Alexandria
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
Alexandria (Roman Arabic: Al-Iksandriyah) is a large city in Egypt. It is the largest coastal city of Egypt. It is also the second largest city of Egypt. It is on the coast, next to the Mediterranean sea. Alexandria is located in the north of Egypt, only 225 km from Cairo.
Alexandria is named after its founder. Alexander the Great founded Alexandria in 331 BC. For a thousand years, Alexandria was the center of the Greek world and the capital of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt. Scores of famous Greek scientists, such as Euclid of Alexandria lived there or studied there. It was home to the largest library in the ancient Western world, the Library of Alexandria. It was a very wealthy city in its heyday, and remained the prime way Egyptian grain went to Rome. Rome depended greatly on Egyptian grain. But after the Muslim conquest it lessened in importance. The Muslims conquered Egypt in 641 AD, but did not want to have their capital at Alexandria, because it was too far away from Arabia. So the Islam (muslim) invaders made a new capital on the east side of the Nile, and called it Fustat.
