The Serapeum at Alexandria
The Serapeum at Alexandria This was built by Ptolemy I and Pompey’s pillar is part of it, but the Serapeum was dedicated to the god Serapis. entire Serapeum was destroyed in 391 AD. And there are several remains such as the sphinxes, a large scarab and the pillar. Serapeum is the Latin name for a temple or other religious building.
Serapis is a combination of Osiris and the bull god Apis. The famous Serapeum was located in Alexandria.
But the Serapeum especially for the Apis bull located in Sakkara is much older but has the same name.
The Serapeum of Alexandria was built under Ptolemy III and Euergetes I, 246–221 BC. It was located in the southwestern part of Alexandria.
The famous pillar of Pompey was built in the year 297 AD. founded by Emperor Diocletian. Besides being a temple, the Serapeum also had another function. Part of the collection of the famous Library of Alexandria was housed there.
According to the historian Diodoros Siculus, the Serapeum was an annex of the great library.
The books in the Serapeum were for scholars not affiliated with the Mouseion, and the books were copies of books from the great library.
The Serapeum was plundered and destroyed in the year 392 AD by monks led by Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria on the basis of an edict from Emperor Theodosius I. The books were destroyed in a book burning. In 1851, Auguste Mariette discovered in Sakkara, the necropolis of Memphis, the dromos of a sphinx avenue of Nectanebo I that led to the temple of Nectanebo II. From there another dromos walked towards the Serapeum. This was the burial place of the Apis bulls.
Bulls had been buried in Saqqara since Amenhotep III, but Ramses II had his son Chaemwashet, high priest of Ptah in Memphis, build an underground gallery with smaller vaults.
Psammetichus I added a larger gallery with larger vaults. The Apis bulls were buried in large sarcophagi, each individually in a burial chamber. Stelas have also been built into the walls that enclosed the rooms, with information about the reign of a certain pharaoh. The last bull was buried here during the time of Cleopatra VII.
