Alexandria

Alexandria is not only the largest port and second city of Egypt but also the greatest summer resort in the Middle East. It is located in the Mediterranean Sea north west of Delta, 225 km from Cairo by agricultural road and 221 km by desert road.

It is internationally known as “the Bride of the Mediterranean” with beaches extending along the Mediterranean for some 30 km.

Named after Alexander the Great it was built at his orders on the site of a small old fishing village called Rhakotis, in 322 BC to be the capital of his reign in Egypt, a port near to his country and a Greek cultural center.

Since its foundation Alexandria remained for many centuries a center of cultural radiation in the whole world . It occupied a remarkable place in the history of mankind. Therefore most of the touristic places in Alexandria date to the Ptolemaic and the Greco Roman era like the Catacombes of Kom Al Shuqqafa, the Pompey’s Pillar , the Greco Roman Museum and the Roman Amphitheater.

The Arabs occupied Alexandria and al-Fustat which later became Cairo, the capital of Egypt. Nevertheless, Alexandria continued to flourish as a trading center, principally for textiles and luxury goods, as Arab influence expanded westward through North Africa and then into Europe. The city also was important as a naval base, especially under the Fatimids and the Mamluks, but already it was contracting in size in line with its new, more modest status.

Alexandria survived the early Crusades relatively unscathed, and the city came into its own again with the development of the East-West spice trade, which Egypt monopolized. The loss of this trade--which came about after the discovery of the sea route to India in 1498 and the Turkish conquest of Egypt in 1517--was the final blow to the city's fortunes. During the Ottoman Empire Alexandria was a free port open to all men and ideas. Under Turkish rule the canal linking Alexandria to the Rosetta branch of the Nile was allowed to silt up, strangling the city's commercial lifeline. Alexandria had been reduced to a small fishing village when Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798.

After the 1952 coup in Egypt, most of Alexandria's foreign population left but the city still remains a thriving commercial community and an important industrial center

Alexandria was famed for its lighthouse, one of the six vanished wonders of the world. Legend speaks of how a mysterious mirror could reflect the light tens of kilometers away. Legend says the mirror was also used to detect and burn enemy ships before they could reach the shore.

One of the greatest cultural and scientific centers specialized in the affairs, civilization, literature, sciences and arts is the Library of Alexandria which attracts scholars from all over the world.

Today Alexandria is considered the second capital of Egypt. It is distinguished by its strategic location, moderate climate and its beautifully fine sandy beaches which covers a large area between Agamy in the west and Abu Qeir in the east, which made it worthy of its well merited title “Pearl of the Mediterranean”