Founding
port city on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt
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Alexandria is a major city in Egypt. Lying at the western edge of the Nile River Delta, it extends about 40 km (25 mi) along the country's northern coast. It is Egypt's principal seaport, the second largest city after Cairo, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in 331 BC by Alexander the Great, Alexandria was one of the largest and most important cities of antiquity and a leading hub for science, culture, and scholarship.
Nicknamed the "Bride of the Mediterranean" and "Pearl of the Mediterranean Coast", the city is a popular tourist destination and a major industrial centre. It is the sixth-largest city in the Arab world, seventh-largest city in the Middle East, and the eleventh-largest city in Africa. The capital of the Alexandria Governorate, Alexandria is considered an industrial hub and is home to the Alexandria Shipyard. The city also has a large financial sector, and its ancient port Alexandria is one of the busiest ports in the country. Alexandria is the host city of the annual Alexandria Mediterranean Film Festival, held at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. The city is also the home of the Alexandria Opera House, the Alexandria Museum of Fine Arts and the Alexandria National Museum. The city hosts many sporting events, and is the home of the association football club Al Ittihad. Alexandria extends beyond its administrative municipal city limits as well as its urban agglomeration, with a population of 5,700,000 in 2024 over an area of 1,661 square kilometres (641 sq mi).
Alexandria was originally established near an ancient Egyptian settlement named Rhacotis, which later became its Egyptian quarter. The city was made the capital of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and became the foremost commercial, intellectual, and cultural centre for much of the Hellenistic age and late antiquity; at one time, it was the most populous city in the ancient world. 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 Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa, one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages.
Alexandria retained its status as one of the leading cities of the Mediterranean world for almost a millennium, serving as the Egyptian capital until a new capital was founded at Fustat, now part of Cairo. The city was a major hub of early Christianity and hosted the Patriarchate of Alexandria, one of the leading Christian centers in the Eastern Roman Empire; the modern Coptic Orthodox Church and the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria both lay claim to this ancient heritage.
By the mid-seventh century, the city continued to serve as a trading hub and naval base. From the late 18th century, it was a major centre of the international shipping industry and one of the most important trading centers in the world, owing to the easy overland connection between the Mediterranean and Red Seas and the lucrative trade in Egyptian cotton. Alexandria's rebirth began in the early 19th century under Muhammad Ali, considered the founder of modern Egypt, who implemented infrastructure projects and modernisation efforts.
Alexandria was located on the earlier Egyptian settlement, which was called Rhacotis (Ancient Greek: Ῥακῶτις, romanized: Rhakôtis), the Hellenised form of Egyptian r-ꜥ-qd(y)t (Bohairic Coptic: ⲣⲁⲕⲟϯ, romanized: Rakoti). As one of many settlements founded by Alexander the Great, the city he founded on Rhacotis was called Alexándreia hḗ kat' Aígypton (Ἀλεξάνδρεια ἡ κατ' Αἴγυπτον), which some sources translated as "Alexandria by Egypt", as the city was, at that time, in the periphery of Egypt proper (the area beside the Nile). Some of the Alexandrian and Greek populaces, e.g., Hypsicles, also referred to the city as Alexándreia hḗ prós Aígypton (Ἀλεξάνδρεια ἡ πρός Αἴγυπτον, "Alexandria near Egypt"). In the course of Roman rule in Egypt, the city's name was Latinised as Alexandrēa ad Aegyptum. In Coptic, the city continued to be referred to by its earlier name (Rakoti), with only a few exceptions.
After the capture of Alexandria by the Rashiduns in AD 641, the name was Arabicised: initial Al- was re-analysed into the definite article; metathesis occurred on x, from [ks] to [sk]; and the suffix -eia was assimilated into the feminine adjectival suffix -iyya (ـِيَّة), finally rendering the name al-ʔiskandariyya (الْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّة).
