THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDRIA
Overview
is the second largest city of
and the old capital of Egypt located on the Mediterranean East coast to North
West of Delta. The atmosphere of Alexandria tends to be Mediterranean than
Middle Eastern. Alexandria is traditionally known as
because it contains the greatest summer resorts in the
Middle East. The cultural heritage gave it an exclusive rank among the rest of Egypt
cities, it is only 225Km from Cairo to Alexandria. Alexandria was chosen as
“the capital of Arab tourism for year 2010” by the Arab Ministerial Council of
tourism due to its deep-rooted history.
Area
& Population
The total area of Alexandria is 2818.77
Km2 and the number of its population according to 2006 census is 4.123.869.
The
history of building Alexandria
Earlier in 4th century B.C,
nothing existed in the current site of Alexandria except white sands, wide sea
and an island elongated before the main coast called “Faroz” and on the coast a
small village called “Ractous” surrounded by other small villages between the
sea and Mariout Lakes; archeologists claim that this area was considered a
strategic site to exclude any attacks that might come from the Mediterranean
Sea.
This is a description of what so-called
now Alexandria which was for many centuries a center of thought in the ancient
world. What is the event which turned these sands to the most well known city
on the Mediterranean Sea specifically what so-called now Greek Countries? In
this time, Persian fleets have tried to invade Greek islands the matter which made
their kingdoms to unify in order to encounter Persian attacks. King Philip, the
king of Macedonia started to unify this Greek City and attempted to across
small Asia (Turkey now) to encounter Persians but he died in 336 B.C. His son
Alexander has taken the charge at the age of twenty.
Alexander crawled to conquer small Asia,
Sham and Palestine until reached to Egypt in 332 B.C. the Egyptian people have receipted
Alexander kindly as result of cruelty which they suffered under Persian
occupation. Alexander started first by visiting the ancient city of Memphis
(south Giza now) after this visit he was crowded the king of Egypt. In that
time the great parsons of Egypt made the adoption rituals for
Alexander
to be the son of Amon God. In his way to Siwa the area elongated between
Mediterranean Sea and Mariout Lake caught the eyes of Alexander consequently he
gave his commands to build a city in this place to be the connection point
between Egypt and Greece. Few months later, Alexander left Egypt heading to
east in order to continue his conquests; he conquered Persia (Iran Now) to be
the ruler of the whole Persian Empire and was give the title of (The Master of
Asia), his ambition has led him to middle Asia and India.
In the gulf of Persia, Alexander sickened
to death after only ten days of his sickness at the age of 33 and was buried in
Alexandria.
Alexandria
in Ptolemy Era
After the death of Alexander his Empire
was partied between three of his army’s leaders, Egypt went to his cleverest
leader Patlimous whose family ruled Egypt for three centuries and in his time
Alexandria has became the capital of Egypt. Patlimous was fond of knowledge and
culture so he established
Bibliotheca Alexandria
and bought books in his
own expense from Greece, Syria, Babylon, Persia and India and put them in the
Bibliotheca Alexandria. In addition he decided to translate Torah into Greek
and chose the great parson of Jerusalem in order to explain to the translators
the meanings of torah.
In this time Alexandria was not only known
for its knowledge and culture but also the biggest assemblage of Jews in all
over the world.
Generally speaking, Ptolemaic made
flourished contribution in the history of Alexandria represented in ideological
and scientific renascence: Bibliotheca Alexandria, Alexandria lighthouse, royal
palace and temples.
Alexandria
in Roman Era
As result of conflicts on the throne of
Egypt in Ptolemaic ruling family, Rome (the new escalating power in that time) has
succeeded to dominate on Egypt until became roman colony in 80 B.C.
Romans has turned Egypt from independent
sovereignty country to just a state followed the new
Roman Empire
.
Alexandria stood as the biggest city in the Roman Empire after Rome (Capital).
The ancient canal has renewed and dug to link between Nile River and Red Sea for
serving Trade.
Persian
Conquest
The Roman Empire was partied into two
Empires: eastern and western Empires. The Roman has deteriorated to an extreme
weakness case in 7th century, the matter which encouraged Persian Empire
in the east to attack its kingdoms and occupied Sham and Egypt.
Persian troops have entered Alexandria
and plundered the city and killed a lot of people of its inhabitants in
addition to criminal massacres but actually the rule of Persian didn’t last for
long time whereas
Emperor Hercules
restored his kingdoms and restored
Alexandria to be followed to Byzantine Roman Empire.
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