Biggest ancient cities
By the third century BCE, Alexandria was the largest city in the world, a cosmopolitan metropolis with more than a half million inhabitants.Īlexandria underwater, outline of a sphinx, with the statue of a Priest carrying an Osiris-jar, via Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation The giant causeway and a harbor breakwater – Heptastadion – connected the city with the island of Pharos, a location of the majestic Lighthouse, one of the Seven wonders of the ancient world. The lavish mausoleum of Alexander reminded the visitors of the city’s famous founder and served as a source of pride for its inhabitants. Its world-renowned Library, started under Ptolemy I, turned Alexandria into a center of culture and learning, attracting scholars, philosophers, scientists, and artists. It supplanted Tyre (the city that Alexander had previously destroyed) as a commerce and trade center. Under the Ptolemaic dynasty, Alexandria thrived.
Following Alexander’s death in Babylon in 323 BCE, his general Ptolemy brought Alexander’s body back to Alexandria and chose it as the capital of the newly founded Ptolemaic kingdom. Soon after the foundation, he embarked on a Persian campaign. Alexander, however, never saw the city he had envisioned. Located on the Mediterranean coast, in the Nile delta, Alexandria was to be the capital of Alexander’s new empire. The legendary conqueror, Alexander the Great, founded the Egyptian metropolis in 332 BCE. But Alexandria could boast of a true star. The ancient cities of the Hellenistic East were proud of their founders. Alexandria – The City of the Conqueror Alexandria, during the Roman Empire, Jean Claude Golvin, via