POMPBY'S PILLAR. 145 



discharge their cargo was marked by buoys, and by sights erected on the 

 shore. On arriving at the spot, the trucks with their burthens were 

 drawn out successively to the entrance port, the fall of which 

 dropped the stone into its place, while the carriage remained suspended 

 by its tackle. In this manner a cargo of eighty tons was discharged in 

 forty or fifty minutes ! 



At the end of two years the breakwater was so far advanced as to 

 prove a very serviceable security to the harbour. The work stood the 

 utmost fury of the elements until the winters of 1816-17, when some 

 damage was done to the upper stratum of stone, which was washed over 

 the inner side, but produced no other mischief, and it was the opinion of 

 the oldest seaman, that had it not been for the breakwater, even in its 

 present unfinished state, every vessel in the Catwater would have been 

 wrecked. Since which period it has only required, some trifling 

 repairs, not in the slightest degree affecting its solidity; and it remains a 

 lasting testimonial of the Architect's genius and foresight. 



POMPEY'S PILLAR. 



Every traveller in Egypt has differed from the preceding one as to the 

 origin and objects of this column, and the only thing in which they do 

 agree is, that the name of Pompey's pillar is a misnomer ; yet it is certain, 

 that a pillar of some kind was erected at Alexandria, to the memory of 

 that great man, which was supposed to have been found in this remark- 

 able column. Montague thinks that it was erected to the honor of 

 Vespasian ; Savary calls it the pillar of Severus ; Clark supposes it 

 to have been dedicated to Hadrian, according to his version of a half 

 effaced Greek inscription on the west side of the base ; others trace the name 

 of Diocletian in the same inscription. As no mention is made of it, 

 either by Strabo or Diodorus Siculus, we may reasonably conclude that 

 it did not exist at that period. The celebrated French savan, Denon, 

 believes it to have been erected about the time of the Greek Emperors, 

 or the Caliphs of Egypt, and dates its acquiring its present name in the 

 fifteenth century. This pillar stands on a small eminence midway 

 between Alexandria and Lake Marostis, about three quarters .of a mile 

 from either place, and quite detached. 



It is of red granite; but the shaft, which is highly polished, appears to 

 be of earlier date than the pedestal, which has been made to correspond. 

 It is of the Corinthian order, and while some have eulogised it as being 

 a fine specimen of that order, others declare it to be in very bad taste; 



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