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Alexandria....
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Located on the Mediterranean Sea coast, Alexandria (in
Arabic, الإسكندرية,
transliterated al-Iskandariyyah) is the chief seaport in
Egypt, and that country's second largest city, and the capital of the Al Iskandariyah governate. It is located at 31°12′ N 29°15′ E, 208 km (129
miles) northwest of Cairo. The Canopic mouth of the Nile (now dry) was 19
km (12 miles) east, near the ancient city of Canopus. It has a huge big population
of approximately 3,341,000.
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It 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 medieval 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. |
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Alexandria was founded by
Alexander the Great in or
around 334 BC (the exact date is disputed). 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. |
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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 medieval
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. |
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