The royal city is surrounded with walls, but Misraim is entirely open, having the river Nile on one side.  This is a very large city, having many large markets and public buildings, and contains many rich Jews.  The country is never troubled with rain, ice, or snow, but is often afflicted with insufferable heat.  It is watered by the Nile, which begins to swell every year in the month Elul, and continues swelling during that month and Tisri[30], making the earth fruitful.  The old Egyptians erected a fine marble pillar of excellent workmanship in an island at this place, rising twelve cubits above the ordinary surface of the river; and when the water overflows that column, the inhabitants are satisfied that their whole country is overspread for fifteen days journey.  If the water rise only half the height of the pillar, they then conclude that only half the country is overflowed.  A person is stationed by the pillar, who proclaims the height of the water every day at noon.  When the water rises to a sufficient height, it indicates a year of fertility and plenty in Egypt; but when it does not overflow, nothing is sown, and sterility and famine are the consequences.  The people of the country have trenches dug in their grounds, in which great numbers of fish are caught when the river recedes, which they either use in their families, or salt them for sale.  These fish are very fat, and supply oil for lamps.  It is an old question, on which there is great diversity of opinion, as to the cause of the overflow of the Nile; but the Egyptians suppose, that it proceeds from the falling of heavy rains in the land of Habash, which we call Havilah or Abyssinia.  The fields are usually sowed in the month of September, as the Nile has then retired into its channel.  Barley is reaped in February, and wheat in March; and in that month, grapes, cherries, and almonds are ripe; and encumbers, gourds, pease, beans, and lentils; and various pot-herbs, as purslain, asparagus, lettuce, corianders, succory, coleworts, &c.  The gardens and orchards are watered by means of trenches filled from the Nile.

After passing Cairo, this great river divides into four branches, one of which runs by Damietta, sometimes called Caphtor.  The second runs near the city of Rosir or Rosetta, not far from Alexandria.  The third passes by Asmon, a very large city on the eastern borders of Egypt.  Near these great branches, there are many cities, castles, and towns, to which people travel partly by land, and partly by water.  No country in the world can be compared to this for the multitude of inhabitants; and the whole land is plain, fruitful, and stored with good things.  Old Misraim is two league distant from New Misraim, or Cairo; but the old city is now desolate, having many ruins of walls and houses, and not a few remains of the granaries and storehouses, built by Joseph, are still to be seen.  In the same place, there is an artificial pillar, built by art of magic, the like of which is not in all the land.  On the outside of the city, there are the remains of an ancient synagogue, which bears the name of our teacher Moses, and to preserve its ruins, an old minister of the disciples of the wise men [31], is maintained at this place, who is styled Schech Albounetzar, or father of the watch.  The ruins of Old Misraim extend about four miles.