 The city of Alexandria was named after its founder, Alexander the Great and as the seat of the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt, quickly became one of the greatest cities of the Hellenistic world — second only to Rome in size and wealth.
Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great in or around 334 BC. Alexandria was intended to supersede Naucratis as a Greek centre in Egypt, and to be the link between Greece and the rich Nile Valley. If such a city was to be on the Egyptian coast, there was only one possible site, behind the screen of the Pharos island and removed from the silt thrown out by Nile mouths. An Egyptian townlet, Rhacotis, already existed on the shore and was a resort of fishermen and pirates. |
The Royal Library of Alexandria was once the largest library in the world, holding perhaps 500,000 books. It is generally thought to have been founded at the beginning of the 3rd century BC, during the reign of Ptolemy II of Egypt, after Ptolemy's father had built what would become the first part of the library complex, the temple of the Muses. The Library's contents were likely distributed over several buildings, with the main library either located directly attached to or close to the oldest building, the Museum, and a daughter library in the younger Serapeum, also a temple dedicated to the god Serapis. |
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CAIRO
• ALEXANDRIA • OASIS• LUXOR • ASWAN • ABU
SIMBEL • SINAI
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