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This page is about Alexandria in Egypt. For other uses see Alexandria (disambiguation).

Alexandria (in Arabic, Iskenderia) is a city and chief seaport in Egypt on the Mediterranean Sea. It was named after Alexander the Great, who founded the city, and was the home of Euclid. For over a thousand years from its foundation it was the capital of the country, the seat of the Ptolemaic dynasty, and quickly became one of the greatest cities of the Hellenistic world, and has remained one of the largest and most important cities of Egypt ever since; nowadays it is the nation's second largest city and still an important center of Hellenism.

It is located at 31°12'N, 29°15'E, 208 km (129 miles) northwest of Cairo. The Canopic mouth of the Nile (now dry) was 19 km (12 miles) east, near the ancient city of Canopus.


A major new library and cultural complex, Bibliotheca Alexandrina[?], has been built with the help of the United Nations. See the library's official web site (http://www.bibalex.gov.eg/) for details, or find out more through http://www.unesco.org/webworld/alexandria_new/ and http://google.com/search?q=bibliotheca+Alexandrina

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1 External links

The Modern City


The Place Mehemet Ali, usually called the Grand Square, is an oblong open space, tree-lined, in the center of which there is an equestrian statue of the prince after whom it is named. The square is faced with handsome buildings mainly in the Italian style. The most important are the law courts, exchange, Ottoman bank, English church and the Abbas Hilmi theatre.

On the Ras et-Tin promontory, overlooking the harbour, is the khedivial[?] yacht club (built 1903) and the palace, also called Ras et-Tin, built by Mehemet Ali[?]. In the district between the Grand Square and the western harbour, one of the poorest quarters of the city, is an open space with Fort Caffareli or Napoleon in the center.

In the southern part of the city are the Arab cemetery, "Pompey's Pillar" and the catacombs of Alexandria[?]. "Pompey's Pillar," which stands on the highest spot in Alexandria, is about 30m (99 feet) high, including the pedestal. The shaft is of red granite and is beautifully polished. Roughly 3 meters in diameter at the base, it tapers to two and a half meters at the top. The catacombs, a short distance southwest of the pillar, are hewn out of the rocky slope of a hill, and are an elaborate series of chambers adorned with pillars, statues, religious symbols and traces of painting.


The Ancient City

The Greek Alexandria was divided into three regions:

  1. the Jews' quarter, forming the northeast portion of the city;

Two main streets, lined with colonnades and said to have been each about 60 meters (200 feet) wide, intersected in the centre of the city, close to the point where rose the Sema (or Soma) of Alexander (i.e. his Mausoleum). This point is very near the present mosque of Nebi Daniel; and the line of the great east-west "Canopic" street only slightly diverged from that of the modern Boulevard de Rosette. Traces of its pavement and canal have been found near the Rosetta Gate, but better remains of streets and canals were exposed in 1899 by German excavators outside the east fortifications, which lie well within the area of the ancient city.



  3. The Poseideion[?], or Temple of the Sea God, close to the Theatre
  4. The Timonium built by Mark Antony
  5. The Emporium (Exchange)
  6. The Apostases (Magazines)
  8. Behind the Emporium rose the Great Caesareum, by which stood the two great obelisks, each later known as "Cleopatra's Needle[?]," and now removed to New York and London. This temple became in time the Patriarchal Church, some remains of which have been discovered; but the actual Caesareum, so far as not eroded by the waves, lies under the houses lining the new sea-wall.
  9. The Gymnasium and the Palaestra[?] are both inland, near the Boulevard de Rosette in the eastern half of the town; sites unknown.
  10. The Temple of Saturn; site unknown.
  12. The Museum with its library and theatre in the same region; site unknown.

We know the names of a few other public buildings on the mainland, but nothing as to their position. On the eastern point of the Pharos island stood the Great Lighthouse, one of the "Seven Wonders," reputed to be 122 meters (400 feet) high. The first Ptolemy began it, and the second completed it, at a total cost of 800 talents. It is the prototype of all lighthouses in the world. A temple of Hephaestus also stood on Pharos at the head of the mole. In the Augustan age the population of Alexandria was estimated at 300,000 free folk, in addition to an immense number of slaves.

Ancient and medieval period

Founded in 332 BC by Alexander the Great, Alexandria was intended to supersede Naucratis[?] as a Greek centre in Egypt, and to be the link between Macedonia and the rich Nile Valley[?]. If such a city was to be on the Egyptian coast, there was only one possible site, behind the screen of the Pharos island and removed from the silt thrown out by Nile mouths. An Egyptian townlet, Rhacotis, already stood on the shore and was a resort of fishermen and pirates. Behind it there were five native villages scattered along the strip between Lake Mareotis and the sea, according to a history of Alexander attributed to the author known as pseudo-Callisthenes.

Alexander occupied Pharos, and had a walled city marked out by Deinocrates of Rhodes[?] on the mainland to include Rhacotis. A few months later he left Egypt for the East and never returned to his city; but his corpse was ultimately entombed there. His viceroy, Cleomenes[?], continued the creation of Alexandria. The Heptastadion, however, and the mainland quarters seem to have been mainly Ptolemaic work. Inheriting the trade of ruined Tyre and becoming the center of the new commerce between Europe and the Arabian and Indian East, the city grew in less than a century to be larger than Carthage; and for some centuries more it was second only to Rome.

