The doors were so low that we had to stoop considerably in entering.

I could not discover any signs of windows.

And this wretched village lay within the bounds of the city, and even within the walls, which inclose such an immense space, that they not only comprise Alexandria itself, but several small villages, besides numerous country-houses and a few shrubberies and cemeteries.
In this village I saw many women with yellowish-brown countenances.
They looked wretched and dirty, and were all clothed in long blue garments, sitting before their doors at work, or nursing children.
These women were employed in basket-making and in picking corn.

I did not notice any men; they were probably employed in the fields.
I now rode forward across the sandy plain on which the whole of Alexandria is built, and suddenly, without having passed through any street, found myself in the great square.
I can scarcely describe the astonishment I felt at the scene before me.

Every where I saw large beautiful houses, with lofty gates, regular windows, and balconies, like European dwellings; equipages, as graceful and beautiful as any that can be found in the great cities of Europe, rolled to and fro amid a busy crowd of men of various nations.