CATACOMBS OF ALEXANDRIA. 



375 



There are stairs at one end, and walking in a line for above one hun- 

 dred yards we pass on both sides the entrances of ten or twelve of 

 these burying places. 



Nov. 20, 21, 22, 23. — Went out to continue the measures of the 

 walls, which we began some days before. When we arrived at the 

 Rosetta gate some people came about us, and inquired what we were 

 doing ; they threatened to go and inform the commander, that we 

 were some Christians taking a plan of the place. Our Janissaries 

 advised us to desist, and we mounted and rode home. 



Dec. 7. — We went without the walls towards the catacombs to see 

 some subterranean apartments that had been lately discovered, where, 

 they said, some ancient paintings were to be seen. We found the 

 entrance filled up with earth, so were obliged to defer our visit to 

 another time. To-morrow or next day four or five men will be sent 

 out to clear away the rubbish. 



Dec. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. — We went out to the catacombs, and after 

 the rubbish was removed, we descended with lights. They are the 

 real catacombs where they formerly buried their dead. They are of 

 vast extent under ground, all cut in the rock ; but they are now so 

 filled with earth, that there is no way of going into them but upon 

 one's face. In some of the apartments one can stand upright. In 

 many of them there is no communication from one to another than 

 by a hole, through which it is often difficult to creep. Some of the 

 apartments are ornamented with paintings, which are so much injured 

 that there is but little that can be distinguished There are yet one or 

 two figures of men to be seen, which although defaced, sufficiently show 

 they have been the work of no great master. The mouth of each 

 mummy's hole has a cornice round it. Before we came out, we 

 found this inscription marked with red* over one of them : Mr. Mon- 



* In the Hypogeum at iEgina, there is an inscription traced in a similar manner in red 

 lines. We cannot determine the age of that which is mentioned by Mr. Davidson ; 

 it is, however, no argument against the antiquity of it, that we find the omega, sigma, and 

 epsilon, written € C ID. These characters were formed in this manner, three centuries 

 before the Christian sera. — See Villois. Anecd. h\ 161. 



