support leaves of metal of better workmanship, which would be
much less liable to injury, and of which many examples occur at
Baalbec and Palmyra.
The foundation of this column consists of two tier of stones.
An arab endeavoured to blow up the column, in order to make
himself master of the treasures, which he supposed to be buried
underneath. His plan miscarried, however; for the explosion of
his mine only displaced a few of the stones on one side, thus exposing
to view a block of white marble, covered with hieroglyphics
in an inverted position, which show it to have been a fragment
of some egyptian antiquity. On this block the centre of the
pillar rests, as on a pivot. There are among the stones of the
foundation another piece of marble of a yellowish colour spotted
with red, which has likewise it’s hieroglyphics, but much damaged,
a piece of a small column, and some other fragments of marble
that have nothing remarkable.
Some english seamen, who took it into their heads to drink a
bowl of punch on the top of it for a frolic, found theTe a hole,
which first gave reason to suppose, that a statue had been erected
upon it. Mr. Norry informs us, that it is a circular cavity, six
feet and half in diameter, and about two inches and half deep,
which he imagines contained the base of a statue.
Much labour has been spent by the learned in fruitless endeavours
to ascertain the time when it was erected, and the purpose
for which it was designed. Many have been inclined to
suppose it erected in honour of Severus, who visited the city of
Alexandria, and conferred on it various benefits; and Abulfeda