The famous city founded by Alexander the Great to whom the city owes its name, is the second largest city of Egypt after Cairo and has a population of 4.1 million
people. It is also the most important port of the country and the continent. Alexandria
is also known as “The Pearl of the Mediterranean” because of its Mediterranean atmosphere.
View of Alexandria
The city was founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC and it became the capital
of the capital of the Greco- Roman Egypt. The city was designed by the Greek architect
Dinocrates and in few years it reached an important development as a cultural, intellectual,
political and economic metropolis that was an abstract of the Hellenic World.
After Alexander’s death his general Ptolemy took the power of Egypt and he started
the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt. During this time Alexandria was the commercial center
amongst Europe and the Arabian and Indian nations. By the II century BC Alexandria
was the greatest city in the world and during the Roman time, it was the second
city of the world after Rome.
During long time Alexandria was the main cultural center of the world. The first
Greek Translation of the Hebrew Bible was made in the city because Alexandria hosted
the greatest Jewish community of the World. In this time were constructed also the
two most representative buildings of the city the “Lighthouse of Alexandria” one
of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the “Library of Alexandria” the greatest
and most complete Library of its time.
The city became part of the Roman Empire in 90 BC and it was still an important
city within the Empire, during the early years of the Roman government was constructed
the famous Roman Cemetery of Kom el-Shouqafa, which was used until IV century and
whose catacombs have a unique decoration that represents the fusion of the Egyptian,
Greek and Roman cultures. The city was destroyed several times. The first time was
because of the Jewish-Greek war in 115 AD, but Alexandria was rapidly reconstructed
by Hadrian and the architect Decriannus. The second time was in 215 when the emperor
Carcalla ordered his troops to destroy the city because of insults that he was received
from the Alexandria’s citizens. The third time that the city was destroyed was in
365 when a great tsunami generated by a earthquake in Crete devastated completely
the city.
In the VII century, Alexandria was conquered by Muslim Arabs during the conquest
of Egypt and in 968 the city lost its position, as cultural and political center
of Egypt, when Cairo became capital of the country. In 1798 Napoleon arrived with
his troops to Egypt and he elected Alexandria as one of the operation centers. But in 1801 the British troops defeated French troops in the Alexandria Battle. The
city has played always an important role in the commercial life of the country and
in history of Egypt, like in 1882 when was attacked by the British Naval Force that
occupied Egypt or in 1954 when the city was scenery of the assassination attempt
against Gamal Nasser (an important Egyptian leader).
Today Alexandria is the most important economic and commercial center of Egypt;
almost 80 % of imports and exports of the country go through the Alexandria’s port.
The city is also a tourist center, being the preferred location of the middle class
of Cairo to enjoy the summer. Besides, the city has many tourist attractions such
as the Mutanza Gardens, the Mahmudiya Canal, the Alexandria aquarium, the Royal
Jewelry Museum or the Greek Quarter. It is a beautiful city that worth visitingwn,
but
the Egyptian government decided to close it, to protect the archeological monuments.