428 NOETH-EAST AFRICA. 



had disembarked at this place, the fruits of Nelson's famous victory were soon 

 after reaped by the total failure of the expedition, and the surrender of the French 

 forces to the British after the battle of Alexandria. 



Alexandria. 



Alexandria, one of the great trading places of the world, and the second city 

 of Egypt and the African continent in size and population, is also one of the most 

 remarkable for the origmality of its form. Its outline, however, has been greatly 

 modified since the period when, some twenty-two centuries ago, the obscure town of 

 liliacotis received from the Macedonian conqueror the world-renowned name which 

 it has borne ever since. At this point of the coast the rocky marine belt running 

 in the direction from south-west to north-east has been broken by two wide 

 breaches. Thus was created an island, under shelter of which the fleets of Phœni- 

 cians and Greeks formerly rode at anchor. Such was the famous island of Pharos, 

 already mentioned in the Homeric poems. 



When Dinocrates laid out the city of Alexandria on new lines, he did not 

 dispose the temples and palaces along the continental coast-line, which here pro- 

 jected to a point in the direction of the island standing at a distance of over 

 1,500 yards from the mainland. But Ptolemy Soter, one of the first sovereigns of 

 the Greek dynasty, bridged over the intervening space by means of the so-called 

 "Seven Stadia Embankment," leaving two open channels of communication 

 between the two harbours that were thus created. The channels have been 

 gradually obliterated and the causeway enlarged, partly no doubt in conse- 

 quence of marine deposits, but much more by the action of the Greek and Italian 

 vessels, which throughout the whole of the Middle Ages were accustomed to dis- 

 charge their ballast of stones in the Alexandrian waters. 



At present the causeway has been transformed to a strip of land over 1,300 

 yards broad connecting the site of the ancient city with the north-east part of the 

 former island of Pharos. Here is now situated the " Turkish quarter," a labyrinth 

 of irreo-ular and winding lanes, pierced here and there by a few broad modern 

 thorouo-hfares. The island thus changed to a peninsula has itself become covered 

 with streets, houses, barracks, depots, palaces, and buildings of aU sorts. At its 

 south-western extremity stands the lofty tower of the modern lighthouse, the 

 successor of the famous " Pharos " of Ptolemy Philadelphus, a monument of white 

 marble in the form of a step pyramid, which originally stood at the opposite end 

 of the island, and which was regarded by the ancients as one of the " seven 

 wonders " of the world. Masudi, who saw the ruins of this structure, says that in 

 his time it was still " four hundred cubits high," and according to Mahmud Bey it 

 rose to an elevation of over 400 feet. No vestiges are now visible of the light- 

 house, whose very site has been washed away by the marine waters. Nor has the 

 neio-hbourino- fort which bears its name even been constructed with the materials 

 of a monument whose name alone survives as the common designation of all light- 

 houses throughout the Greek and Latin seafaring communities. 



