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 and 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 is 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 center.
It is the sixth-largest city in the Arab world and in the Middle East, and the eleventh-largest city and urban area in Africa. Alexandria was established originally near an ancient Egyptian settlement named Rhacotis, which later became its Egyptian quarter.
Historical Significance
The city was made the capital of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and became the foremost commercial, intellectual, and cultural center for much of the Hellenistic age and late antiquity. At one time, it was the most populous city in the ancient world. Alexandria retained its status as one of the leading cities of the Mediterranean world for almost a millennium, through the period of Roman and Byzantine rule until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 641 AD, when 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, Alexandria had already been largely plundered and lost its significance, although it persisted as a trading hub and naval base. From the late 18th century, it was a major center 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.
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Early History and Foundation
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. 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. 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 harbors.
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. 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. 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. The Septuagint, a Greek version of the Tanakh, was produced there.
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Roman and Medieval Periods
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.
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.
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.
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. 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, Aragonese, Provençals, etc.) thus entered this market. As early as the 12th century, the major trading cities had funduqs and consuls in Alexandria.
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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.
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.
Modern Era
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 July 1954, the city was a target of an Israeli bombing campaign that later became known as the Lavon Affair. Europeans began leaving Alexandria following the 1956 Suez Crisis that led to an outburst of Arab nationalism.
Geography and Climate
Alexandria is located in the country of Egypt, on the southern coast of the Mediterranean. It is in the Far West Nile delta area. It is a densely populated city; its core areas belie its large administrative area.
Alexandria has a hot steppe climate (Köppen climate classification: BSh), virtually hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification: BWh). Like the rest of Egypt's northern coast, the prevailing north wind, blowing across the Mediterranean, gives the city a less severe climate than the desert hinterland. Rafah and Alexandria are the wettest places in Egypt; the other wettest places are Rosetta, Baltim, Kafr el-Dawwar, and Mersa Matruh.
Alexandria experiences violent storms, rain and sometimes sleet and hail during the cooler months; these events, combined with a poor drainage system, have been responsible for occasional flooding in the city in the past though they rarely occur anymore. July and August are the hottest and driest months of the year, with an average daily maximum temperature of 30 °C (86 °F).
Adapting to sea level rise
Threat of Sea Level Rise
Due to its location on a Nile river delta, Alexandria is one of the most vulnerable cities to sea level rise in the entire world. According to some estimates, hundreds of thousands of people in its low-lying areas may already have to be relocated before 2030.
The 2022 IPCC Sixth Assessment Report estimates that by 2050, Alexandria and 11 other major African cities (Abidjan, Algiers, Cape Town, Casablanca, Dakar, Dar es Salaam, Durban, Lagos, Lomé, Luanda and Maputo) would collectively sustain cumulative damages of US$65 billion for the "moderate" climate change scenario RCP 4.5 and US$86.5 billion for the high-emission scenario RCP 8.5, while RCP 8.5 combined with the hypothetical impact from marine ice sheet instability at high levels of warming would involve up to US$137.5 billion in damages. Additional accounting for the "low-probability, high-damage events" may increase aggregate risks to US$187 billion for the "moderate" RCP4.5, US$206 billion for RCP8.5 and US$397 billion under the high-end ice sheet instability scenario. In every single estimate, Alexandria alone bears around half of these costs.
Since sea level rise would continue for about 10,000 years under every scenario of climate change, future costs of sea level rise would only increase, especially without adaptation measures. Recent studies published in Earth's Future by the American Geophysical Union indicate that rising sea levels are causing increases in coastal aquifer levels, reaching building foundations and accelerating their corrosion and potential collapse.
Ancient Quarters
Rhakotis (from Coptic Rakotə,[contradictory] "Alexandria") was the old city that was absorbed into Alexandria. Brucheum was the Royal or Greek quarter and formed the most magnificent portion of the city. In Roman times, Brucheum was enlarged by the addition of an official quarter, making four regions in all. Engraving by L. F. Two main streets, lined with colonnades and said to have been each about 60 m (200 ft) wide, intersected in the centre of the city, close to the point where the Sema (or Soma) of Alexander (his Mausoleum) rose. This point is very near the present mosque of Nebi Daniel; the line of the great East-West "Canopic" street is also present in modern-day Alexandria, having only slightly diverged from the line of the modern Boulevard de Rosette (now Sharae Fouad). Traces of its pavement and canal have been found near the Rosetta Gate, but remnants of streets and...
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