Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/162

 io8 General History of Europe found many Greek books to read and Greek plays to attend. Greek thus gradually became the prevailing language of the great cities and of an enormous world stretching from southern Italy eastward on both sides of the Mediterranean far into Asia. THE LIGHTHOUSE OF THE HARBOR OF ALEXANDRIA IN THE HELLENISTIC AGE. (AFTER THIERSCH) The harbor of Alexandria (see corner map) was protected by an island called Pharos, which was connected with the city by a causeway of stone. On the island, and bearing its name (Pharos), was built (after 300 B.C.) a vast stone lighthouse, some three hundred and seventy feet high (that is, over thirty stories, like those of a modern skyscraper). It shows how vast was the commerce and wealth of Alexandria only a generation after it was founded by Alexander the Great, when it became the New York or Liverpool of the ancient world, the greatest port on the Mediterranean City life was more comfortable than ever before. The houses were more beautifully furnished and decorated, and for the first time water pipes were installed connected with a town water supply. The streets also were equipped with drainage channels or pipes, a thing unknown in the days of Pericles. 168. Alexandria : its Commerce and Splendid Public Build- ings. In numbers, wealth, commerce, and in all the arts of civil- ization Alexandria was now the greatest city of the whole ancient