The Book of Curiosities

by John Platts

The same year, the island of Pharos itself, originally seven furlongs distant from the continent, was joined to it by a causeway. This was the work of Dexiphanes, who completed it at the same time that his son put the last hand to the tower. The tower was a large square structure of white marble, on the top of which, fires were kept constantly burning for the direction of sailors. The building cost 800 talents; which, if Attic, amounted to £165,000; if Alexandrian, to twice that sum. The architect employed in this famous structure, fell upon the following contrivance to usurp the whole glory to himself. Being ordered to engrave upon it the following inscription, “King Ptolemy, to the Gods the Saviours, for the Benefit of Sailors;” instead of the king’s name, he substituted his own, and then filling up the marble with mortar, wrote upon it the above-mentioned inscription. In process of time, the mortar being worn off, the following inscription appeared: “Sostratus the Cnidian, the son of Dexiphanes, to the Gods the Saviours, for the Benefit of Sailors.”

This year, also, was remarkable for bringing the image of Serapis from Pontus to Alexandria. It was set up in one of the suburbs of the city called Rhacotis, where a temple was afterwards erected to his honour, suitable to the greatness of that stately metropolis, and called, from the god worshipped there, Serapium. This structure, according to Ammianus Marcellinus, surpassed in beauty the magnificence of all others in the world, except the capitol at Rome.

Within the verge of this temple was the famous Alexandrian library. It was founded by Ptolemy Soter, for the use of an academy he instituted in this city; and, from continual additions by his successors, became at last the finest library in the world, containing no fewer than seven hundred thousand volumes. One method adopted in collecting books for this library, was, to seize all those which were brought into Egypt by the Greeks, or other foreigners. The books were transcribed in the museum by persons appointed for that purpose; the copies were then delivered to the proprietors, and the originals laid up in the library. Ptolemy Euergetes, having borrowed from the Athenians the works of Sophocles, Euripides, and Æschylus, returned them only the copies, which he caused to be transcribed in as beautiful a manner as possible, presenting the Athenians at the same time with 13 talents (upwards of £3000 sterling) for the exchange. As the museum was at first in that quarter of the city called Bruchion, near the royal palace, the library was placed there likewise; but when it came to contain four hundred thousand volumes, another library within the Serapium was erected, by way of supplement to it, and on that account called the Daughter of the former. In this second library, three hundred thousand volumes, in process of time, were deposited; and both libraries together contained the seven hundred thousand volumes already mentioned. In the war carried on by Julius Cæsar against the inhabitants of this city, the library in the Bruchion, with the four hundred thousand volumes it contained, was reduced to ashes. The library in the Serapium, however, still remained; and here Cleopatra deposited two hundred thousand volumes of the Permagean library, with which Marc Antony presented her. These, and others added from time to time, rendered the new library at Alexandria more numerous and considerable than the former; and though it was often plundered during the revolutions and troubles of the Roman Empire, yet it was again and again repaired, and filled with the same number of books.

Temple of Tentyra, in Egypt.—From Belzoni’s Narrative.

“Little could be seen of the temple, till we came near to it, as it is surrounded by high mounds of rubbish of the old Tentyra. On our arriving before it, I was for some time at a loss to know where I should begin my examination; the numerous objects before me, all equally attractive, leaving me for a while in a state of suspense and astonishment. The enormous masses of stone employed in the edifice, are so well disposed, that the eye discovers the most just proportion every where. The majestic appearance of its construction, the variety of its ornaments, and, above all, the singularity of its preservation, had such an effect on me, that I seated myself on the ground, and, for a considerable time, was lost in admiration. It is the first Egyptian temple the traveller sees on ascending the Nile, and it is certainly the most magnificent. It has an advantage over most others, from the good state of preservation it is in; and I should have no scruple in saying, that it is of a much later date than any other. The superiority of the workmanship gives us sufficient reason to believe it to be of the time of the first Ptolemy; and it is not improbable, that he who laid the foundation of the Alexandrian library, instituted the philosophical society of the museum, and studied to render himself beloved by his people, might erect such an edifice, to convince the Egyptians of his superiority of mind over the ancient kings of Egypt, even in religious devotion.

