Dr. Chris Naunton provides historical background on Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great in Egypt in 332 BCE. Strabo's writings from the 1st century CE describe the layout of Ptolemaic Alexandria, including its two harbors, the Pharos lighthouse, royal palaces and gardens, and public buildings like the museum. Over time, Alexandria was lost and rediscovered, with few remains of its ancient glory. Excavations have uncovered remnants of the city walls, temples like the Caesareum and Serapeum, and civic structures like the stadium.

1. ALEXANDRIA
FOUND AND LOST…
Dr Chris Naunton

6. HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND

7. Alexander III of Macedon
Alexander ‘the Great’
Born 356 BCE
Son of Philip II of the
Argead Dynasty
(founders of the kingdom)
Succeeded his father as King
at age 20 in 336
BM GR1872.5-15.1
© The Trustees of the British Museum

8. Chronological Background
What’s going on in the
Near East?

10. Defeats Darius III at Guagamela 331 BCE
Alexander chases Darius into Media and Parthia.
Darius is murdered by his Satrap in Bactria  the fall of the Persian Empire
Following his Indian campaign, Alexander returned to Babylon.
Died in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II in 323 BCE aged 32.

11. The Greek Alexander Romance (Pseudo-Callisthenes):
“When he reached Memphis, the Egyptians put him on
the throne of Hephaestus as king of Egypt.”

12. The King of Upper and Lower Egypt
Lord of the Two Lands
Setepenra-Meryamun
The Son of Ra, Lord of Arisings
Alexandros

13. Egypt 332-1
BCE
Pelusium
Heliopolis
Memphis
Alexandria
Marsa Matruh
Siwa

14. Arrian (86-160 CE), The Anabasis of Alexander:
“On reaching Canobus he sailed around Lake Mareotis and
disembarked at the site of present-day Alexandria, the city
named after him. The site struck him as very beautiful for a new
settlement, and he imagined that a city founded there would
prosper. A sudden passion for the project seized him, and he
himself marked out where the agora was to be built and decided
how many temples were to be erected and to which gods they
were to be dedicated—the Greek gods and Egyptian Isis—and
where the wall was to be built around the city.”
Arrian III.1

15. Bagnall &
Rathbone,
Egypt from
Alexander to
the Copts, 79.

16. Strabo
(64/63 BCE – 24 CE)
Greek geographer, philosopher, and
historian
Travelled to Egypt and Kush
Author of Geographica (‘Geography’)
First ed published in 7 CE
(Defeat of Cleopatra and Mark Antony by
Octavian / Augustus: 30 BCE)

17. TIMELINE:
Ptolemaic: 305 (accession of Ptolemy I) – 30 BCE (death of Cleopatra)
Roman: 30 BCE – 641 CE (Arab Conquest)
Early Medieval Egypt (Umayyad, Abbasid, Tulunid, 2nd Abbasid): 656 – 935 CE
Late Medieval Egypt (Fatimid, Ayyubid, Mamluk): 935 – 1517
Ottoman Empire: 1517 – 1798 (Napoleon’s invasion)
Mohamed Ali Dynasty: 1805 – 1882
British Protectorate: 1882 – 1952 (Free Officers’ Revolution)
Modern Egypt: 1952 - present

18. “Pharos is an oblong isle, is very close to the mainland,
and forms with it a harbour with two mouths; the shore of
the mainland forms a bay, since it thrusts two
promontories into the open sea, and between these is
situated the island, which closes the bay, for it lies
lengthwise parallel to the shore.”
Strabo, Geography XVII, 6

19. https://jeanclaudegolvin.com JEAN-CLAUDE GOLVIN COPYRIGHT © 2018
Great Harbour
/ Portus Magnus
Pharos Island

20. “…the Heptastadium … forms a bridge extending from the
mainland to the western portion of the island … this work
formed not only a bridge to the island but also an
aqueduct…”
Strabo, Geography XVII, 6

