ALEXANDRIA ('AXeecivapeca, 3 Macc. iii. 1), the chief maritime city, and long the metropolis of Lower Egypt. As this city owed its foundation to Alexander the Great, the Old Testament canon had closed before it existed ; nor is it often men tioned in the Apocrypha, or in the New Testament. But it was in many ways most importantly con nected with the later history of the Jews—as well from the relations which subsisted between them and the Ptolemies, who reigned in that city, as from the vast numbers of Jews who were settled there, with whom a constant intercourse was main tained by the Jews of Palestine. It is perhaps safe to say that, from the foundation of Alexandria to the destruction of Jerusalem, and even after, the former was of all foreign places that to which the attention of the Jews was most directed. And this appears to have been true even at the time when Antioch first, and afterwards Rome. became the seat of the power to which the nation was subject.
Alexandria is situated on the Mediterranean, twelve miles west of the Canopic mouth of the Nile, in 31° 13' N. lat. and 25° 53' E. long. It owes its origin to the comprehensive policy of Alexander, who perceived that the usual channels of commerce might be advantageously altered ; and that a city occupying this site could not fail tc become the common emporium for the traffic 01 the eastern and western worlds, by means of the river Nile, and the two adjacent seas, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean : and the high prosperity which, as such, Alexandria very rapidly attained, proved the soundness of his judgment, and exceeded any expectations which even he could have enter tained. For a long period Alexandria was the the greatest of known cities ; for Nineveh and Babylon had fallen, and Rome had not yet risen to pre-eminence : and even when Rome became the mistress of the world, and Alexandria only the metropolis of a province, the latter was second only to the former in wealth, extent, and importance ; and was honoured with the magnificent titles of the second metropolis of the world, the city of cities, the queen of the East, a second Rome (Diod. Sic.
xvii. ; Strab. xvii. ; A mmian Marcell. xxii.; Joseph.
Bell. yid. iv. II, 5).
The city was founded in B.C. 332, and was built under the superintendence of the same architect (Dinocrates) who had rebuilt the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. As a foreign city, not mentioned at all in the Old Testament, and only accidentally in the New (Acts vi. 9 ; xviii. 24; xxvii. 6), it is intro duced into this work only on account of its con nection with the history and condition of the Jewish people. To the facts resulting from or bearing on that connection, our notice must therefore be limited, without entering into those descriptions of the ancient or of the modern city which are given in general and geographical cyclopdias. It may suffice to mention that the ancient city appears to have been of seven times the extent of the modern. If we may judge from the length of the two main streets (crossing each other at right angles) by which it was intersected, the city was about four miles long by one and a half wide : and in the time of Diodorus it contained a free population of 300,000 persons, and altogether probably 600,000, if we double the former number, as Mannert sug gests, in order to include the slaves. The part of Alexandria is described by Josephus (Bell. yud. iv. 10, 5) ; and his description is in perfect conformity with the best modern accounts. It was secure, but difficult of access ; in consequence of which, a magnificent pharos, or lighthouse, was erected upon an islet at the entrance, which was connected with the mainland by a dyke. This pharos was accounted one of the 'seven' wonders of the world. It was begun by Ptolemy Soter, and completed under Ptolemy Philadelphus, by Sostratus of Cnidus, B.C. 283. It was a square structure of white marble, on the top of which fires were kept constantly burning for the direction of mariners. It was erected at a cost of Boo talents, which, if Attic, would amount to ir65,000, if Alexandrian, to twice that sum. It was a wonder in those times, when such erec tions were almost unknown ; but, in itself, the Eddystone lighthouse is, in all probability, ten times more wonderful.