Serapeum of Alexandria

The Serapeum of Alexandria was one of antiquity's most renowned temples, dedicated to the composite god Serapis and founded by the early Ptolemies to fuse Greek and Egyptian religion in their new capital. In its prime it stood among the grandest sanctuaries of the ancient Mediterranean and housed a daughter collection of the legendary Library of Alexandria.

The temple's history is dramatic and often violent. Enlarged under the Ptolemies and Romans, it became a stronghold of pagan learning until it was destroyed in 391, when the sanctuary was demolished during the religious upheavals of the late Roman city. What survived the ages is a fraction of the original, yet the site still conveys the scale of what once rose here.

Today the hilltop is dominated by Pompey's Pillar, a towering red-granite column erected in the late third century, flanked by granite sphinxes and the sub-structures of the temple carved into the bedrock. Underground galleries and cisterns can be explored, giving a sense of the platforms and storerooms that supported the vanished shrine above.

The site is easy to reach in the Karmous district, a short taxi ride from central Alexandria and often combined with the nearby catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa. Interpretation panels outline the temple's plan, and the elevated ground offers a broad view over the surrounding city. Wear sturdy shoes for the uneven rock-cut passages, bring water and sun protection for the exposed summit, and go earlier in the day when light on the pink granite is at its best. Though little of the temple itself remains, the combination of the great pillar, the sphinxes and the subterranean galleries makes this one of Alexandria's essential windows onto its ancient past.