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Country Egypt
Governorate Alexandria
Founded 331 BC
Government
• Governor Maher El Zaher Beibars
Area
• Total 2,679 km2 (1,034 sq mi)
Elevation 5 m (16 ft)
Population (February, 2013)
• Total 4,546,231
• Density 1,700/km2 (4,400/sq mi)
Time zone EST (UTC+2)
Postal code 21500
Area code(s) (+20) 3


Alexandria Egypt - NextGen Day Egypt

Featured Hotels and Egypt Beach Resorts in Alexandria, Egypt

Alexandria is the second largest city by number of population in Egypt after Greater Cairo, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about 32 km (20 mi) along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country. It is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. Alexandria is Egypt's largest seaport, serving approximately 80% of Egypt's imports and exports. It is an important industrial center because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez. Alexandria is also an important tourist resort.

Alexandria was founded around a small Ancient Egyptian town c. 331 BC by Alexander the Great. It became an important centre of the Hellenistic civilization and remained the capital of Hellenistic and Roman & Byzantine Egypt for almost one thousand years until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in AD 641, when a new capital was founded at Fustat (later absorbed into Cairo). Hellenistic Alexandria was best known for the Lighthouse of Alexandria (Pharos), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World; its Great Library (the largest in the ancient world; now replaced by a modern one); and the Necropolis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages. Ongoing maritime archaeology in the harbor of Alexandria, which began in 1994, is revealing details of Alexandria both before the arrival of Alexander, when a city named Rhacotis existed there, and during the Ptolemaic dynasty.

From the late 19th century, Alexandria became a major center of the international shipping industry and one of the most important trading centers in the world, both because it profited from the easy overland connection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, and the lucrative trade in Egyptian cotton.

Alexandria Egypt Names
Literary Arabic: الإسكندرية al-iskandariyya
Egyptian Arabic: اسكندريه Eskendereyya ; also informally: أليكس Aleks
Coptic: Ⲣⲁⲕⲟⲧⲉ Rakotə
Greek: Αλεξάνδρεια Alexándreia
Koine Greek: Ἀλεξάνδρεια ἡ κατ' Αἴγυπτον "Alexandria in Egypt"
Italian: Alessandria
French: Alexandrie
Turkish: İskenderiye
Portuguese: Alexandria
Spanish: Alejandría

Alexandria Egypt Short History

Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great in April 331 BC as Ἀλεξάνδρεια (Alexandria). Alexander's chief architect for the project was Dinocrates. Alexandria was intended to supersede Naucratis as a Hellenistic center in Egypt, and to be the link between Greece and the rich Nile Valley. An Egyptian city, Rhakotis, already existed on the shore, and later gave its name to Alexandria in the Egyptian language (Egyptian *Raˁ-Ḳāṭit, written rˁ-ḳṭy.t, 'That which is built up'). It continued to exist as the Egyptian quarter of the city. A few months after the foundation, Alexander left Egypt and never returned to his city. After Alexander's departure, his viceroy, Cleomenes, continued the expansion. Following a struggle with the other successors of Alexander, his general Ptolemy succeeded in bringing Alexander's body to Alexandria, though it was eventually lost after being separated from its burial site there.


Although Cleomenes was mainly in charge of overseeing Alexandria's continuous development, the Heptastadion and the mainland quarters seem to have been primarily Ptolemaic work. Inheriting the trade of ruined Tyre and becoming the center of the new commerce between Europe and the Arabian and Indian East, the city grew in less than a generation to be larger than Carthage. In a century, Alexandria had become the largest city in the world and, for some centuries more, was second only to Rome. It became Egypt's main Greek city, with Greek people from diverse backgrounds.

Alexandria was not only a center of Hellenism, but was also home to the largest urban Jewish community in the world. The Septuagint, a Greek version of the Tanakh, was produced there. The early Ptolemies kept it in order and fostered the development of its museum into the leading Hellenistic center of learning (Library of Alexandria), but were careful to maintain the distinction of its population's three largest ethnicities: Greek, Jewish, and Egyptian. From this division arose much of the later turbulence, which began to manifest itself under Ptolemy Philopater who reigned from 221–204 BC. The reign of Ptolemy VIII Physcon from 144–116 BC was marked by purges and civil warfare.

The city passed formally under Roman jurisdiction in 80 BC, according to the will of Ptolemy Alexander, but only after it had been under Roman influence for more than a hundred years. It was besieged by the Ptolemies in 47 BC during Julius Caesar intervention in the civil war between king Ptolemy XIII and his advisers, and the fabled queen Cleopatra VII. It was finally captured by Octavian, future emperor Augustus on 1 August 30 BC, with the name of the month later being changed to August to commemorate his victory.

In AD 115, large parts of Alexandria were destroyed during the Kitos War, which gave Hadrian and his architect, Decriannus, an opportunity to rebuild it. In 215, the emperor Caracalla visited the city and, because of some insulting satires that the inhabitants had directed at him, abruptly commanded his troops to put to death all youths capable of bearing arms. On 21 July 365, Alexandria was devastated by a tsunami (365 Crete earthquake), an event annually commemorated years later as a "day of horror." In the late 4th century, persecution of pagans by newly Christian Romans had reached new levels of intensity. In 391, the Patriarch Theophilus destroyed all pagan temples in Alexandria under orders from Emperor Theodosius I. The Brucheum and Jewish quarters were desolate in the 5th century. On the mainland, life seemed to have centered in the vicinity of the Serapeum and Caesareum, both of which became Christian churches. The Pharos and Heptastadium quarters, however, remained populous and were left intact

In 619, Alexandria fell to the Sassanid Persians. Although the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius recovered it in 629, in 641 the Arabs under the general Amr Ibn Al-As captured it during the Muslim conquest of Egypt, after a siege that lasted 14 months. After the Battle of Ridaniya in 1517, the city was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and remained under Ottoman rule until 1798. Alexandria lost much of its former importance to Rosetta during the 9th to 18th centuries, and only regained its former prominence with the contsruction of the Mahmoudiyah Canal in 1807.

