Pompey’s Pillar

Not far from the catacombs but still in the heart of Alexandria, is an amazingly tall memorial structure that was built in 297 A.D. and called Pompey’s Pillar, or The Pillar of Masts.

The column is now standing in the heart of Alexandria on top of the old Serapeum temple ruins.
The Serapeum was one of the most magnificent temples in the area, it was heavily plundered and possibly destroyed by Roman soldiers or a Christian mob. Nothing much remains today except a cave that contains a small branch of the famous Library of Alexandria. It contained the overflow from the big library.

As we wandered through the ruins, we saw lots of butterflies. So did the kittens who were in stalking mode. It was fun to watch them hide in amongst the flowers before pouncing.

The pillar's base diameter is 2.7 m and it was carved out of a single block of red granite brought from Aswan city. The net weight of the pillar is 285 tons and reaches 26 meter high with the base. The column was built to commemorate the victory of Emperor Diocletian over an Alexandrian revolt.

After the revolt, there was a terrible famine and the Emperor gave a portion of the corn, which was sent to Rome annually, to the people of Alexandria.

He dropped the taxes on Alexandria during this period too in order to restore the calm, stability, and prosperity of the city. He was a pretty caring leader.

So, in cooperation with the people of Alexandria, he built the Pompey Pillar as a sign of gratitude. There is an inscription on the base that verifies this.

At the front of the pillar there are two granite sphinxes guarding the tower.

Below the column, we were able to ‘enter’ the Roman period in Egypt. One set of stairs took us down into the overflow library. Niches were carved into the rock to house scrolls. I must say that it was really dark and creepy down there. Not a lot of lighting and lots of unseen steps up or down. We went back up and through another doorway with more steps going down.

These led us into the cave-like temple (the Serapeum) of the god Serapis, who was believed to be the protector of Alexandria during the Roman era. It has been damaged due to the revolts of the Jewish population in Alexandria sometime between 89-118 A.D but rebuilt again later.

At the end of a long, dark tunnel we met up with a copy of Anubis, the bull god of death and mummification for the Greeks . What a scary creature to meet face to face looking out from his dark burial tomb! The real bull statue had been moved into the Roman museum in Alexandria for safe-keeping.Leia mais