ALEXANDER was the name of three kings of Sec* land, the particulars of whose reigns will be given un der the article SCOTLAND ; and of eight Popes, for whose history the reader may consult Dupin's lice/. Mist. Bower's Mist. of the Popes, and Mosheines C1/4urch (w) ALEXANDER's Tomn, a valuable relic of antiquity, now deposited in the British Museum, of which we have given a drawing in Plate IX, Fig. 2. It consists of a single block of stone above ten legit long, nearly four in height, and at a medium about five in breadth. It is of surprising beauty, and all sculptured over with an incredible variety of hieroglyphics, in a high state of presertation. Thc stone, of which the sarcophagus iz made, appears to be a particular kind of primitive con glomerate, resembling that which lies under the second porphyry formation.
On the death of AlcxamitT, his body was inshrined in a golden chase-work, fitted to the skin, rovered with a garment also of gold, ON Cr yv 1114 It we re put a purple vestment, and then his armour. TN% o cars v.ure oc cupied in preparations for his funeral ; N%11C11 his body, placed in a splendid car, was coma yeti from Baby Ion to Alexandria, with unequalh-d magnificence, mid the-re deposited in the tomb which was prepared for it by Pto lemy. Alexander was the thirteenth god of the p. tians. The Corabiasis also esteemed him a god, and thence his tomb was worshipped. Three centuries
after his death, Augustus the Boman emperor vie wed his body, still entire, and scattered Ilowers on his tomb, in token of his deification. Septimus Severus likewise visited it 202 years after Christ, and Caracalla a feet years afterwards. Before that period, Caligula had removed Aleander's breast-plate, and wore it himself.
Though his body long reposed in this sarcophagus, it was at length re1110 ved, at a period which is unknown The sarcophagus itself, however, continues to be ‘% or shipped by pious Nlahometans, clown to the present. clay ; and their jealousy having guarded it against the approach of Christians, few had seen it during several. centuries. But the French, whose penetrating researches have of late called many obscure, though valuable ob jects into light, despoiled the Turks of this precious re lic, during their incursion into Egypt. Though they carefully secreted their acquisition, as the richest trea sure, it was at last discovered in the hold of a ship, and included in the surrender to the British at Alexandria, in the year 1301. See &rabo, xvii. 1)i9dortem Si clans, lib. xv. Suctonitts,in Vita ...ingusti. Alexander's Egyptian Monuments., No. I. Dr Clarke's Tontb of .ilexander. (c)