It was not only a center of Hellenism, but was also the greatest Jewish city in the world. There the Septuagint was produced. The early Ptolemies kept it in order and fostered the development of its museum into the leading Greek university but they were careful to maintain the distinction of its population into three nations, "Macedonian" (i.e. Greek), Jew and Egyptian. One of the earliest inhabitants was the geometer and number-theorist Euclid.

From this division arose much of the later turbulence which began to manifest itself under Ptolemy Philopater, who reigned 221-204 BC. Nominally a free Greek city, Alexandria retained its senate to Roman times; and indeed the judicial functions of that body were restored by Septimius Severus, after temporary abolition by Augustus. The city passed formally under Roman jurisdiction in 80 BC, according to the will of Ptolemy Alexander[?]: but it had been under Roman influence for more than a hundred years previously. There Julius Caesar dallied with Cleopatra in 47 BC and was mobbed by the rabble[?]; there his example was followed by Marc Antony, for whose favor the city paid dear to Octavian, who placed over it a prefect from the imperial household.


This latter fact, doubtless, was one of the chief reasons which induced Augustus to place it directly under imperial power. In AD 215 the emperor Caracalla visited the city; and, in order to repay some insulting satires that the inhabitants had made upon him, he commanded his troops to put to death all youths capable of bearing arms. This brutal order seems to have been carried out even beyond the letter, for a general massacre was the result.

Even as its main historical importance had formerly sprung from pagan learning, so now it acquired fresh importance as a centre of Christian theology and church government. There Arianism was formulated and there Athanasius, the great opponent of both heresy and pagan reaction, worked and triumphed.


In 616 it was taken by Khosrau II, king of Persia; and in 640 by the Arabians, under Amr ibn al-As[?], after a siege that lasted fourteen months. The city received no aid from Constantinople during that time; Byzantine Emperor Heraclius was dead and the new Emperor Constantine III was barely twelve years old. Notwithstanding the losses that the city had sustained, Amr was able to write to his master, the caliph Omar, that he had taken a city containing "4,000 palaces, 4,000 baths, 12,000 dealers in fresh oil, 12,000 gardeners, 40,000 Jews who pay tribute, 400 theatres or places of amusement."

See Library of Alexandria for stories and theories regarding its destruction at about this time.

After Amr

Shortly after its capture Alexandria again fell into the hands of the Greeks, who took advantage of Amr's absence with the greater portion of his army. On hearing what had happened, however, Amr returned, and quickly regained possession of the city. About the year 646 Amr was deprived of his government by the caliph Othman[?]. Amr was greatly beloved by the Egyptians; they threatened such a revolt over this that the Greek emperor was determined to reduce Alexandria.



Alexandria figured prominently in the military operations of Napoleon's Egyptian expedition of 1798. The French troops stormed the city on July 2, 1798, and it remained in their hands until the arrival of the British expedition of 1801. The battle of Alexandria, fought on March 21 that year between the French and the British, took place near the ruins of Nicopolis[?], on the narrow spit of land between the sea and Lake Abukir.

The 1800s


Being the starting-point of the "overland route" to India, and the residence of the chief foreign consuls, it quickly acquired a European character and attracted not only French residents, but great numbers of Greeks, Jews and Syrians. There most of the negotiations between the powers and Mehemet All were conducted; from there started the Egyptian naval expeditions to Crete, the Morea[?] and Syria; and thither sailed the betrayed Ottoman fleet in 1839. It was twice threatened by hostile fleets, the Greek in 1827 and the combined British, French and Russian squadrons in 1828.

The latter withdrew on the viceroy's promise that Ibrahim should evacuate the Morea. The fortifications were strengthened in 1841, and remained in an antiquated condition until 1882, when they were renovated by Arabi Pasha[?]. Alexandria was connected with Cairo by railway in 1856.

Much favored by the earlier viceroys of Mehemet Ali's house, and removed from the Mameluke troubles, Alexandria was the real capital of Egypt until Said Pasha[?] died there in 1863 and Ismail Pasha[?] came into power. Though this prince continued to develop the city, giving it a municipality in 1861 and new harbour works in 1871-1878, he developed Cairo still more; and the center of gravity definitely shifted to the inland capital.

Bombardment of 1882

Fate, however, again brought Alexandria to the front. After a mutiny of soldiers there in 1881, the town was greatly excited by the arrival of an Anglo-French fleet[?] in May 1882, and on June 11 a terrible riot and massacre took place, resulting in the death of four hundred Europeans.

Since satisfaction was not given for this and the forts were being strengthened at the instigation of Arabi Pasha, the war minister, the British admiral, Sir Beauchamp Seymour[?] (afterwards Lord Alcester), sent an ultimatum on July 10 and opened fire on the forts the next day. They were demolished, but as no troops were landed immediately a fresh riot and massacre ensued.


Alexandria has greatly expanded since then. As the British consular report for 1904 says, "Building ... for residential and other purposes proceeds with almost feverish rapidity. The cost of living has doubled and the price of land has risen enormously."



The past and present directors of the museum have been enabled from time to time to carry out systematic excavations when opportunity offered; Mr D. G. Hogarth made tentative researches on behalf of the Egypt Exploration Fund and the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies in 1895; and a German expedition worked for two years (1898-1899). But two difficulties face the would-be excavator in Alexandria.







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