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Pompey's Pillar & Serapeum in Alexandria

The area around the Pompey’s Pillar was once the site of a temple which was dedicated to Serapis (Hellenistic-Egyptian god). It is believed that Serapeum was the largest and the most magnificent of all temples in Alexandria.

Alexandria was the center for the cult of Serapis, which spread throughout the Roman Empire as far as Britain, and pilgrimages were made to the Serapeum. Alexandria also became an early center of Christianity, and it was at the Serapeum that the conflict between the two communities was most dramatically played out.

Entry door to the Serapeum, this is also the site where Pompey's Pillar is located
When one enters the site, the pillar can be seen on the right hand side on a modest hill
Ruins of the Serapeum with scattered pillars and artifacts among them
A stone basin on display
Top end of this relief is missing
A sarcophagi on display
These three objects represent the animal figures - one of them resembles to a lion
Broken columns and capitals are lying on the floor at the site of the Serapeum

In 391 AD, patriarch Theophilus, leader of the Church of Alexandria, led a Christian mob to destroy the Serapeum and other symbols of paganism in the city. This led to the destruction of Serapeum and locals destroyed nearly everything. After the destruction a monastery was established, a church was built for St. John the Baptist, known as Angelium or Evangelium. However, the church fell to ruins around 600 AD, restored by patriarch Isaac(681-684 AD), and finally destroyed in the 10th Century. More recently a Bab Sidra Muslim cemetery was located at the site.

Here a staue with it's missing head is on display
Here small pieces of stone are thrown randomly on the ground
A broken column of red granite
Piscina part of the Serapeum - it is the place used for the ritual bathing
A roman bath was found nearby during the excavation
A sign to inform the visitors that this place used to be the place of the Temple of Serapeum

Pompey’s Pillar

The column was named by travellers who remembered the murder of the Roman general Pompey by Cleopatra’s brother, but an inscription on the base (presumably once covered with rubble) announces that it was erected in AD 297 to support a statue of the emperor Diocletian. 

This beautiful column measures 20.46 m in height with a diameter of 2.71 m at its base. The weight of the single piece of red Aswan granite is around 285 tons.

Pompey's Pillar is a single piece made out of the red Aswan granite
Top of the Pompey's Pillar
Base of the Pompey's Pillar
A side view of the lion which is sitting next to the Pompey's Pillar
The Pillar of Pompey with apartments in the background
The lion sitting next to the pillar has human face, looks similar to that of Sphinx of Cairo
Two pigeons resting in the shade of the pillar

The Roman triumphal pillar was described by a Muslim traveler, Ibn Battuta, who visited the column back in 1436. Battuta recounted the story of an archer who shot an arrow tied to a string over the column, which enabled him to pull a rope tied to the string over the column and secure it on the other side in order to climb over to the top of the pillar.

In early 1803, John Shortland did few fun things on top of the pillar that included eating, drinking and flying a kite. Some believe that this pillar (non drum) is the only one standing from the Roman era in Egypt.

Details of the floor next to the Pompey's Pillar
This grey granite shows the scene from the era of the King Ramesses II
This red granite blocks bears hieroglyphic inscriptions
This plate was supposed to have details of the object above it
A broken piece of stone which has face of a lion on it
Another piece of a broken column - in the distance a wall can be seen which runs around the site
A view of the Pompey's Pillar with small broken columns below it
Pompey's Pillar in sepia
Another object with it's missing head
Tall residential apartments surround this site
The Egyptians need to take care of this site before it gets worse