Walk through the chaotic, sun-drenched streets of Alexandria, Egypt, and you’ll eventually hit a massive granite column standing alone on a hill. It’s huge. Honestly, the scale of the Pompey Pillar is hard to wrap your head around until you're standing right under it, staring up at nearly 30 meters of solid Aswan granite. It looks like it belongs in the middle of a massive temple complex, and once, it did. But today, it’s a solitary survivor.
People get the name wrong almost every single time.
The biggest myth—the one that’s been floating around since the Middle Ages—is that the Roman general Pompey is buried here. Legend says that after he lost to Julius Caesar and fled to Egypt, his head was put in a jar and placed on top of this column. It’s a cool story, but it’s completely fake. Medieval travelers just made it up because they needed a name for the landmark. In reality, the Pompey Pillar has absolutely nothing to do with Pompey.
If you look at the inscription on the base, which is still there if you know where to squint, it clearly states the column was built in honor of Emperor Diocletian around 297 AD. Diocletian had just crushed a rebellion in Alexandria and brought food to the starving city. The locals were so relieved (or perhaps just terrified and wanting to stay on his good side) that they hauled this 285-ton monolith up a hill to say thanks.
The Engineering Nightmare of Moving 285 Tons
Think about the logistics for a second. This isn’t a series of drums stacked on top of each other. It’s a monolith. A single piece of red granite. The Romans didn't have hydraulic cranes or diesel engines. They had ropes, wooden pulleys, and a lot of forced labor.
The stone came from Aswan. That’s hundreds of miles south. They had to quarry it, slide it onto a massive barge on the Nile, sail it north, and then drag it through the streets of Alexandria. Every time I think about the friction alone, my head hurts. The column sits on a foundation made of older stones—pieces of destroyed pharaonic temples—which is a classic Alexandria move. The city is basically a giant recycling project where every new empire built on the ruins of the last one.
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What Really Happened to the Serapeum?
The Pompey Pillar doesn't just sit in an empty field; it stands on the site of the Serapeum. This was the "daughter library" of the Great Library of Alexandria. It was the religious heart of the city, dedicated to Serapis, a god the Ptolemies basically invented to bridge the gap between Greeks and Egyptians.
The temple was magnificent. Then, 391 AD happened.
Emperor Theodosius I issued a decree to close all pagan temples. A mob of Christians, led by Bishop Theophilus, descended on the site. They didn't just pray; they demolished. They smashed the statues, tore down the walls, and burned the scrolls. Somehow, the pillar survived. Maybe it was too big to knock over easily. Maybe the mob got tired. Whatever the reason, it stayed standing while the rest of the temple became a pile of rubble.
If you walk down the stairs near the pillar today, you can actually go into the "sister library" tunnels. It’s dark, slightly damp, and feels remarkably heavy with history. You can see the niches in the walls where the scrolls used to sit. Standing there, you realize how much knowledge was actually lost when this place was sacked.
The Sphinxes and the Hidden Ruins
Most tourists take a photo of the pillar and leave. That’s a mistake. Scattered around the base are two pink granite sphinxes from the Ptolemaic era. They look a bit out of place, tucked away on the hill of Rhakotis (the original name of this neighborhood).
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The whole site is basically an archaeological jigsaw puzzle. You’ll see fragments of statues, broken capitals, and pieces of the original temple's foundation. It’s not "clean" like the pyramids or the Luxor temple. It’s messy. It feels like a construction site that’s been frozen for nearly two thousand years.
Common Misconceptions About the Site
- Is it the tallest in the world? No. But it is one of the largest monolithic columns ever erected. There’s a difference between stacking blocks and lifting a single piece of stone this heavy.
- Is there a secret tomb underneath? People have been digging for centuries looking for Alexander the Great’s tomb near here. We haven't found it. The tunnels are for scrolls and religious rituals, not royal burials.
- Was it built by the Greeks? No, it’s Roman. Even though Alexandria was a Greek-founded city, this specific monument is firmly in the Roman era of Egypt's long timeline.
Why You Should Actually Care
Alexandria is a city that hides its history. Unlike Cairo, where the monuments are impossible to miss, Alexandria’s past is often buried under apartment buildings or submerged in the Mediterranean. The Pompey Pillar is one of the few pieces of the ancient skyline that is still where it was meant to be.
It represents the moment when the ancient world was transitioning from paganism to Christianity. It’s a monument to an emperor who is often remembered for persecuting Christians, yet it stands in a city that became a center of the Christian world. The ironies are everywhere.
Actionable Tips for Visiting
If you're planning to see the Pompey Pillar, don't just show up at noon. You'll bake. The site is open-air, and the sun reflects off the white limestone and granite like a mirror.
Go early or late. The light around 4:00 PM is incredible for photos. The granite turns a deep, warm red.
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Hire a local guide at the gate. Not for the "history" you can read on Wikipedia, but to show you the specific tunnels and the marks on the stones that indicate how they were moved. Ask them about the "Nilometer" nearby—a device used to measure the Nile's flood levels.
Check out the Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa nearby. They are within walking distance (about 10-15 minutes). It makes sense to do both in one morning. The catacombs show that same weird mix of Egyptian and Roman styles you see at the pillar.
Bring small change. You’ll likely need it for the bathroom or a quick bottle of water. The neighborhood around the pillar, Karmouz, is one of the oldest and most traditional in the city. It’s loud, it’s real, and it’s the perfect place to grab some authentic ful medames after you’re done with the ruins.
The site doesn't take more than an hour to see, but the weight of what happened there—the destruction of the library, the rise of an empire, the sheer physics of the stone—will stay with you a lot longer.