Alexandria is one of the most fastest ancient cities to raise to its power. It is one of the most famous ancient cities and it is very known for its amazing places of interest.
This city would eventually become the largest city and most powerful at it’s time. The rise of Alexandria was caused by Alexander the great when he invaded into egypt with his army(2). As soon as he conquered Alexandria got its name from Alexander. Alexandria is located in northern egypt, at the end of the nile river. Alexandria was in a region known as the Delta of the river. Alexandria today is an egyptian city.
It is an egyptian city culturally but it eventually become a roman-ish city. Alexander the Great who was the ruler of Alexandria chose the location of his new city with some thought. Instead of building it on the Nile delta, he selected an area twenty miles west. (3)”The city has magnificent public precincts and royal palaces which cover a fourth or even a third of the entire area.
For just as each of the kings would, from a love of splendour, add some ornament to the public monuments, so he would provide himself at his own expense with a residence in addition to those already standing.”(Strabo 63 BCE-21 BCE) This was written by a historian named Strabo who admired Alexander so much(2). One of the reasons why Alexander came to rise is because of its famous library. The library started under PTOLEMY(egyptian king)(305-285 BCE) and was eventually completed by Ptolemy II (285-246 BCE) who would occasionally send invites to powerful people in need of knowledges.(5). This library in the ancient world would be regarded as the “Alexandrian museum”. To this day no one was able to find an exact amount of how many books or scrolls that were found but it is rumored that there were 500,000 books in this library.
Back in ancient times having a library this was huge was a big advantage owing to the fact that there was no technology. No internet to browse the web, no e-books or articles online where they could read. The only thing they had were scrolls and books where they could learn their knowledge from.”Rape, murder, pillage thousands, even millions of human beings! But neither you nor any other barbarian has the right to destroy one human thought!” This a quote from William Shakespeare expressing his gratitude on how important the human knowledge is. A Lot of people in the ancient world had little to no knowledge about their world that’s why a library with hundreds of thousands of books were a huge reason for Alexandria’s rise. Another reason how Alexandria came to rise was the temple of the Serapis. “There are besides in the city temples pompous with lofty roofs, conspicuous among them the Serapeum, which, though feeble words merely belittle it, yet is so adorned with extensive columned halls, with almost breathing statues, and a great number of other works of art, that next to the Capitolium, with which revered Rome elevates herself to eternity, the whole world beholds nothing more magnificent.
” (Ammianus Marcellinus pg16). This was a great help to Alexandria which led to the assistance of the different cultures. Another reason why this was a big factor for the rise of Alexandria was the fact that this was a egyptian/greek god. The temple was also located in egypt too.
This was a great tool for attracting other people from different regions and religions. Finally, another reason what brought Alexandria to rise is it’s amazing and diverse city design, particularly the lighthouse of the pharos. It is called the lighthouse of the pharos because it was in the city pharos. The lighthouse of Alexandria the pharos, is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The lighthouse’s designer is believed to be Sostratus of Knidos. There is a rumor going on that he only provided the financial part of the lighthouse.
Proud of his work, he wanted to have his name carved into the lighthouse to show us what he created and was a part of was huge for him. Ptolemy II, the son who ruled Egypt after his father, he on the other hand only wanted his name to be apart of this masterpiece. But Sostratus was clever man, he supposedly had the inscription:”SOSTRATUS SON OF DEXIPHANES OF KNIDOS ON BEHALF OF ALL MARINERS TO THE SAVIOR GODS” already into the foundation putting plaster on top of the inscription.
Ptolemy II name was on the inscription but after some time after they both died the cluster would rub off thus making Sostratus’s inscription pop out(8). This lighthouse was built kind of like a modern lighthouse. This lighthouse at it’s time was the 2nd tallest building in the world. It’s height was very uncommon for a lighthouse. This was a very resourceful lighthouse at it’s time because of it’s beam of light could be seen from a very far distance. On the roof of the lighthouse there a statue of the sea god known as poseidon (greek mythology).
In ancient times there weren’t any GPS so there would be no way to tell where i would be able to find what is there and what is not. The light would also help with the weather. The lighthouse would lead to more agriculture and make the city a very popular trade place.
Alexandria being a new city would lead to more opportunities and had great structure to help with the building. The lighthouse was a very significant building in history and it would lead to a very successful lighthouse for Alexandria, attracting more traders, and even helping other ships. The city’s design was also very significant to the rise of Alexandria.
Therefore, although Alexandria would crumble down just as quick it led to power. The rise of Alexandria all came from the leader itself Alexander. He colonized the city first and was apart of the great library, the temple of Serapis, and the lighthouse of the pharos. If he hadn’t colonized the city first Alexandria wouldn’t be the city it was.