“This is the cabinet of the Egyptian arts, the product of study for many centuries, and it was here that Denon thought himself in the sanctuary of the arts and sciences. The front is adorned with a beautiful cornice, and a frieze covered with figures and hieroglyphics, over the centre of which the winged globe is predominant, and the two sides are embellished with compartments of sacrifices and offerings. The columns that form the portico are twenty-four in number, divided into four rows, including those in the front. On entering the gate, the scene changes, and requires more minute observation. The quadrangular form of the capitals first strikes the eye. At each side of the square there is a colossal head of the goddess Isis, with cow’s ears. There is not one of these heads but is much mutilated, particularly those on the columns in the front of the temple, facing the outside: but, notwithstanding this disadvantage, and the flatness of their form, there is a simplicity in their countenance that approaches to a smile. The shafts of the columns are covered with hieroglyphics and figures, which are in basso relievo, as are all the figures in the front and lateral walls. The front of the door-way, which is in a straight line with the entrance, and the sanctuary, is richly adorned with figures of smaller size than the rest of the portico. The ceiling contains the zodiac, inclosed by two long female figures, which extend from one side to the other of it. The walls are divided into several square compartments, each containing figures representing deities, and priests in the act of offering or immolating victims. On all the walls, columns, ceiling, or architraves, there is nowhere a space of two feet that is not covered with some figures of human beings, animals, plants, emblems of agriculture, or of religious ceremony. Wherever the eyes turn, wherever the attention is fixed, every thing inspires respect and veneration, heightened by the solitary situation of this temple, which adds to the attraction of these splendid recesses. The inner apartments are much the same as the portico, all covered with figures in basso relievo.

“On the top of the temple the Arabs had built a village; I suppose, to be the more elevated, and exposed to the air: but it is all in ruins, as no one now lives there. From the top I descended into some apartments on the east side of the temple; there I saw the famous zodiac on the ceiling. The circular form of this zodiac led me to suppose, in some measure, that this temple was built at a later period than the rest, as nothing like it is seen any where else. In the front of the edifice there is a propylæon, not inferior to the works in the temple, and, though partly fallen, it still shews its ancient grandeur. On the left, going from the portico, there is a small temple, surrounded by columns. In the inside is a figure of Isis sitting with Orus in her lap; and other female figures, each with a child in her arms, are observable. The capitals of the columns are adorned with the figures of Typhon. The gallery, or portico, that surrounds the temple, is filled up with rubbish, to a great height, and walls of unburnt bricks have been raised from one column to another.

“Farther on, in a right line with the propylæon, are the remains of an hypæthral temple, which form a square of twelve columns, connected with each other by a wall, except at the door-way, which fronts the propylæon. The eastern wall of the great temple is richly adorned with figures in intaglio relevato; they are perfectly finished; the female figures are about four feet high, disposed in different compartments.

“Behind the temple is a small Egyptian building, quite detached from the large edifice; and, from its construction, I would venture to say, that it was the habitation of the priests. At some distance from the great temple are the foundations of another, not so large as the first. The propylæon is still standing, in good preservation.”

Two objects of great curiosity are, The Palace of Memnon, and The Temple of Osiris, at Abidos.—Abidos, an inland town of Egypt, between Ptolemais and Diospolis Parva, towards Cyrene, is famous for the Palace of Memnon, and the Temple of Osiris, and inhabited by a colony of Milesians. It was the only one in the country into which the singers and dancers were forbid to enter. This city, reduced to a village under the empire of Augustus, now presents to our view only an heap of ruins, without inhabitants; but to the west of these ruins is still found the celebrated Tomb of Ismandes. The entrance is under a portico sixty feet high, and supported by two rows of massy columns. The immoveable solidity of the edifice, the huge masses which compose it, the hieroglyphics it is loaded with, stamp it as a work of the ancient Egyptians.