Pompey'S Pillar

This celebrated monumental pillar is situated about eighteen hundred feet from the southern gate of Alexandria, Egypt. It is composed of red granite, with a Corinthian capital nine feet high. The shaft and upper member of the base are of one piece, ninety feet long, and nine in diameter: the base is about fifteen feet square. The shaft, sixty feet in circumference, rests upon two layers bound together with lead. The whole column is one hundred and fourteen feet high. It is in a good state of preservation, with the exception of one of the volutes of the column, which was prematurely brought down some years ago by a frolic of some English seamen: the account is thus given by Mr. Irwin:--

"These jolly sons of Neptune had been pushing about the can on board one of the ships in the harbor, until a strange freak entered into one of their brains. The eccentricity of the thought occasioned it immediately to be adopted, and its apparent impossibility was but a spur for the putting it into execution. The boat was ordered; and, with proper implements for the attempt, these enterprising heroes pushed ashore, to drink a bowl of punch on the top of Pompey's Pillar! At the spot they arrived; and many contrivances were proposed, to accomplish the desired point. But their labor was vain; and they began to despair of success, when the genius who struck out the frolic happily suggested the means of performing it. A man was despatched to the city for a paper kite; and the inhabitants, by this time apprised of what was going forward, flocked in crowds to be witnesses of the address and boldness of the English. The governor of Alexandria was told that these seamen were about to pull down Pompey's Pillar. But whether he gave them credit for their respect to the Roman warrior or to the Turkish Government, he left them to themselves, and politely answered that the English were too great patriots to injure the remains of Pompey. He knew little, however, of the disposition of the people who were engaged in this undertaking.

"Had the Turkish empire risen in opposition, it would not at that moment have deterred them. The kite was brought, and flown directly over the pillar, so that, when it fell on the other side, the string lodged upon the capital. The chief obstacle was now overcome. A two-inch rope was tied to one end of the string, and drawn over the pillar by the end to which the kite was affixed. By this rope, one of the seamen ascended to the top; and in less than an hour a kind of shroud was constructed, by which the whole company went up, and drank their punch, amidst the shouts of the astonished multitude. To the eye below, the capital of the pillar does not appear capable of holding more than one man upon it; but our seamen found it could contain no less than eight persons very conveniently. It is astonishing that no accident befell these madcaps in a situation so elevated that it would have turned a landsman giddy in his sober senses. The only detriment which the pillar received was the loss of the volute, before mentioned, which came down with a thundering sound, and was carried to England by one of the captains, as a present to a lady who had commissioned him to procure her a piece of it. The discovery which they made amply compensated for this mischief; as without their evidence the world would not have known at this hour that there was originally a statue on this pillar, one foot and ankle of which are still remaining. The statue must have been of a gigantic size, to have appeared of a man's proportion at so great a height. There are circumstances in this story which might give it the air of fiction, were it not proved beyond all doubt. Besides the testimonies of many eye-witnesses, the adventurers themselves have left a token of the fact, by the initials of their names, which are very legibly painted in black just beneath the capital."

The name popularly applied to this column is an erroneous appellation given by ancient travellers, who confess they do not know whence it is derived, or why still retained. The inscription on the base shows that it was erected by Publius, Prefect of Egypt, in honor of the Emperor Diocletian, who is styled upon it 'The Invincible;' and it is supposed to record the conquest of the city of Alexandria by Diocletian, 296 A.D.