Alexandria

State

Virginia

Country

Madison County

Continent

Africa

Size

2,679 KM²

Population

5,200,000

Spending Budget

$9 - $328

Famous For

The colossal Pharos Lighthouse
Great Library of Alexandria

Best Time to Visit

January
March
April
September
October
November

History

Recent geological dating of shell fragments and lead contamination show human action at the placement throughout amount|the amount} of the recent Kingdom (27th–21st centuries B.C.) and once more within the period 1000–800 BC, followed by the absence of activity thenceforth. From ancient sources it's noted there existed a general store at this location throughout the time of Ramesses the good for trade with Crete, however it had long been lost by the time of Alexander's arrival. A small Egyptian fishing village named Rhakotis (Egyptian: rꜥ-qdy.t, 'That that is constructed up') existed since the thirteenth century B.C. within the neighborhood and eventually grew into the Egyptian quarter of town. simply east of Alexandria (where Abu Qir Bay is now), there was in times of yore fenland and several other islands. As early because the seventh century B.C., there existed vital port cities of Canopus and Heracleion. The latter was recently rediscovered beneath water. Alexandria was supported by Alexander the good in April 331 B.C. as Ἀλεξάνδρεια (Alexandreia). Passing through Egypt, Alexander needed to make an outsized Greek town on Egypt's coast that might bear his name. He selected the location of Alexandria, imagining the building of a causeway to the near island of beacon light that might generate 2 nice natural harbors. Alexandria was supposed to succeed the older Greek colony of Naucratis as a Hellenistical center in Egypt and to be the link between the Hellenic Republic and therefore the wealthy Nile depression. some months once the muse, Alexander left Egypt and ne'er came to town throughout his life. After Alexander's departure, his viceroy Cleomenes continuing the enlargement. The designer Dinocrates of Rhodes designed the town, employing a Hippodamian grid arrange. Following Alexander's death in 323 B.C., his general Ptolemy Lagides took possession of Egypt and brought Alexander's body to Egypt with him. Ptolemy initially dominated from the recent port of Memphis. In 322/321 B.C. he had Cleomenes dead. Finally, in 305 BC, Ptolemy declared himself Pharaoh as male monarch Soter ("Savior") and enraptured his capital to Alexandria.

Present Day

Due to the constant presence of war in Alexandria in past, little or no of the traditional town has survived into the current day. abundant of the royal and civic quarters sank to a lower place the harbor and therefore the rest has been designed over in contemporary world. "Pompey's Pillar", a Roman triumphal column, is one among the known ancient monuments still standing in Alexandria nowadays. it's set on Alexandria's ancient acropolis—a modest hill set adjacent to the city's Arab cemetery—and was originally a part of a temple colonnade. as well as its pedestal, it's thirty m (99 ft) high; the shaft is of polished red granite, 2.7 m (8.9 ft) in diameter at the bottom, tapering to two.4 m (7.9 ft) at the highest. The shaft is eighty-eight feet (27 m) high, and created out of one piece of granite. Its volume is 132 blockish meters (4,662 blockish feet) and weighs some 396 tons. Pompey's Pillar could are erected victimization identical ways that we're accustomed erect the traditional obelisks. The Romans had cranes however they weren't sturdy enough to raise one thing this significant. Roger Hopkins and Mark Lehrner conducted many obelisk erection experiments, as well as a triple-crown, decide to erect a 25-ton obelisk in 1999. This followed 2 experiments to erect smaller obelisks and 2 failing tries to erect a 25-ton obelisk.[42][43] The structure was empty and dismantled within the fourth century once a bishop prescribed that religion should be eradicated. "Pompey's Pillar" may be a name, because it has nothing to try to do with Pompey, having been erected in 293 for Diocletian, presumably in memory of the rebellion of Domitius Domitianus. to a lower place the citadel itself square measure the subterranean remains of the Serapeum, wherever the mysteries of the god Serapis were enacted, and whose carven wall niches square measure believed to own provided overflow cupboard space for the traditional Library. in additional recent years, several ancient artifacts are discovered from the encircling ocean, large items of previous pottery. Alexandria's catacombs, referred to as Kom El Shoqafa, square measure a brief distance southwest of the pillar, incorporates a multi-level labyrinth, reached via an outsized spiral stairway, and that includes dozens of chambers adorned with sculptured pillars, statues, and different syncretic Romano-Egyptian spiritual symbols, burial niches, and sarcophagi, besides as an outsized Roman-style banquet area, wherever memorial meals were conducted by relatives of the deceased. The catacombs were long forgotten by the voters till they were discovered out of the blue in 1900. The most intensive ancient excavation presently being conducted in Alexandria is understood as Kom El Deka. it's unconcealed the traditional city's healthy theater, and therefore the remains of its Roman-era baths. It is believed that Roman general national leader and queen of Egypt Cleopatra once spent a stormy winter in Alexandria as lovers. throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the metropolis nonheritable a cosmopolitan magnificence once a coruscant solid of writers wrote concerning Alexandria. The list enclosed EM Forster, Lawrence George Durrell, Edwar al-Kharrat, Harry Tzalas, and Jacqueline Carol. Alexandria additionally attracts from deep cultural roots. Its Greco-Roman ruins and one among its most fascinating sites — the Kom El Dikka (literally Mound of Rubble) — denote the Roman era. The Roman amphitheater — distinctive to the region — is healthy and contains a residential complicated. Used for assemblies, the amphitheater still has Greek graffiti marking the seats celebrating winners of chariot races! If Alexandria has one process landmark, it's its formidable library. Alexandria's main souq or market is that the pivot around that town flows. Stretching through the backstreets from Midan al-Tahrir to the downtown, the marketplace could be a squiggle of lanes that flow away from one another. every alley specializes in a very completely different product - attire, footwear, teas, spices, way-out antiques, and handstitched piece of furniture. The chatty look homeowners -some of whom are here for generations - treat you with fascinating stories of their craft. As evenfall falls upon the town, I head back to the place wherever my day began -the Corniche. The sun is slippery into the ocean whereas the muezzin's emotional need maghrib (evening prayer) resonates within the air. Preoccupied with matters less religious, I head to an area restaurant for a few nice kushary and later to Latino at Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road for recent zalabia with chocolate.

