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ALEXANDRIA (Arab. Iskenderia)
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See also:ALEXANDRIA (Arab. Iskenderia) , a See also:city and See also:chief seaport of See also:Egypt, and for over a thousand years from its See also:foundation the See also:capital of the See also:country, situated on the Mediterranean in 31° 12' N., 29° 15' E., and 129 m. by See also:rail N.W. of See also:Cairo The See also:ancient Canopic mouth of the See also:Nile (now dry) was 12 M . E . I . The See also:Modern City.—The city is built on the See also:strip of See also:land which separates the Mediterranean from See also:Lake See also:Mareotis (Mariut), and on a T-shaped See also:peninsula which forms harbours See also:east and See also:west . The See also:stem of the T was originally a See also:mole leading to an See also:island (Pharos) which formed the See also:cross-piece . In the course of centuries this mole has been silted up and is now an See also:isthmus See also:half a mile wide . On it a See also:part of the modern city is built . The cape at the western end of the peninsula is See also:Ras et-See also:Tin (Cape of See also:Figs); the eastern cape is known as Pharos or Kait See also:Bey . See also:South of the See also:town—between it and LakeMareotis—runs theMahmudiya See also:canal, which enters the western See also:harbour by a See also:series of locks . The customs See also:house and chief warehouses are by the western harbour, but the See also:principal buildings of the city are in the east and south-east quarters . From the landing-See also:stage, by the customs house, roads See also:lead to the See also:Place Mehemet See also:Ali, the centre of the See also:life of the city and the starting-point of the electric tram-ways . The place, usually called the See also:Grand Square, is an oblong open space, See also:tree-lined, in the centre of which there is an equestrian statue of the See also:prince after whom it is named .
The square is faced with handsome buildings mainly in the See also:Italian See also:style
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The most important are the See also:law courts, See also:exchange, See also:Ottoman See also:bank, See also:English See also: Equally obsolete is the old See also:line of fortifications which formerly marked the limits of the city south and east and has now been partly demolished . Throughout the central part of See also:Alexandria the streets are paved with blocks of See also:lava and lighted by See also:electricity . The See also:north See also:quarter is mainly occupied by natives and Levan-tines . The narrow winding streets and the Arab bazaars See also:present an See also:Oriental See also:scene contrasting with the See also:European aspect of the See also:district already described . This Arab quarter is traversed by the rue Ras et-Tin, leading to the promontory of that name . Here, overlooking the harbour, is the khedivial yacht See also:club (built 1903) and the palace, also called Ras et-Tin, built by Mehemet Ali, a large but not otherwise noteworthy building . 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 See also:Napoleon in the centre . This quarter has been pierced by several straight roads, one of which, See also:crossing the Mahmudiya canal by the See also:Pont Neuf, leads to Gabbari, the most See also:westerly part of the city and an See also:industrial and manufacturing region, possessing See also:asphalt See also:works and oil, See also:rice and See also:paper See also:mills . On either side of the canal are the warehouses of whole-See also:sale dealers in See also:cotton, See also:wool, See also:sugar, See also:grain and other commodities . In the See also:southern part of the city are the Arab See also:cemetery, " See also:Pompey's See also:Pillar" and the catacombs . "Pompey's Pillar," which stands on the highest spot in Alexandria, is nearly 99 ft. high, including the See also:pedestal . The See also:shaft is of red See also:granite and is beautifully polished .
Nine feet in See also:diameter at the See also:base, it tapers to eight feet at the See also:top
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The catacombs, a short distance S.W. of the pillar, are hewn out of the rocky slope of a See also: Another breakwater starts from the Gabbari side, the opening between the two works being about half a mile . A number of scattered rocks See also:lie across the entrance, but through them two fairways have been made, one 60o ft. wide and 35 ft. deep, the other 300 ft. wide and 30 ft. deep . The enclosed See also:water is divided into an See also:outer and inner harbour by a mole, woo yds. long, projecting N.W. from the southern shore . The inner harbour covers 464 acres . It is lined for 22 M. by quays, affording See also:accommodation for See also:ships See also:drawing up to 28 ft . The outer harbour (1400 acres water area) is furnished with a graving See also:dock, completed in 1905, 520 ft. long, and with quays and jetties along the Gabbari foreshore . Their construction was begun in 1906 . Alexandria is linked by a network of railway and See also:telegraph lines to the other towns of Egypt, and there is a See also:trunk See also:telephone line to Cairo . The city secured in 1906 a new and adequate water-See also:supply, modern drainage works having been completed the previous See also:year . Being the See also:great See also:entrepot for the See also:trade of Egypt, the city is the headquarters of the British chamber of See also:commerce and of most of the merchants and companies engaged in the development of the See also:Delta . About 90 % of the See also:total exports and imports of the country pass through the See also:port, though the completion, in 1904, of a broad-See also:gauge railway connecting Cairo and Port Said deflected some of the cotton exports to the See also:Suez Canal route . The See also:staple export is raw cotton, the value of which is about 8o % of all the exports . The principal imports are manufactured cotton goods and other textiles, machinery, See also:timber and See also:coal . The value of the trade of the port increased from £30,000,000 in 1900 to £46,000,000 in 1906 . In the same See also:period the See also:tonnage of the ships entering the harbour See also:rose from 2,375,000 to 3,695,000 . Of the total trade Great See also:Britain supplies from 35 to 40 % of the imports and takes over 50 % of the exports . Among the exports sent to See also:England are the great See also:majority of the 8o,000,000 eggs annually shipped (see also EGYPT: Commerce) . The See also:population of the city (1907) was 332,246 or including thesuburbs, about 400,000 . The foreigners numbered over 90,000 . The majority of these were Greeks, Italians, Syrians, Armenians and other Levantines, though almost every European and Oriental nation is represented . The predominant See also:languages spoken, besides the Arabic of the natives, are Greek, See also:French, English and Italian . The labouring population is mainly Egyptian; the Greeks and Levantines are usually shopkeepers or See also:petty traders . In its social life Alexandria is the most progressive and occidental of all the cities of North See also:Africa, with the possible exception of See also:Algiers . (F .
