Archaeological site · Egypt
Pompey's Pillar and the Serapeum
عمود السواري
Diocletian's towering late-3rd-century column, popularly called Pompey's Pillar, beside the ruins of Alexandria's Serapeum temple.
Where it is
31.1822, 29.8963
Why go
The great granite column on this Alexandrian hill was raised for the emperor Diocletian in the late 290s AD; the name linking it to Pompey is a later mistake. It stands beside what remains of the Serapeum, the main temple of Serapis, the god promoted as Egypt's national deity in the Graeco-Roman era. The temple was destroyed after Emperor Theodosius banned pagan worship in 391 AD. Today the column and the excavated temple ground form one archaeological park, a short way from the Kom el-Shoqafa catacombs.
Near Pompey's Pillar and the Serapeum
Archaeological site
Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa
Roman-era underground catacombs in Alexandria whose reliefs blend ancient Egyptian and Greek funerary art.
1 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Archaeological site
Kom el-Dikka
An excavated Roman and Byzantine quarter in central Alexandria with a marble odeon, baths, lecture halls and the Villa of the Birds mosaics.
2 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Synagogue
Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue
A basilica-plan synagogue on Nabi Daniel Street in Alexandria, rededicated by the antiquities ministry in January 2020 after restoration.
2 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Museum
Graeco-Roman Museum
Alexandria’s museum devoted to Egypt during the Greek and Roman periods.
2 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