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| Egypt Flights Home »Tourist Attractions in Alexandria »El-Iskandariya |
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El-Iskandariya |
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Alexandria in Egyptian Arabic is known as El-Iskandariya or Al-Iskandariya. El-Iskandariya is the second-largest city in Egypt. Al-Iskandariya is also home to Bibliotheca Alexandrina which is a New Library of Alexandria, and is an important industrial centre because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez. El-Iskandariya is also home to the largest library in the ancient world (the Library of Alexandria), one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages (Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa). El-Iskandariya is a city with significant attractions.
The foundation of Al-Iskandariya has along history. The city was named after its founder, Alexander the Great and it quickly became one of the greatest cities of the Hellenistic world. However it went through the Ptolemaic Era, Roman annexation, Late Roman and Byzantine period and Arab invasion. It was finally the Ottoman Governor of Egypt, Mohammed Ali who began rebuilding the city around 1810, and by 1850 and gifted Alexandria its past glory. Somehow the city came under bombardment from British naval forces and was occupied.
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Al-Iskandariya is one of the most ancient cities in the whole of world. In triumph Caesar entered Al-Iskandariya, it was attacked by the citizens and Ptolemy XIV's army and had to face consistent difficulty in maintaining his position in the Regia or "Royal City". By her charms Cleopatra tried to win first Caesar and later Antony, who lived with her in El-Iskandariya from 42 to 30 B.C. Augustus expanded El-Iskandariya by the addition of the suburb of Nicopolis. The Greek element predominated, followed by the Egyptian, while there was also a separate Jewish community, originally established in the time of Ptolemy.
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In the year 619 El-Iskandariya was captured by King Chosroes II of Persia, but the Christians were exempted from molested. After the capture and repeated capture El-Iskandariya continued to go down while the new capital of Cairo prospered. The discovery of America and the sea route to India finally destroyed the city's commerce.
During the decay of El-Iskandariya it had a population of only 5,000. It was finally arrested by Mohammed (Mehemet) Ali, who improved the harbor and constructed a number of canals. His main contribution was the construction of the Mahmudiya Canal (begun in 1819), named after the reigning Sultan Mahmud II, which irrigated the surrounding country and linked Alexandria with the rest of Egypt. During the Rising of Arabi’s in 1882 much of the European quarter was burned down. However, Alexandria began to recover its prosperity and it is now the largest and most important city in Egypt after Cairo.
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