On the 25th of Toba (Coptic month matching January in the Georgian calendar) of 331 B.C., Alexander the Great set the founding stone of a metropolis named after him in Egypt.
Dr. Hussein Bassir, the well-known Egyptian archaeologist, has said that Alexander’s men chose a place of an old borough called Raqotes.
Raqotes
This place appeared in Ancient Egypt texts as “Ra-Kadet, Re the builder”. Re was one of the main deities in Ancient Egypt. However, it was incorrect translation from the Ancient Egyptian language.
The original name of Raqotes was mentioned in documents of selling and buying dating back to later ages.
Some experts mention that the right meaning of the ancient name of Alexandria points to the border building.
Some scholars translate it as “the court”.
The court, here, may be the entrance of a god’s gallery that was worshiped in that ancient village.
That village situates now at Al ‘Amoud, the column, area, at Karmouz district in Alexandria.
Dr: Bassir
Denocratis
Denocratis, the Greek engineer designed the city of Alexander following a chessboard-like model.
This model prevailed in Greece in the 5th century B.C.
In the beginning stage of building Alexandria, Denocratis extended a bridge, named hypastadium, to link the village to Pharos Island.
The bridge that linked the two parts of the old city disappeared now.
Ancient Alexandria houses two ports then.
Ships loaded with Egypt’s products sailed from the eastern port towards Greece.
The western port receives the coming ships to Egypt.
Denocratis, Alexandria’s engineer, pided the city to five parts, every part denotes one of the first letters of the Greek alphabets.
It is assumed that that those five letters optimizes the text of founding Alexandria.
Alexander the Great
So that text could be read as “Alexander, the king is the son of Zeus constructs lighthouse of Alexandria”.
It is worth to mention that the Lighthouse of Alexandria was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
It was a symbol of protecting the city and a distinguished monument.
The Lighthouse became an icon of Alexandria for a long time.
Alexander the Great
It appeared in limitless times in writings of the Muslim historians who visited Alexandria in the Middle Ages.
Homer, the great Greek poet, mentioned Pharos Island in the 8th century B.C.
Alexandria houses numerous monuments such as:
Cemetery of Kom Al Shuqafa
Kom Al Shuqafa
-Alabaster Grave, located at the Latin Cemetery.
-Antoniadis Grave, discovered in 1944, located at Antoniadis Garden at al Nozhaa District.
-Al Dekhelliyah Cemetery that dated back to the 2nd century B.C.
-Al Hadrah Cemetery, discovered in 1942, located behind the Italian Hospital.
-Cemetery of Sidi Gaber.
-Cemetery of Al Shatby.
-Cemetery of Mustafa Kamel.
- Cemetery of Al Anfoshy
-Graves of Al Montazah.
-Graves of Suq Al Wardyan.
Cemetery of Al Qabbary, discovered in 1941, is located to the north of the bridge that links the western bridge to the road bounds to Cairo.
Alexandria also houses a number of temples such as Arsinoe Temple that situates near the Royal Quarter.
Starabo, a Greek geographer and historian, indicated to another temple consecrated to Arsinoe near Caesarion Temple constructed by Cleopatra VII.
She ordered builders to relocate two obelisk from Heliopolis to the front of temple which completed by August, the first emperor of Rome.
Cemetery of Mustafa Kamel
He constructed a gallery for Aphrodite, deity of love in Ancient Rome.
-Cemetery of Mustafa Kamel, discovered in 1933 while people were preparing a portion of land for a football playground.
The cemetery includes four separate graves dated back to the beginning of the 2nd century B.C.
Graves of Suq Al Wardyan
Mosaic representing Alexander the Great
Contributed by Ahmed Moamer
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