Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, 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. Alexandria is also an important tourist resort. It is home to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (the new Library of Alexandria). It is an important industrial center because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez.
Alexandria was founded around a small pharaonic town c. 331 BC by Alexander the Great. It remained Egypt's capital for nearly a thousand years, until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in AD 641, when a new capital was founded at Fustat (Fustat was later absorbed into Cairo). Ancient Alexandria was best known for its Lighthouse of Alexandria (Pharos), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World; its library (the largest library in the ancient world); and the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa, 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.
From the late 19th 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.
Read more about Alexandria: Names, History, Ancient Remains, Antiquities
Other articles related to "alexandria":
... Alexandria Town Hall Victorian terrace house, Garden Street Alexandria Park, Wyndham Street ...
... كفر عبده) is a neighborhood in Alexandria, Egypt ... neighborhood for wealthier Egyptians, including professionals, and foreigners living in Alexandria ... one of the most high-class neighborhoods in Alexandria ...
... and Louisiana historical associations, the Rapides Arts and Humanities Council, and the Alexandria Rotary Club ... acquisition and distribution of medical supplies in Alexandria and to restore St ... Grace House, an outreach for the homeless at the Pentecostal Church in Alexandria ...
... Justine, published in 1957, is the first volume in Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet ... The quartet is set in the Egyptian city of Alexandria of the 1930s and 1940s, and the city itself becomes as much of a complex character as the human protagonists ... From a remote Greek island, he retells his time in Alexandria and his tragic romance with Justine - a beautiful, rich, mysterious Jewish woman who is married to a wealthy ...