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Alexandria
Alexandria is the second biggest city of Egypt. It was a city grecorromana to the west of the Mediterranean coast of Egypt, founded by Alejandro Magno. In the antiquity, the city was known by its lighthouse (one of seven marvels of the ancient world) and its library, the biggest of those times.
It was along the shores of Alexandria where the history had a tragic draft, in times of Cleopatra, Octavio Augusto, Marco Antonio and Julius Caesar. Alexandria was also a prosperous city during the period of the Romans and the ptomoleos, and there was sustituído to Memphis as the capital of Egypt. It might be said that it was essentially a city more Greek than Egyptian, with a substantial population of Jews and Greeks.
The biggest monuments of the periods of the Romans and the ptolomeos were the Sarapeum, a temple devoted to the god Serapis, the Caesarium (founded by Cleopatra in honor to Marco Antonio) and Kom is-Shawqafa, a labyrinth of graves of cut rock that dates of the first two centuries A.D.
In the following centuries, Alexandria initiated a slow slope and in the XIXth century it turned in a fishing small town. In the XXth century, Alexandria recovered part of its lost splendor. At the beginning of the XXIst century, Alexandria has almost five million inhabitants and attracts multitude of tourists thanks to its history, its beaches and the new works in construction. The most important of these works is the new library.
Alexandria is joined to Cairo by two main highways and a railroad line. It is one of the tourist complexes most known about Middle East in its moderate winters, its beaches of white sand and its magnificent scenery, which spreads along 140 kilometers of the coast of the Mediterranean, from Abu Qir, in the East, up to Al-Alamein and Sidi Rahman, in the west.
Tags: Alexandria, Egypt