21. JEAN-CLAUDE
GOLVIN
COPYRIGHT ©
2018
Heptastadium

22. “And the western mouth … likewise forms a second
harbour, that of Eunostus,​ as it is called … For the harbour
which affords the entrance on the side of the above-
mentioned tower of Pharos is the Great Harbour”
Strabo, Geography XVII, 6

23. https://jeanclaudegolvin.com JEAN-CLAUDE GOLVIN COPYRIGHT © 2018
Great Harbour
/ Portus Magnus
Old Harbour /
Portus Eunostos

25. “The advantages of the city's site are various; for, first, the
place is washed by two seas, on the north by the
Aegyptian Sea, as it is called, and on the south by Lake
Mareia, also called Mareotis. This is filled by many canals
from the Nile, both from above and on the sides…”
Strabo, Geography XVII, 6

26. Bagnall & Rathbone,
Egypt from Alexander to the Copts, 74.

27. “And the city contains most beautiful public precincts and
also the royal palaces, which constitute one-fourth or
even one-third of the whole circuit of the city; for just as
each of the kings, from love of splendour, was wont to add
some adornment to the public monuments, so also he
would invest himself at his own expense with a residence,
in addition to those already built … All, however, are
connected with one another and the harbour…”
Strabo, Geography XVII, 8

28. “The Museum is also a part of the royal palaces; it has a
public walk, an Exedra with seats, and a large house, in
which is the common mess-hall of the men of learning
who share the Museum.”
Strabo, Geography XVII, 8

29. “In the Great Harbour at the entrance, on the right hand,
are the island and the tower Pharos, and on the other
hand are the reefs and also the promontory Lochias, with
a royal palace upon it; and on sailing into the harbour one
comes, on the left, to the inner royal palaces, which are
continuous with those on Lochias and have groves and
numerous lodges painted in various colours."
Strabo, Geography XVII, 9

30. JEAN-CLAUDE
GOLVIN
COPYRIGHT ©
2018
Pharos Island
Lighthouse
(‘Pharos tower’)
Heptastadium
Lochias
/ Silsila
Peninsula

31. “Below these lies the harbour that was dug by the hand of
man and is hidden from view, the private property of the
kings, as also Antirrhodos, an isle lying off the artificial
harbour, which has both a royal palace and a small
harbour. They so called it as being a rival of Rhodes. Above
the artificial harbour lies the theatre; then the Poseidium
— an elbow, as it were, projecting from the Emporium, as
it is called, and containing a temple of Poseidon.”
Strabo, Geography XVII, 9

32. “To this elbow of land Antony added a mole projecting still
farther, into the middle of a harbour, and on the extremity
of it built a royal lodge which he called Timonium. … Then
one comes to the Caesarium and the Emporium and the
warehouses; and after these to the ship-houses, which
extend as far as the Heptastadium”
Strabo, Geography XVII, 6

33. JEAN-CLAUDE
GOLVIN
COPYRIGHT ©
2018
Pharos Island
Lighthouse
(‘Pharos tower’)
Antirrhodos
Timonium
Artificial
harbour of
the kings
Heptastadium
Lochias
/ Silsila
Peninsula

34. “The broad street that runs lengthwise extends from
Necropolis past the Gymnasium to the Canobic Gate; and
then one comes to the Hippodrome, as it is called, and to
the other (streets?) that lie parallel, extending as far as the
Canobic canal.”
Strabo, Geography XVII, 6

35. Canopic Street looking west
https://jeanclaudegolvin.com
JEAN-CLAUDE GOLVIN
COPYRIGHT © 2018

36. LOST & FOUND?

37. Above: Alexandria…
a) The Ptolemaic city (305 – 30 BCE)
b) The early Medieval Arab city (656 – 935 CE)
c) Ottoman city
From McKenzie, Architecture of Alexandria, 10.

