Diary of George Booley, 5th Battalion, AIF, 1914 - Part 7 of 8

for Privates, that meant Officers only but
the Proprietors soon got Jack of that &
they said that they would have to double
the Tariff  to make up the money they were
losing so now it is open again. In nearly
every street that is decent one, there is
an electric tram & a real good service
too, soon after we arrived every pub
changed hands names, & they all became
the "Australian Bar", New Zealand Bar"
“Colonial Cafe" & such like, they are great
people here for money making, they are
the shrewdest crowd ever I struck. So
much for the city of Cairo no doubt I
will see more of it before we leave. The
next thing I will write about is the
Pyramids, no description can make
a person understand what it is like,
the most important one of the lot is
called "Cheops" & is named after the King
of the time, & was built by his orders, by
thousands of Slaves, the object of building
it was to bury his & his wife’s (the
Queen) body in, a chamber was built
right in the centre of the Pyramid for
him & one lower down for the Queen,
the strange part of it is that when it
was opened only the Queens Mummy
was found & it is said by the Guides

Since writing about the Pyramid
Cheops I have found out that
the ground it covers would
is 13 ½ acres, you can form
some idea what it looks like
to look to the top of it when
it you would have to elevate
your rifle to 300 yards to shoot
to the top from the bottom. 

who take you through that, as he was
such a bad man & treated his slaves
so bad that when he died they stole
his body & threw it into the Nile for
the crocodiles to eat, he used to be very
cruel & only fed his slaves on bread &
water. It is supposed to have been
built in the year or roughly
speaking about 5000 years ago, they
say it took 30 years to build, the stone
which is in big blocks was brought
from over the other side of the Nile
a distance of about 11 miles, however
they got it there beats me as most of
the blocks weigh tons, of course now
it looks rough as all the outside
casing has been taken off, whoever
it was first tried to get inside the
Pyramid tried to get in from the top,
but only found two empty chambers
these were made according to the Guides
account of things, to deceive any one looking
for the bodies & they would not go
any further, the opening was found low
down on one side & to find it they had
to pull down the whole of the casing,
the Kings Chamber is of granite & is situated
in the centre of the Pyramid.

There is another big one near "Cheops"
named & has Chambers
in it the third one of the group is only
a small one but has chambers.
in it, on the top of there is still
some of the casing left on & it gives one
some idea of what it must have looked
like when the casing was on them.
About where these pyramids are, there
is I should say easily half a mile square
taken up by Pyramids large & small
Tombs, Temples & the Sphinx, it seems
strange that such a number of interesting
things are in such an out of the way
place as the edge of the Desert, when I
climbed the big Pyramid & looked around
on one side is the Nile Valley all green &
as nice a scene as one could wish to see
& on the other side just a big desert it
seems to be the dividing place of the two.
The Tombs of Pharoah are right at the
foot of "Cheops" & at the present time are
being excavated by an American Scientist,
all these excavations are out of
bounds to us, but I was told by a pal
that worked it somehow to get in,
that it is very interesting to go through
them, I believe the Scientist has found
some very valuable things there not in
the way of money etc, but to people who

make a study of old Egypt. On the other
side just at the foot of the same pyramid
is the remains of what has been a splendid
temple, built of a black Granite brought
from over 500 miles down the Nile, but
this Temple has been demolished & I think
it was Napoleon who did it or at least
caused it to be done, at the Sphinx is
the remains of another fine Temple known
as the Temple of the Sphinx however they
managed to build such places in those
days is a mystery, time & space wont
allow me to go into these places &  say all
I would like to about these places, Just
away from the Sphinx is an Arab Cemetry
& looks very funny with all its mounds
of Mud built over the Bodies, if we stay
in these parts long enough I may be
able to say more of this part of the world
there is one thing that strikes one when
they are up on the Pyramid and that is to
look down on the Electric Tram running
almost to the foot of it, it certainly
helps you to forget that the Pyramid
is 5000 years old, when you see such
modern things. I will now write a
little about a days outing I had last
week, we went to the City in the morning 
& after dinner hired a Garry after a
lot of bargaining for 10 Piastres to the
Citadel & back to the City, I have 

