ALEXANDREIA. 



ALEXANDREIA. 



194 



are no trees ; for the few birches and alders hardly rise to three feet. 

 The most western island, Oonimak, is the only one which bears 

 some stunted trees. Few of the vegetables which the Russians have 

 transplanted have succeeded ; in most places, however, potatoes, 

 carrots, turnips, and cabbages are raised not only by the Russians, 

 but also by the Aleutians. No kind of grain has succeeded. 



The larger mammalia have passed from the American continent 

 to Oonimak, where rein-deer, wolves, and bears are found. On the 

 other islands only foxes, especially the blue and black fox, and several 

 species of rodentia are found. The sea is rich in mammalia and fish, 

 both of which abound among the thick growth of the Fucua giganteiu 

 that flourishes with great luxuriance in these seas along the rocky 

 coasts, forming what resembles submerged forests, similar to those 

 met with at the other extremity of America, along the coast of 

 Tierra del Fuego. Here innumerable species of fish, in incredibly 

 crowded shoals the gigantic swimming mammalia, whales, physiters, 

 dolphins, morse, and seals fill the sea and the beach ; and countless 

 flights of water-fowl cover the sea in flocks so large that they 

 resemble floating islands. The sea-otter, which first attracted the 

 Russians to these islands, is becoming scarce, but sea-lions and sea- 

 bears, as well as several other kinds of seals, are numerous. Morses 

 occur only along the northern shores, and are less frequent than 

 farther north. A physiter, a sea-wolf, six different species of whale, the 

 Ddfihinui orca, and two other species of dolphins, are found on both 

 sides of the islands. The most common fish are salmon and halibut ; 

 the former ascends many of the small rivers. Many of the water- 

 fowls supply the inhabitants with a part of their usual food, especially 

 ducks, geese, albatrosses, and swans. In some of the islands a kind 

 of duck is found, which affords feathers as soft as the eider-down. 

 Nearly all of these birds are more useful to the natives by their eggs 

 than by their flesh. 



The Russians have also introduced the common domestic animals ; 

 but only cattle and hogs are reared, and these in small numbers. Dogs 

 had also considerably increased, but they were subsequently extir- 

 pated, because they pursued and killed the fox, whose skin constitutes 

 one of the principal articles of export Fowls are reared on several 

 of the islands. 



The number of the inhabitants probably does not exceed 20,000, 

 among whom there may be from 400 to 500 Russians, who are 

 settled in the principal villages as agents of the Russian American 

 Company to collect the furs of otters, foxes, &c. The natives, or 

 Aleutians, subsist on the produce of their fishing, but appear inclined 

 to apply to agriculture ; the sterility of the soil, however will 

 prevent them from ever obtaining then- subsistence by cultivating it. 

 They are rather bold seamen, and venture in their boats to a 

 considerable distance from the land, even in stormy weather. 

 Formerly their number was much greater, but the agents of the 

 Russian Company removed many of them to the continent of 

 America, where they were employed as hunters in a region by far 

 richer in fur-bearing animals than the islands themselves. 



(Sauer's Account of a Geographical and Aitronomical Expedition to 

 the Northern Parts of Rmsia ; Langsdorf's Voyages and Travel* in 

 Variola Parts of the World ; Kotzebue's First and Second Voyage 

 of Itiicorery ; Liitke's Voyage au/our du JUond.) 



ALEXANDREIA, the Greek capital of ancient Egypt, stood upon 

 a tongue of land between the Lake Mareotis and the Mediterranean 

 Sea, opposite to the Isle of Pharos, which was connected with it 

 by a mole. It owed its origin and name to Alexander the Great, 

 who, during his visit to Egypt, B.C. 332, ordered it to be built as a 

 commercial and military metropolis of the first rank. The architect 

 was Dinocrates, a Macedonian. The city, though it was commenced 

 immediately, was not completed till the reign of Ptolemtous Phila- 

 delphus; but the plan of Dinocrates was carried out by another 

 architect, Cleomenes of Naucratis. 



The city was oblong in form. Its greatest length from N.E. 

 to S.W. was about 4 miles ; its breadth at right angles to its 

 length was about a mile ; and the line of the walls and sea-frontage 

 measured about 15 miles. The streets were all wide, and crossed 

 each other at right angles, dividing the city into platforms, all of 

 which were regularly built. A great thoroughfare 200 feet in width, 

 and lined with a colonnade, ran through the whole length of the city, 

 which it nearly bisected. At the north-eastern extremity of this 

 street was the Canopic gate, just outside of which was the hippodrome : 

 and at its south-western extremity was the gate of the Necropolis, 

 opening upon the great cemetery of Alexandreia. At right angles to 

 this thoroughfare another of equal width extended across the city from 

 the gate of the Sun to the gate of the Moon, opening upon the Mole, 

 which united the city to the Isle of Pharos, and was called Hepta- 

 stadion, from its being 7 stadia (1423 yards) in length. On the isle, 

 and fronting the gate of the Moon on the mainland, was a temple 

 of Hephaestus. The principal part of the modern town of Alexan- 

 dria is built upon this mole. 



To the west of the street just mentioned was the Rhacdtis, or Egyptian 

 quarter of Alexandreia, built upon the site of the city of Rhacotis, which 

 was, in all probability, ancient when Alexander's city began to rise. 

 Thi quarter contained large public granaries, and the Serapeion, 

 or temple of Serapin, in which the 200,000 volumes presented by 

 Marc Antony to Cleopatra, and forming part of the great Alexandrian 



OKOO. iJIV. VOL. I. 



