126 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



possible to conclude that they are both of one and 

 the same period. The hieroglyphics with which 

 the granite-pivot, the immoveable support of the 

 column, is sculptured, farther appear a new proof 

 of the period of its elevation, much more ancient 

 than the reigns of Adrian and Severus, and they 

 indicate a production of the most remote antiquity. 

 This consideration, united with the silence of his- 

 torians on the subject, seems to throw back even to 

 an era more distant than that of the defeat of Pom- 

 pey, the construction of the column which bears 

 his name. If amidst these uncertainties, which, 

 in defiance of the researches of the learned, fre- 

 quently involve the past and the future in the same 

 obscurity, I durst venture to hazard an opinion of 

 my own, I should be tempted to ascribe the honour 

 of the erection of the column of Alexandria to the 

 ancient times which produced so many prodigies in 

 Egypt, to those eras when myriads of men were em- 

 ployed, for years together, in transporting masses 

 of stone, the movement of which seemed to exceed 

 human strength, and to demand the exertions of 

 beings mere than mortal. 



Whatever be in this sentiment, it would be dif- 

 ficult now to change the appellation so long af- 

 fixed to the column of Alexandria, and, whatever 

 good reasons may be alleged to the contrary, it is 

 very probable it will still retain the name of Pom- 



peys 



