12 Route 2. ALEXANDRIA. Pompey s Pillar.
S.W. are Law Courts. These are the only buildings which escaped
the fury of the natives in 1882. Beside St. Mark's Building is a bust
of General Earle, who fell at Birbekan in 1885. — From the E.
side of the square runs the busy Rue Cherif Pacha, with its attrac¬
tive shops; from the S. side the Rue des Soeurs, prolonged by the
long and straight Rue Ibrahim (electric tramway), constructed
through an old and crowded Arab quarter, leads to the Mahmildlyeh
Canal (p. 11).
On both sides of the canal, in the S.W. of the city, is a quarter known as
Minet el-Shargawieh (PI. D, E, 7) and Minel el-Bassal (cotton-market; PI. D,
E, 6), occupied by wholesale dealers in grain, cotton, sugar, onions, etc.
Visit in the morning interesting, especially with an introduction to a cot¬
ton exporter.
From the S. corner of the square we reach the triangular Square
Ste. Catherine (PL F, 4), the name being derived from the Ro¬
man Catholic church of St. Catherine situated here. The Rue Abou
Dardah (electric tramway) leads hence to the S., passing the
Sidi Amr Mosque (PL G, 6), to the old Porte de la Colonne or
Porte du Nil, now occupied hy the Salesians as a school of art and
industry.
A little farther to the S. we pass a large Arabian cemetery, lying
on the right, and soon reach an eminence covered with rubbish and
fragments of ruins, on which rises *Pompey's Pillar (PL F, G, 7).
The monument is composed of red granite from Assuan, and it is
now the only important relic of antiquity in the city. The found¬
ations, composed of several blocks (one with the name and figure
of Sethos I., p. Ixxxii) which once belonged to other buildings, are
much damaged. The height of the column, together with the rectan¬
gular pedestal and the Corinthian capital, is 89 ft. ; the shaft is
69 ft. high, and is about 9 ft. in diameter fhelow, and not quite
8 ft. at the top. The pillar was raised by the Egyptian prefect
Maximus as a landmark for sailors, and afterwards bore a statue of
the Emp. Diocletian erected in 302 A.D. by a Roman prefect named
Posidius. The present name of the pillar is due to the mediaeval
belief that it marked the tomb of Pompey the Great.
Following the wide road (Rue Karmouss) a little farther, and
diverging to the right by the Rue de l'Usine a Gaz, we reach (10 min.)
an ;**Egyptian Burial Place, hewn in the rocky S. slope of the
Kom esh-Shukdfa ('hill of potsherds'; now a quarry) and forming the
largest extant catacomb of ancient Alexandria. The main chambers
seem to have belonged to an Egyptian grandee, while round about
are the smaller and simpler vaults of his suite and dependents. The
tomb probably dates from-the 2nd cent. A.D. and is an admirable
example of the characteristic Alexandrian fusion of the Egyptian
and Graeco-Roman styles. The chambers lie in several stories one
above another, and the lower are now fillel with wa+er and inacces¬
sible. The burial-place was discovered in 1900 and was excavated
under the superintendence of Dr. Schiess-Bey (p. 6") and Dr. Botti
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