The city created by Alexander the Great in 333BCE and with a history very Alexandria different from any of the other cities in Egypt. When this famous Macedonian (the Greek state, not the former Yugoslav country) was en route to visit the Oracle Temple of Amun at the Siwa oasis he stopped overnight at the village of "Re-qdt” (its Greek name is “Racotis”) between the Mediterranean Sea and the Lake of Mariott (its location today is the area of Tel Bab Sadrah or Karmouz). Alexander decided that this was to be the spot where a great city would be built and charged one of his architects, Dinocratis, to build it.

He continued on to Siwa, to consult the oracle about his destiny and then left Egypt to fight the Persians in Asia. Sadly it is not known what the Oracle told Alexander, but it is generally believed that he was told he was to be a great leader. After his triumphal campaigns, Alexander the Great died in Babylon in 323 BC without ever seeing the city that bears his name: in fact it was not until the reigns of Ptolemy I, (Soter - the Saviour), and his successor Ptolemy II (Philadelphus) that the building of the city was completed and it became the main capital.

Alexandria

Dinocratis planned the city in squares, like a chessboard with two main streets interlaced vertically and horizontally extending from east to west as well as from north to south. Alexandria had 5 districts, each one named after a letter of the first five letters in the Greek Alphabet: A (Alpha); B (Beta); G (Gamma); D (Delta) and E (Epsilon). These 5 letters represent the initial letters of the text: "Alexander the king, the descendent of the gods, erected the city".

Alpha was the royal district where the royal palaces, the main Temple, the museum, the libraries, and the gardens were built,
Beta was the district of the Greek aristocracy.
Gamma was dedicated to the settlement of the Greek commoners.
Delta was the district of the foreign minorities such as the Syrians, the Persians, and the Jews.
Epsilon was the district for the native Egyptians.


Drinking water was supplied by a canal starting from the western Canopic branch of the Nile, at a point called "Shedia" about 27 km to the south of Alexandria. The water was stored in Cisterns; some of which remain into modern times.

At the beginning of the Roman period, about 30 BC, a new city was built here by the Romans, bearing the name of "Nicopolis" which means the city of Victory, in order to commemorate the victory of Octavian over Mark Anthony in Aktium in 31 BC. Most of it was destroyed or vanished for several reasons, including disturbances, civil wars, revolts, natural disasters, subsoil water and unplanned urbanization etc.

Among the fabulous monuments mentioned by ancient Greek books are the Enclosure Walls and the Gates of the City, the Lighthouse, the Great Library, the Royal Necropolis including the Tomb of Alexander and the Museums. Today the remaining monuments of ancient Alexandria are different cemeteries scattered in many various locations, some of which date back to the Ptolemaic period: El-Shatby, Moustafa Kamel, El-Anfoushy, and El-Wardain. Others date back to the Roman period: the tombs of Kom El-Shouqafa (the Catacombs), the tomb of Tigran, Pompeii’s pillar, Tomb of Silvago and the cemetery of El-Qabbary which was only recently discovered. There are other important monuments in the city that date back to various periods, such as the Serapium, the Roman Theatre, the Temple of El-Ras El-Souda, Citadel of Quaitbay, the Jewellery Museum, Mosque of El-Naby Daniel, Mosque of El-Moursi Abou El-Abbas and the Memorial of the unknown soldier.

Alexandria is situated on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt, 179Km (111 miles) north of Cairo. It is Egypt’s second largest city, behind Cairo, but is sadly overlooked by tourists. It is accessible by many ways:

The Royal Library of Alexandria, or Ancient Library of Alexandria, in Alexandria, Egypt, was a large and significant great library of the ancient world. Named after Alexander the Great, it flourished under the patronage of the Ptolemaic dynasty and functioned as a major center of scholarship from its construction in the third century B.C. until its destruction in 48 B.C. around the time of Rome's conquest of Egypt. Alexander, although picking the site and planning the general layout of the city, died before he could take part in the construction of the library or academy that was created in his name.

The Greek term bibliotheke (βιβλιοθήκη), used by many historians of the era, refers to the [royal] "Collection of Books", not to any building, nor to the social networks which sustained and operated the collection, which complicates tracking the history and chronology of its destruction. The Royal Collection can be viewed as having begun in the Royal Quarter's building(s), commonly known as "The Great Library," and continued to be housed, at least in part, at the Serapeum "Daughter Library" (Abaddi)

Generally thought to have been founded at the beginning of the third century BC, the library was conceived and opened either during the reign of Ptolemy I Soter or during the reign of his son Ptolemy II. Plutarch (AD 46–120) wrote that during his visit to Alexandria in 48 BC, Julius Caesar might have accidentally burned the library when he set fire to his own ships to frustrate Achillas' attempt to limit his ability to communicate by sea. According to Plutarch's account, this fire spread to the docks and then to the library.

However, this version of events is not confirmed in contemporary accounts of Caesar's visit. In fact, it has been reasonably established that segments of its collection were partially destroyed on several occasions before and after the first century BC. A modern conflation (no older than the late eighteenth century) attributes the destruction to Coptic Christian Archbishop Theophilus of Alexandria in 391, who called for the destruction of the Serapeum -- the Daughter library and a temple to the god Serapis.

Intended both as a commemoration and an emulation of the original, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina was inaugurated in 2002 near the site of the old library.