Alexandria figured prominently in the military operations of Napoleon's expedition to Egypt in 1798. French troops stormed the town on 2 July 1798, and it remained in their hands until the arrival of a British expedition in 1801. The British won a considerable victory over the French at the Battle of Alexandria on 21 March 1801, following which they besieged the town, which fell to them on 2 September 1801. Mohammed Ali, the Ottoman Governor of Egypt, began rebuilding and redevelopment around 1810, and by 1850, Alexandria had returned to something akin to its former glory. In July 1882, the city came under bombardment from British naval forces and was occupied. In July 1954, the city was a target of an Israeli bombing campaign that later became known as the Lavon Affair. On 26 October 1954, Alexandria's Mansheyya Square was the site of a failed assassination attempt on Gamal Abdel Nasser.

The most important battles and sieges of Alexandria include:
Siege of Alexandria (47 BC), Caesar's civil war
Battle of Alexandria (30 BC), Final war of the Roman Republic
Siege of Alexandria (619), Byzantine-Persian Wars
Siege of Alexandria (641), Rashidun conquest of Byzantine Egypt
Battle of Alexandria, French Revolutionary Wars
Siege of Alexandria (1801), French Revolutionary Wars
Alexandria expedition of 1807, French Revolutionary Wars

Alexandria Egypt Geography. Alexandria is located in the country of Egypt, on the southern coast of the Mediterranean.

Alexandria Egypt Climate. Alexandria has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification: BWh), but as the rest of Egypt's northern coast, the prevailing north wind, blowing across the Mediterranean, gives the city a different climate from the desert hinterland. It is the wettest place in Egypt, the other wettest places are Rosetta, Baltim, Kafr el-Dawwar and Mersa Matruh. The city's climate is influenced by the Mediterranean Sea, moderating its temperatures, causing variable rainy winters and moderately hot summers that, at times, can be very humid; January and February are the coolest months, with daily maximum temperatures typically ranging from 12 to 18 °C (54 to 64 °F) and minimum temperatures that could reach 5 °C (41 °F). Alexandria experiences violent storms, rain and sometimes sleet and hail during the cooler months. July and August are the hottest and driest months of the year, with an average daily maximum temperature of 30 °C (86 °F). The average annual rainfall is around 200 mm (7.9 in) but has been as high as 417 mm (16.4 in)
Port Said, Kosseir, Baltim, Damietta and Alexandria have the least temperature variation in Egypt.
The highest record temperature was 45 °C (113 °F) on May 30, 1961 and the coldest record temperature was 0 °C (32 °F) on January 31, 1994

Modern city

Alexandria Egypt Districts

Beach at Marina
Modern Alexandria is divided into six districts:
al-Montaza District: population 1,190,287
Shark (Eastern Alexandria) District: population 985,786
Wassat (Central Alexandria) District: population 520,450
al-Amriya District: population 845,845
Agamy (Western Alexandria) District: population 386,374
al-Gomrok District: population 145,558
There are also two cities under the jurisdiction of the Alexandria governorate forming metropolitan Alexandria:
Borg Al-Arab city: population 186,900
New Borg Al-Arab city: population 7,600

Alexandria Egypt Neighborhoods
Maamoura, Montaza, Mandara (Bahary - Qibly), Asafra (Bahary - Qibly), Miami, Sidi Bishr (Bahary - Qibly), Saray, Victoria, Seyouf, Laurent, Tharwat, San Stefano, Gianaclis, Schutz, Zezenia, Glim, Bacchus, Saba Pasha, Fleming, Dahria, Bolkly, Stanley, Rushdy, Mustafa Kamel, Kafr Abdu, Smouha, Nozha, Sidi Gaber, Cleopatra, Sporting, Ibrahimiyya, Camp Caesar, Al Shatby, Hadara (Bahary - Qibly - New), Azarita (Originally Lazarette), Muharram Bek, El Raml Downtown, Koum Al Dikka, Eastern Harbor, Anfoushi, Manshiyya, Attarin, Karmous (aka Karmouz), Ras El Tin, Labban, Mina El Basal, Western Harbor, Qabbary, Wardian, El Max, Dekheila, Agami (Al Bitaash (Originally "Beau Tache") - Al Hanuviel (Originally "Hameaux Ville")), Amreya, King Mariout, Burg al-Arab

Alexandria Egypt Palaces
Montaza Palace, in Montaza
Ras al-Tiin Palace, in Ras al-Tiin
Presidential Palace, in Maamoura
Palais d’Antoniadis, in Smoha

Alexandria Egypt Citadels
Situated in East Alexandria, Qaitbay citadel is one of the few remaining citadels in city from 15th century

Alexandria Egypt Recreational
Montaza Royal Gardens
Antoniades Park
Shallalat Gardens
Alexandria Zoo
Green Plaza
Fantazy Land
Maamoura Beach, Alexandria
Marina Resort


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Featured Hotels and Egypt Beach Resorts in Alexandria, Egypt


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