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Alexandria City:
The second largest city and the
main port of Egypt, Alexandria was built by the Greek architect Dinocrates
(332-331 BC) on the site of an old village, Rhakotis, at the orders of
Alexander the Great. The city, immortalizing Alexander's name, quickly
flourished into a prominent cutural, intellectual, political, and economic
metropolis, the remains of which are still evident to this day.
It was the renowned capital of the Ptolemies, with numerous monuments. It
was the site of the Lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient
World, as well as the Great Library. It was along these shores that history
took a tragic turn at the time of Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, and
Octavian.
Alexandria lies north-west of the Nile delta and stretches along a narrow
land strip between the Mediterranean Sea and Lake Mariut (Mareotis). It is
linked to Cairo by two major highways and a railroad line. It is one of the
most notable summer resorts in the Middle East, for, in addition to its
temperate winters, its beaches, with white sands and magnificent scenery,
stretch for 140 km along the Mediterranean Sea, from Abu Qir, in the east to
Al-Alamein and Sidi Abdul Rahman, in the west.
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