29 historians, as they exaggerated in other countries, like the city of Baghdad. And among the wonders in it are the libraries that Amr ibn al-As, may God Almighty be pleased with him, transformed. The number of books in it was seven hundred thousand volumes. The people of this city in ancient times were approximately eight hundred thousand souls, and its people now are fewer than that by far. The French conquered it, then expelled them from it with difficulty, and it returned to the hands of Islam. It now shows the lights of construction with the presence of its ruler, and it has the splendor of trade, just as it was in the past a center for trade. It has now become the residence of the ruler most of the time, and it is similar in construction to the designs of the Franks. It is located northwest of Cairo by about fifty parasangs, situated at thirty-one degrees and thirteen minutes latitude, meaning the degree of distance from the equator. The distance between it and Paris will be mentioned later.

* Chapter Three * On sailing the salt sea connected to the coast of Alexandria. Know that this sea is called in Arabic geography books the Sea of Rome because one of its sides connects to the lands of Rome. It is also called in them the Sea of the Levant because it is adjacent to the lands of the Levant. It is also called by the Franks the Mediterranean Sea or the Inner Sea. It was named that because it is within the dry lands, unlike the surrounding ocean, which surrounds all lands, to the extent that some said it flows continuously under high lands on the surface of the water, although some have confirmed otherwise due to the existence of dry lands under its surface, like some lands of Moscow. This inner sea is called in the language