38. George Sandys (1578-1644)
‘Queene of Cities and Metropolis of Africa’
‘But Ah how much different is That Niobe from this!
... Of Antiquities there are few remainders….’
Sandys, A relation of a journey begun An. Dom.
1610, 114

39. Alexandria,
Luigi Mayer,
1792

40. Luigi Mayer,
Views in Egypt
(1801)

41. Luigi Mayer,
Views in Egypt
(1801)

42. Luigi Mayer,
Views in Egypt
(1801)

43. Description de l’Égypte (2nd ed.) État Moderne vol. II (plates)

44. Description de l’Égypte (2nd ed.) État Moderne vol. II (plates)

45. Cassas, Voyage pittoresque…

46. Salt’s 1806 map of Alexandria. After McKenzie, Architecture of Alexandria, 11.

47. Mahmud Ahmad Hamdi
Bey
‘al-Falaki’
‘The astronomer’
(1815 – 1885)
Image via Wikimedia Commons

48. Mahmud Bey
al-Falaki’s Map
of 1866.
After McKenzie,
Architecture of
Alexandria, 19.

49. STREETS / GRID PLAN

50. El-Falaki’s Map with
Ptolemaic streets in
black
McKenzie,
Architecture of
Alexandria, 21.

52. Luigi Mayer,
Views in Egypt
(1801)

53. Ferdinand Noack’s excavations at L2.
McKenzie, Architecture of Alexandria, 17 & 22.

54. Granite column in situ(?)
close to the Mosque of Naby Daniel

55. Columns re-erected a little further along
Naby Daniel Street

56. Granite columns collected at
The Serapeum (above)
Kom es-Shoqafa Archaeological Area
(right)

57. CITY WALLS

58. Ramparts of the Arab city with remains of Hellenistic constructions,
Shalalat Gardens. Adriani, Repertorio… Series C, fig. 217.

59. Coastline in the east of the Great Harbour showing the remains of the city walls.
Adriani, Repertorio… Series C, fig. 14.
‘Needle’
‘Tower of the Romans’

60. ’Tower of the
Romans’
Medieval and
Ptolemaic(?)
Demolished
early 20th
century
Adriani,
Repertorio…
Series C, figs.
19-21.

61. “The first thing I did at Alexandria was to pace
round the walls , … The old walls of the city
seem to have been built on the height , which
extends from Cape Lochias towards the east ,
the remains of a grand gateway being to be feen
in the road to Rosetto at this high ground ; and
the foundations of the walls may from thence
be traced to the canal . The outer walls round
the old city are very beautifully built of hewn
stone , and seem to be antient;”
Richard Pococke
A Description of
the East and Some
Other Countries
(1737-9)

62. Lengths of wall
recorded by el-Falaki
marked A-I
McKenzie,
Architecture of
Alexandria, 21.

63. Rosetta Gate. Louis-François Cassas. Via Wikimedia Commons

64. Rosetta Gate
Luigi Mayer,
Views in Egypt
(1801)

66. Lengths of wall
recorded by el-Falaki
marked A-I
McKenzie,
Architecture of
Alexandria, 21.

67. Above: Alexandria…
a) The Ptolemaic city (305 – 30 BCE)
b) The early Medieval Arab city (656 – 935 CE)
c) Ottoman city
From McKenzie, Architecture of Alexandria, 10.

69. Nahassin Fort
19th cen. CE

70. Nahassin Fort
19th cen. CE

71. Bastion 3
19th cen. CE

72. Bastion 3
19th cen. CE

73. Alexandria
Stadium
Ottoman Tower

74. Alexandria
Stadium
Ottoman Tower

75. Shallalat Tower
Ptolemaic, Medieval
(Ayyubid /
Mameluke)

76. Shallalat Tower
Ptolemaic, Medieval
(Ayyubid /
Mameluke)

77. Shallalat
Tower
Earlier, larger
masonry
Later, smaller
masonry

79. Salt’s 1806 map of Alexandria.
After McKenzie, Architecture of Alexandria, 11.

80. PALACES

81. Cassas, Voyage pittoresque…

82. Palaces District
with Ptolemaic
remains found
in situ
McKenzie,
Architecture of
Alexandria, 66.

83. Dog mosaic, palaces
district (site of
Bibliotheca
Alexandrina)
McKenzie,
Architecture of
Alexandria, 69.

84. ‘Shatby Stag-hunt Mosaic’, palaces district.
McKenzie, Architecture of Alexandria, 68.

