DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11636#0154
126 TRAVELS 1ST UPPER
possible (o conclude that they are both of one and
the same perjod. The hieroglyphics with which
the granite-pivot, the immoveable support of the
column, is sculptured, farther appear a new proof
of the period of its elevation, much more ancient
than the reigns of Adrian and Scverus, and they
indicate a production of the most remote antiquity.
This consideration, united with the silence of his-
torians on the subject, seems to throw back even to
an era more distant than that of the defeat of Pom-
pey, the construction of the column which bears
bis name. If amidst these uncertainties, which,
in defiance of the researches of the learned, fre-
quently involve the past and the future in the same
obscurity, I durst venture to hazard an opinion of
my own, I should be tempted to ascribe the honour
of the erection of the column of Alexandria to the
ancient times which produced so many prodigies in
Egypt, to those eras when myriads of men were em-
ployed, for years together, in transporting masses
of stone, the movement of which seemed 10 exceed
human strength, and to demand the exertions of
beings more than mortal.
Whatever be in this sentiment, it would be dif-
ficult now to change the appellation so long af-
fixed to the column cf Alexandria, and, whatever
good reasons may be alleged to the contrary, it is
very probable it will still retain the name of Pom-
pe/s
possible (o conclude that they are both of one and
the same perjod. The hieroglyphics with which
the granite-pivot, the immoveable support of the
column, is sculptured, farther appear a new proof
of the period of its elevation, much more ancient
than the reigns of Adrian and Scverus, and they
indicate a production of the most remote antiquity.
This consideration, united with the silence of his-
torians on the subject, seems to throw back even to
an era more distant than that of the defeat of Pom-
pey, the construction of the column which bears
bis name. If amidst these uncertainties, which,
in defiance of the researches of the learned, fre-
quently involve the past and the future in the same
obscurity, I durst venture to hazard an opinion of
my own, I should be tempted to ascribe the honour
of the erection of the column of Alexandria to the
ancient times which produced so many prodigies in
Egypt, to those eras when myriads of men were em-
ployed, for years together, in transporting masses
of stone, the movement of which seemed 10 exceed
human strength, and to demand the exertions of
beings more than mortal.
Whatever be in this sentiment, it would be dif-
ficult now to change the appellation so long af-
fixed to the column cf Alexandria, and, whatever
good reasons may be alleged to the contrary, it is
very probable it will still retain the name of Pom-
pe/s