Future

Alexandria could be a rattling place to measure, a community of numerous and broad-minded individuals brought along during a town that options stunning historic districts, beautiful neighborhoods, and rattling parks, stores and restaurants. Alexandria is additionally a town that has reached AN inflection purpose within the road to its future. however we tend to answer the challenges facing United States nowadays can confirm what type of town following generation of Alexandrians can inherit. I believe that Alexandria’s future will be even brighter than its gift, which by 2050 we will produce AN Alexandria wherever the progressive values of our politics became the hallmarks of our town. In this future Alexandria, we've got found a careful balance between the stress facing our town. we've got consummated our commitment to making sure that housing remains cheap to individuals of various suggests that whereas conserving the inexperienced and open areas that build Alexandria stunning. we've got worked with business homeowners and entrepreneurs to revitalize our business sector. we've got provided our education system the funding and area it must make sure that each juvenile encompasses a path to a prosperous adulthood. we've got fostered a powerful social class by supporting operating families, and specializing in the requirements of communities that square measure too usually left behind. we've got maintained a commitment to our neighborhoods by coming back along to mitigate the impact of temperature change and solve future challenges just like the flooding that plagues such a lot of householders nowadays. I am running for council to assist Alexandria on the trail to a a lot of inclusive and prosperous future. Over the last 10 years, I’ve served on town commissions that have forbidden a number of our thorniest policy challenges. In my calling, i'm chief of employees to a progressive leader in Congress. i do know what it takes to make numerous coalitions to attain policy goals. i do know from primary expertise however essential it's for nonappointive officers to be aware of and advocate for his or her constituents. Today’s Alexandria has everything we'd like to beat the challenges we tend to face and build a brighter future. we've got a town jam-packed with dedicated, civically-minded people that selected to create Alexandria our home as a result of its beauty, diversity, and values speak to United States. we've got exciting opportunities for economic process and innovation sooner than United States tied to the new Virginia school Innovation field in Potomac Yard and also the INOVA-led renovation of the Landmark Mall website. we've got AN appreciation for the advanced history that offers our town its distinctive character, and aspirations for {a better|a far better|a much better|a higher|a stronger|a a lot of robust|an improved} and more simply future. nevertheless too usually, we tend to struggle to search out the balance that's necessary to maneuver United States forward. Finding a balance between vital priorities takes communication — however over that it takes speech. the trail to a far better Alexandria is one designed on a foundation of revived trust between the individuals of our town. Building that trust can take enhanced accessibility and transparency from our leaders. it'll need a temperament to just accept that several of the queries facing Alexandria don’t have only 1 answer, and folks of excellent religion will return to completely different conclusions on sophisticated topics. it'll need really being attentive to and understanding one another. If elected, i'm able to be a frontrunner WHO can take the time to listen to and perceive the views of Alexandrians from all walks of life, and to try and do the work to mirror those wishes in policies we tend to pursue. i will be able to commit myself to assembling the trust we are going to ought to build Alexandria’s future will be even brighter than its gift.

