Suchem, L. de, « Ludolph von Suchem’s. Description of the Holy Land », in The Palestine Pilgrims’ Text Society, vol. XII, Londres, 1897.

Ludolph de suchem était recteur de la paroisse de Suchem (1), dans le diocèse de Paderborn.

p. 45-47 :

XXIV – The cities by the sea

« To return to my subject, one sails from Cyprus to some one of the cities by the sea, in either Egypt or Syria. These cities are as follows : Alexandria, Tripoli, Beyrout, Byblium, Jaffa, Sidon, Tyre, Acre. Before going any further I will say somewhat about these, that you may know them. They all have been given different names to those which they bore of old, after the Holy Land has been lost and won so many times, and therefore I will say a little about them, that you may know to whose lot these cities fell when the Holy Land was won by the Christians. You must know that none of these cities are more than a day’s journey distant from Cyprus. Now, Alexandria is the first seaside city of Egypt, and one of the best of the Soldan’s cities. On one side it stands on the Nile, the river of Paradise, which falls into the sea close by it, and its other side is on the sea. This city is exceeding beauteous and strong, and is fenced about with lofty towers and walls (p. 46) which seem impregnable. It was once inhabited by the Christians, and is now by the Saracens, and within it is exceeding clean, being all whitewashed, and in the corner of every street it has a fountain of water running through pipes ; the city is carefully kept clean by watchmen, whose duty it is to see that no dirt be cast into the streets or fountain by anybody. In this city the Soldan keeps mercenary soldiers and his bodyguard, who guard the city and harbour. St. Mark the Evangelist was Patriarch in this city, and was martyred there, and in succession to him there still remains a Christian Patriarch there. In this city there still stands entire to this day a great and exceeding beauteous church, adorned in divers fashions with mosaic work and marble, wherein at the request of the Venitians Divine service is celebrated everyday. Indeed, many other churches are still standing in Alexandria at this day, and in them rest the bodies of many saints. There are also many Christians and merchants living there. This city appears to the human eye to be impregnable, and yet it could be easily taken. I do not care to say any more about this matter. This city, which was of old called Alexandria, is now called Iscandria by its inhabitants. Near Alexandria is a place where St. Katherine was beheaded, and from whence she was borne by angels to Mount Sinai, a distant of about eifhteen days’journey, and there are many holy places and places of prayer in that city. Not far from Alexandria there is a village, all of whose inhabitants are Saracen workpeople, who weave mats wondrous well in divers fashions and with most curious skill. In this place or village stands a fair little church, wherein is a small grotto. In this grotto it is believed that St. John the Baptist was beheaded. The grotto is believed to have been a prison, and is known because of the position of the place, which is on (p. 47) the border of Egypt and Arabia. These same Saracen workpeople guard the grotto with the uttermost care and reverence, lighting it with lamps and candels, and each one of them according to his means pays some especial reverence to the church and grotto ; fot they firmly believe and say that it has been proved by experience that if they did not hold the church in such great respect, and were to leave it unlighted for one night, rats would come forth from the ground and would pull to pieces and spoil all their matwork ; and they say that the more respect a man shows for the church and grotto aforesaid, the better he succeeds in his work. This place where the church now stands was of old called Metharonta in Arabic.

p. 78 :
« Its people have two brazen columns with marks thereon. One of these they have set up in the middle of the Nile near babylon, and the other in the Nile near Alexandria, and when the river rises so high as to touch the marks on the columns, then there cannot be any scarcity for two years to come. Thereupon the Egyptians lead waters of the Nile through ditches and channels and passages, and cause them to run about their land, their fields, woods, gardens, and orchards, which are then refreshed and watered throughout, and when the land has been thus watered at night, the corn and grass will have grown more than a hand’s breadth by morning. »