DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4023#0052
In.closure os
Alexandria.
bulwarks.
TRAVELS IN EGYPT
are, joined by such thick walls. One has no difficulty to conceive, that it is
the inclosure of the ancient Alexandria. But os what age is this inclofure ? This
is a point on which one may venture to give one's fentiment, aster having ex-
amined the object near, and aster having well considered it.
Its towers or Those towers, which sorm as it were bulwarks, are not all os an equal
bigness, nor os the same sigure, nor os the fame conftru&ion. There are fome
of them round; others are fquare; others os an oval figure ; and thefe laft are
sometimes cut by a ftrait line in one os their fides.
They disser, in like manner, in their inside. There are some that have a
double wall, and at the entrance winding flairs that lead up to the top of the
tower. Some offer nothing, for a paflage, but a hole in the vault, and through
which it was neceffary to pafs by the affiftance of a scaling ladder. Generally
speaking, the entrances of thefe towers are very fmall and very narrow, and look
out upon the infide of the curtain," or wall of communication. Their different
stories are formed by arches, fupported sometimes by a column, sometimes by
several; and there are even some, that are fupported by a large poft. The
port-holes, that go all round these bulwarks, are narrow, but grow wider within.
They resemble thofe which one fees in feveral ancient caftles os England. One
observes no wells in thefe towers ; yet I doubt not but they had some: it is pro-
bable, that they have been neglected, and silled up in length os time. All the
towers are built os free-ftone, and of a very maslive architecture. In the lowest
part we see, all round and at certain diftances, fhasts os columns os dif-
serent forts of marble, and they have been placed there in fuch a manner, that,
when you see them from a diftance, you take them sor cannon guns, which
come out os their port holes. We perceive likewife, here and there, some
square pieces of marble made useos; but all the body os the building, as I have
already said, is sormed of sree-Hones: and they are os a fandy kind, such as those
of Portland, or os Bentheim.
The walls, which make thejoining of the towers, and which, with them, have
composed the circuit os the town, are not, throughout the whole, of the
fame breadth, nor os the same height, nor os the same construdlion. Some
may be about twenty feet thick, whilst others are more or less. Their
height reaches to thirty or forty seet. One cannot, however, be assured, by the
mere view of these ruins, that all the inclofure os the town has been built in
the manner that I have remarked, in speaking of the wall near the obelisk; but
it had, on the inside, a walk, almost in the same taste, as that which we see
in the inclofure of the palace of Aurelian at Rome.
0
There remains nothing more for me to mention, with regard to this inclo-
sure, but that the towers as well as the walls, at least those that are to be seen, are
all very much damaged, and in feveral places entirely ruined. After that, the
only point is to know, if, from what hath been jusf. nowobferved, and from what
hiftory informs us, we may decide, whether this inclofure is of the time of the
sirft foundation of Alexandria, or at what time it might have been made.
Is
Alexandria.
bulwarks.
TRAVELS IN EGYPT
are, joined by such thick walls. One has no difficulty to conceive, that it is
the inclosure of the ancient Alexandria. But os what age is this inclofure ? This
is a point on which one may venture to give one's fentiment, aster having ex-
amined the object near, and aster having well considered it.
Its towers or Those towers, which sorm as it were bulwarks, are not all os an equal
bigness, nor os the same sigure, nor os the fame conftru&ion. There are fome
of them round; others are fquare; others os an oval figure ; and thefe laft are
sometimes cut by a ftrait line in one os their fides.
They disser, in like manner, in their inside. There are some that have a
double wall, and at the entrance winding flairs that lead up to the top of the
tower. Some offer nothing, for a paflage, but a hole in the vault, and through
which it was neceffary to pafs by the affiftance of a scaling ladder. Generally
speaking, the entrances of thefe towers are very fmall and very narrow, and look
out upon the infide of the curtain," or wall of communication. Their different
stories are formed by arches, fupported sometimes by a column, sometimes by
several; and there are even some, that are fupported by a large poft. The
port-holes, that go all round these bulwarks, are narrow, but grow wider within.
They resemble thofe which one fees in feveral ancient caftles os England. One
observes no wells in thefe towers ; yet I doubt not but they had some: it is pro-
bable, that they have been neglected, and silled up in length os time. All the
towers are built os free-ftone, and of a very maslive architecture. In the lowest
part we see, all round and at certain diftances, fhasts os columns os dif-
serent forts of marble, and they have been placed there in fuch a manner, that,
when you see them from a diftance, you take them sor cannon guns, which
come out os their port holes. We perceive likewife, here and there, some
square pieces of marble made useos; but all the body os the building, as I have
already said, is sormed of sree-Hones: and they are os a fandy kind, such as those
of Portland, or os Bentheim.
The walls, which make thejoining of the towers, and which, with them, have
composed the circuit os the town, are not, throughout the whole, of the
fame breadth, nor os the same height, nor os the same construdlion. Some
may be about twenty feet thick, whilst others are more or less. Their
height reaches to thirty or forty seet. One cannot, however, be assured, by the
mere view of these ruins, that all the inclofure os the town has been built in
the manner that I have remarked, in speaking of the wall near the obelisk; but
it had, on the inside, a walk, almost in the same taste, as that which we see
in the inclofure of the palace of Aurelian at Rome.
0
There remains nothing more for me to mention, with regard to this inclo-
sure, but that the towers as well as the walls, at least those that are to be seen, are
all very much damaged, and in feveral places entirely ruined. After that, the
only point is to know, if, from what hath been jusf. nowobferved, and from what
hiftory informs us, we may decide, whether this inclofure is of the time of the
sirft foundation of Alexandria, or at what time it might have been made.
Is