276 A L E X A 
Iqtiare at the bafe. Towards the gate of Rofetta, are five 
columns of marble on the place formerly occupied by the 
porticoes of the Gymnafium. The reft of the colonnade, 
thedeJign ot which was difcoverable ioo yearsago by Mail- 
let, has tince been deftroyed by the barbarifmof the Turks. 
But what mod engages the attention of travellers is the 
pillar of Pornpey, as it is commonly called, fituated at a 
quarter of a league from the fouthern gate. It is com- 
pofed of red granite. The capital is Corinthian, with 
palm-leaves, and not indented. It is nine feet high. The 
fhaft and the upper member of the bafe are of one piece 
of ninety feet long, and nine in diameter. The bafe is a 
■1 qua re of about fifteen feet on each fide. This block of 
marble, fixty feet in circumference, refts on two layers of 
flone bound together with lead ; which, however, has not 
prevented the Arabs from forcing out feveral of them, to 
learch for an imaginary treafure. The whole column is 
114 feet high. It is perfectly well polilhed, and only a 
little fliivered on the eaftern fide. Nothing can equal the 
majefty of this monument ; feen from a difiance, it over¬ 
tops the town, and feTves as a fignal for vellels. Ap¬ 
proaching it nearer, it produces an aftonifiiment mixed 
with awe. One can never be tired'with admiring the 
beauty of the capital, the length of the ftiaft, nor the ex¬ 
traordinary fimplicity of the pedefial. Thislafi has been 
fomewhat damaged by the inftruments of travellers, who 
are curious to poffefs a relic of this antiquity; and one 
of the volutes of the column was immaturely brought 
down about tw'elve years ago, by a prank of lome Englith 
captains, which is thus related by Mr. Irwin. 
Thefe jolly fons of Neptune had been pulhing about the 
can on-board one of the fhips in the harbour, until a 
ftrange freak entered into one of their brains. The ec¬ 
centricity of the thought occafioned it immediately to be 
adopted ; and its apparent impoffibility v'as but a fpur for 
the putting of it into execution. The boat was ordered ; 
r»nd with proper implements for the attempt thefe enter- 
prifing heroes puflied affiore, to drink a bowl of punch on 
the top of Pompey’s pillar ! At the fpot they arrived ; and 
many contrivances were propofed to accompli!h the defir- 
ed point. But their labour was vain ; and they began to 
defpair of fuccefs, when the genius who ftruck out the 
frolic happily fuggefied the means of performing it. A 
man was diipatched to the city for a papefl kite. The in¬ 
habitants were by this time apprized of what was going 
forward, and flocked in crowds to be witnefles of the ad- 
drels and boldnefs of the Englifh. The governor of Alex¬ 
andria was told that thefe feamen were about to pull down 
Pompey’s pillar. But whether he gave them credit for 
their refpett to the Roman warrior, or to the Turkifn 
government, he left them to themfelves; and politely an¬ 
swered, that the Englifn were too great patriots to injure 
the remains of Pornpey. He knew little, however, of the 
difpofition of the people who were engaged in this under¬ 
taking. Had the Turkifh empire rofe in oppofition, it 
would hardly have deterred them. The kite was brought, 
and flown fo directly over the pillar, that, when it fell on 
the other fide, the firing lodged upon the capital. The 
chief obflacle was now overcome. A two-inch rope was 
tied to one end of the firing, and drawn over the pillar, 
by the end to which the kite was affixed. By this rope 
one of the feamen afcended to the top ; and in lefs than an 
hour, a kind of fhroud was conftruded, by which the 
whole company went up, and drank their punch amid the 
lliouts of the aftoniflied multitude. To the eye below, the 
capital of the pillar does not appear capable of holding 
more than one man upon it; but our feamen found it could 
contain no lefs than eight perfons very conveniently, it is 
aftomffiing that no accident befdl thefe madcaps, in a fitu- 
ation fo elevated, that would have turned a landman gid¬ 
dy in his fober fenfes. The only detriment which the pil¬ 
lar received, was the lofs of the volute before mentioned; 
which camedown with a thundering found, and was car¬ 
ried to England by one of the captains, as a prefent to a 
lady who commiflionedhim fora.piece of the pillar. The 
N D R I A. 
difcovery which they made amply compenfated for this 
mifchief; as, without their evidence, the world would not 
have known at this hour, that there was originally,a fiatue 
on this pillar, one foot and ancle of which are (til! remain¬ 
ing. The ftatue muft have been of a gigantic fize, to have 
appeared of a man’s proportion at fo great an height. 
