Pompey’s Pillar’ and the Sphinx at Alexandria. On a hill in the oldest part of Alexandria in the south-west of the city, are the ruins of the Serapeum, bordered on the north by a large Muslim cemetery. Little remains today of the cult centre of the god Serapis who was created when the cult of Osiris was merged with the Apis cult (and several Greek gods) during the reign of Ptolemy I. The king built a small temple to Serapis, only to be replaced with a later temple by Ptolemy III and a gold plaqu