A famous city and port on the western Mediterranean coast of Egypt, Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. and bears his name. It flourished for about 500 years and was considered the most important city in the Levant. It quickly overshadowed all earlier Greek cities that had been thriving in Egypt. Its population was cosmopolitan. Distinguished scholars from Greece and Rome visited Alexandria in order to experience the culture of Egypt. The most famous monuments of Alexandria were the Mouseion, a scholarly institution, the imperial library which housed one million documents, the lighthouse on the island of Pharos which was connected to the shore artificially, the Caesareum (a temple in honor of Julius Caesar), the Serapeum (temple of Serapis), and the tomb of Alexander the Great.
The Pharos of Alexandria was regarded as one of the wonders of the classical world. It was built of white marble to a height of 140 meters, but was destroyed by an earthquake in the 14th century. Parts of its structure have recently been found in the bay. The library was destroyed by fire under Julius Caesar. Two elegant obelisks which once stood in front of the Caesareum were taken away. One is in London and the other in New York. The "pillar of Pompey" is actually a pink granite column with an ornamental capital, which was erected in honor of Diocletian (302 AD). It marks
the ancient site of the Serapeum built by the Ptolemies. The impressive catacombs
, Kom el-Shuqafa, an en complex of under: burial chambers, was built by the Romans in the second century A.D. They consist of three levels cut in the rock to a depth of 100 ft., connected by staircases at highest level is a rotunda entrance with well in the center covered by a type of kiosk rotunda opens into several rooms with rock-cut with false sarcophagi and bas-relief wall decorations in the Pharaonic style, showing ancient Egyptian deities. The heads of statues discovered in the complex are in the Greek style, whilst their garb is traditional Egyptian,the large room to the left of the entrance is the funereal triclinium , the banqueting hall, where relatives and friends of the deceased assembled for the funerary meal. The corpse was lowered to the burial chamber through a shaft. poorer family members were buried in corridors leading of main chamber. Some rooms and corridors were added in the later periods.
Alexandria, with its population of intellectuals was spiritual capital and in the third century became a center for the propagation of early Christianity in Egypt.