\% c l DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
phicaJ position of the Pharos, as determined by 
Quenot, is N. L. 31° 13' 5". From the encroach- 
ments of the sea on this island, the site of the mo- 
dern tower does not indicate the situation of the 
ancient structure, which was supported on pillars 
of marble, the successive stories of which rose to 
an elevation of 400 feet. The ruins of this mag- 
nificent pile, the origin of which is enveloped in 
the same profound darkness that involves the mo- 
numents of the Thebaid, and which was reckoned 
one of the seven wonders of the world, may be seen 
when the sea is calm, immersed in the waters.* 
The Pharos has been repeatedly destroyed and re- 
paired, and its restorers have often aspired to the 
glory of the original founders. In the year 1320, 
it was overturned by an earthquake, and its place 
has been supplied by a square tower, equally de- 
void of ornament and elegance. Alexandria ex- 
hibits no vestiges of its former magnificence, ex- 
cept the ruins which surround it. An extensive 
plain, furrowed with trenches, pierced with wells, 
and divided by mouldering walls, is entirely cover- 
ed with ancient columns, mutilated statues and 
capitals, and fragments of decayed battlements, 
which lie strewed amid modern tombs, and shaded 
by scattered nopals and palms. These ruins, which 
* Pocock's Travels, Vol. I. 3, 