Library, were lodged. To the east of the same street was the 

 Brucheion, or Greek quarter, which was much the largest division 

 of the city, and contained the finest of the public buildings. Among 

 these were the palace and gardens of the Ptolemies ; the museum or 

 university in which Euclid taught, and which was connected with 

 the palace by long colonnades of Egyptian marble ; the Csesareum, 

 or temple of the Caesars, in which Roman emperors dead or alive 

 were worshipped with divine honours ; the royal mausoleum, called 

 Sorna (Body) from its containing the body of Alexander the Great 

 (here also Marc Antony was buried) ; the Dicasterion, or court 

 of justice ; the Emporium, or exchange, fronting the quays of the 

 great harbour ; a theatre, amphitheatre, and stadium. The famous 

 library collected by Ptolemseus Soter and his successors (part of which, 

 as stated above, was lodged in the Serapeion), consisted altogether 

 of 700,000 volumes, 500,000 of which were kept in the museum ; 

 these were destroyed when Julius C;esar was blockaded by the 

 Alexandrians in the Brucheion. The volumes in the Serapeion, 

 after frequent injuries in the civil broils which were frequent in 

 Alexandreia, were finally destroyed by the Khalif Omar, A.D. 640. 

 The Brucheion was separated from the Egyptian quarter and from 

 the Jews' quarter, which occupied the north-eastern angle of the 

 city, by walls and gates. This threefold division of the city was 

 a consequence of its inhabitants being composed chiefly of Greeks, 

 Egyptians, and Jews, and was further necessitated by their political 

 and religious jealousies, especially the latter, which frequently 

 gave rise to great excesses. 



In front of the city, at the distance of about a mile, lay the Isle 

 of Pharos, which sheltered the port from the Etesian or north winds. 

 The island, which is composed of white calcareous rock, is long 

 and narrow, and extends in a general direction from S.W. to N.E. ; 

 but about the centre of its length it curves considerably south- 

 ward round a deep bay anciently much resorted to by mariners, 

 and called 'The Pirate's Haven.' The island terminates to the 

 eastward in a long spit of land, on the extremity of which stood the 

 celebrated Pharos, or lighthouse, built by Sostrates of Cnidus, in the 

 reigns of Ptolemams Soter and his successor Philadelphus. The 

 tower is said to have been 400 feet high ; its site is still occupied 

 by a lighthouse. To the north and east of the island there was a 

 series of rocky islets, which rendered the port less easy of access 

 from the north ; many of them were fortified. 



From the most eastern part of the Brucheion a long spit of land, 

 called Lochias, projected far out into the sea towards the Pharos, 

 and sheltered the harbour of Alexandreia on the east. On the 

 Lochias were the palace and gardens of the Ptolemies ; the ruins of 

 a pier still existing on the eastern side are supposed to mark the 

 site of an ancient landing-place belonging to the palace. The extre- 

 mity of the Lochias was occupied by a fort called Acro-Lochias 

 (now the Pharillon), and the distance between 1 this point and the 

 Pharos was not more than 1300 yards, in which interval were several of 

 the islets above mentioned, so that the entrance to the port on the 

 north could be defended by booms and chains. 



Between the promontory of Lochias and the Mole was the Great 

 Harbour, which was lined with broad granite quays, where the 

 largest ships could load and discharge. The eastern angle of the 

 harbour, between the Lochias and the rock of Antirhodus, formed 

 the closed or royal port, which was surrounded on the land side 

 with the royal dockyards. A little westward from the royal dock- 

 yards stood the Poseideion, or temple of Neptune, in which mariners 

 made and paid their vows. It projected into the sea ; its northern 

 part was called the Timonium, and in this part Antony shut himself 

 up after his disgraceful flight from Actium. 



West of the Mole, and extending along the front of the Rhacotis 

 quarter, was the harbour of Eunostos, or Safe Return, which was 

 entered from the west, and was connected with the Great Harbour by 

 two openings in the Mole covered with drawbridges. It was con- 

 nected also with the Nile at Canopus by a canal, which communi- 

 cated by a short branch with the Lake Mareotis, and crossing the 

 Rhac6tis quarter terminated in a basin or wet dock that opened into 

 this harbour. Subterranean aqueducts conveyed the water of the 

 Nile from this canal to the tanks of the city, which were so numerous, 

 says a Roman writer (' De Bello Alexandrine,' cap. v.), that nearly all 

 Alexandreia was undermined. These tanks or cisterns were built 

 under the houses, and were of large size ; many of them still remain 

 perfect, and some of them are still used. By means of the canal just 

 mentioned, the Nile, and the canal of Arsinoe, the city of Alexandreia 

 was connected with the whole of the Nile Valley and the Red Sea. 

 Both the harbours of Alexandreia had room enough for large fleets. 



The city was embellished by the Ptolemies with the spoils of the 

 ancient towns of Egypt, and for several centuries continued to receive 

 accessions and improvements. It is described by ancient writers as a 

 city of surpassing beauty. At one time it was the rival of Rome in 

 size, and the first commercial city of the earth. It became, what 

 Tyre had been before, the point of exchange for the eastern and 

 western worlds, but with a commerce more widely extended after the 

 conquests of the Macedonians had laid open the eastern world to 

 Greek enterprise. DioJorus, who visited Alexandreia just before the 

 downfall of the empire of the Ptolemies, says, that the register showed 

 a population of more than 300,000 free citizens. In B.C. 63 the 



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