sank carelessly to sleep to the lullaby of the sakkiehs." Now churches, hotels, and shops aro rapidly taking the place of the old native booths, and the place is transformed Into a " winter resort " for invalids and persons in search of amusement.

Nor is this sort of thing confined to Ruropeanised Egypt. Honeh, Sir Gaston Maspero reminds us, now has a municipality, paved streets kept in order by an ox-drawn iron roller, and factories which export their carpets and other wares to Europe, while its outskirts raise poultry and grow vegetables for the supply of the many Luxor hotels. So Assuit (the Lycopolis of the Greeks) can now be "done" by the tourist, as it actually was by Sir Gaston, in a numbered and licensed cab, and rejoices in a " Sudanese bar " and other signs of European influence, besides its shawls of spangled net. With the gradual advance, consequent upon the increased irrigation, of the belt of cultivated riverbank—of which ancient Egypt really consisted—into the desert, the face of the Nile Valley will before long be entirely transformed.— • " Athenaeum."