e Panium--an artificial mound raised
in the centre of the city, with corkscrew stairs on the outside.

In front of it stretches Lake Mareotis, with the sea to the right and
the open plain to the left, and, directly under his eyes, an irregular
succession of flat roofs, traversed from north to south and from east to
west by two streets, which cross each other, and which form, in their
entire length, a row of porticoes with Corinthian capitals. The houses
overhanging this double colonnade have stained-glass windows. Some have
enormous wooden cages outside of them, in which the air from without is
swallowed up.

Monuments in various styles of architecture are piled close to one
another. Egyptian pylons rise above Greek temples. Obelisks exhibit
themselves like spears between battlements of red brick. In the centres
of squares there are statues of Hermes with pointed ears, and of Anubis
with dogs' heads. Antony notices the mosaics in the court-yards, and the
tapestries hung from the cross-beams of the ceiling.

With a single glance he takes in the two ports (the Grand Port and the
Eunostus), both round like two circles, and separated by a mole joining
Alexandria to the rocky island, on which stands the tower of the
Pharos, quadrangular, five hundred cubits high and in nine storys, with
a heap of black charcoal flaming on its summit.

Small ports nearer to the shore intersect the principal ports. The mole
is terminated at each end by a bridge built on marble columns fixed in
the sea. Vessels pass beneath, and pleasure-boats inlaid with ivory,
gondolas covered with awnings, triremes and biremes, all kinds of
shipping, move up and down or remain at anchor along the quays.

Around the Grand Port there is an uninterrupted succession of Royal
structures: the palace of the Ptolemies, the Museum, the Posideion, the
Caesarium, the Timonium where Mark Antony took refuge, and the Soma which
contains the tomb of Alexander; while at the other extremity of the
city, close to the Eunostus, might be seen glass, perfume, and paper
factories.

Itinerant vendors, porters, and ass-drivers rush to and fro, jostling
against one another. Here and there a priest of Osiris with a panther's
skin on his shoulders, a Roman soldier, or a group of negroes, may be
observed. Women stop in front of stalls where artisans are at work, and
the grinding of chariot-wheels frightens away some birds who are picking
up from the ground the sweepings of the sh