Alexandria

Alexandria

1. Ports

   • 3 Harbours
     • Great Harbour
       • North side of Alexandria
     • Lake Habour
       • South side of Alexandria
       • Connected to huge lake
         • Huge lake connected (by canal) to Nile
           • Goods taken down Nile to red sea
             • Goods taken from red sea to india
     • Western Harbour
       • North side of Alexandria
       • 1,200m breakwater between them
   • Pharos
     • Island connected to mainland Alexandria by 1,200m breakwater
     • Lighthouse first thing traders would see coming over the horizon
     • Lighthouse one of the seven wonders of the ancient world
     • Marker for thousands of ships a year
     • Pharos was over 135m high
     • A fire was constantly lit at the top
     • A spiral stair case was at the bottom allowed for animals to carry fuel to be carried up by animals
     • Statues of Ptolemy II and his wife were at the bottom of the light house

2. Trade

   • Became so rich because it was a hub of trading
   • Wine
   • Statues
   • Clothes
   • Cottons
   • Skins
   • Silk
   • Brass
   • Copper
   • Iron
   • Gold
   • Silver
   • Silver Plate
   • Tin
   • Axes
   • Glass
   • Ivory
   • Tortoise Shell
   • Rhino Horn
   • Olive Oil
   • Sesame Oil
   • Rice
   • Butter
   • Honey
   • Wheat
   • Myrrh
   • Frankincense
   • Cinnamon
   • Insence
   • Papyrus

3. History

   • Named after Alexander the Great
   • Construction completed after Alexanders death
   • Alexander personally choose this site to be used as it had good climate, harbour, resources, location and soil
   • Alexander commanded the architect to plan a city which would be a centre of trade & civilitation
   • Alexander was succeeded as ruler by Ptolemy whose descendants ruler over Alexandria for the next 300 years
   • By the time Egypt had become a major part of the Roman empire Alexandria had become the greatest city in the eastern part of the Roman empire
   • By the 1st century AD Alexandria had about 1,000,000
   • The Greeks were the people with the most Power in Alexandria were the Greeks because they had planned and built the city as well as ruled it before the romans came and theirs was the official language meaning they had lots of wealth and priviliges in Aexandria

4. Life In Alexandria

   • Streets
     • Streets crossed at right angles
     • The city was set out in a grid system
     • Layout similar to many american cities
     • The main street was more than 30m wide
       • Bigger than any Roman street & 4x the size of any street in Pompeii
   • Buildings
     • Most public buildings were made of marble
     • Some houses were several stories high
     • The Royal Quarter was next to the Great Harbour
       • The Royal Quarter was more than 1 square mile of palaces temples and gardens
       • West of the Royal Quarter was the Ceasareum
         • In front of the Ceasareum were Cleopatra's Needles
         • The Ceasareum was a shrine begun in honour of the Roman General Marcus Antonius by Cleopatra and was finished by Emperor Augustus in honour of himself
   • The comunity
     • Alexandria was a centre of study
       • Professional scholars were employed to do research
         • Euclid wrote a famous textbook on geometry & Aristarchus put forward his theory that the earth goes around the sun
     • Alexander was a city housing many different races (Egyptians, Jews, Romans, Africans & Indians)
       • Because of the mix of races there was a lot of conflict, sometimes this conflict was so bad the Emperor had to intervene
         • On one  particularly bad riot involving the Jews Emperor Claudius  had to write a letter warning that if there was more trouble he would intervene with force.

5. Artifacts

   • In the 19th century one of Cleopatra's Needles needles was taken to London & the other to New York
   • Underwater excavations of the Great Harbour have allowed us to reclaim many artifacts

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