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    Alexandria

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    Al Jay
    This document provides a summary of the history and key facts about the city of Alexandria, Egypt. It was founded in 331 BCE by Alexander the Great to be a center of Greek culture in Egypt. Alexandria became a major center of trade, culture, and learning in the ancient world, home to important sites like the Lighthouse of Alexandria (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) and the Great Library of Alexandria (the largest library in the ancient world). It remained an important city for over 1000 years under the Ptolemaic, Roman, and Byzantine empires until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in the 7th century CE.

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    Alexandria

    Uploaded by

    Al Jay
    48 views6 pages
    This document provides a summary of the history and key facts about the city of Alexandria, Egypt. It was founded in 331 BCE by Alexander the Great to be a center of Greek culture in Egypt. Alexandria became a major center of trade, culture, and learning in the ancient world, home to important sites like the Lighthouse of Alexandria (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) and the Great Library of Alexandria (the largest library in the ancient world). It remained an important city for over 1000 years under the Ptolemaic, Roman, and Byzantine empires until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in the 7th century CE.

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    This document provides a summary of the history and key facts about the city of Alexandria, Egypt. It was founded in 331 BCE by Alexander the Great to be a center of Greek culture in Egypt. Alexandria became a major center of trade, culture, and learning in the ancient world, home to important sites like the Lighthouse of Alexandria (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) and the Great Library of Alexandria (the largest library in the ancient world). It remained an important city for over 1000 years under the Ptolemaic, Roman, and Byzantine empires until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in the 7th century CE.

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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    48 views6 pages

    Alexandria

    Uploaded by

    Al Jay
    This document provides a summary of the history and key facts about the city of Alexandria, Egypt. It was founded in 331 BCE by Alexander the Great to be a center of Greek culture in Egypt. Alexandria became a major center of trade, culture, and learning in the ancient world, home to important sites like the Lighthouse of Alexandria (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) and the Great Library of Alexandria (the largest library in the ancient world). It remained an important city for over 1000 years under the Ptolemaic, Roman, and Byzantine empires until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in the 7th century CE.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 6

    Alexandria

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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    This article is about the city in Egypt. For other uses, see Alexandria (disambiguation).

    Alexandria

    ‫اإلسكندرية‬
    ⲁⲗⲉⲝⲁⲛⲇⲣⲓⲁ

    Metropolis
    Clockwise from top:
    Stanley Bridge, Montaza Palace, the Corniche, Bibliotheca
    Alexandrina, El-Mursi Abul Abbas Mosque, Qaitbay citadel

    Flag

    Coat of arms

    Nicknames:

    Mediterranean's Bride, Pearl of the Mediterranean

    Alexandria

    Location in Egypt

    Coordinates: 31°12′N 29°55′ECoordinates: 31°12′N 29°55′E

    Country Egypt
    Governorate Alexandria

    Founded 331 BCE


    Founded by Alexander the Great

    Government
    • Governor Abd El Aziz Konsowa El Ghoury[1]
    Area
    • Total 2,679 km2 (1,034 sq mi)

    Elevation 5 m (16 ft)

    Population
    (October 2018[2])
    • Total 5,200,000
    • Density 1,900/km2 (5,000/sq mi)

    Demonym(s) Alexandrian, Alexandrine (Arabic: ‫)إسكندراني‬

    Time zone UTC+2 (EST)

    Postal code 21500


    Area code(s) (+20) 3

    Website Alexandria.gov.eg

    Alexandria (/ˌælɪɡˈzændriə/ or /-ˈzɑːnd-/;[3] Arabic: ‫ اإلسكندرية‬al-


    ʾIskandariyya; Coptic: ⲁⲗⲉⲝⲁⲛⲇⲣⲓⲁ Alexandria or ⲣⲁⲕⲟϯ Rakote) is the second-largest
    city in Egypt and a major economic centre, extending about 32 km (20 mi) along the coast
    of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country. Its low elevation on
    the Nile delta makes it highly vulnerable to rising sea levels. Alexandria is an important
    industrial center because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez. Alexandria is also a
    popular tourist destination.
    Alexandria was founded around a small, ancient Egyptian town c. 332 BC by Alexander the
    Great,[4] king of Macedon and leader of the Greek League of Corinth, during his conquest of
    the Achaemenid Empire. Alexandria became an important center of Hellenistic
    civilization and remained the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt and Roman and Byzantine
    Egypt for almost 1,000 years, until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in AD 641, when a new
    capital was founded at Fustat (later absorbed into Cairo). Hellenistic Alexandria was best
    known for the Lighthouse of Alexandria (Pharos), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient
    World; its Great Library (the largest in the ancient world); and the Necropolis, one of
    the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages. Alexandria was at one time the second most
    powerful city of the ancient Mediterranean region, after Rome. Ongoing maritime
    archaeology in the harbor of Alexandria, which began in 1994, is revealing details of
    Alexandria both before the arrival of Alexander, when a city named Rhacotis existed there,
    and during the Ptolemaic dynasty.
    From the late 18th century, Alexandria became a major center of the international shipping
    industry and one of the most important trading centers in the world, both because it profited
    from the easy overland connection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, and
    the lucrative trade in Egyptian cotton.