Radiocarbon dating of seashell fragments and lead contamination show human activity at the location during the period of the Old Kingdom (27th–21st centuries BC) and again in the period 1000–800 BC, followed by the absence of activity after that. From ancient sources it is known there existed a trading post at this location during the time of Rameses the Great for trade with Crete, but it had long been lost by the time of Alexander's arrival. A small Egyptian fishing village named Rhakotis (Egyptian: rꜥ-qdy.t, 'That which is built up') existed since the 13th century BC in the vicinity and eventually grew into the Egyptian quarter of the city. Just east of Alexandria (where Abu Qir Bay is now), there were 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 underwater.
Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great in April 331 BC as Ἀλεξάνδρεια (Alexandreia), as one of his many city foundations. After he captured the Egyptian Satrapy from the Persians, Alexander wanted to build a large Greek city on Egypt's coast that would bear his name. He chose the site of Alexandria, envisioning the building of a causeway to the nearby island of Pharos that would generate two great natural harbours. Alexandria was intended to supersede the older Greek colony of Naucratis as a Hellenistic center in Egypt and to be the link between Greece and the rich Nile valley. A few months after the foundation, Alexander left Egypt and never returned to the city during his life.
After Alexander's departure, his viceroy Cleomenes continued the expansion. The architect Dinocrates of Rhodes designed the city, using a Hippodamian grid plan. Following Alexander's death in 323 BC, his general Ptolemy Lagides took possession of Egypt and brought Alexander's body to Egypt with him. Ptolemy at first ruled from the old Egyptian capital of Memphis. In 322/321 BC he had Cleomenes executed. Finally, in 305 BC, Ptolemy declared himself Pharaoh as Ptolemy I Soter ("Savior") and moved his capital to Alexandria.
Although Cleomenes was mainly in charge of overseeing Alexandria's early development, the Heptastadion and the mainland quarters seem to have been primarily 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. In one 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.
The Septuagint, a Greek version of the Tanakh, was produced there. The early Ptolemies kept the city in order and fostered the development of its museum into the leading Hellenistic centre of learning (Library of Alexandria, which faced destruction during Caesar's siege of Alexandria in 47 BC), but were careful to maintain the distinction of its population's three largest ethnicities: Greek, Egyptian and Jewish. By the time of Augustus, the city grid encompassed an area of 10 km2 (3.9 sq mi), and the total population during the Roman principate was around 500,000–600,000, which would wax and wane in the course of the next four centuries under Roman rule.
According to Philo of Alexandria, in the year 38 AD, disturbances erupted between Jews and Greek citizens of Alexandria during a visit paid by King Agrippa I to Alexandria, principally over the respect paid by the Herodian nation to the Roman emperor, which quickly escalated to open affronts and violence between the two ethnic groups and the desecration of Alexandrian synagogues. This event has been called the Alexandrian pogroms. The violence was quelled after Caligula intervened and had the Roman governor, Flaccus, removed from the city.
In 115 AD, large parts of Alexandria were destroyed during the Diaspora revolt, which gave Hadrian and his architect, Decriannus, an opportunity to rebuild it. In 215 AD, 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 AD, Alexandria was devastated by a tsunami (365 Crete earthquake), an event annually commemorated years later as a "day of horror".
Alexandria was an important city in the early history of Christianity, and played a key role in the development of Christian theology.
In 619, Alexandria fell to the Sassanid Persians. The city was mostly uninjured by the conquest and a new palace called Tarawus was erected in the eastern part of the city, later known as Qasr Faris, "fort of the Persians". Although the Byzantine emperor Heraclius recovered it in 629, in 641 the Arabs under the general 'Amr ibn al-'As invaded it during the Muslim conquest of Egypt, after a siege that lasted 14 months. The first Arab governor of Egypt recorded to have visited Alexandria was Utba ibn Abi Sufyan, who strengthened the Arab presence and built a governor's palace in the city in 664–665.
In reference to Alexandria, Ibn Battuta speaks of a number of Muslim saints that resided in the city. One such saint was Imam Borhan Oddin El Aaraj, who was said to perform miracles. Another notable figure was Yaqut al-'Arshi, a disciple of Abu Abbas El Mursi. Ibn Battuta also writes about Abu 'Abdallah al-Murshidi, a saint that lived in the Minyat of Ibn Murshed. Although al-Murshidi lived in seclusion, Ibn Battuta writes that he was regularly visited by crowds, high state officials, and even by the Sultan of Egypt at the time, al-Nasir Muhammad. Ibn Battuta also visited the Pharos lighthouse on two occasions: in 1326 he found it to be partly in ruins and in 1349 it had deteriorated to the point that it was no longer possible to enter.
