streets extended from the sea to the Mareotic lake, and was ten stadia, or eleven hundred paces, in length; the second traversed the entire extent of the city, and was forty stadia, or five thousand paces, from one extremity to the other. Both were a hundred feet wide.

The new city did not aggrandize itself by degrees, like other cities-it rose at once. Alexander laid the foundations, set out for the temple of Ammon, was recognised as the son of Jupiter, and when he returned the new Tyre was built and peopled. The founder then continued his victorious course. Alexandria, reclining between its lake and its two havens, heard the sound of his steps as they speeded towards the Euphrates and Tigris; a puff of the eastern wind brought it the rumour of the battle of Arbela; it heard, as an echo, the fall of Babylon and Susa ;* it saw the horizon redden with the conflagration of Persepolis; finally the distant report was lost behind Ecbatana, in the deserts of Media, on the other side the river Arius.

Eight years afterwards, Alexandria saw a funeral car enter its walls, rolling on two axle-trees, round which turned four Persian wheels, whose spokes and joints were richly gilt. Lions' heads, of massive gold, whose jaws griped a broken lance, formed the ornament of the stocks. There were four poles, and to each pole a quadruple row of yokes, and four

mules to each yoke. Each of these animals wore crowns of gold, there were golden bells on each side of their heads, and collars round their necks studded with precious stones. On the car was a vaulted chamber of gold, eight cubits wide and twelve long; the dome was adorned with rubies, carbuncles, and emeralds. In the front of this chamber was a peristyle of gold, supported by four columns of the Ionic order, and in this peristyle four pictures were suspended. The first of these pictures represented a car of exquisite workmanship, in which a warrior sate, holding in his hand a magnificent sceptre ; round him marched the Macedonian guard fully accoutred, and the battalions of the Persians: the Hoplites formed the advanced guard. The second picture displayed a train of elephants armed for war, 'carrying Indians on their neck and Macedonians on their back, covered in arms. Troops of cavalry, imitating the manœuvres and evolutions of combat, were figured on the third. Finally, the fourth represented war-galleys drawn up in battle array, ready to attack a fleet which was seen in the distance. Beneath this chamber, that is to say between the floor and the roof, the space was occupied by a square throne of gold, adorned with figures sculptured in high relief, from which hung rings of gold, and through these rings garlands of flowers were passed, which were renewed every day. On the

top was a crown of gold, so large that a tall man could stand erect in the circle that formed it, and when the rays of the sun fell upon it, the reflections cast back were like flashes of lightning. Finally, within this chamber was a bier of massive gold, on which, over a bed of spices, the body of Alexander was laid.

It was one of the twelve captains, whom the death of their general had made kings, that conducted the funeral. In the great division of the world which took place round the bier, Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, had taken for himself Egypt, Cyrenaica, Palestine, Phoenicia, and Africa. Then, as a palladium which should preserve the empire to his descendants for three centuries and a-half, he had turned the body of Alexander from its route and brought it to ask a tomb in the very city to which he had given a cradle.

From that day forward Alexandria was named the queen of cities, as Tyre had been, as Athens then was, and as Rome was yet to be; its sixteen kings and three queens added each a precious jewel to its crown. Ptolemy, called by the Rhodians Soter, or the saviour, built the tower of the Pharos, joined the island by a mole to the continent, transported the images of the god Serapis from Sinope to Alexandria, and founded the famous library which was burned by Cæsar. Ptolemy II., ironically sur

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named Philadelphus (a lover of his brethren), on account of his persecuting the princes of his family, collected the Hebrew Scriptures, caused them to be translated into Greek, and bequeathed to us the Septuagint version. Ptolemy III., called Evergetes (the Benefactor), went to search in the wilds of Bactriana for the ancient Egyptian gods carried away by Cambyses. The theatre, the museum, the gymnasium, the stadium, and the public baths, were erected by their successors. Six canals were carried across the entire extent of immense plains; four united the Nile to the Mareotic lake; the fifth led from Alexandria to Canopus; finally, the sixth traversed the entire isthmus, cut off the suburb Rhæotes, and, starting from port Kibetos, poured its waters into the lake beside the gate of the Sun.

At the present day, nothing remains of the ancient city but the mole, enlarged and strengthened by quays, and on this the new city has been built. In the midst of the almost shapeless ruins, which, however, are still recognised for those of the baths, the library, and the theatre, nothing remains erect but Pompey's pillar and one of Cleopatra's needles, for the other has fallen down and is half buried in the sand. All the part which was formerly an island, in the centre of which stood the citadel, and at the eastern extremity the celebrated tower of Pharos, which gave light at the distance of thirty thousand

paces, nothing now but a flat barren sand, in the form of a crescent, to encircle the new city.

Pompey's pillar is a marble shaft, surmounted by a Corinthian capital, fixed on a mass of ancient ruins and Egyptian fragments. The name it bears, which has been given it by modern travellers, has no connexion with its real origin, which, if we believe the Greek inscription attached to it, would only go back to Dioclesian. It has experienced towards the south an inclination of about seven inches from the perpendicular; neither the capital nor the base have ever been finished. I did not measure the height, but it exceeds, by nearly twothirds, the palm trees which are growing around it.

With respect to Cleopatra's needles, one of which, as we have said, is still erect, and the other fallen, they are obelisks of red granite, with three columns of characters on each face. It was the Pharaoh Moeris who, about one thousand years before Christ, raised them from the Libyan quarries, and with his potent hand erected them before the Temple of the Sun. Alexandria, they say, envied them to Memphis, and Cleopatra, in spite of the murmurs of the ancestral city, took them away as jewels, which Memphis was not fair enough to possess. The ancient arches, which served as bases for these obelisks, still exist, and stand on pedestals of three steps; they are of Græco-Roman construction, and

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