Alexandria: A History and a GuideForster, E. M. (Edward Morgan)
History
Alexandria: A History and a Guide
Forster, E. M. (Edward Morgan)
Alexandria (Egypt) -- Guidebooks; Alexandria (Egypt) -- History
On either side of the entrance door stands an uncanny figure. Right,
(as one goes out) is Anubis, with a dog’s head, but dressed up as a
Roman soldier, with cuirass short sword lance and shield complete.
Left, the god Sebek, who though mainly a crocodile is also crushed
into military costume with cloak and spear. Perhaps the queer couple
were meant to guard the tomb, but one must not read too much into
them or into anything here; the workmen employed were only concerned
to turn out a room that should look suitable for death, and judged
by this standard they have succeeded.
Surrounding the central tomb is a broad Passage (HHH) lined with
cavities in two rows that provided accommodation for nearly 300
mummies. Where the passage passes behind the central tomb one can
see the apertures through which the three grand sarcophagi were
hollowed out, and through which the mummies would have been
introduced. Leading out of this passage is another tomb chamber (I)
and, to the left, a big Gallery (JJJJ), fitted up with receptacles
in the usual style.
* * * * *
All the above chambers form part of a single scheme. We now return
to the Rotunda (C), and enter, through a breach in the rock, an
entirely distinct set of tombs. They are lighted by a square Well
(K) and were reached by a separate staircase now ruinous. The Hall
(L) is fancifully called the Hall of Caracalla because that emperor
massacred many Alexandrian youths whom he had summoned to a review,
and because many bones of men and horses have been found
intermingled on its floors; it is lined with tomb cavities on the
usual plan.—The Gallery (M) contains rather a charming tomb: it was
once covered with white stucco and delicately painted. In the niche
above the sarcophagus are Isis and her sister Nephtys, spreading
their wings over the mummy of Osiris. More figures on the lateral
walls. Above, on the inner wall, the soul as a bird. Above the
entrance, the Sun and golden Vase on either side of which is a
sphinx with her paw on a wheel.
We now ascend the staircase (A). View of Mariout. Those who are not
tired of empty tombs will find plenty more to the right, down a
stairway cut in the rock.
Immediately below Kom es Chogafa flows the _Mahmoudieh Canal_, made by
Mohammed Ali (for the circumstances _see_ p. 91). There is a road along
it which leads, right, into the region of cotton warehouses. (Section
VI).—To the left one can walk or drive all the way to Nouzha (Section
IV). The route is partly pleasant partly not. It crosses, at Moharrem
Bey, the Farkha Canal, which leaves the Mahmoudieh Canal at right angles
and which went all the way to the sea.—Further on, there is a shady
tract called the “Champs Elysées” it resembles, neither for good or
evil, its Parisian original.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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