often read of the Citadel, but was surprised 
when I got there, it is an old
Barracks, & is one of the oldest parts of
Cairo, it is built so that it overlooks
the City & one side of it there is a wall
I should say 60 feet to the ground, &
in the time of Mahomet  Ali, there
were some Officers who had planned to
raise a rebellion against him, so he
invited them all to a big banquet.
& then closed the gates on them & had
them all shot with the exception of one
who jumped on a horse & jumped him
off the top of the wall I just mentioned
& when the horse was near the ground
he jumped off, the horse was killed but
he was not & Mahomet Ali gave him
a pardon, where he made the leap they
have cut a horses hoof mark in the
stone. In this place a big Mosque has
been built, it is quite modern, & is
only a little over 100 years old, it is a
lovely place, but here it is not considered
of much class, that is the Archetectural
part of it as it is copied from one in
Constantinople, I have never seen any
thing like it before, when I first stepped 
inside it took my breath away.
Just outside the Mosque is a fountain
& all the Mahometans who go there to 

pray have to wash their feet, hands &
face before they go in, we had to pull
slippers over our boots, the Natives always
take off their to shoes to pray, there were
several inside praying when we went
in they took no notice of us, they kneel
down then bend forward & touch the
carpet with their forehead, this they do
several times, but they always face
the East. The whole of the floor of the
Mosque is covered with carpet about
half an inch thick & all came from
somewhere in Turkey, in the centre
is hung a big chandelier, presented
by the King Louis Phillip of France
it sparkles like diamonds now it
must be a fine sight when it is lighted
up, as there must be about 100 electric
bulbs in it, this Mosque is only lighted
up a few times a year, that is when
the Sultan goes there, it is all built
of Alabaster, with the exception of 4
large pillars, this was built of stone
because the Alabaster would not
stand the weight, Alabaster is a
stone resembling marble, if you hold
a piece of it up to a light it looks
like Amber. There are two pulpits
there one for the high priest & one

I forgot to mention that the
Dome in this Mosque is very
high & however they painted
it is a Mystery, it is a sight
in itself to see the Dome,
There is a Gallery running round
a good part of it, this is for
the Sultan & his family.
 

for the second Priest, right on the bay
side of the Mosque is a place where the
priest prays & all the people do at certain
times, on either side of this place
is a round pillar, these are the only
round pillars in the building & the
reason of it is that when blind people
come there to pray they can feel along
the wall & when they come to the
round pillar they know where the
East is. There were some Indian
soldiers in there praying, this gives
you some idea, what a ticklish affair
this Turkish Invasion was likely
to prove, most of the Indians are the
same religion as the Turks & Arabs
& the Indians are fighting against
their own religion, this no doubt is
what old Kaiser Bill reckoned on
but so far at any rate it has miscarried, 
there has been no sign of
trouble here with the Arabs. I am
straying away from my days outing.
On a hill overlooking Cairo, & right
above the Citadel is an old Fort
built by Napoleon, around this
part there are many things to remind 
one of Napoleon, he eviden 

ently was of a very destructive nature
as he has attempted to damage most
of the old sights of the place if I remember 
aright he was responsible
for the blowing away of a lump of the
Sphinx & ruining some of the
Temples. On the return drive from
the Citadel we passed another old
Mosque, & one of the walls of it was
all holes where Napoleon has been
bombarding it & in one of them the
Cannon Ball is still showing.
When you stand at the Citadel &
look over Cairo it is a strange sight
all the old tumble down buildings
with the later & more up to date
one here & there through them but
I think it is rightly named, when
they call it mysterious Egypt.
Not far from the Citadel is the
old Aquaducts that one has read
about, it looks rather knocked
about now & most of the culvert
parts are broken down, it appears
to be at least half a mile long, I
was told by our guide that it was
near this Aequaduct that Moses
 

