Alexandria (/ˌælɪɡˈzændriə/ or /-ˈzɑːnd-/;[3] Arabic: ‫ اإلسكندرية‬al-ʾIskandariyya;

Egyptian Arabic: ‫ اسكندرية‬Eskendereyya) is the second-largest city in Egypt and a

major economic center. With a population of 5,200,000, Alexandria is the largest
city on the Mediterranean, the sixth-largest city in the Arab world and the ninth-
largest in Africa. The city extends about 40 km (25 mi) at the northern coast of
Egypt along the Mediterranean Sea. Alexandria is a popular tourist destination, and
also an important industrial center because of its natural gas and oil pipelines
from Suez.

Alexandria was founded in c. 331 BC by Alexander the Great,[4] king of Macedon and
leader of the Greek League of Corinth, during his conquest of the Achaemenid
Empire. An Egyptian village named Rhacotis existed at the location and grew into
the Egyptian quarter of Alexandria. Alexandria grew rapidly to become an important
center of Hellenistic civilization and remained the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt and
Roman and Byzantine Egypt for almost 1,000 years, until the Muslim conquest of
Egypt in AD 641, when a new capital was founded at Fustat (later absorbed into
Cairo). Hellenistic 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 Necropolis, one of the Seven Wonders of the
Middle Ages. Alexandria was the intellectual and cultural center of the ancient
Mediterranean world for much of the Hellenistic age and late antiquity.[4] It was
at one time the largest city in the ancient world before being eventually overtaken
by Rome.

The city was a major center of early Christianity and was the center of the
Patriarchate of Alexandria, which was one of the major centers of Christianity in
the Eastern Roman Empire. In the modern world, the Coptic Orthodox Church and the
Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria both lay claim to this ancient heritage.

Following the Arab conquest of Egypt in AD 641, the city was plundered and lost its
significance before re-emerging in the modern era.[5] From the late 18th century,
Alexandria became a major center of the international shipping industry and one of
the most important trading centers in the world, both because it profited from the
easy overland connection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, and the
lucrative trade in Egyptian cotton.

Contents
1 History
1.1 Ancient era
1.2 Muhammad's era
1.3 Islamic era
1.4 Ibn Battuta in Alexandria
1.5 Timeline
2 Ancient layout
3 Geography
3.1 Climate
4 Cityscape
4.1 Temple of Taposiris Magna
5 Places of worship
5.1 Islam
5.2 Christianity
5.3 Judaism
6 Education
6.1 Colleges and universities
6.2 Schools
6.3 Women
7 Transport
7.1 Airports
7.2 Port
7.3 Highways
7.4 Rail
7.5 Trams
7.6 Metro
7.7 Taxis and minibuses
8 Culture
8.1 Libraries
8.2 Museums
8.3 Theaters
9 Architecture
10 Sports
11 International relations
12 See also
13 References
14 Further reading
15 External links
History
Main articles: History of Alexandria and Timeline of Alexandria
Ancient era

Alexander The Great

Plan of Alexandria c. 30 BC

Recent 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
thereafter.[6] 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.[4] A small Egyptian fishing
village named Rhakotis (Egyptian:*Raˁ-Ḳāṭit, written rˁ-ḳṭy.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.[4] Just east of Alexandria (where Abu Qir Bay is
now), there was 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 under water.

Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great in April 331 BC as Ἀλεξάνδρεια

(Alexandreia). Passing through Egypt, 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.[4] Alexandria was intended to supersede
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 his city.

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.[7] 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 center 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 a 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.[8]

The Lighthouse of Alexandria on coins minted in Alexandria in the second century

(1: reverse of a coin of Antoninus Pius, and 2: reverse of a coin of Commodus).
Alexandria was not only a center of Hellenism, but was also home to the largest
urban Jewish community in the world. The Septuagint, a Greek version of the Tanakh,
was produced there. The early Ptolemies kept it in order and fostered the
development of its museum into the leading Hellenistic center of learning (Library
of Alexandria), but were careful to maintain the distinction of its population's
three largest ethnicities: Greek, Jewish, and Egyptian.[9] By the time of Augustus,
the city walls encompassed an area of 5.34 km2, and the total population in Roman
times was around 500–600,000.[10]

According to Philo of Alexandria, in the year 38 of the Common era, disturbances

erupted between Jews and Greek citizens of Alexandria during a visit paid by the
Jewish king Agrippa I to Alexandria, principally over the respect paid by the
Jewish nation to the Roman emperor, and which quickly escalated to open affronts
and violence between the two ethnic groups and the desecration of Alexandrian
synagogues. The violence was quelled after Caligula intervened and had the Roman
governor, Flaccus, removed from the city.[11]

