The most famous ancient monument is Pompey’s Pillar, a granite construction that thrusts upward to a height of 25m, named by Crusaders who mistakenly imagined that it had some connection with Pompey. The pillar actually dares from the time of Diocletian, several centuries later, and was part of the Serapium, a religious center where the rites of the cult of the bull god were conducted. Not surprisingly, the temple was leveled once the Roman Empire became Christian.

The Roman provincial governor raised the pillar, originally transported from Aswan, in honor of the emperor Diocletian’s role in subduing an Alexandrian revolt. The feisty emperor, (who would not have been well-loved by Amnesty International), swore that he would massacre the rebellious people until blood stained the knees of his horse; as he entered the cowering town his mount stumbled into a pool of blood, prematurely fulfilling Diocletian’s oath. Thus, the emperor did not sack the city, and the lone pillar remains as a symbol of the people’s gratitude to him and his klutzy horse. The ruins of the Serapium around the pillar have been excavated and : the best finds moved to the Greco-Roman museum.