Built on the edge of a
sunburnt plain that extends between the mountains and the sea, it
fronts the northern extremity of a narrow winding creek. Viewed from
the harbour, it is a long line of buildings, whose painful whiteness is
set off by a sky-like cobalt and a sea-like indigo; behind it lies the
flat, here of a bistre-brown, there of a lively tawny; whilst the
background is formed by dismal Radhwah,
"Barren and bare, unsightly, unadorned."
Outside the walls are a few little domes and tombs, which by no means
merit attention. Inside, the streets are wide; and each habitation is
placed at an unsociable distance from its neighbour, except near the
port and the bazars, where ground is valuable. The houses are roughly
built of limestone and coralline, and their walls full of fossils
crumble like almond cake; they have huge
[p.227] hanging windows, and look mean after those in the Moslem
quarters of Cairo. There is a "Suk," or market-street of the usual
form, a long narrow lane darkened by a covering of palm leaves, with
little shops let into the walls of the houses on both sides.
