DOI article:
Hogarth, David G.: Egypt Exploration Fund, [4]: Report on prospects of Research in Alexandria
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10057#0018
G
Egypt Exploeation Fond.
ground between these points, occupied now in part by cemeteries, by
the village of El Maritza, and by the canal, but in part still open;
and the domain must Lave extended at least as far as the Saracenic fosso
and wall, if not up to the line of the Canopic Street.
This region, although one of the most open in Alexandria, does not
promise well for excavation. As to its northern part the cliff gives us
sufficient indications; for the escarpment displays down to the sca-
level coarse structures of a later period than the Ptolemaic. "We appear
to have now in this region the ruins of a Roman residential quarter which
grew up behind the Palaces in what was once their grounds. A glance
at the escarpment will show that imported earth full of coarse pottery
and stones descends right to sea water, and as the level of fresh water is
higher than that of the salt, an excavator would find himself in mud
ere he had penetrated the Eoman strata. As a matter of fact many
soundings have been made in the open ground between El Maritza and
the Hospital, and, in consequence of these, fragments of syenite lie near
the Rainleh railway line ; indeed, last May Dr. Botti found a number of
terra cotta fragments near the summit of the hill on the east slope ; but
I have been unable to discover that any walls in a decent state of
preservation, or any antiques of value have ever been discovered there.
As to the southern part of this region, now covered in the main with the
Greek houses and gardens on the north side of the Boulevard de Rosette,
and intersected by the niediasval fosse, I can speak from experiment.
Knowing that during the building of the house of Baron J. de Menasce,
a large granite column had been found, although alone and at no great
depth, and that some large structure, either the Gymnasium,1 or an inland
Palace, was to be expected hard by along the line of the Canopic Street,
I looked for a site for a sounding in this direction ; and, by the great
kindness of Mons. Pandeli Salvago, was permitted to dig in the plot
which intervenes between his brother's house and the Boulevard, and was
occupied at the time of my visit only by a ruined Arab house.
I began with a pit 8'50 m. from N. to S. and 6'50 m. E. to W. on the
east side of the house, at a distance of 125 feet from the fence on the side
of the Boulevard de Rosette, and 27 feet from the fence of the plot on
1 The Gymnasium has been placed about here by most topographers, but on no
better evidence than the single statement of Strabo that the Canopic Street led from
Necropolis rrapa to yvprnawv /xe'xpi r^9 7rv\r}s Tr\s Kava>fiiKr)s (p. 795). On which side of
the street was it then, and at what point of the three and a half miles (forty stades
according to Diodorus, thirty according to Josephus B. J. ii. 4, Strabo, p. 793) of
its course ?
Egypt Exploeation Fond.
ground between these points, occupied now in part by cemeteries, by
the village of El Maritza, and by the canal, but in part still open;
and the domain must Lave extended at least as far as the Saracenic fosso
and wall, if not up to the line of the Canopic Street.
This region, although one of the most open in Alexandria, does not
promise well for excavation. As to its northern part the cliff gives us
sufficient indications; for the escarpment displays down to the sca-
level coarse structures of a later period than the Ptolemaic. "We appear
to have now in this region the ruins of a Roman residential quarter which
grew up behind the Palaces in what was once their grounds. A glance
at the escarpment will show that imported earth full of coarse pottery
and stones descends right to sea water, and as the level of fresh water is
higher than that of the salt, an excavator would find himself in mud
ere he had penetrated the Eoman strata. As a matter of fact many
soundings have been made in the open ground between El Maritza and
the Hospital, and, in consequence of these, fragments of syenite lie near
the Rainleh railway line ; indeed, last May Dr. Botti found a number of
terra cotta fragments near the summit of the hill on the east slope ; but
I have been unable to discover that any walls in a decent state of
preservation, or any antiques of value have ever been discovered there.
As to the southern part of this region, now covered in the main with the
Greek houses and gardens on the north side of the Boulevard de Rosette,
and intersected by the niediasval fosse, I can speak from experiment.
Knowing that during the building of the house of Baron J. de Menasce,
a large granite column had been found, although alone and at no great
depth, and that some large structure, either the Gymnasium,1 or an inland
Palace, was to be expected hard by along the line of the Canopic Street,
I looked for a site for a sounding in this direction ; and, by the great
kindness of Mons. Pandeli Salvago, was permitted to dig in the plot
which intervenes between his brother's house and the Boulevard, and was
occupied at the time of my visit only by a ruined Arab house.
I began with a pit 8'50 m. from N. to S. and 6'50 m. E. to W. on the
east side of the house, at a distance of 125 feet from the fence on the side
of the Boulevard de Rosette, and 27 feet from the fence of the plot on
1 The Gymnasium has been placed about here by most topographers, but on no
better evidence than the single statement of Strabo that the Canopic Street led from
Necropolis rrapa to yvprnawv /xe'xpi r^9 7rv\r}s Tr\s Kava>fiiKr)s (p. 795). On which side of
the street was it then, and at what point of the three and a half miles (forty stades
according to Diodorus, thirty according to Josephus B. J. ii. 4, Strabo, p. 793) of
its course ?