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feet. Here our Author finds great fault with a Conful Gene ral, who had refided fix years at Cairo, for giving a bad defigni of this pillar, from the travels of Paul Lucas. If he means Conful Maillet, it fhould be confidered, that the editor, Abbé Maferier, added much of his own to the Conful's papers, which are known to be still extant; and great pity it is, that they are not publifhed as he left themiltigt

From hence our Author took the road for the Calish, or Canal of Cleopatra, which fupplies Alexandria with fresh water all the year round. It was made for the convenience of trade, to transport merchandife from Cairo to Alexandria, without hazarding the dangerous paffage of the Bogafs, or mouth of the Nile. Decay of trade, and the ruin of the country, hinder the inhabitants from expending annually what is neceflary to keep it in tolerable repair. It is now like a ditch, and scarcely ferves to fupply the refervoirs at New Alexandria. In the month of June it was fo dry, that our Author walked thro' it. We are referred to the plates at the end of the book, for a view of one of the refervoirs. The pillars that fupport them are of different kinds, for the most part Gothic; which fhews that they were repaired by the Saracens. The fmallness of the prefent city of Alexandria, when compared with the old city, and the great expence and trouble of cleaning these reservoirs, is the reafon why fo few remain, and fo many have been de molished for if they were not cleaned, or deftroyed, they would poison the country. The canal, tho' diftinguifhed by the name of Cleopatra, is certainly as ancient as the old city of Alexandria; for the inhabitants could have had no fresh water without it, the Nile here mixing with the fea. Besides, fuch a canal was neceffary for the conveyance of the materials for building. That it was called Cleopatra's canal, might have been owing to fome confiderable repairs the made, or to fome fhews the exhibited there.

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Where the ruins of the city end, the Burying-caves, or Sepulchral-grottos, begin. They are now all of them open, and unfurnished; they are hewn out in the rock, and extend to a great diftance, along the fea-fide: they are broad enough to have admitted two corps, and are in length about the fize of a man; their height is as the rock permitted. There are other rocks which advance into the water, and form natu ral grottos, which, with fome artificial improvement, are made cool and pleasant retreats for shade, and bathing. At the diftance of thirty or forty paces from the fhore, and oppofite to the point of the peninfula that forms the port, is a fubterrane ous monument, which is commonly called a temple. You

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enter with torches in your hand, thro'a fmall opening, and ftoop as you go along a narrow, low paffage, which, at the end of twenty paces, opens into a large fquare chamber. The top is regular, like the four fides; the bottom is covered with fand, sand (the odung of bats, and other animals that find a retreat here. But you do not arrive at the temple till after going thro' another paffage, you meets with a more beautiful room, having the top cut out like a vaulted roof, and four doors oppofite to one another, each ornamented with an architrave, a cornice,vands a pediment; with a crefcent, or half moon, over it. One of these doors ferves for the entrance, the others form a fort of niches, which contain each of them a place: hollowed in the rock,s of a fize fufficient to admit a corpfe: which fhews it to have been the tomb of fome king, or other great perfon. There is no infeription, nor fculpture, to inform us for whom, or on what occafion, it was made. There may be many more fuch; fome never opened fince they were firft fhut, and others choaked with fand, as this will be in time; for the entrance and paffage feem to leffen from the increafe of fand driven into it. In afcending, upon the top of the fame rock, you fee large foffes or ditches; when or for what purpose cut, no one knows. They defcend perpendicularly, and are about forty feet deep, fifty long, and twenty feet wide. Their fides are even; but the bottom is fo covered with fand, that it is difficult to difcover the heighth of a paffage which, in fome of these foffes, fhould feem to lead to fome fubterraneous place: and a ftranger, travelling into thefe countries, cannot be fuppofed to have it in his power to clean out one of thefe places, to fatisfy his curiofity.hakk >Before we take our leave of Old Alexandria, it may be worth while to confider, whence came all that quantity of marble and granite employed in building fo great a city; and what is become of it all, fince the deftruction of Alexandria?

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To fuppofe that the workmen went very far for materials, which they might have had near at hand, were abfurd; nor, if they had fent a great way off for their materials, could Alexder have raised the city to the magnificence with which it ap peared, even in his time; nor could it have arrived, fo foon after, at the ftill greater fplendor it acquired under the Ptole mies. It is, therefore, a probable fuppofition, that the gran deur of Alexandria, fprung from the ruins of Memphis. And this, fays Mr. Norden, may be the eafier admitted, because of the difficulty there would be to account otherwife for the prefent ftate of the ruins of that great city; of which little more remains than barely fuffices to fhew where it once ftood.

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Should it be objected, that fo great a Prince as Alexander, would never have deftroyed one city in order to raife another from its ruins; this is granted: but he might well have employed the materials of a city, already decayed, in building another that was to bear his own name. That Memphis still exifted in the days of Alexander, no one can doubt; but it muft have been then in a state of ruin: for it is not likely that the Perfians, who carried deftruction thro', the whole country, would fhew more favour to Memphis than to the other cities in Egypt, Cambyfes had carried away their Deities; their priefts were gone; and the fplendor of religion was eclipfed at Memphis. What then must have been the condition of their magnificent temples, forfaken by their own inhabitants, and defpifed, and prostituted to the vileft purposes, by the Per fians? In this cafe, Alexander might have made ufe of them in building other temples: and the canal, fince called after Cleopatra, might affift in conveying the materials from Memphis. But if from thence, how is it that they are not adorned with hieroglyphics? This is, indeed, an objection that muft be clearly answered, or it will deftroy this favourite hypothefis of Mr. Norden's, that Alexandria was raifed from the ruins of Memphis. He obferves, therefore, that in Alexander's time, there was no longer any tafte, even in Egypt, for the old Egyptian architecture, that Greece, tho' fhe de rived the principles of that art from the Egyptians, had changed their way of building, into one that was more light, and ornamented in a different manner; and that he had neither the immenfe riches, nor quantity of materials and workmen, neceffary for fuch folid edifices. Here, perhaps, our Readers will be ready to afk, what has this to do with hieroglyphics, and materials ready for ufe? Alexander, according to Mr. Norden, being accustomed, from his youth, to the Grecian architecture, would not change it for that of a country he had conquered; and, in cutting down, to a proper fize, the materials with which the ruins of Memphis might furnish him, the hieroglyphics must be loft: which, probably, gave the Greeks little concern, as they had no reverence for them on a religious account, and were, moreover, totally ignorant of their meaning. Befides, how improper would it be to make ufe of a pillar covered with hieroglyphics, together with a pillar of the Corinthian Order?

