short street to the N. Opened in 1895 this museum possesses an
important collection of Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities,
found not only in the city but in all Lower Egypt and the
Fayum. The western end of the boulevard leads to the Place
Ibrahim, often called Place Ste Catherine, from the Roman
Catholic church at its S.E. side. In a street running S. from
the boulevard to the railway station is the mosque of Nebi
Daniel, containing the tombs of Said Pasha and other members
of the khedivial family. Immediately E. of the mosque is Kom
ed-Dik, garrisoned by British troops, one of several forts built
for the protection of the city. Except Kom ed-Dik the forts
have not been repaired since the bombardment of 1882. Equally
obsolete is the old line of fortifications which formerly marked
the limits of the city south and east and has now been partly
demolished. Throughout the central part of Alexandria the
streets are paved with blocks of lava and lighted by electricity.
The north quarter is mainly occupied by natives and Levantines.
The narrow winding streets and the Arab bazaars present an
Oriental scene contrasting with the European aspect of the
district already described. This Arab quarter is traversed
by the rue Ras et-Tin, leading to the promontory of than
name. Here, overlooking the harbour, is the khedivial yacht
club (built 1903) and the palace, also called Ras et-Tin,
built by Mehemet Ali, a large but not otherwise noteworthy
building. In the district between the Grand Square and the
western harbour, one of the poorest quarters of the city,
is an open space with Fort Caffareli or Napoleon in the
centre. This quarter has been pierced by several straight
roads, one of which, crossing the Mahmudiya canal by the Pont
Neuf, leads to Gabbari, the most westerly part of the city
and an industrial and manufacturing region, possessing asphalt
works and oil, rice and paper mills. On either side of the
canal are the warehouses of wholesale dealers in cotton, wool,
sugar, grain and other commodities. In the southern part of
the city are the Arab cemetery, ``Pompey's Pillar'' and the
catacombs. ``Pompey's Pillar,'' which stands on the highest
spot in Alexandria, is nearly 99 ft. high, including the
pedestal. The shaft is of red granite and is beautifully
polished. Nine feet in diameter at the base, it tapers to eight
feet at the top. The catacombs, a short distance S.W. of the
pillar, are hewn out of the rocky slope of a hill, and are an
elaborate series of chambers adorned with pillars, statues,
religious symbols and traces of painting (see below, Ancient
City.) Along the northern side of the Mahmudiya canal,
which here passes a little S. of the catacombs, are many fine
houses and gardens (Moharrem Bey quarter), stretching eastward
for a considerable distance, favourite residences of wealthy
citizens. A similar residential quarter has also grown up
on the N.E., where the line of the old fortifications has
become a boulevard. The district extending outside the E.
fortifications, in the direction of Hadra, has been laid out
with fine avenues, and contains numerous garden-cafes and
pleasure resorts. Thence roads lead to the E. suburb known
generally as Ramleh, which stretches along the coast, and is
served by a local railway. It begins E. of the racecourse
with Sidi Gabr, and does not end till the khedivial estates
E. of San Stefano are reached, some 5 m. E. All this space
is filled with villas, gardens and hotels, and is a favourite
summer resort not only of Alexandrians but also of Cairenes.
The eastern bay is rocky, shallow and exposed, and is now used
only by native craft. The harbour is on the W. of Pharos and
partly formed by a breakwater (built 1871-1873 and prolonged
1906-1907), 2 m. long. The breakwater starts opposite the
promontory of Ras et-Tin, on which is a lighthouse, 180 ft.
above the sea, built by Mehemet Ali. Another breakwater starts
from the Gabbari side, the opening between the two works
being about half a mile. A number of scattered rocks lie
across the entrance, but through them two fairways have been
made, one 600 ft. wide and 35 ft. deep, the other 300 ft.
wide and 30 ft. deep. The enclosed water is divided into an
outer and inner harbour by a mole, 1000 yds. long, projecting
N.W. from the southern shore. The inner harbour covers 464
acres. It is lined for 2 1/2 m. by quays, affording accommodation
for ships drawing up to 28 ft. The outer harbour (1400 acres
water area) is furnished with a graving dock, completed in
1905, 520 ft. long, and with quays and jetties along the
Gabbari foreshore. Their construction was begun in 1906.
Alexandria is linked by a network of railway and telegraph
lines to the other towns of Egypt, and there is a trunk
telephone line to Cairo. The city secured in 1906 a new
and adequate water-supply, modern drainage works having been
completed the previous year. Being the great entrepot
for the trade of Egypt, the city is the headquarters of the
British chamber of commerce and of most of the merchants and
companies engaged in the development of the Delta. About 90%
of the total exports and imports of the country pass through
the port, though the completion, in 1904, of a broad-gauge
railway connecting Cairo and Port Said deflected some of the
cotton exports to the Suez Canal route. The staple export
is raw cotton, the value of which is about 80% of all the
exports. The principal imports are manufactured cotton goods
and other textiles, machinery, timber and coal. The value
of the trade of the port increased from L. 30,000,000 in 1900
to L. 46,000,000 in 1906. In the same period the tonnage
of the ships entering the harbour rose from 2,375,000 to
3,695,000. Of the total trade Great Britain supplies from
35 to 40% of the imports and takes over 50% of the exports.
