Alexandria
Alexandria names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Alexandria a seaport city of Egypt
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
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.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city of Egypt, founded by Alexander the Great in 331 B. C. Before the city, in the Mediterranean, lay an island, up on the N. E. point of which stood the famous lighthouse, the Pharos, built in the time of Ptolemy I., in the 3d century B. c. and said to have been 400 feet high. The plan of Alexandria was designed by the architect Deinocrates, and its original extent is said to have been about 4 miles in length, with a circumference of 15 miles. It was intersected by two straight main streets, crossing each other at right angles in a large square, and adorned with handsome houses, temples, and public buildings. The most magnificent quarter of the city was that called the Brucheion, which ran from the center to the eastern harbor. This quarter of the city contained the palaces of the Ptolemies, the Museum, for centuries the focus of the intellectual life of the world, and the famous library; the mausoleum of Alexander the Great and of the Ptolemies, the temple of Poseidon, and the great theater. To the S. was the beautiful gymnasium. The Serapeum, or temple of Serapis, stood in the western division of the city, which formed the Egyptian quarter, and was called Rhacōtis; a small town of that name had occupied the site before the foundation of Alexandria. To the W. of the city lay the great Necropolis, and to the E. the race-course and suburbs of Nicopolis. From the time of its foundation, Alexandria was the Greek capital of Egypt. After the death of Alexander the Great, Alexandria became the residence of the Ptolemies. They made it, next to Rome and Antioch, the most magnificent city of antiquity, as well as the chief seat of Greek learning and literature. Alexandria had reached its greatest splendor when, on the death of Cleopatra, the last of the Ptolemies, in 30 B. C., it came into the possession of the Romans. In the reign of Caracalla, however, it suffered severely; and the rise of Constantinople promoted the decay of Alexandria. Christianity was introduced, according to tradition, by St. Mark. In the 2d century its adherents were very numerous. The Serapeum, the last seat of heathen theology and learning, was stormed by the Christians in 389 A. D., and converted into a Christian church. Alexandria was a chief seat of Christian theology till it was taken by the Arabs, under Amru, in 641, at which time it was much injured. The choice of Cairo as capital of the Egyptian caliphs hastened the now rapid decay of the city, and when, in 1517, the Turks took the place, the remains of its former splendor wholly vanished, walls and buildings being reduced to ruins. Under Mehemet Ali, however, the tide turned, and the city recovered rapidly. It is now again one of the most important commercial places on the Mediterranean. In 1882, during the rising of Arabi Pasha, serious damage was done to the city. The Europeans were maltreated; and as Arabi would not desist from strengthen ing the fortifications, an English fleet, in the interests of the Khedive, bombarded the forts of Alexandria, and British forces occupied the city. The present city (called Skanderieh by the Arabs) is not situated exactly on the site of the old one, but is chiefly built on the mole. The ever increasing Frankish quarters have quite a European appearance, and swarm with cafés, shops, theaters, and the like. The castle stands near the old Pharos, and the handsome new lighthouse has a revolving light, visible at a distance of 20 miles. Of the few remaining objects of antiquity the most prominent is Pompey's Pillar, as it is erroneously called. Pop. about 450,000.
Alexandria a city, port of entry
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city, port of entry, and county-seat of Alexandria co., Va.; on the Potomac river, the Pennsylvania and Southern railroads and trolley line connecting with Washington, D. C., and Mt. Vernon; 6 miles S. of Washington. The river here expands to the width of a mile, and gives the city an excellent harbor that will accommodate the largest ships. The city is an important trade center; has manufactures aggregating $20,000,000 in value annually; and is noted for its educational institutions, which include Washington High School, Potomac, Mt. Vernon and St. Mary's Academies, and, near by, the Theological Acade Seminary and High School of the Diocese of Virginia (Protestant Episcopal). There are two National banks, public school property valued at $35,000, and daily and weekly periodicals. General Braddock made his headquarters here in 1755, and Colonel Ellsworth was shot in the Marshall House, while removing a Confederate flag, in 1861. Pop. (1910) 15,329; (1920) 18,060.
Alexandria a city of Louisana
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city of Louisana, the county-seat of Rapides parish, about 192 miles N. W. of New Orleans. It is on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, the Louisiana and Arkansas, the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern, and other railroads. It is also on the Red river. The city is the center of important commercial and industrial interests, has manufactures of cotton, cottonseed oil, sugar, molasses, and lumber, and is also important as an agricultural center, producing corn, rice, fruit, and vegetables. The city has a handsome Government building, public library, Elks' Home, and an opera house. Pop. (1910) 11,213; (1920) 17,510.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 account puts the modern city at "about 400,000" and Collier's in 1921 still describes it largely through its ancient plan; greater Alexandria today holds roughly 5 million people and remains Egypt's chief port. The harbour these accounts praised has since become the site of the most dramatic finds of the past century: from 1994 French and Egyptian underwater teams began mapping the submerged royal quarter and the collapsed remains of the Pharos in the Eastern Harbour, recovering sphinxes, columns and colossal statuary from the sea floor. The Alexandrian Library, described here only as a memory, was answered in 2002 by the opening of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina on a site near the ancient one. Sea-level rise and land subsidence now threaten parts of the coastline these writers described as newly built out into the water.
Written for this edition, 2026.