Temples pompous with lofty roofs

At the highest point on a hill overlooking the hippodrome, was the Serapeum, a defining feature of Alexandrian topography (figure 45.4). The fourth-century historian, Ammianus Marcellinus wrote of a cityscape studded with ‘‘temples

Figure 45.4 Alexandria, Temple of Serapis, after 298, axonometric reconstruction. Sheila Gibson, after McKenzie: 2007.

Pompous with lofty roofs’’ and commented that ‘‘conspicuous among them is the Serapeum, which... is so adorned with extensive columned halls, with almost breathing statues, and a great number of other works of art, that next to the Capitolium, with which revered Rome elevates herself to eternity, the whole world beholds nothing more magnificent” (McKenzie 2007: 245). This was the acropolis of Alexandria.

One entered the Serapeum by an imposing flight of steps, which led up to the great rectangular portico enclosing a courtyard in which were a pool, stairs down to underground passageways, a Nilometer (an ancient instrument for measuring the height of the inundation of the Nile), and the main temple, which was dedicated to Serapis and housed the renowned colossal cult statue of the god. One Christian visitor of the later fourth century, Rufinus of Aquileia, described optical feats utilizing the advanced scientific knowledge Alexandria had been famous for since Ptolemaic times, such that, for example, the mouth of the statue would seem to be kissed by a ray of sunlight. Accommodated in rooms behind the portico were smaller shrines, living quarters of priests, and library study rooms for interested scholars.