Pompey's Pillar

The column has nothing to do with Pompey: it was raised in 297 AD in honour of Diocletian, probably to mark the end of a siege and the relief of the city, and the misattribution comes from medieval travellers. It is a single shaft of Aswan red granite around twenty-seven metres tall including base and capital, one of the largest monolithic columns ever erected, and it stands almost alone on a low mound of rubble. That mound is the site of the Serapeum, the great temple of Serapis that also housed a daughter library of the Alexandrian collection, destroyed in 391 AD when Christianity became dominant in the city. Underground galleries survive beneath it, along with two granite sphinxes and a Nilometer, and excavation continues around the edges.

What you actually see

• A twenty-seven-metre granite monolith - one shaft of Aswan stone.
• The Serapeum mound - the platform of the destroyed temple of Serapis.
• Underground galleries - passages surviving beneath the temple ground.
• Granite sphinxes - flanking figures set out on the terrace.

When to go

April to November. One hour, usually combined with the catacombs a few streets away. Mornings are cooler and the light is better on the column from the east side.

Honest expectations

There is one column and a rubble field, so the visit is short and can feel thin for the ticket price. The site is fenced in a run-down district with a cemetery alongside. Interpretation is limited to a few panels. Underground galleries are not always open.

Nearby

The catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa are a short walk; Kom El Dikka is toward the centre.