85. TEMPLES

86. CAESAREUM

87. Vivant Denon (1798)
©Victoria & Albert Museum

88. Obelisks were inscribed originally for Thutmose III and
erected in Heliopolis.
Further inscriptions added later by Ramesses II.

89. ‘Cleopatra’s Needle’,
Thames Embankment, London
Removed from Alexandria 1877

90. ‘Cleopatra’s Needle’,
Central Park, New York
Removed from
Alexandria, 1880

91. Cleopatra's Needle
being lowered into
horizontal position
near the waterfront
in Alexandria, Egypt,
prior to being
shipped to New York
City, June 1880.
GRANGER - Historical
Picture Archive via
alamy.com

92. L: Metropole Hotel.
R: Standing in front of the building in the
photo

93. Location of the needles and
‘Caesareum’.
McKenzie, Architecture of
Alexandria, 178.

94. “Then one comes to the Caesarium and the Emporium
and the warehouses; and after these to the ship-houses,
which extend as far as the Heptastadium”
Strabo, Geography XVII, 6
Temple therefore in existence in the early Roman period at
the latest.
Dedicated to Augustus, but possibly also earlier to Julius
Caesar or Mark Antony by Cleopatra(?)

95. Bronze crabs which
supported
‘Cleopatra’s
Needles’.
Inscription records
their erection in
year 18 of Emperor
Augustus = 13/12
BCE
McKenzie,
Architecture of
Alexandria, 176.

96. Philo (38 CE):
“…there is elsewhere no precinct like that which is called
the Sebasteum, a temple to Caesar on shipboard, situated
on an eminence facing the harbours famed for the
excellent moorage, huge and conspicuous fitted on a scale
not found elsewhere with dedicated offerings, around it a
girdle of pictures and statues in silver and gold, forming a
precinct of vast breadth, embellished with porticoes
(stoas), libraries, banqueting rooms (andrones), chambers,
groves, monumental gates and wide open spaces and
unroofed structures and everything which lavish
expenditure could produce to beautify it”

97. SERAPEUM

98. Vivant Denon (1798)
©Victoria & Albert Museum

99. Salt’s 1806 map of Alexandria. After McKenzie, Architecture of Alexandria, 11.

100. Diocletian’s Column
(also, erroneously, ‘Pompey’s Pillar’)
Erected 298-302 CE
Commemorates the defeat by
Diocletian of rebels in Egypt
Column shaft = 20.6m in height

101. Turquoise glazed terracotta
foundation plaque inscribed
for Ptolemy III disc. 1944 at
the Serapeum
McKenzie, Architecture of
Alexandria, 53.

102. Serapeum
from the
north-east

103. The Ptolemaic Serapeum
Bagnall & Rathbone, Egypt from
Alexander to the Copts, 60.

104. The Roman Serapeum with
Diocletian's Column
Bagnall & Rathbone, Egypt from
Alexander to the Copts, 61.

105. CIVIC BUILDINGS

106. Description de l’Égypte (2nd ed.) État Moderne vol. II (plates)

107. Salt’s 1806 map of Alexandria. After McKenzie, Architecture of Alexandria, 11.

108. Plan and
section of
the
‘stadium’
south west
of
Diocletian’s
Column
Description
de l’Égypte
(2nd ed.)
Antiquités
vol. V
(plates)

