ALEXANDRIA.


SEVERAL things worthy of notice are to be seen in Alexandria, one of which is Pompey's Pillar. It   consists of a block of granite about ten feet square, on which is placed a thinner and broader stone, which forms the base of the column. From this rises a round and smoothly-polished shaft of red granite. On the top of this is a capitol, of different kind of stone and inferior workmanship.

The shaft is all of one piece, seventy-three feet high, and twenty-nine feet and eight inches in circumference. The whole height of this pillar is one hundred feet. It has long been left unprotected, and the lower part of it has been much defaced by travelers who have clipped off pieces as mementos of their visit. It is supposed that it was built by Caesar to commemorate the overthrow of Pompey.

We will next look at Cleopatra's Needles. They are situated in the north-east corner of the city. One has fallen, but the other remains standing. They are composed of red granite, the same material as Pompey's Pillar. The standing shaft is seventy-five feet high, seven feet and seven inches in diameter at the base, and tapering  to five feet at the top. Three long lines of hieroglyphics (the characters in which the ancient Egyptians wrote), reach from bottom  to top of this huge shaft. No one as yet has been able to read what is written on its sides. They are supposed to have been built 1495 years B. C. The hieroglyphics on two sides remain fresh to the present day. On the other side they have been defaced by the sand storms from the desert.

Let us next notice the Catacombs, or burying place of ages in the past. They are two and one-half miles to the west of the city. The grounds near the entrance to those wonderful underground structures were once covered with costly dwellings and beautiful gardens of the suburbs of the city. 

The vast extent and beautiful symmetry of these underground vaults excite the wonder and admiration of all who view them. 

They are the more wonderful and interesting from the fact that they are chiseled in the solid rocks. Entering them we find vaults chambers, vast churches and palaces. They have been explored quite extensively, and although the sands of the desert have so choked up the chambers that examination cannot be extended far, yet it is suppose that passages and rooms extend for miles underground.

In these tombs Egyptians, Persians Greeks, Romans, and Saracens, have no doubt deposited their dead, generation after generation. Most of the tombs are now empty, as they have been rifled of their  sarcophagi (coffins made of stone), mummies gold and silver ornaments, and curious vase of different materials, which now enrich the museums of Europe and America.  Ancient Alexandria, with all her magnificence and splendor, is now a heap of ruins and the modern Alexandria stands upon the ruins of the past. Something can be understood of the difference in the importance of ancient and of modern Alexandria from the fact that ancient Alexandria contained 600,000 inhabitants and slaves, while modern Alexandria has only 12,600 inhabitants.  

The native inhabitants are a dirty, squalid set of beings. Their children grow up about on a level with the dogs, great numbers of which are to be seen running around in a half wild state. But few native children are to be seen with two good, sound eyes, as they generally lose at least one eye in infancy, their sight being destroyed by flies.

Travelers say that hardly an infant is to be seen without a bunch of flies completely hiding his eyes from sight. The mother seems totally unconcerned, however, and seldom tries to drive them off, although she knows that it will most surely result in theblindness of her child.





J. E. WHITE.