DOI Artikel:
Hogarth, David G.: Egypt Exploration Fund, [4]: Report on prospects of Research in Alexandria
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10057#0017
Alexandria, Noeth of the Boulbvakd de Rosette.
5
on the charts off the Pharillon, together with the rock of the Pharillon
itself, and the half submerged isthmus which connects it with the dis-
used Fort, represent the old promontory; and all that is left of the
Palace appears to be a single foundation course of fine masonry let into
the rock on the western side of the isthmus, at about the present mean
tide level.
Strabo mentions as next iu view to evSorepco /3aal\eia, with their
sumptuous grounds. Below these Palaces was situated a small private
harbour, excavated in the beach and capable of being closed ; and off it
lay the island of Antirrhodus, with a Palace and harbour of its own.
I take it as certain that the latter island is represented now only by
shoals; and if the island and all on it have vanished, it need hardly be said
that the Private Port is no longer to be seen. A visit, however, to the
beach below the old Quarantine Station and tho Tannery, will convince
anyone that the sea has swallowed also a mass of constructions once
situated on terra firma. From the Lochias, right round to the Tour
Eomaine (near the Ramleh railway company's station), the cliff (which is
a mere conglomeration of potsherds, refuse, and debris of construction)
shows everywhere vertical sections of walls in brick and stone, and
horizontal lines of concrete or brick pavement. In the water itself are
to be seen long white lines of masonry, sea-worn and flush with the sand :
these have been taken for remains of the Quays, but in all probability
they are merely the lowest courses of large walls, perhaps of the Palaces,
which the waves have beaten down or sucked away. When the sea is
calm and clear, columns, capitals, mouldings and squared blocks may be
seen lying pell-mell on the bottom for some distance out below low water
mark.1
It is most probable, therefore, that the Palaces, which lined the shore
in Strabo's time, have disappeared beneath the encroaching waves, and
their remains are to be sought only with the dredger. They had, how-
over, large grounds (Strabo, loc. ext. supra) and, doubtless, many
appurtenances ; and their domain must' have extended back from tho
sea as a long strip between the Jews' Quarter, huddled under the eastern
wall,2 and the Theatre. Tho latter is represented nowadays probably by
the Hospital hill; the former by the high ground of Ghatby about tho
French lines. The Palace domain, therefore, must include the low-lying
1 The fact of a subsidence of the coast of the Delta having taken place in com-
paratively recent times is, I believe, not questioned by geologists.
2 Cf. Philo in Flaccum, p. 525.
5
on the charts off the Pharillon, together with the rock of the Pharillon
itself, and the half submerged isthmus which connects it with the dis-
used Fort, represent the old promontory; and all that is left of the
Palace appears to be a single foundation course of fine masonry let into
the rock on the western side of the isthmus, at about the present mean
tide level.
Strabo mentions as next iu view to evSorepco /3aal\eia, with their
sumptuous grounds. Below these Palaces was situated a small private
harbour, excavated in the beach and capable of being closed ; and off it
lay the island of Antirrhodus, with a Palace and harbour of its own.
I take it as certain that the latter island is represented now only by
shoals; and if the island and all on it have vanished, it need hardly be said
that the Private Port is no longer to be seen. A visit, however, to the
beach below the old Quarantine Station and tho Tannery, will convince
anyone that the sea has swallowed also a mass of constructions once
situated on terra firma. From the Lochias, right round to the Tour
Eomaine (near the Ramleh railway company's station), the cliff (which is
a mere conglomeration of potsherds, refuse, and debris of construction)
shows everywhere vertical sections of walls in brick and stone, and
horizontal lines of concrete or brick pavement. In the water itself are
to be seen long white lines of masonry, sea-worn and flush with the sand :
these have been taken for remains of the Quays, but in all probability
they are merely the lowest courses of large walls, perhaps of the Palaces,
which the waves have beaten down or sucked away. When the sea is
calm and clear, columns, capitals, mouldings and squared blocks may be
seen lying pell-mell on the bottom for some distance out below low water
mark.1
It is most probable, therefore, that the Palaces, which lined the shore
in Strabo's time, have disappeared beneath the encroaching waves, and
their remains are to be sought only with the dredger. They had, how-
over, large grounds (Strabo, loc. ext. supra) and, doubtless, many
appurtenances ; and their domain must' have extended back from tho
sea as a long strip between the Jews' Quarter, huddled under the eastern
wall,2 and the Theatre. Tho latter is represented nowadays probably by
the Hospital hill; the former by the high ground of Ghatby about tho
French lines. The Palace domain, therefore, must include the low-lying
1 The fact of a subsidence of the coast of the Delta having taken place in com-
paratively recent times is, I believe, not questioned by geologists.
2 Cf. Philo in Flaccum, p. 525.