If this anfwer prove not fatisfactory to our Readers, as very likely it may not, Memphis muft remain in its own ruins, and the canal muft be restored to Cleopatra. If you afk, what is become of the ruins of Alexandria itfelf? the answer is, great

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part of them are ftill on the fpot, either above, or under ground; and fome have been tranfported to Europe. It is but little, indeed, that is carried away at once, but this in time will amount to a great deal.

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If you enquire of Mr. Norden after the tomb of Alexan der, the Serapeum, Museum, &c. he will tell you, that he could find no traces of them, tho' he took all poffible pains to difcover them. Alexander's tomb is faid, by one author, in the fifteenth century, to have exifted at that time, and to have been refpected by the Saracens ; but the inhabitants have no tradition left about it. Our Author enquired, and fearched it.8M for it in vain. This difcovery, fays he, may be referved for fome future traveller. The fame is faid of the Serapeum. He could discover no traces of that magnificent temple; but thinks ruins may be hid under one of the hills or mounts he has mentioned. From what the feventy Interpreters have faid, he determines the fituation of the Museum to have been where the leffer Pharillon now is. However, adds he, you may, if you think proper, fuppofe it to have been between that and the palace; but he advifes you, in this refearch, to keep near the port, and then cautions you not to difpofe of the different quar ters of the city, as the author of Remarks upon the Commentaries of Cæfar, published in England, has done. He is a little fevere upon this Editor, and upon the great architect, Palladio, whom that Editor is faid to have followed, and whom Mr. Norden charges with having indulged himself in the fame liberty that painters take, who, in defigning the fcene of an hiftory-piece, reprefent, by imagination, places they

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Our Author opens his account of New Alexandria, in terms which we tranflate as follows. We may compare the new city of Alexandria to a poor orphan, who has no inheri tance left him but the honourable name of his father. The • vaft extent of the old city, is, in the new, reduced to fmall flip of land, lying between the two ports. The fplendid temples, are changed into inelegant mofques: the magnificent palaces, into ill-built houfes: the royal palace itself, into a place of confinement for flaves: a numerous and opulent people, are fucceeded by a few foreign traders, and a parcel of wretches, the fervants of thofe traders. A city once fo famous for the extent of its commerce, is now no more than a place to take, fhipping at. In fhort, it is not a phoenix raised out of its own afhes, but rather one of thofe vermin bred from the dirt, or duft, which has infected the whole country, by means of the Koran,

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ods This is a fketch of what Alexandria appears to be at preA ⚫ fent. It does not deferve a more particular defcription. The traveller to Egypt, however, could not well difpenfe with this tafk, as it is the first place at which he difembarks? here he begins to experience the manners and cuftoms of the country here he learns to fupport the rude behaviour of a grofs, ftupid people, ever averle to ftrangers; and to form fome idea of the inconveniencies and difagreeablenefs that he may promife himself if he goes further; in fine, here The enters, as a novice, on his travels into Egyptens aidOn your arrival you pay a triffe for your baggage. Nothing you carry there is contraband. The merchant to whom your goods are configned, takes care of them, and provides you with lodging and entertainment. Merchandife, of all forts, pays a duty according to the money to be raised upon the fubject, by order of the Grand Signor, or according to treaty. This duty is farmed out, generally, to a Jew. The Turk does not care to be concerned, for fear of appearing too rich, and of the confequences that would follow. One would imagine that thofe Europeans who are in alliance with the Porte, and pay fo much [our Author does not tell us how much per cent. lefs than those who must pay the tax levied by the Grand Signor, would carry on a much more advantageous commerce than any other traders, but it is not fo; for the Jews and Turks at Alexandria, always under-fell them; which they are, in fome measure, enabled to do, by agreeing with the farmer of the duties, for the whole time he is employed: to which he is glad to agree, upon moderate terms, as he knows they would not otherwife import any confiderable quantity of merchandife for the two firft years of his farming the duties. There may be about twelve principal Jew-merchants at Alexandria; the reft of that people are retailers, and under abfolute fubjection to the richer Jews. The most refpectable among them are foreigners, from Conftantinople, Portugal, or Leghorn. It is not to be imagined, that the Jews who refide at Alexandria are the heads of families; fuch generally fettle at Leghorn, and from thence extend their families and trade to Alexandria, Cairo, Aleppo, Conftantinople, Tunis, Tripoli, and every trading town in the Mediterranean, particularly in the Levant. At Alexandria they have neither privilege nor protection; but by their intrigues, and application to the chief perfons in power, who refide at Cairo, they manage their affairs to great advantage. They pay dear for it at firft; but thefe expences turn out to their advantage in the end.1979oledw of Jay ausiai nedish I cogs to ig After

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