    Contents

     1History
    o 1.1Ancient era
    o 1.2Muhammad's era
    o 1.3Islamic era
    o 1.4Ibn Battuta in Alexandria
    o 1.5Timeline
     2Ancient layout
     3Geography
    o 3.1Climate
     4Historical sites and landmarks
    o 4.1Temple of Taposiris Magna
     5Places of worship
    o 5.1Islam
    o 5.2Christianity
    o 5.3Judaism
     6Education
    o 6.1Colleges and universities
    o 6.2Schools
    o 6.3Women
     7Transport
    o 7.1Airports
    o 7.2Port
    o 7.3Highways
    o 7.4Rail
    o 7.5Trams
    o 7.6Taxis and minibuses
     8Culture
    o 8.1Libraries
    o 8.2Museums
    o 8.3Theaters
     9Architecture
     10Sports
     11Twin towns and sister cities
     12See also
     13References
     14Further reading
     15External links

    History[edit]
    Main articles: History of Alexandria and Timeline of Alexandria
    Ancient era[edit]
    Alexander The Great

    , or

    raqd(y).t (Alexandria)
    in hieroglyphs

    Alexandria is believed to have been founded by Alexander the Great in April 331 BC
    as Ἀλεξάνδρεια (Alexandreia). Alexander's chief architect for the project was Dinocrates.
    Alexandria was intended to supersede Naucratis as a Hellenistic center in Egypt, and to be
    the link between Greece and the rich Nile valley. Although it has long been believed that
    previously only a small village existed at the location, recent radiocarbon dating of seashell
    fragments and lead contamination show significant human activity at the location for two
    millennia preceding Alexandria's founding.[5]
    Alexandria was the intellectual and cultural center of the ancient world for some time. The
    city and its museum attracted many of the greatest scholars, including Greeks, Jews and
    Syrians. The city was later plundered and lost its significance.[6]
    In the early Christian Church, the city was the center of the Patriarchate of Alexandria,
    which was one of the major centers of early Christianity in the Eastern Roman Empire. In
    the modern world, the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Greek Orthodox Church of
    Alexandria both lay claim to this ancient heritage.
    Just east of Alexandria (where Abu Qir Bay is now), there was in ancient times marshland
    and several islands. As early as the 7th century BC, there existed important port cities
    of Canopus and Heracleion. The latter was recently rediscovered under water.
    An Egyptian city, Rhakotis, already existed on the shore and later gave its name to
    Alexandria[citation needed] in the Egyptian language (Egyptian *Raˁ-Ḳāṭit, written rˁ-ḳṭy.t, 'That
    which is built up'). It continued to exist as the Egyptian quarter of the city. A few months
    after the foundation, Alexander left Egypt and never returned to his city. After Alexander's
    departure, his viceroy, Cleomenes, continued the expansion. Following a struggle with the
    other successors of Alexander, his general Ptolemy Lagides succeeded in bringing
    Alexander's body to Alexandria, though it was eventually lost after being separated from its
    burial site there.[7]
    Although Cleomenes was mainly in charge of overseeing Alexandria's continuous
    development, the Heptastadion and the mainland quarters seem to have been primarily
    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
    generation to be larger than Carthage. In a century, Alexandria had become the largest city
    in the world and, for some centuries more, was second only to Rome. It became Egypt's
    main Greek city, with Greek people from diverse backgrounds.[8]

    The Lighthouse of Alexandria on coins minted in Alexandria in the second century (1: reverse of a
    coin of Antoninus Pius, and 2: reverse of a coin of Commodus).

    Alexandria was not only a center of Hellenism, but was also home to the largest urban
    Jewish community in the world. The Septuagint, a Greek version of the Tanakh, was
    produced there. The early Ptolemies kept it in order and fostered the development of its
    museum into the leading Hellenistic center of learning (Library of Alexandria), but were
    careful to maintain the distinction of its population's three largest ethnicities: Greek, Jewish,
    and Egyptian.[9] By the time of Augustus, the city walls encompassed an area of 5.34 km2,
    and the total population in Roman times was around 500-600,000.[10]
    According to Philo of Alexandria, in the year 38 of the Common era, disturbances erupted
    between Jews and Greek citizens of Alexandria during a visit paid by the Jewish
    king Agrippa I to Alexandria, principally over the respect paid by the Jewish nation to the
    Roman emperor, and which quickly escalated to open affronts and violence between the
    two ethnic groups and the desecration of Alexandrian synagogues. The violence was
    quelled after Caligula intervened and had the Roman governor, Flaccus, removed from the
    city.[11]
    In AD 115, large parts of Alexandria were destroyed during the Kitos War, which
    gave Hadrian and his architect, Decriannus, an opportunity to rebuild it. In 215,
    the emperor Caracalla visited the city and, because of some insulting satires that the
    inhabitants had directed at him, abruptly commanded his troops to put to death all youths
    capable of bearing arms. On 21 July 365, Alexandria was devastated by a tsunami (365
    Crete earthquake),[12] an event annually commemorated years later as a "day of horror".[13]

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