Serapeum of Alexandria: Travel Guide (4.3★)

A column with the wrong name

One shaft of granite, and everything else lies below it. Pompey’s Pillar rises from the top of a rubble-strewn hill in Karmouz. It is a single polished column of red Aswan granite, roughly 27 metres tall, standing over the foundations of a temple that once held one of the ancient world’s great book collections.

Pompey never saw it. The column went up around 297 AD to honour the emperor Diocletian, and its Greek dedication says so. Medieval travellers decided an urn on top held Pompey’s head, and the name stuck. Locals still call it Amoud El Sawari, the “column of the horsemen.”

What remains on Rhakotis hill

The hill was the ancient Rhakotis, the Egyptian quarter older than Alexander’s city. Ptolemy III built the Serapeum here for Serapis, the hybrid god the Ptolemies invented to unite Greek and Egyptian worship. It housed the “daughter library” of the Library of Alexandria. Christian crowds under the patriarch Theophilus destroyed the temple in 391 AD.

What you walk through today is the aftermath, and the scale still reads. Expect:

• The pillar itself, on a stepped base you can circle and touch.
• Granite sphinxes from the Ptolemaic period, flanking the approach.
• Underground galleries cut into the bedrock, lined with niches, cool and dim after the glare above.
• Scattered column drums, blocks and a Nilometer, spread across the excavated ground.

The black basalt Apis bull found here now lives in the Graeco-Roman Museum. Treat the hill as the setting and the museum as the contents.

Getting to Karmouz

Karmouz is a working neighbourhood south of downtown, not a tourist strip. The simplest route is a taxi or a ride-hailing car from Raml Station or the Corniche. The trip is short, though traffic around the Mahmoudiya area can slow it.

Give the driver “Amoud El Sawari” rather than “Serapeum.” The Arabic name is the one everyone recognises. The entrance is on the street side of the hill, and the ticket window is at the gate.

Walking the site without a hired guide

Unofficial guides tend to wait near the entrance and fall into step beside you. If you want one, agree on what you’re paying before the tour starts. If you don’t, a polite “la, shukran” (no, thank you) said once and firmly usually ends it.

A few habits that make the visit smoother:

• Carry Egyptian pounds in small notes. Don’t count on a card reader at the gate.
• Baksheesh is normal if a custodian unlocks a gallery or poses you for a photo. Small change is fine, and it’s always optional.
• Check what the ticket covers. Photography rules are posted at the ticket office, and phones are generally fine.
• Dress for a modest city. Covered shoulders and knees fit in easily in Karmouz.

The site is very popular, and coach groups usually arrive mid-morning. Arriving close to 9am, when the gates open, tends to get you the sphinxes without a crowd.

Timing, heat and what to wear

There is almost no shade on the hill. The granite and limestone soak up the sun, so a midday visit in summer is harder going than the short distance suggests. October to April is the comfortable season. Mornings are best year-round.

Bring a hat and water. Wear shoes with grip: the gallery steps are worn smooth and the ground above is uneven rubble. Allow 45 minutes to an hour. That covers a slow lap of the column, the sphinxes and the tunnels.

At the moment the site opens 9am–5pm. Egyptian heritage sites adjust their hours with the season and around holidays, so confirm on the official Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities channels before you plan a late visit.

Pairing it with the catacombs

The Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa are a few minutes’ walk away in the same neighbourhood. They’re a Roman-era burial complex where Egyptian gods appear in Roman armour, and doing both makes a natural half-day.

Head north afterwards for the Roman Amphitheatre at Kom El Dikka near downtown. Then finish at the Graeco-Roman Museum to see what was carried off this hill. The order works backwards in time and forwards in context.