Alexandria

The city of Alexandria, in Egypt, was named after its founder, Alexander the Great, and as the seat of the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt quickly became one of the greatest cities of the Hellenistic world — second only to Rome in size and wealth throughout much of antiquity. However, upon the founding of Cairo by Egypt's mediæval Islamic rulers its status as the country's capital was ended, and it fell into a long decline, which by the late Ottoman period had seen it reduced to little more than a small fishing village.

In ancient times, Alexandria was known for its lighthouse (one of the Seven Wonders of the World) and the Library of Alexandria (the largest library in the world). Ongoing maritime archaeology in the harbor of Alexandria, begun in 1994, is revealing details of the Alexandria of the Ptolemaic dynasty.

Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great in or around 334 BC (the exact date is disputed) as ἈλεξάνδÏ?εια (Alexándreia; see also List of traditional Greek place names). Alexander's chief architect for the project was Deinocrates of Rhodes. Ancient accounts are extremely numerous and varied, and much influenced by subsequent developments. One of the more sober descriptions, given by the historian Arrian, tells how Alexander undertook to lay out the city's general plan, but lacking chalk or other means, resorted to sketching it out with grain. Alexander's seers, and in particular Aristander of Telmessus, interpreted this as an omen that the city would prosper, particularly in grain. Other authors make the omen not the grain itself, but the arrival of flocks of birds to eat it. In any case, the story explains Alexandria's role as the shipping-point for Egyptian grain, which fed the Hellenistic and Roman world.

A number of the more fantastic foundation myths are found in the Alexander Romance, and were picked up by mediæval Arab historians. The 14th century Arab historian Ibn Khaldun ridiculed one where sea-monsters prevent the foundation, but are thwarted when Alexander descends in a glass box, and armed with exact knowledge of their appearance, erects metal effigies on the beach which succeed in frightening the monsters away.

Alexandria was intended to supersede Naucratis as a Greek centre in Egypt, and to be the link between Greece 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.

A few months after the foundation, Alexander left Egypt for the East and never returned to his city. His general, Ptolemy (later Ptolemy I of Egypt) succeeded in bringing Alexander's body to Alexandria, where it became a famous tourist destination for ancient travellers.

After Alexander departed, 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 centre 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 and in a century it was the largest city in the world; and for some centuries more it was second only to Rome. 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.