Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/117

ALEKAiXDBEU. drea vis iceorfnglj namercRis when the imperia] tJktt vtre pat in force. Nor were martyrs wanting. Tbc dty vas abtadj an episcopal see ; and its bishop Vttft, with the presbjters Fanstos, Dins, and Am- BKaios, were among the first victims of Diocletian^s nxripL The Christian annals of Alezandreia have ID Ettk that is peculiar to the city, that it will aJke to refer the reader to the general historj of tbeCbitrch. It is more interesting to torn from the Aiian and AthsosMsn fends, whidi sometimes deluged the ftitets of the dtj with blood, and sometimes made Mtesaajj the intervention of the Prefect, to the tsfett which Alexandria presented to the Arabs, in A. D. 640, tfker so manj revolations, civil and re- VipBOi. The Pharos and Heptastadium were still amojared : the Sdiaste or Caesarium, the Soma, and the Quarter Rhac6tis, retained almost thdr original pudeor. But the Hippodrome at the Canobic Gate ms a ruin, and a new Muaenm had replaced in the Egyptian Region the more ample structure of the Ptcdemies in the Bmcheinm. The Greek quar- ter vis bdeed nearij deserted: the B(^o Judaeorum VIS oeeupKd bj a few miserable tenants, who pur- dosed limn the Alexandrian patriarch the right to iSaw their national law. The Serapeion had heea oonrerted into a Cathedral; and some of the more oan^acuoos buildings of the Hellenic city had be- coae the Christian Churches of SL Mark, St. John, St. Xsiy, &C. Yet Anirou reported to his master the Khalif Omar that Alezandreia was a city con- taimi^ four thousand palaces, four thousand public hiioj fimr hundred theatres, forty thousand Jews vho paid tribute, and twelve thousand persons who nM heibs. (Eutjch. AtmaL a. d. 640.) The icsoh of Arabian desolation was, that the dty, which bd dwindled into the Egyptian Quarter, shrunk into the limits of the Heptastadium, and, after the year 1497, whoi the Portuguese, by discovering the IBGs^e round the Cape cf Good Hope, changed the vkJe cnnent of Indian trade, it degenerated still ficther into an obscure town, mth a population of tbont 6000, inferior probably to that of the original Baeods. Rtum of Aleseandrtia. These may be divided mio two classes: (1) indistinguishable mounds of Basonzy; and (2) fragments of buildings which nay, h some d^ree, be identified with and^t sites or stractores. '*Tfae (Hd Town" is surrounded by a double vaD, with kfty towers, and five gates. The Bosetta Gate b the eastern entrance into this circuit; but it docsDot eorrespond with the old Canobic Gate, which was half a mile farther to the east. The space in- daed is about 10,000 feet in length, and in its keadth varies from 3200 to 1600 feet. It contams gaetally shapeless masses of ruins, consisting of shattered columns and capitals, cist^ns choked with rahbiah, and fiagments of pottery and glass. Some af the mounds are covered by the villas aod gardens of the wealthier inhabitants of Alexandreia. Nearly in the oeotre of the inclosuTe,and probably in the High Stnei brtween the Canobic and Necropolitan Gates, tfood a few years anoe three granite columns. They were oeariy opposite the Mosque of St. Athanaaius, ■ad were periiaps the last remnants of the colonnade vUdi fiiwd the High Street (From this mosque vaa taken, in 1801, the sarcophagus of green httcda which is now in the British Museum.) l>^itil December, 1841, there was also on the road ladjzig to the Bosetta Gate the base nf another ALEXANDREIA. lor similar column. But these, as well as other rem-' nants of the capital of the Ptolemies, have disap~ peared; although, twenty years ago, the intersection of its two main streets was distinctly viable, at a point near the Frank Square, and not very for from the Catholic convent. Excavations in the Old Town occasionally, indeed, bring to light parts of statues, large columns, and fragments of masonry: but the ground-plan of Alexandreia is now pro- bably lost irretrievably, as the ruins have been con- verted into building materials, without note being taken at the time of the site or character of the remnants removed. Vestiges of baths and other buildings may be traced along the inner and outer bay; and numerous tanks are still in use which formed part of the dstems that supplied the city with Nile-water. They were dften of considerablo size; were built under the houses; and, being arched and coated itith a thick red plaster, have in many cases ranained perfect to this day. One set of these reservoirs runs parallel to the eastern issue of the Mahmoodeh Canal, which nearly represents the old Canobic Canal; others are found in the convents which occupy part of the site of the Old Town; and others again are met with below the mound of Pompey's Pillar. The descent into these chambers is either by steps in the side or by an opoiing in the roof, through which the water is drawn up by ropes and buckets. The most striking remains of ancient Alexandreia are the Obelisks and Pompey*s Pillar. The former are universally known by the inappropriate name of " Cleopatra's Needles." The fame of Cleopatra has preserved her memory among the illiterate Arabs, who regard her as a kind of enchantress, and ascribe to her many of the great works of her capital, — the Pharos and Heptastadium included. Meselleh is, moreover, the Arabic word for " a packing Needle," and is given generally to obelisks. The two columns, however, which bear this appellation, are red granite obelisks which were brought by one of the Caesars from Heliopolis, and, according to Pliny (xxxvi. 9), were set up in firont of the Sebaste or Caesarium. They are about 57 paces apart from each other: one is still vertical, the other has been thrown down. They stood each on two steps of white limestone. The vertical obelisk is 73 feet high, the diameter at its base is 7 feet and 7 inches; the fallen obelisk has been mutilated, and, with the same diameter, is shorter. The latter was presented by Mohammed Ali to the English government : and the propriety of its removal to England has been discussed during the present year. Pliny (JL c.) ascribes them to an Egyptian king named Mesphres: nor is he altogether wrong. The Pharaoh whose oval they exhibit was the third Thothmes, and in Manetho's list tJie first and second Thothme8( 18th Dynasty : Kenrick, vol. ii. p. 199) are written as Mesphra-Thotlimosis. Ba^ meses III. and Osirei II., his third successor, have also their oval? upon these obelisks. Pompey's Pillar, as it is erroneously termed, is de- nominated by the Arabs Amood e towari; sari or «o- wari beuig applied by them to any lofty monument which suggests the image of a " mast" It might more properly lie termed Diocletian's Pillar, since a statue of that emperor once occupied its summit, com- memorating the capture of Alexandreia m a. d. 297, after an obstinate siege of eight months. The totAl height of this column is 98 feet 9 inches, the shaft is 73 feet, the circumference 29 fleet 8 inches, and the diameter at the top of the capital is 16 feet 6 H 3