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#0022
10
Egypt Exploration Fund.
search for the Theatre still nearer to the present sea-beach. The site of
the Poseideion is probably occupied partly by the martello-tower which
now stands on a projecting point: the site of the Timonium is in the sea.
The remains of the Csesareum, afterwards a Patriarchal Church,1
and not finally destroyed till 912 a.d., have been sought often,
and lately most industriously by Signov Botti. The general locality
is fixed, indeed, by the site of the obelisks, but as it is not known
whether these stood north, south, east, or west of the Temple, we
cannot say whether the actual shrine is to be sought in the sea
or in which direction on the land. Neroutzos tried to determine
the axis from a massive but much ruined wall found in 1874 in
digging the foundations of the house Zahir Debbane, on the Boulevard de
Eamleh : this ran N.N.W. to S.S.E. A stele dedicated by naval decurions
of the time of the co-Emperor Lucius Verus was discovered at the same
spot and date. I have been informed also that largo granite columns
have been revealed in digging foundations a little west of the British
Consulate, and on the same side of the street. In 1892 dredging was tried
by Signor Botti in the sea just in front of the site of the Needles, and
large inscribed granite blocks, some bearing cartouches of Barneses II.,
were recovered; these the discoverer suggests may have been built into
the Pylon of the Crcsareum. In 1893 he tried again, and found
other similar blocks, imported from a temple of Ptahat Tanis, also caps,
drums, vases, an inscription of Caracalla, and a fine capital of the
Patriarchal Church. Neither the bottom of the sea, however, nor land
under houses can be recommended for excavation, except where the
precise locality of a treasure is known. The only land in this vicinity
still really open for tentative operations is that lying immediately south
of the Eamleh station. In 1893, Signor Botti sank four soundings in
various parts of this open space, finding water at 6 to metres, but
nothing above it except unimportant ruins, Byzantine tombs, and traces
of industrial occupation. He concluded, probably justly, that the open
ground lies outside the area of the Cassareum altogether, and that, though
the pcriholus of the latter may have extended up to or even beyond
the Boulevard de Bamleli, the main part of the Temple site is now in the
sea.
In any case there are too many buildings in the vicinity for any serious
excavation to be made: and even were this not the case, I doubt if much
could be expected, where soundings have revealed so far only the merest
1 Cf. St. Epiphanius In Haer. ii. 2, p. 728, for a list of the chnrcbes in Alexandria,
existing in his day beside tji vvv KTia-dda-rj tjj Kauraptiq xaXov/it'cj.
Egypt Exploration Fund.
search for the Theatre still nearer to the present sea-beach. The site of
the Poseideion is probably occupied partly by the martello-tower which
now stands on a projecting point: the site of the Timonium is in the sea.
The remains of the Csesareum, afterwards a Patriarchal Church,1
and not finally destroyed till 912 a.d., have been sought often,
and lately most industriously by Signov Botti. The general locality
is fixed, indeed, by the site of the obelisks, but as it is not known
whether these stood north, south, east, or west of the Temple, we
cannot say whether the actual shrine is to be sought in the sea
or in which direction on the land. Neroutzos tried to determine
the axis from a massive but much ruined wall found in 1874 in
digging the foundations of the house Zahir Debbane, on the Boulevard de
Eamleh : this ran N.N.W. to S.S.E. A stele dedicated by naval decurions
of the time of the co-Emperor Lucius Verus was discovered at the same
spot and date. I have been informed also that largo granite columns
have been revealed in digging foundations a little west of the British
Consulate, and on the same side of the street. In 1892 dredging was tried
by Signor Botti in the sea just in front of the site of the Needles, and
large inscribed granite blocks, some bearing cartouches of Barneses II.,
were recovered; these the discoverer suggests may have been built into
the Pylon of the Crcsareum. In 1893 he tried again, and found
other similar blocks, imported from a temple of Ptahat Tanis, also caps,
drums, vases, an inscription of Caracalla, and a fine capital of the
Patriarchal Church. Neither the bottom of the sea, however, nor land
under houses can be recommended for excavation, except where the
precise locality of a treasure is known. The only land in this vicinity
still really open for tentative operations is that lying immediately south
of the Eamleh station. In 1893, Signor Botti sank four soundings in
various parts of this open space, finding water at 6 to metres, but
nothing above it except unimportant ruins, Byzantine tombs, and traces
of industrial occupation. He concluded, probably justly, that the open
ground lies outside the area of the Cassareum altogether, and that, though
the pcriholus of the latter may have extended up to or even beyond
the Boulevard de Bamleli, the main part of the Temple site is now in the
sea.
In any case there are too many buildings in the vicinity for any serious
excavation to be made: and even were this not the case, I doubt if much
could be expected, where soundings have revealed so far only the merest
1 Cf. St. Epiphanius In Haer. ii. 2, p. 728, for a list of the chnrcbes in Alexandria,
existing in his day beside tji vvv KTia-dda-rj tjj Kauraptiq xaXov/it'cj.