R
.
C.)
II
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The Ancient City.—The Greek Alexandria was divided into three regions: (1) the See also:Jews' quarter, forming the north-east portion of the city; (2) Rhacotis, on the west, occupied chiefly by Egyptians; (3) Brucheum, the Royal or Greek quarter, forming the most magnificent portion of the city
.
In Roman times Brucheum was enlarged by the addition of an See also:official quarter, making up the number of four regiones in all
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The city was laid out as a gridiron of parallel streets, each of which had an attendant subterranean canal
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Two See also:main streets, lined with colonnades and said to have been each about 200 ft. wide, intersected in the centre of the city, See also:close to the point where rose the Sema (or See also:Soma) of See also: In See also:Strabo's See also:time, (latter half of 1st See also:century B.C.) the principal buildings were as follows, enumerated as they were to be seen from a See also:ship entering the Great Harbour . (1) The Royal Palaces, filling the N.E. See also:angle of the town and occupying the promontory of Lochias, which shut in the Great Harbour on the east . Lochias, the modern Pharillon, has almost entirely disappeared into the sea, together with the palaces, the " Private Port " and the island of Antirrhodus . There has been a land subsidence here, as throughout the N . Delta and indeed all the N.E. coast of Africa; and on See also:calm days the See also:foundations of buildings may be seen, running out far under sea, near the Pharillon . See also:Search was made for See also:relics of these palaces by German explorers in 1898–1899, but without much success . (2) The Great Theatre, on the modern See also:Hospital Hill near the Ramleh station . This was used by See also:Caesar as a fortress, where he stood a See also:siege from the city See also:mob after the See also:battle of Pharsalus . (3) The Poseideion or See also:Temple of the Sea See also:God, close to the theatre and in front of it . (4) The Timonium built by Antony . (5, 6, 7) The See also:Emporium (Exchange), Apostases (Magazines) and Navalia (Docks), lying west of (4), along the sea-front as far as the mole . Behind the Emporium rose (8) the Great Caesareum, by which stood the two great obelisks, later known as " See also:Cleopatra's Needles," and now removed to New See also:York and See also: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 (To) the See also:Palaestra are both inland, near the great Canopic street (Boulevard de Rosette) in the eastern half of the town, but on sites not determined . (11) The Temple of See also:Saturn: site unknown . (12) The Mausolea of Alexander (Soma) and the See also:Ptolemies in one See also:ring-fence, near the point of intersection of the two main streets . (13) The Museum with its library and theatre in the same region; but on a site not identified . (i4) The Scrapeum, the most famous of all Alexandrian temples . Strabo tells us that this stood in the west of the city; and See also:recent discoveries go far to place it near " Pompey's Pillar" (see above), which, however, was an See also:independent See also:monument erected to commemorate See also:Diocletian's siege of the city . 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 400 ft. high . The first See also:Ptolemy began it, and the second completed it, at a total cost of 800 talents . It is the prototype of all lighthouses (q.v.) in the See also:world . A temple of See also:Hephaestus also stood on Pharos at the head of the mole . 