There are circumftances in this ftory which might give 
it an air of fidion, w’ere it not demonfirated beyond all 
doubt. Bcfides the teftimonies of many eye-w-itneffes, the 
adventurers themfelves have left us a token of the fail, by 
the initials of their names, which are very legible in black 
paint juft beneath the capital. 
Learned men and travellers-have made many fruitlefs at¬ 
tempts to difcoverin honour of what prince it was erected. 
The heft informed have concluded, that it could not be 
in honour of Pornpey, fince neither Strabo nor Diodorus 
Siculus have fpokenofit. The Arabian Abulfeda, in his 
defcription of Egypt, calls it the pillar of Severus. And 
hiftory informs us, that this emperor “ viiited the city of 
Alexandria : That he granted a fenate to its inhabitants, 
who until that time, under the fubjedion of a Angle Ro¬ 
man magiftrate, had lived without any national council, as 
under the reign of the Ptolemies, when the will of the 
prince was their only Jaw : That lie did not confine his be- 
nefadions there; he changed feveral laws in their favour.” 
This column, therefore, Mr. Savary concludes to have 
been ereded by the inhabitants as. a mark of their grati¬ 
tude to Severus. And in a Greek infcription, now half 
effaced, but viiible on the weft fide when the fun Ihines 
upon it, and which probably was legible in the time o£ 
Abulfeda, he fuppofes the name of Severus to have been 
preferved. He further obferves, that this was not the on¬ 
ly monument eredted to him by the gratitude of the Alex¬ 
andrians: for there is ff ill feen in the ruins off Antinoe, 
built by Adrian, a magnificent pillar, the infcription on 
which is ftill remaining, dedicated to Alexander Severus. 
On the fouth-weft fide of the city, at a mile diftant, are 
fituated the catacombs, the ancient burial place of Alex¬ 
andria: and although they cannot be compared to thofe 
of the ancient Memphis, which the Arabs will not per¬ 
mit to be viiited, in order to make the better market of 
their mummies, it is probable that, the method of embalm¬ 
ing being the fame, the form of thefe catacombs can only 
differ in their proportions.—The Baron de Tott, in deferr¬ 
ing thefe, obferves, “ that Nature not having furnifned 
this part of Egypt with a ridge of rocks, like that which 
runs parallel with the Nile above Delta, the ancient inha¬ 
bitants of Alexandria could only have an imitation by dig¬ 
ging into a^bed of folidrock; and thus they formed Ne¬ 
cropolis, or ‘ City of the Dead.’ The excavation is from 
thirty to forty feetwide, zoo long, and twenty-five deep, 
and is terminated by gentle declivities at each end. The 
two fides, cut perpendicularly, contain feveral openings, 
abopt ten or twelve feet in width and height, hollowed ho¬ 
rizontally ; and which form, by their different brandies, 
fubterranean ftreets. One of thefe, which curiofity has 
difencumbered from the ruins and fands that render the 
entrance of others difficult or impoflible, contains no mum¬ 
mies, but only the places they occupied. The order in 
which they were ranged is ftill to be feen. Niches, twenty 
indies fquare, funk fix feet horizontally, narrowed at the 
bottom, and feparated from each other by partitions in 
the rocks, feven or eight inches thick, divide into check¬ 
ers the two walls of this fubterranean vault. It is natural 
to fuppofe, from this difpofition, that each mummy was 
introduced with the feet foremoft into the cell intended 
for its reception; and that new ftreets were opened, in 
proportiqn as thefe dead inhabitants of Necropolis increaf- 
ed.” This obfervation, he adds, which throws a light on 
the catacombs of Memphis, may perhaps like-wife explain 
the vaft lize and multitude, as wejj as the different eleva¬ 
tions, of the pyramids in the Higher and Lower Egypt. 
About feventy paces from Pompey’s pillar is thekhalis, 
or the canal of the Nile, which was dug by the ancient 
Egyptians, to convey the water of the Nile to Alexan¬ 
dria, 
