A monument not less famous, and whose existence cannot be doubted, inasmuch as it still answers the purpose of a landmark, is the so-called Pompey’s Pillar, at Alexandria. This structure is the first object to attract the eye when you approach the classic shores of Egypt; from afar it dominates over the town, the minarets, the obelisks, and the lighthouse. Pompey’s Pillar—the _Amood é sowari_ of the Arabs—occupies the summit of a dreary, solitary mound, which overlooks the Lake Mareotis and the modern city of Alexandria. It may be described as a handsome and stately Corinthian column; the shaft, a monolith of red granite, 73 feet in height; the total height, including capital and base, 98 feet 9 inches; the circumference, 29 feet 8 inches. Its history is involved in considerable obscurity. The Arab chronicler, Abdallatif, represents it to be the sole remaining pillar of the four hundred which once adorned and enclosed the celebrated Serapeion, or Temple of Serapis; the Portico, where Aristotle expounded his philosophical theories; the Academy, which Alexander erected when he founded the city, and where the great library was placed—the glory of Alexandria—erroneously said to have been destroyed by order of the Caliph Omar. [Illustration: COLUMN AT ALEXANDRIA (_Known as Pompey’s Pillar_).] The Serapeion was razed to the ground at the instigation of a furious zealot, the patriarch Theophilus. Its columns were rent and shattered, and finally piled up, as a break-water, on the sea-shore—all save the one stately pillar—the loftiest of the four hundred—the “pillar of the colonnades,” as the Arabs emphatically termed it—which is still the cynosure of European pilgrims. This was re-erected by Publius or Pompius, prefect of Egypt, and a new capital and base were provided for it; the whole being dedicated, as an inscription on its pedestal records, in honour of the Emperor Diocletian, “the Invincible,” and in commemoration of the deliverance of Alexandria from the insurgent bonds of the pretender Achilleus (A.D. 297). The summit may either have been crowned with a statue, or have simply assisted in sustaining the cupola of the Serapeion.