was found in the Bullrushes, I
dont know if he knows anything about
it, any Native that you see will try
& make out he is a guide, that is any
that can talk English, & when you
get to anything of any importance
they start to roll off a long rigmarole
& if you break in & ask a question
they have to start over again, it makes
me a bit doubtful sometimes whether
it is truth or not, but we have to take
it all for granted, After having tea in
Cairo, we finished our day with a night
at the Pictures, it was very funny waiting 
for the Pictures we took a Garry
for an hour, it took five minutes
to settle with the driver, he wanted
20 Piastres & his proper fee is 10, he
showed us his watch & we looked at
ours, from the time we got in till we
got out of his Garry we were growling
at him, he did not understand where
we wanted to go so he drove along the
street & he had a Nigger boy running
along the footpath looking for some
one to speak English, at last he found
a chap & we explained we wanted to

drive around for an hour, he started
off at a very leisurely pace & of course
we started to move him along but
he would pull his horses in behind
some cart that was blocked & of course
would have to pull up, when he saw
we knew his trick he pulled off into
what we call the Wasser it is the
best known part of Cairo to our chaps
& is the part that the least said about
it the better, the passage way is only
about 8 feet wide & of course with the
crowds of Niggers there we went along
at a snails pace, I might say there are
miles of such places in Cairo, he did
not go more than a quarter of an hour
through this & then he drove down
past the Sultans palace, this is a
fine building & as usual with such
places there are no end of Sentries
pacing up & down, soon after passing
the Palace he pulled up outside a
little house along out side the road & gave
the reins to the Nigger boy to hold
while he went in, we waited a while
& as he did'nt apper I suggested having
a look & see what he was doing


Stan jumped out & run in & there was
no Nigger to be seen, so he went out
the other side & there was his Gills
standing behind altering his watch
we told him what we thought of him
& he started off again but very slow
so Hughie Smith found a piece of
cord in his pocket & I had a cane
so we started made a whip of it &
kept his horses moving, we arrived
back near where we engaged him
& he pulled up saying “the hour
finish", we found by our watch that
we had a quarter to go, after many
hard words; much swearing etc, he
started off but we had to keep at
him & his horses to get the last quarter
out of him. I reckon that was a good
days outing & I hope the full day
holidays continue. My next days
outing was a little over a week after
& was more pleasant as it came as a
surprise, on our proper day off I was
on Guard so could not go & this day
was granted to us & I did not know
until I had my equipment on & was
on the parade ground ready to fall

in, needless to say there was a scatter
to get ready, while I was at this one
of the Chaps, Charlie Dey by name, one I have
done a bit of exploring with, came in
& proposed a trip to Barrage so off we
went four of us it is half an hours
ride by train down the Nile, after the
usual sand of the Desert we see so much
of it was a good sight to see the crops of
Rice, & vegetables, there is very little
of the ground not growing something
& it was almost one big green paddock
This is one thing about here there are
no fences & you cant see where each
place starts & ends, it was funny one
day we were passing a place & saw
a board just off the road with "Dig Mud"
& one of the chaps reckoned that must
be the mans name, I hav'nt found
out what it meant but I am sure
he was wrong. After a nice little train
journey we arrived at Barrage
& found there a big Native Villiage
we always leave these villiages
severely alone the reason is soon
seen when I say there is no
Sanitary arrangements & no drains
 
& as sheep, goats, camels, donkeys, fowls
dogs, & Niggers all herd together the
odour is is easier imagined than
described, just outside the Station
a Nigger came up & wanted to know
if we wanted a truck so we had
the usual amount of bargaining
& struck a bargain for 4 of us to go 
out on a truck for 1 hours 15 Piastres
the lot, we were looking around to
see what pulled us when to our
surprise the Niggers started off at
the double (in civil life means run)
pushing the truck, it just seated
four, we hit up a pretty fair pace
& once through the Villiage we came
to some splendid gardens, the big
shady trees, some of them Gums, but
they don't do as well here as in Australia, 
some of the trees were just covered 
with some creeper out in bloom
& it was just one big purple flower,
I wish you could have seen us sitting 
there like Lords & the poor old
Niggers nearly bursting their lungs
running, but I was too much taken