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Alexander the Great has long been credited with being the first to settle the area along Egypt's coast that became the great port city of Alexandria. But in recent years, evidence has been mounting that other groups of people were there first.
The latest clues that settlements existed in the area for several hundred years before Alexander the Great come from microscopic bits of pollen and charcoal in ancient sediment layers.
Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great in 331 B.C. The city sits on the Mediterranean coast at the western edge of the Nile delta. Its location made it a major port city in ancient times; it was also famous for its lighthouse (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) and its library, the largest in the ancient world.
I always understood that it was founded by Ptolemy (Alexander's top general) as Alexander died on his way back from India in the desert and never saw Egypt from my memory of it.
I believe the city of Alexandria was built around the older egyptian city of Rhakotis. The native egyptians continued to call Alexandria Rhakotis in their own language. I believe Rhakotis goes back to the days of The Ramses dynasty. This has more info.
Yeah I read somewhere that the entire area was settled in the early bronze-age. The first or second egyptian dynasty moved it more inland along the nile as protection against invasion from the med. So I have to wonder why this is such a suprise to find early civilization in the area.
"Alexander the Great has long been credited with being the first to settle the area along Egypt's coast that became the great port city of Alexandria." That's simply not correct.
Founding a city is not the same as being the first to settle there. It is a matter of semantics. To think that one of Egypt's coast's best natural ports was never home to human habitation until Alexander (or Ptolemy) got there is patently absurd. Probably every habitable square inch of Egypt had some settlement or human habitation at some point before the high-point of Hellenistic expansion.
I always understood that it was founded by Ptolemy (Alexander's top general) as Alexander died on his way back from India in the desert and never saw Egypt from my memory of it.
I thought I remembered that an oracle in a desert oasis temple had greeted him as a god, which event Alexander was quite happy to employ as needed. I gave Wikipedia a quick look and it puts Alexander in Egypt before his campaign that took him to India.
I thought I remembered that an oracle in a desert oasis temple had greeted him as a god, which event Alexander was quite happy to employ as needed. I gave Wikipedia a quick look and it puts Alexander in Egypt before his campaign that took him to India.
Thanks for the correction as i just checked it out and it says that he founded Alexandria or at least the Greek version of it. I guess Ptolemy went there after Alexander died and started the Ptolemaic dynasty as maybe that's what i was thinking.
I agree, that Alexander was not the first but made a huge difference in the city. That's what counts in my book.
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