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#0020
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Egypt Exploration Fond.
The results may be summarized thus : a massive structure, probably
(to judge from its mortar) of Roman date, exists here just north of the
line of the Canopic Street, but whether part of the Gymnasium or a Palace
there is absolutely nothing to show, but at any rate apparently not put to
any industrial use. The existence of a Christian object in its drain proves
late occupation. There is no trace of any older structure beneath ; and
the ruinous condition of the walls, and the absence of antiquities
among the debris, indicate that the Roman building has been thoroughly
stripped. This latter fact, taken together with the poor quality of the
concrete flooring, should deter anyone from exploring farther this
particular site.
A short distance to the north-west of this plot of land, pits were being
sunk for the foundations of a house, to be built for Mr. E. W. P. Foster;
and from an examination of these I learned that loose earth and stones
descended at that point to the fresh water level (35 feet) without con-
taining a trace of any important structure. Still further north, the city
fosse has been cut to a depth of about 15 feet, and now shows no indica-
tions of having pierced large buildings. From this point to the sea
stretches much open land, on which some day something may possibly bo
found somewhere; but the chances of anything of early date or good
condition existing between the late ruins found by me, and the late ruins
revealed by the escarpment of the cliff, are so small, and the chances
against any one spot more than another proving productive are so many,
that no one could be recommended to select this region of the Palaces as
a field for excavation.
West of the domain of the Palaces laj' a group of large buildings,
So far as we can gather from a comparison of Strabo with other
authorities, on the foreshore itself was situated the Poseideion, appa-
rently used at a later period as a Tribunal (Acts and Eulogy of S.
Macrobius—the governor, before whom the saint appears, sits in his
Tribunal at a place called Poseidon on the sea-shore) ; and in front of this
temple, on an artificial peninsula, was Antony's " Timonium." Immediately
adjoining the Poseideion on the west must have been the "Emporium, for
Strabo says that the former was ayKwv ti<; . . . irpoTreTrTcoKcof of the
latter j and west again of this were the Apostases, or Magazines, and the
Docks, extending as far as the great Mole, or Heptastadium, which
connected the mainland with the Pharos. Inland, immediately behind
the Poseideion (for it is mentioned by Strabo as above Antirrhodus),
was the Theatre. The latter was connected with the nearest of the
Egypt Exploration Fond.
The results may be summarized thus : a massive structure, probably
(to judge from its mortar) of Roman date, exists here just north of the
line of the Canopic Street, but whether part of the Gymnasium or a Palace
there is absolutely nothing to show, but at any rate apparently not put to
any industrial use. The existence of a Christian object in its drain proves
late occupation. There is no trace of any older structure beneath ; and
the ruinous condition of the walls, and the absence of antiquities
among the debris, indicate that the Roman building has been thoroughly
stripped. This latter fact, taken together with the poor quality of the
concrete flooring, should deter anyone from exploring farther this
particular site.
A short distance to the north-west of this plot of land, pits were being
sunk for the foundations of a house, to be built for Mr. E. W. P. Foster;
and from an examination of these I learned that loose earth and stones
descended at that point to the fresh water level (35 feet) without con-
taining a trace of any important structure. Still further north, the city
fosse has been cut to a depth of about 15 feet, and now shows no indica-
tions of having pierced large buildings. From this point to the sea
stretches much open land, on which some day something may possibly bo
found somewhere; but the chances of anything of early date or good
condition existing between the late ruins found by me, and the late ruins
revealed by the escarpment of the cliff, are so small, and the chances
against any one spot more than another proving productive are so many,
that no one could be recommended to select this region of the Palaces as
a field for excavation.
West of the domain of the Palaces laj' a group of large buildings,
So far as we can gather from a comparison of Strabo with other
authorities, on the foreshore itself was situated the Poseideion, appa-
rently used at a later period as a Tribunal (Acts and Eulogy of S.
Macrobius—the governor, before whom the saint appears, sits in his
Tribunal at a place called Poseidon on the sea-shore) ; and in front of this
temple, on an artificial peninsula, was Antony's " Timonium." Immediately
adjoining the Poseideion on the west must have been the "Emporium, for
Strabo says that the former was ayKwv ti<; . . . irpoTreTrTcoKcof of the
latter j and west again of this were the Apostases, or Magazines, and the
Docks, extending as far as the great Mole, or Heptastadium, which
connected the mainland with the Pharos. Inland, immediately behind
the Poseideion (for it is mentioned by Strabo as above Antirrhodus),
was the Theatre. The latter was connected with the nearest of the