Читать книгу The Journey: How an obscure Byzantine Saint became our Santa Claus - David Price Williams - Страница 67

We left at dawn the following morning and sailed into a sprightly breeze which drove us out into the open sea. Polios’ navigational skills were outstanding. He determined his course by watching the position of the rising sun and as it climbed the sky he adjusted his bearing accordingly. It was as though the ship was drawn unwaveringly towards its destination, which I already knew was to be the great city of Alexandria, one of the most important and certainly the largest of our Great Sea.

“You will find Alexandria quite over-whelming,” warned Polios. “It is so large and cosmopolitan you will come across every species of humanity there. You’ve got people of every colour and creed you can imagine. And the ideas bound up within the city walls are legion. It’s probably the most sophisticated place I’ve ever been. It has endless teaching colleges, philosophy schools, religious seminaries and commercial buildings and every commodity imaginable is sold there.”

“But probably the most outstanding thing,” he continued after a pause, “at least for us seamen, is the lighthouse. You’ve probably heard about it, but until you see it you can have no idea what to expect. It’s absolutely huge and will be the landmark we’ll aim for. Oh and another thing, Alexandria once had the biggest library in the world. At one time they said it had over half a million scrolls. Imagine that, all the books ever written! That’s one book for every two citizens! Yes, Alexandria has almost one million people living in the

DAVID PRICE WILLIAMS