Among the exports sent to England are the great majority of the
80,000,000 eggs annually shipped (see also EGYPT: Commerce.)
The population of the city (1907) was 332,246 or including
the suburbs, about 400,000. The foreigners numbered over
90,000. The majority of these were Greeks, Italians, Syrians,
Armenians and other Levantines, though almost every European
and Oriental nation is represented. The predominant languages
spoken, besides the Arabic of the natives, are Greek, French,
English and Italian. The labouring population is mainly
Egyptian; the Greeks and Levantines are usually shopkeepers
or petty traders. In its social life Alexandria is the
most progressive and occidental of all the cities of North
Africa, with the possible exception of Algiers. (F. R. C.)
II. The Ancient City.--The Greek Alexandria was divided
into three regions: (1) the Jews' quarter, forming the
north-east portion of the city; (2) Rhacotis, on the west,
occupied chiefly by Egyptians; (3) Brucheum, the Royal or
Greek quarter, forming the most magnificent portion of the
city. In Roman times Brucheum was enlarged by the addition of
an official quarter, making up the number of four regiones
in all. The city was laid out as a gridiron of parallel
streets, each of which had an attendant subterranean canal.
Two main streets, lined with colonnades and said to have been
each about 200 ft. wide, intersected in the centre of the
city, close to the point where rose the Sema (or Soma)
of Alexander (i.e. his Mausoleum). 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. Traces of its
pavement and canal have been found near the Rosetta Gate; but
better remains still of streets and canals were exposed in
1899 by the German excavators outside the E. 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 mole
nearly a mile long and called the Heptastadium. The end
of this abutted on the land at the head of the present Grand
Square, where rose the ``Moon Gate.'' All that now lies
between that point and the modern Ras et-Tin quarter is built
on the silt which gradually widened and obliterated this
mole. The Ras et-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 Harbour, now an open bay; on the
west lay the port of Eunostos, with its inner basin
Kibotos, now vastly enlarged to form the modern harbour.
In Strabo's time, (latter half of 1st century B.C.) the
principal buildings were as follows, enumerated as they were to
be seen from a ship entering the Great Harbour. (1) The Royal
Palaces, filling the N.E. angle of the town and occupying the
promontory of Lochias, which shut in the Great Harbouron 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 N. Delta and indeed
all the N.E. coast of Africa; and on calm days the foundations
of buildings may be seen, running out far under sea, near the
Pharillon. Search was made for relics of these palaces by
German explorers in 1898-1899, but without much success. (2)
The Great Theatre, on the modern Hospital Hill near the Ramleh
station. This was used by Caesar as a fortress, where he
stood a siege from the city mob after the battle of Pharsalus.
(3)The Poseideion or Temple of the Sea God, close to the
theatre and in front of it. (4) The Timonium built by Antony.
(5, 6, 7) The Emporium (Exchange), Apostases (Magazines)
and Navalia (Docks), lying west of (4), along the sea-front
as far as the mole. Behind the Emporium rose (8) the Great
Caesareum, by which stood the two great obelisks, later known
as ``Cleopatra's Needles,'' and now removed to New York and
London. This temple became in time the Patriarchal Church,
some remains of which have been discovered: but the actual
Caesareum, so far as not eroded by the waves, lies under
the houses lining the new sea-wall. (9) The Gymnasium
and (10) the Palaestra are both inland, near the great
Canopic street (Boulevard de Rosette) in the eastern half
of the town, but on sites not determined. (11) The Temple
of Saturn: site unknown. (12) The Mausolea of Alexander
(Soma) and the Ptolemies in one ring-fence, near the point
of intersection of the two main streets. (13) The Museum
with its library and theatre in the same region; but on a
site not identified. (14) The Serapeum, the most famous of
all Alexandrian temples Strabo tells us that this stood in
the west of the city; and recent discoveries go far to place
it near ``Pompey's Pillar'' (see above) which, however, was
an independent monument erected to commemorate Diocletian's
siege of the city. We know the names of a few other public
buildings on the mainland, but nothing as to their position.
On the eastern point of the Pharos island stood the Great
Lighthouse, one of the ``Seven Wonders,'' reputed to be 400 ft.
high. The first Ptolemy began it, and the second completed
it, at a total cost of 800 talents. It is the prototype of
all lighthouses (q.v.) in the world. A temple of Hephaestus
also stood on Pharos at the head of the mole. In the Augustan
age the population of Alexandria was estimated at 300,000
free folk, in addition to an immense number of slaves.
III. History.--
Ancient and medieval period.
Founded in 332 B.C. by Alexander the Great, Alexandria was