Throughout the late medieval period, Alexandria re-emerged as a major metropolis and the most important commercial port in Egypt and one of the most important in the Mediterranean. The Jewish traveller Benjamin of Tudela even described it as "a trading market for all nations". Indeed, Alexandria was the outlet for all goods coming from Arabia, such as incense, and from India and South-East Asia, such as spices (pepper, cloves, cinnamon, etc.), precious stones, pearls and exotic woods like brazilwood. But it was also the outlet for goods from Africa, such as ivory and precious woods. These goods arrived in Alexandria after passing through Aden on their way to the Red Sea, then headed up the Red Sea to be unloaded in the port of Aydhab. From Aydhab, a caravan took the goods to the Nile, probably to the town of Qus. From there, the goods sailed to Alexandria. These goods then found their way to the Alexandria market alongside Egyptian products.
This route was the cheapest and fastest in comparison with the land routes that reached the Mediterranean from Syria or Constantinople. Latin merchants (Venetians, Genoese, Pisans, Catalans, Provençals, etc.) thus entered this market. As early as the 12th century, the major trading cities had funduqs and consuls in Alexandria. A funduq, in this context is an area, often fortified, within the city dedicated to the community of a trading nation under the authority of a consul. The consul was responsible for adjudicating disputes between merchants of his nation, and also when a subject of the sultan lodged a complaint against a merchant of their nation.The terms of this installation were often set out in treaties between the sultans and the consuls. These treaties were part of a policy pursued by the early Mamluk sultans, who encouraged the arrival of merchants from Europe in Alexandria, since this trade not only brought the sultan considerable revenue, but also enabled him to obtain supplies of wood and iron from Europe. Later, in the 14th century, the Latin trade in Alexandria was also important for the sultans, as it enabled them to obtain supplies of mameluks (slave-soldiers) often sold by Genoese merchants.
As this trade was very important to the sultans, they were keen to control the city's institutions. Indeed, in Alexandria, in addition to an Emir (governor), the sultan sent a customs inspector who answered directly to the nazir al-khas (person in charge of managing the sultan's patrimony). Customs was not only responsible for collecting customs duties, but also for the security of the port and its warehouses. Alexandria customs also played a role in commercial arbitration and was the preferred circuit for the sale of products brought in by the merchants, which took place at auction. These sales were set up to encourage the merchants to sell their products to or through the sultan, rather than selling them freely on the city's markets. Latin merchants also had jurisdictional privileges : in addition to being judged by their consul if a subject of the sultan lodged a complaint against them, Latin merchants could not be judged by the qadis (civil judges) but had to be judged by the mazalim (the sultan's courts).
Alexandria lost much of its importance in international trade after Portuguese navigators discovered a new sea route to India in the late 15th century. This reduced the amount of goods that needed to be transported through the Alexandrian port, as well as the Mamluks' political power. After the Battle of Ridaniya in 1517, the city was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and remained under Ottoman rule until 1798. Alexandria lost much of its former importance to the Egyptian port city of Rosetta during the 9th to 18th centuries, and it only regained its former prominence with the construction of the Mahmoudiyah Canal in 1820.
Alexandria figured prominently in the military operations of Napoleon's expedition to Egypt in 1798. French troops stormed the city on 2 July 1798, and it remained in their hands until the arrival of a British expedition in 1801. The British won a considerable victory over the French at the Battle of Alexandria on 21 March 1801, following which they besieged the city, which fell to them on 2 September 1801. Muhammad Ali, the Ottoman governor of Egypt, began rebuilding and redevelopment around 1810 and, by 1850, Alexandria had returned to something akin to its former glory. Egypt turned to Europe in their effort to modernise the country. Greeks, followed by other Europeans and others, began moving to the city. In the early 20th century, the city became a home for novelists and poets.
In July 1882, the city came under bombardment from British naval forces and was occupied.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Alexandria”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.