Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/530

 428 NORTH-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 originality of its form. Its outline, however, has been greatly modified since the period when, some twenty-two centuries ago, the obscure town of llhacolis 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 Phoeni- 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 irregular and winding lanes, pierced here and there by a few broad modem thoroughfares. The island thus changed to a peninsula has itself become covered with streets, houses, barracks, depots, palaces, and buildings of all sorts. At its 80ith-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. Nob has the neighbouring 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.