Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast
Saturday, 12 September 2015 - 06:41 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: North Africa / Nordafrika General , Union for the Mediterranean
Reading Time: 8 minutes
© flickr.com – David Evers/cc-by-2.0
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Alexandria is the
second largest city and the second largest metropolitan area in
Egypt after
Greater Cairo by size and population, extending about 32 km (20 mi) along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the
north central part of the country. It is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. Alexandria is Egypt’s largest seaport, serving approximately 80% of Egypt’s imports and exports. It is an important industrial center because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from
Suez . Alexandria is also an important tourist resort.
Alexandria was founded around a small Ancient Egyptian town c. 331 BC by Alexander the Great . It became an important center of the Hellenistic civilization and remained the capital of Hellenistic and Roman & Byzantine Egypt for almost 1000 years until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in AD 641, when a new capital was founded at Fustat (later absorbed into Cairo). Hellenistic Alexandria was best known for the Lighthouse of Alexandria (Pharos ), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World ; its Great Library (the largest in the ancient world; now replaced by a modern one); and the Necropolis , one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages . Ongoing maritime archaeology in the harbor of Alexandria, which began in 1994, is revealing details of Alexandria both before the arrival of Alexander, when a city named Rhacotis existed there, and during the Ptolemaic dynasty .
Bibliotheca Alexandrina © Roland Unger/cc-by-sa-3.0
From the late 18th century, Alexandria became a major center of the international shipping industry and one of the most important trading centers in the world, both because it profited from the easy overland connection between the Mediterranean Sea and the
Red Sea , and the lucrative trade in
Egyptian cotton . Alexandria was the second most powerful city of the ancient world after
Rome .
Alexandria hosts four harbors; namely the
Western Harbor , which is the main harbor of the country that handles about 60% of the country’s exports and imports,
El Dekhiela Harbor west of the Western Harbor, the
Eastern Harbor which is a fishing and yachting harbor, and
Abu Qir Harbor at the northern east of the governorate. It is commercial harbor for general cargo and phosphates. Alexandria is a main summer resort and tourist attraction, due to its public and private beaches and ancient history and Museums, especially the
Bibliotheca Alexandrina , based on reviving the ancient Library of Alexandria.
Read more on
touregypt.net – Alexandria ,
Bibliotheca Alexandrina ,
Wikitravel Alexandria ,
Wikivoyage Alexandria and
Wikipedia Alexandria . Learn more about the
use of photos . To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organizations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (
Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State -
Weather report by weather.com -
Johns Hopkins University & Medicine - Coronavirus Resource Center -
Global Passport Power Rank -
Democracy Index -
GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank -
Global Competitiveness Report -
Corruption Perceptions Index -
Press Freedom Index -
World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index -
UN Human Development Index -
Global Peace Index -
Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index ). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at
comment@wingsch.net . Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.
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