In AD 115, large parts of Alexandria were destroyed during the Kitos War, which
gave Hadrian and his architect, Decriannus, an opportunity to rebuild it. In 215,
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, Alexandria was devastated by a
tsunami (365 Crete earthquake),[12] an event annually commemorated years later as a
"day of horror".[13]

Muhammad's era
Main article: List of expeditions of Muhammad
The Islamic prophet Muhammad's first interaction with the people of Egypt occurred
in 628, during the Expedition of Zaid ibn Haritha (Hisma). He sent Hatib bin Abi
Baltaeh with a letter to the Governor and Patriarch of Egypt in Alexandria called
Muqawqis.[14][15] In the letter Muhammad said: "I invite you to accept Islam, Allah
the sublime, shall reward you doubly. But if you refuse to do so, you will bear the
burden of the transgression of the Egyptian people". During this expedition one of
Muhammad's envoys Dihyah bin Khalifa Kalbi was attacked, Muhammad sent Zayd ibn
Haritha to help him. Dihya approached the Banu Dubayb (a tribe which converted to
Islam and had good relations with Muslims) for help. When the news reached
Muhammad, he immediately dispatched Zayd ibn Haritha with 500 men to battle. The
Muslim army fought with Banu Judham, killed several of them (inflicting heavy
casualties), including their chief, Al-Hunayd ibn Arid and his son, and captured
1000 camels, 5000 of their cattle and 100 women and boys. The new chief of the Banu
Judham who had embraced Islam appealed to Muhammad to release his fellow tribesmen,
and Muhammad released them.[16][17]

Islamic era

Alexandria in the late 18th century, by Luigi Mayer

Entry of General Bonaparte into Alexandria, oil on canvas, 365 cm × 500 cm (144 in
× 197 in), c. 1800, Versailles

The Battle of Abukir, by Antoine-Jean Gros 1806.

Alexandria: bombardment by British naval forces
In 619, Alexandria fell to the Sassanid Persians. Although the Byzantine Emperor
Heraclius recovered it in 629, in 641 the Arabs under the general 'Amr ibn al-'As
captured 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.[18][19]

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 only regained its former prominence with the construction of the Mahmoudiyah
Canal in 1807.

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.[20] Egypt turned to Europe in their effort to modernize 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.[5]

In July 1882, the city came under bombardment from British naval forces and was
occupied.[21]

In July 1954, the city was a target of an Israeli bombing campaign that later
became known as the Lavon Affair. On 26 October 1954, Alexandria's Mansheya Square
was the site of a failed assassination attempt on Gamal Abdel Nasser.[22]

Europeans began leaving Alexandria following the 1956 Suez Crisis that led to an
outburst of Arab nationalism. The nationalization of property by Nasser, which
reached its highest point in 1961, drove out nearly all the rest.[5]

Ibn Battuta in Alexandria

Map of the city in the 1780s, by Louis-François Cassas.

In reference to Alexandria, Egypt, Ibn Battuta speaks of great saints that resided
here. One of them being Imam Borhan Oddin El Aaraj. He was said to have the power
of working miracles. He told Ibn Battuta that he should go find his three brothers,
Farid Oddin, who lived in India, Rokn Oddin Ibn Zakarya, who lived in Sindia, and
Borhan Oddin, who lived in China. Battuta then made it his purpose to find these
people and give them his compliments. Sheikh Yakut was another great man. He was
the disciple of Sheikh Abu Abbas El Mursi, who was the disciple of Abu El Hasan El
Shadali, who is known to be a servant of God. Abu Abbas was the author of the Hizb
El Bahr and was famous for piety and miracles. Abu Abd Allah El Murshidi was a
great interpreting saint that lived secluded in the Minyat of Ibn Murshed. He lived
alone but was visited daily by emirs, viziers, and crowds that wished to eat with
him. The Sultan of Egypt (El Malik El Nasir) visited him, as well. Ibn Battuta left
Alexandria with the intent of visiting him.[23]

Ibn Battuta also visited the Pharos lighthouse on 2 occasions; in 1326 he found it
to be partly in ruins and in 1349 it had deteriorated further, making entrance to
the edifice impossible.[24]

Timeline
The most important battles and sieges of Alexandria include:
Siege of Alexandria (47 BC), Julius Caesar's civil war
Battle of Alexandria (30 BC), final war of the Roman Republic
Siege of Alexandria (619), Byzantine-Persian Wars
Siege of Alexandria (641), Rashidun conquest of Byzantine Egypt
Alexandrian Crusade (1365), a crusade led by Peter de Lusignan of Cyprus which
resulted in the defeat of the Mamluks and the sack of the city.
Battle of Alexandria (1801), Napoleonic Wars
Siege of Alexandria (1801), Napoleonic Wars
Alexandria expedition (1807), Napoleonic Wars
Ancient layout
Greek Alexandria was divided into three regions:

Macedonian Army, shown on the Alexander Sarcophagus.