109. Serapeum and Racecourse,
the ‘Lageion’ (named after
Lagus, father of Ptolemy I)
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COPYRIGHT © 2018

110. MARITIME / SHIPPING

111. Above: Alexandrian coin (above) of Domitian
(Emperor 81-96 CE)
Right: seal impression from a glass gem
McKenzie, Architecture of Alexandria, 43.
LIGHTHOUSE
OF PHAROS

112. Reconstruction of the
lighthouse by A. Thiersch.
Adriani, Repertorio… Series
C, fig. 120.

113. CEMETERIES

114. Location of Ptolemaic Cemeteries. McKenzie, Architecture of Alexandria, 26.

115. Location of Ptolemaic Cemeteries. McKenzie, Architecture of Alexandria, 26.
Eastern
Cemeteries

116. Location of Ptolemaic Cemeteries. McKenzie, Architecture of Alexandria, 26.
‘Necropolis’

117. Shatby

118. Shatby

119. Loculi
Shatby

120. Roman-era loculus closing slab
Venit, Monumental Tombs…, 154.

121. Anfushy

122. Anfushy

123. Moustafa
Pasha

124. Moustafa Pasha

125. Kom es-Shoqafa
Roman Period
Main tomb, of
an anonymous
individual

126. Kom es-Shoqafa

127. Reconstruction
of the triclinium
of the main
tomb at Kom es-
Shoqafa
Venit,
Monumental
Tombs…, 128.

128. Kom es-Shoqafa
loculi

129. THE TOMB OF
ALEXANDER?

130. “the body of Alexander was carried off by Ptolemy and
given sepulture in Alexandria, where it still now lies — not,
however, in the same sarcophagus as before, for the
present one is made of glass”
Strabo, Geography, Book XVII, 8

131. Ptolemy IV Philopator
Reigned 221 – 204 BCE
Image via Wikimedia Commons

132. “…in eager haste he went down into
the grotto hewn out for a tomb . There
lies the mad son of Philip of Pella.” …
“the dead Ptolemies and their
unworthy dynasty are covered by
indignant pyramids and mausoleums.”
Pharsalia on Julius Caesar’s visit to
Alexandria
Julius Caesar
Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,
Antikensammlung R9

133. “The Sema also, as it is called, is a part of the royal
palaces. This was the enclosure which contained the
burial-places of the kings and that of Alexander;”
Strabo, Geography XVII, 8

134. Diver w black
granite
sphinx of
Ptolemy XII(?)
©Franck
Goddio/Hilti
Foundation

135. From Goddio, Alexandria: The Submerged Royal Quarters

136. "Ptolemy (Philopator) built in the middle of the city a
mnema, which is now called the Sema, and he laid there
all his forefathers together with his mother, and also
Alexander the Macedonian."
Zenobius

138. El-Latin

139. The Alabaster Tomb
Disc 1907 by Evaristo
Breccia, Dir of the Graeco-
Roman Museum
Reassembled by B’s
successor Achille Adriani –
resumed excavations in
1936
Tomb of high status
Macedonian of early
Ptolemaic(?), but in the
wrong place(?)

140. Adriani,
Repertorio…
Series C, fig. 217.

142. Ongoing excavations
Directed by
Calliope Limneos-
Papakosta
Hellenic Research
Institute of the
Alexandrian Civilization
Shallalat Gardens

143. Nahassin Fort
Hellenic Research
Institute
Excavations

144. Shallalat Tower
Ptolemaic, Medieval
(Ayyubid /
Mameluke)

145. Shallalat
Tower
Part of the
Sema?
Strabo XVII, 8:
“This was the
enclosure
which
contained the
burial-places
of the kings
and that of
Earlier, larger
masonry
Later, smaller
masonry

146. SUMMARY

147. Locations of
buildings
mentioned
by Strabo.
McKenzie,
Architecture
of Alexandria,
174.

149. THANK YOU!
DR CHRIS NAUNTON
www.chrisnaunton.com