380 ALEXANDRIA. 
^yj^' Carthage ranked next to Rome in magnitude and 
population, the Cryptte of Necropolis are the 
least known, and the most wonderful. They 
have been incidently but not frequently men- 
tioned, in the various descriptions given of 
Alexandria in books of modern travels ' ; but the 
Antients have left us much in the dark concern- 
ing their history. Strabo indeed, after giving 
an account of a navigable canal which extended 
from the Old Port to the Lnlce Mareods, carries 
his observations luestward, and notices the Cata- 
combs, under the name of Necropolis*. In the 
very brief description which he has given of 
them, enough is said to prove that every cha- 
racteristic of the most antient coemeteries of 
Oriental nations belonged to them; for they 
were suburban, and were situate in the midst 
(1) See the ^'Description ile VEgypte," par Maillet, torn. I. p. 169. 
tt la Hay e, 1740. Pococke's Descr. of the East, vol.1. J^iid. 1743. 
iVorrfe«'5 Travels, vol. I. p. 17. Land. 1756, &c. Suvari/'s Letters on 
^iyP^i ^'ol- L }). 43. Lond. 1786. An Extract frum Savary may afford 
a specimen of the manner in which these Catacombs have been generally 
noticed. This writer does not seem to have ever entered them. "At 
half a league's distance to the southward of the town, is the descent 
into tlie Catacombs, the antient asylum of the dead, ffinding passages 
lead to the subterraneous grottoes where they were deposited." 
(2) eT/ ri NsxjosroX/;, ro -r^aaiTTvov {sic leg. Cod.MSS. Medic. Esc. et Paris , 
Vid. Led. Var. in Slrabon. edit. Oxon.) Jv » xjjrToi n -rnXXoi ica.) TH^a,) x,ai 
ttaTKyaiya), t^o; ra; rx^i^^iix; tmv n^^^ean Irrtrr^iieci. Slraboi. Giog, lib. X\ii. 
;\1123. ed. Oxon. 1807. 
