Alexandria

Alexandria or Alexandria (Ancient Greek Ἀλεξάνδρεια Alexándreia, after Alexander the Great; Arabic الإسكندرية al-Iskandariyya) is Egypt's second-largest city after Cairo, with a population of over 5 million (as of 2017) and an extension of 32 kilometres along the Mediterranean coast, and the largest Egyptian city overall with direct access to the Mediterranean Sea. It has the largest seaport in the country, handling about 80% of Egypt's foreign trade. As an important industrial location, it is supplied with crude oil and natural gas from Suez via pipelines.

Alexandria was founded in 331 BC by the ruler Alexander the Great on the site of the ancient Egyptian settlement of Rhakotis and completed under Ptolemy II between 285 and 247 BC. The city developed into an important center of the Hellenistic world as well as of Roman and Byzantine Egypt. It was the capital of the province of Aegyptus, and later of the Dioecesis Aegypti. Ancient Alexandria was best known for its lighthouse (Pharos), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and for its Great Library. It lost its importance after the Islamic conquest of Egypt in 641 AD and with the founding of Cairo. Reduced to a fishing village cut off from the hinterland in the early 19th century, Alexandria managed to re-emerge as a major international trading centre thanks to the construction of the Mahmudiya Canal and the flourishing of the lucrative Egyptian cotton trade.

Since 1994, underwater archaeological investigations have been taking place in the port of Alexandria, which have led to new insights into the predecessor settlement of Rhakotis and the Ptolemaic era.

Geography

Alexandria is located on the western edge of the Nile Delta just above sea level on a narrow strip of land along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, which runs here from southwest to northeast. Behind the strip of land stretches the lagoon-like brackish water lake Mariut, whose area has become smaller and smaller over the last 200 years. Entirely transformed by land reclamation into irrigated farmland is the area of the former Abukir ferry (المعدية أبو قير - al-Maʿdīyat/al-Muʿaddiyat Abū Qīr), located between Lake Mariut, the Bay of Abukir, and Lake Idku (بحيرة إدكو - Buhayra Idkū). From the Nile Delta, the Alexandria Canal ( خليج الإسكندرية - Chalīg al-Iskandariyya), created under the Ptolemies, winds its way between the lakes to Alexandria. It is used for fresh water supply and inland navigation. Between 1807 and 1820 the canal was again renewed, shifting the outlet from the Nile 20 kilometres downstream, and a new connection to the Mediterranean was made at Alexandria. Since then it has been called the Mahmudiya Canal (قَنَال المحمودية - Qanāl al-Maḥmūdiyya).

The old city of al-Medina (المدينة) is located on the headland formed along the dam to the island of Pharos built around 300 BC, and thus north of the ancient city. To the south this headland was secured by a fortified wall. South of the old city and the harbour basins, i.e. on the site of ancient Alexandria on the strip of land parallel to the coast, there was and still is a suburb (around 1800) almost twice as large in area, which was protected by further city walls. Today, this suburb has developed into a settlement strip of over 15 kilometres in length.

The city is located in the governorate of the same name and forms an administrative area of 2679 km². The city of Rosette (Raschīd) is 65 kilometers east, the Suez Canal 240 kilometers. The distance to Cairo is 225 kilometers.

Climate

On the coast around Alexandria is a narrow steppe-like strip of land between a Mediterranean climate and a desert climate. The temperature varies from 9 to 19 °C in January and from 22 to 31 °C in July. These fluctuations are moderate due to the proximity to the sea. 190 mm of precipitation falls on a few days between October and April.

The humidity is between 60 and 70 percent. Coming from the Mediterranean, the winds are mostly northerly, moderate, but sometimes very violent. In spring there can also be a hot, dry desert wind, the chamsin, which brings dense, yellow clouds of sand and dust from the south.