Brucheum
Brucheum is the Royal or Greek quarter and forms 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. The city was laid out as a grid of parallel
streets, each of which had an attendant subterranean canal;
The Jewish quarter
This quarter is the northeast portion of the city;
Rhakotis
Rhakotis is the old city that was absorbed into Alexandria. It was occupied chiefly
by Egyptians. (from Coptic Rakotə "Alexandria").

Engraving by L F Cassas of the Canopic Street in Alexandria, Egypt made in 1784.

Two main streets, lined with colonnades and said to have been each about 60 meters
(200 ft) wide, intersected in the center 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; and the line of the great East–West "Canopic"
street, only slightly diverged from that of the modern Boulevard de Rosette (now
Sharia Fouad). Traces of its pavement and canal have been found near the Rosetta
Gate, but remnants of streets and canals were exposed in 1899 by German excavators
outside the east fortifications, which lie well within the area of the ancient
city.

Alexandria consisted originally of little more than the island of Pharos, which was
joined to the mainland by a 1,260-metre-long (4,130 ft) mole and called the
Heptastadion ("seven stadia"—a stadium was a Greek unit of length measuring
approximately 180 metres or 590 feet). The end of this abutted on the land at the
head of the present Grand Square, where the "Moon Gate" rose. All that now lies
between that point and the modern "Ras al-Tin" quarter is built on the silt which
gradually widened and obliterated this mole. The Ras al-Tin quarter represents all
that is left of the island of Pharos, the site of the actual lighthouse having been
weathered away by the sea. On the east of the mole was the Great Harbor, now an
open bay; on the west lay the port of Eunostos, with its inner basin Kibotos, now
vastly enlarged to form the modern harbor.

In Strabo's time, (latter half of the 1st century BC) the principal buildings were
as follows, enumerated as they were to be seen from a ship entering the Great
Harbor.

The Royal Palaces, filling the northeast angle of the town and occupying the
promontory of Lochias, which shut in the Great Harbor on the east. Lochias (the
modern Pharillon) has almost entirely disappeared into the sea, together with the
palaces, the "Private Port," and the island of Antirrhodus. There has been a land
subsidence here, as throughout the northeast coast of Africa.
The Great Theater, on the modern Hospital Hill near the Ramleh station. This was
used by Julius Caesar as a fortress, where he withstood a siege from the city mob
after he took Egypt after the battle of Pharsalus[citation needed][clarification
needed]
The Poseidon, or Temple of the Sea God, close to the theater
The Timonium built by Marc Antony
The Emporium (Exchange)
The Apostases (Magazines)
The Navalia (Docks), lying west of the Timonium, along the seafront as far as the
mole
Behind the Emporium rose the Great Caesareum, by which stood the two great
obelisks, which become known as "Cleopatra's Needles," and were transported to New
York City and London. This temple became, in time, the Patriarchal Church, though
some ancient remains of the temple have been discovered. The actual Caesareum, the
parts not eroded by the waves, lies under the houses lining the new seawall.
The Gymnasium and the Palaestra are both inland, near the Boulevard de Rosette in
the eastern half of the town; sites unknown.
The Temple of Saturn; alexandria west.
The Mausolea of Alexander (Soma) and the Ptolemies in one ring-fence, near the
point of intersection of the two main streets.
The Musaeum with its famous Library and theater in the same region; site unknown.
The Serapeum of Alexandria, the most famous of all Alexandrian temples. Strabo
tells us that this stood in the west of the city; and recent discoveries go far as
to place it near "Pompey's Pillar," which was an independent monument erected to
commemorate Diocletian's siege of the city.
The names of a few other public buildings on the mainland are known, but there is
little information as to their actual position. None, however, are as famous as the
building that stood on the eastern point of Pharos island. There, The Great
Lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, reputed to be 138 metres (453
feet) high, was situated. The first Ptolemy began the project, and the second
Ptolemy (Ptolemy II Philadelphus) completed it, at a total cost of 800 talents. It
took 12 years to complete and served as a prototype for all later lighthouses in
the world. The light was produced by a furnace at the top and the tower was built
mostly with solid blocks of limestone. The Pharos lighthouse was destroyed by an
earthquake in the 14th century, making it the second longest surviving ancient
wonder, after the Great Pyramid of Giza. A temple of Hephaestus also stood on
Pharos at the head of the mole.

In the 1st century, the population of Alexandria contained over 180,000 adult male
citizens,[25] according to a census dated from 32 CE, in addition to a large number
of freedmen, women, children and slaves. Estimates of the total population range
from 216,000[26] to 500,000[27] making it one of the largest cities ever built
before the Industrial Revolution and the largest pre-industrial city that was not
an imperial capital.[citation needed]

Geography