Must Visit Places ------------

Bibliotheca Alexandrina

A re-imagining of Alexandria's ancient nice Library, this splendidly designed cultural center contains a bunch of museums, likewise mutually of the fashionable world's most formidable libraries. Its design — an enormous sun disk — presides over the city district Corniche, whereas within, a large room will hold eight million volumes. Below the most library, guests will explore a spread of superbly curated exhibitions. The Manuscript depository, with its glorious assortment of ancient texts and scrolls, and also the Antiquities depository, with its Hellenic antiquities and statuary found throughout underwater exploration within the harbor, square measure the 2 prime attractions. however there are rotating art exhibitions, a permanent Egyptian genre assortment, and a museum and Planetarium that square measure aimed squarely at youngsters

Alexandria National Museum

Alexandria's National Museum could be a must-stop if you would like to induce to grips with the large history of this known town. Inside, the gathering guides you from the swayer era (in the basement) to the Hellenistic peak, once Alexandria and Egypt were ruled by the Ptolemy sept begun by Alexander the nice (on the bottom floor), and up to the Byzantine and Muslim periods (on the first floor). likewise because of the displays, statuary, and antiquities unearthed in and around the town (including finds from underwater explorations within the space offshore), there square measure wonderful map drawings that imagine what the classical town of Alexandria would have appeared like, that extremely helps guests perceive the dynamic face of this town.

Fort Qaitbey

Walk the long shore-front Corniche road heading west, and you may finally make Fort Qaitbey. it should be a poor substitute for what was once the location of the mighty lighthouse beacon — one in all the seven wonders of the traditional world — however this squat and dinky fort has been standing guard over Alexandria's japanese harbor since 1480. The lighthouse itself aforementioned word of farewell to Alexandria in 1303 once it had been toppled by a violent earthquake. Fort Qaitbey was engineered by Mamluke grand Turk Qaitbey in a trial to fortify this necessary Egyptian port from attack, and rubbish from the toppled beacon was employed in its construction. Inside, you'll explore the series of stone-walled chambers and climb up to the roof to seem out over the Mediterranean.Walk the long shore-front Corniche road heading west, and you may finally make Fort Qaitbey. it should be a poor substitute for what was once the location of the mighty lighthouse beacon — one in all the seven wonders of the traditional world — however this squat and dinky fort has been standing guard over Alexandria's japanese harbor since 1480. The lighthouse itself aforementioned word of farewell to Alexandria in 1303 once it had been toppled by a violent earthquake. Fort Qaitbey was engineered by Mamluke grand Turk Qaitbey in a trial to fortify this necessary Egyptian port from attack, and rubbish from the toppled beacon was employed in its construction. Inside, you'll explore the series of stone-walled chambers and climb up to the roof to seem out over the Mediterranean.

Corniche

Downtown Alexandria's wide city district road is the maximum amount a logo of the town as any of its monuments. It's here that you just get a true condole with the time of cosmopolitan magnificence and degeneration that marked this town within the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. a lot of of the design from this era still stand on the Corniche, although currently, a lot of of it's heavily ramshackle and falling into unsoundness. throughout your stroll inspect the colonial remnants of the Steigenberger Cecil building and Paradise hotel Windsor Palace building, that square measure still the key harbor-side addresses for guests United Nations agency wish to wallow in bygone-day ambiance. The Cecil compete host to writer and also the British United States intelligence agency throughout WWII, and each hotels have endeavored to revive and keep a lot of of their original Edwardian charm.

Kom el-Dikka

Nobody thought a lot of of the traditional junk mound in central Alexandria till, in 1947, they set to clear the location to create means for brand spanking new housing. Instead, the realm is understood as Kom el-Dikka ("Mound of Rubble") unconcealed an entire swag of ancient ruins, as well as alittle Roman theater. Excavation work commenced, and today, this park space includes the remnants of a Ptolemaic temple and also the mosaic flooring of a moneyed Roman-era habitation currently called the Villa of the Birds.

Catacombs of Kom el-Shuqqafa

The Catacombs of Kom el-Shuqqafa square measure hewn from the rock on the southern slopes of a hill, within the Carmous district. Thought thus far from the 2d century AD, they provide associate admirable example of the characteristic conqueror fusion of Egyptian and Graeco-Roman designs. Discovered in 1900 (thanks to a donkey falling into them) they're ordered out on many levels of sarcophagi and loculi (shelf tomb) chambers. A spiral steps leads down into the bottom to the most rotunda. To the correct, you'll be able to enter the most sepulcher and conjointly the Sepulchral Chapel with ninety one loculi, every massive enough to accommodate 3 or four mummies. To the left may be a massive space referred to as the Triclinium Funebre, which might are used for banquets in honor of the dead.