- _ Ismailia harbour - _ Ball in the Palace in Ismailia - _ The Dinner of the Sovereigns
Official Journal of the French Empire Tuesday, 7 December 1869 (n°336 p 1567)
The festivities held by the Khedive in Ismailia on 18th, before the departure for Suez, were the most picturesque events. The various deputations of the Arab tribes from the Libyan desert were gathered together on the sandy area between the bank of Lake Timsah and the canal. The tents of the chiefs were made of multi-coloured materials, and many standards were mounted on top of them. Inside, the walls were lined with all the luxurious splendours of the Orient: carpets, jewels and precious arms drew admiring glances and, in the evening, the decorations took on strange shapes in the light from the lanterns which the black slaves had hung from the tent cords. The chiefs, robed in their white burnous, surrounded by their vassals and servants (who bustled around this nomad city) came from time to time to the doors of their tents. And at the same time, all around the tents, a great crowd of Arab merchants and travellers and slow caravans of dromedaries (stepping carefully across the alleys between the tents) milled around. The Khedive asked the great aristocratic African tribal chiefs for a fantasia fit for these august guests. A thousand of the best horsemen took part in this festival; they dressed their horses in their golden saddles and covered their most beautiful dromedaries with sumptuous harnesses. For two hour, these different groups intertwined following the steps of the fantasia. And carried away by Arab fervour, brandishing arms and the standards of their tribes, they were further excited by the noise of guns being fired and the exhilaration of simulated combat. The swirling horses provided a brilliant and varied show. In the evening, there was a ball for the princes and the Khedive’s guests and the next day the flotilla left for Suez, sailing in the same order as for the voyage from Port Said to Ismailia.