Alexandria

City on the Mediterranean coast, founded by Alexander the Great in 332-331 BC on the site of an old village, Rhakotis, and expanded by Ptolemy I and II. The city, the residence of the Ptolemies, quickly grew into a metropolis. The town plan, based on a design by the architect Dinocrates of Rhodos and Kleomenes of Naukratis, is very clear with parallel streets. The whole was surrounded by a city wall and had a surface area of roughly 11 square kilometres. In the first century BC, about 500,000 people lived there, including many Jews and Greeks. The famous library of Ptolemy II with its huge collection of papyri was located here. The building was destroyed by fire in the third century AD. Part of the collection of manuscripts may have been housed in theSerapeum, a temple to Sarapis built by the architect Parmeniskos. Other famous buildings in Alexandria include the Caesareum of Cleopatra VII and Augustus (from where the obelisks now in London and New York were taken) and the palace on the Lochias peninsula. The necropolis of Kom es-Shuqafa from the first and second centuries AD, a labyrinth of passageways with rock-cut tombs on many levels is also well known. On the island of Pharos, just off the coast, stood a lighthouse designed for Ptolemy I by Sostratos of Knidos. This 120 m high building was considered to be one of the wonders of the world in antiquity