Ip the Augustan See also:age the population of Alexandria was estimated at 300,000 See also:free folk, in addition to an immense number of slaves . Alexandria was intended to supersede See also:Naucratis (q.v.) as a Greek centre in Egypt, and to be the See also:link between See also:Macedonia and the See also:rich Nile Valley . If such a city was to be on the Egyptian coast, there was only one possible site, behind the See also: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 (according to the Alexandrian See also:treatise, known as pseudo-Caffisthenes) were five native villages scattered along the strip between Lake Mareotis and the sea . Alexander occupied Pharos, and had a walled city marked out by Deinocrates on the mainland to include Rhacotis . A few months later he left Egypt for the East and never returned to his city; but his See also:corpse was ultimately entombed there . His See also:viceroy, Cleomenes, continued the creation of Alexandria . The Heptastadium, however, and the mainland quarters seem to have been mainly Ptolemaic See also:work . Inheriting the trade of ruined See also:Tyre and becoming the centre of the new commerce between See also:Europe and the Arabian and See also:Indian East, the city See also:grew in less than a century to be larger than See also:Carthage; and for some centuries more it had to acknowledge no See also:superior but See also:Rome . It was a centre not only of See also:Hellenism but of Semitism, and the greatest Jewish city in the world . There the See also:Septuagint was produced . The See also:early Ptolemies kept it in See also:order and fostered the development of its museum into the leading Greek university; but they were careful to maintain the dis- tinction of its population into three nations, " Macedonian " (i.e . Greek), See also:Jew and Egyptian . From this See also:division arose much of the later turbulence which began to See also:manifest itself under Ptolemy Philopater . Nominally a free Greek city, Alexandria retained its See also:senate to Roman times; and indeed the judicial functions of that See also:body were restored by Septimius See also:Severus, after temporary abolition by See also:Augustus . The city passed formally under Roman See also:jurisdiction in 8o B.C., according to the will of Ptolemy Alexander; but it had been under Roman See also:influence for more than a See also:hundred years previously . There See also:Julius Caesar dallied with Cleopatra in 47 B.C. and was mobbed by the See also:rabble; there his example was followed by Antony, for whose favour the city paid dear to Octavian, who placed over it a See also:prefect from the imperial See also:household . Alexandria seems from this time to have regained its old prosperity, commanding, as it did, an important granary of Rome . This latter fact, doubtless, was one of the chief reasons which induced Augustus to place it directly under the imperial See also:power . In A.D . 215 the See also:emperor See also: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 See also:death all youths capable of bearing arms . This brutal order seems to have been carried out even beyond the See also:letter, for a general See also:massacre was the result . Notwith- See also:standing this terrible disaster, Alexandria soon recovered its former splendour, and for some time longer was esteemed the first city' of the world after Rome .
Even as its main See also:historical
importance had formerly sprung from See also:pagan learning, so now it
acquired fresh importance as a centre of See also:Christian See also:theology and
church See also:government
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There Arianism was formulated and there
See also:Athanasius, the great opponent of both See also:heresy and pagan reaction, worked and triumphed
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As native influences, however, began to reassert themselves in the Nile valley, Alexandria gradually became an See also:alien city, more and more detached from Egypt; and, losing much of its commerce as the See also:peace of the See also:empire See also:broke up during the 3rd century A.D., it declined fast in population and splendour
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The Brucheum and Jewish quarters were desolate in the 5th century, and the central monuments, the Soma and Museum, fallen to ruin
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On the mainland life seems to have centred in the vicinity of the Serapeum and Caesareum, both become Christian churches: but the Pharos and Heptastadium quarters remained populous and intact
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In 616 it was taken by See also:Chosroes, See also: Pursuant to this order, they were distributed among the public baths, of which there was a large number in the city, where, for six months, they served to supply the fires . Shortly after its capture Alexandria again See also:fell into the hands of the Greeks, who took See also:advantage of `Amr's See also:absence with the greater portion of his See also:army . On hearing what had happened, however, 'Amr returned, and quickly regained See also:possession of the city . About the year 646 `Amr was deprived of his government by the caliph See also:Othman . The Egyptians, by whom `Amr was greatly beloved, were so much dissatisfied by this See also:act, and even showed such a tendency to revolt, that the Greek emperor determined to make an effort to reduce Alexandria . The See also:attempt proved perfectly successful . The caliph, perceiving his See also:mistake, immediately restored `Amr, who, on his arrival in Egypt, drove the Greeks within the walls of Alexandria, but was only able to capture the city after a most obstinate resistance by the defenders . This so exasperated him that he completely demolished its fortifications, although he seems to have spared the lives of the inhabitants as far as lay in his power . Alexandria now rapidly declined in importance . The building of Cairo in 969, and, above all, the See also:discovery of the route to the East by the Cape of See also:Good See also:Hope in 1498, nearly ruined its commerce; the canal, which supplied it with Nile water, became blocked; and although it remained a principal Egyptian port, at which most European visitors in the See also:Mameluke and Ottoman periods landed, we hear little of it until about the beginning of the 19th century . [Alexandria figured prominently in the military operations of Napoleon's Egyptian expedition of 1798 . The French troops stormed the city on the 2nd of See also:July 1798, and it remained in their hands until the arrival of the British expedition of 18oi .
The battle of Alexandria, fought on the 21st of See also: |