Alexandria

a seaport city of Egypt, situated on the Delta of the Nile. It was founded by Alexander the Great, and named for himself, 332 B. C. After the death of its founder, Alexandria became the seat of the Ptolemies, and was adorned with great magnificence. The ancient city was about fifteen miles in circumference, and was intersected by two main streets, crossing it at right angles in the center, thus dividing the city into four quarters. These streets were lined by magnificent colonnades, running their entire length. There were many noted buildings. The museum was a sort of university in which learned men were maintained at public expense. The Alexandrian Library was the most noted in the world. An emporium or exchange was built for the convenience of caravans and of the merchants who came to Alexandria by sea from all parts of the world. The Necropolis, the most magnificent burial ground of antiquity, lay west of the city. A race course with seats for spectators was built on the opposite side. Of numerous imposing monuments, Pompey's Pillar, a shaft of red granite seventy-five feet high, still stands; two obelisks known as Cleopatra's Needles lay half buried in the sand for centuries. One of them now stands on the Thames embankment in London, the other has been set up in Central Park, New York City.

The population of ancient Alexandria is variously estimated; but, in the time of its greatest prosperity, it is thought to have included 600,000 inhabitants, half slaves, half free. Under the Ptolemies it ranked with Rome and Antioch as one of the three great cities of the world. The kingdom of the Ptolemies was finally conquered by Rome about 30 B. C. Alexandria declined somewhat in importance. Some idea of its great extent may be derived, however, from a statement made by the historian Gibbon to the effect that, when conquered by the Arabs in 641 A. D., it still contained 4,000 palaces; 4,000 baths; 400 theaters or places of amusement, and 12,000 shops for the sale of vegetables. The population gradually declined to less than 2,000.

A modern city, built farther into the sea than the old one, now contains a population of about 400,000 Arabs, Turks, Jews, Copts, Greeks, and people from western Europe. The European part of the city is well paved and is lined with attractive hotels, cafes, stores, and places of business. The city is connected by canal and railroad with the Nile and the Suez Canal. A harbor, artificially protected by a mole costing $10,000,000, is the finest on the Mediterranean. In place of the old Pharos, one of the seven wonders of the world, a modern lighthouse, whose beams may be seen twenty miles at sea, lights the way into the harbor. The student should therefore bear in mind two cities: one, an ancient, magnificent Alexandria, the seat of government of the Ptolemies, the home of the Alexandrian Library and philosophy, the resort of caravans; the other, a modern commercial city, the metropolis of a new Egypt, and an eager sharer in the commerce that passes through the Suez Canal.

When Alexander reached the Egyptian military station at the little town or village of Rhakotis, he saw with the quick eye of a great commander how to turn this petty settlement into a great city, and to make its roadstead, out of which ships could be blown by a change of wind, into a double harbour roomy enough to shelter the navies of the world. All that was needed was to join the island by a mole to the continent. The site was admirably secure and convenient,--a narrow strip of land between the Mediterranean and the great inland Lake Mareotis. The whole northern side faced the two harbours, which were bounded east and west by the mole, and beyond by the long, narrow, rocky island of Pharos, stretching parallel with the coast. On the south was the inland port of Lake Mareotis.--R. S. Poole, Cities of Egypt.

Let us not forget the vast number of strangers from all parts of the world whom trade and politics brought there. It was the great mart where the wealth of Europe and of Asia changed hands. Alexander had opened the seaway by exploring the coasts of Media and Persia. Caravans from the head of the Persian Gulf, and ships on the Red Sea, brought all the wonders of Ceylon and China, as well as of Further India, to Alexandria. There, too, the wealth of Spain and Gaul, the produce of Italy and Macedonia, the amber of the Baltic and the salt fish of Pontus, the silver of Spain and the copper of Cyprus, the timber of Macedonia and Crete, the pottery and oil of Greece-a thousand imports from all the Mediterranean-came to be exchanged for the spices of Arabia, the splendid birds and embroideries of India and Ceylon, the gold and ivory of Africa, the antelopes, the apes, the leopards, the elephants of tropical climes.--J. P. Mahaffy, The story of Alexander's Empire.