Show FROM EGYPT on the narrow of land that separates the mediterranean mediterranean from the two meters lower lake Mareo mareotis tig is situated alexandria the chief seaport and thib the next greatest city of the land of the ancient pharaohs Phara in its present aspects none of the pharaohs Phara would be able to recognize it were they to leave their mummies and visit it with ot other her tourists so completely changed is it from what it formerly was but contrary to chany of the renowned cities of the orient changed for the better the inhabitants of alexandria are estimated at of whom not less leas than aro are foreigners french italians and greeks the trade is almost exclusively in the hands of the greeks and I 1 have heard it said that even Ir where berea a jew would be at a loss to make a living a greek is sure to grow rich that the trade of this place lace is considerable sid ald erable can be concluded ed from the number of vessels that constantly fill the harbor and daily pass out and in in 1884 the imports amounted to the value of millions of plasters pi asters against an e export of 1238 millions the articles of export are chiefly cotton cotton seed cereals and sugar monumental excellent international architecture statues coffee houses bouses french style gas aig lights ats wa water pipes I 1 and th theartres theatres the atres res th these ese give to A alexandria ex andria an air of the th e occident 0 ec ident strong and pleasant enough after all to make one forget that one is still in the orient the foundation of alexandria is due to alexander the great from whom the city has its ito name according bordi Dg to tradition this monarch had fiad a dream an old man appeared and cited to him bim the fol following lowin verse from homer one of the fiands islands lies in the far reaching current before the river ZE Egypt gyptos os and ephs phs rus so Is ie it named od tv iv 64 54 66 55 acting on the inspiration of this dream he founded opposite the island close by the egyptian village a new fortified cit city this thin W was in the year BC into the bands of the work was given iven the situation is excellent the he currents of the sea which bearry carry away vast quantities of the evacuations of the nile nil filling the bays of syria and destroying the harbors leave alexandria untouched and i she b has as therefore a great advantage as a maritime point Ptole meus soter or perhaps his son Ptole meus philadelphus conceived thaid the idea of connecting the island of pharos with the main land by a kind kina of bridge the so called Hopta stadium the harbor barbor was thereby divided in two as afi it is today port N neuf euf and port vieux but where was originally only a narrow connecting link between the island and the main ivain land there is now a 1600 metres wide strip of land made up from ruins of the ancient city on nn the top of which the turkish portion of the present city has been built rn pu the eastern extremity of the island once stood that great lighthouse metres high which was counted among the seven wonders of the ancient world and from which the name pharos Phai has been transferred to modern modem structures erected for similar purposes PO Ms alexandria like the whole orient has hasa a history some pages of which are very stormy indeed when alexander was dead his general Ptole meus lagi became the ruler of egypt and made the young city his capital capital during his reign and also during his immediate successors alexandria flourished and became the most im important city I 1 in ii the he centrum of commerce and greek learning but contentions about the throne follo followed wW the romans fou found ud cae p to interfere julius cow caesar r took ape tle city but the people besieged him bim and sanguine struggles ensued during which the library of the must museum urn was destroyed by fire re antonica Anton Anto blus iua who had bad the heart of cleopatra after camar Cs esar and who led a voluptuous life in the beautiful city for years yeam tried to heal up the wounds wound s of the wars ware and brought a new collection of books into the destroyed libraty alexandria however became arop from this time the scene of repeated repe insurrections there were many jews residing there and these asit ai anxious to hasten their own destruction constantly caused some disturb ance or other the emperor hadrian some years AD A D botn corn plains lains about them in a letter to the alexandrines Alexand rines were ere an enterprising but disloyal rebellious bel lious good tor for nothing set cara calia A D took a fear fearful fiAl revenge for some attempted rebellion he killed a great number of the inhabitants and destroyed their r public buildings christianity had quite early taken root in alexander proba JV through the labors of the evang evangelist eWt mark in the second century the euy city bad a bishop and won soon became a central point int of the christian ebu churches relies it must be noticed however that christianity itself d did ld not apin anything from being planted ia abis soil the school of of alexandria soon gave way to we th e error of applying the doctrines of plato to the and later to the experiment 7 of fitting scripture into the logic qa 0 i aristotle claiming for their ew deductions divine authority TWO this Ws was and always has been a fiatal fatal error As long as man simply li believes Oal leves the statements of god and acts accordingly he is always safe andfrew and free from error but abu he to make his own deductions from those statements and woo also to claim for them divine authority he is sure to be led wrong however logical his reasoning may appear to be ta there 0 4 is po no infallible near logician on arth any more than there is a infallible pope and the frailty of apy any logical operations are never more apparent than when the material to work with are moral prin capleo cip leo or with truths that can be known for a certainty only by reve lation hence the danger of the eror edjor into which the alexandrian Alexandria ii school 90 so notoriously fell and in which the christian Chriatian lY world today is struggling egling igling so blindly so lament ably abe christians of alexandria suffered much in the repeated perse cautions of the roman emperors particularly during who cruelly 1 Iet eged and chastised the city to 0 these came the quarrels of the various sects among amona themselves during the reign of 1 I A A A the city had grown so poor that the inhabitants gould no longer defray the expenses of keeping in repair the canals that should bring them water from the nile its gory glory as a neat fleat of learning had long ago faded away and its schools were closed by justinian in the year 6 t the e city was taken by the be persian ag kag Choa roes it was re taken ten bearg afterwards by raMos but buffell tell in into the hands of the arabs from which time it had to take its place it iti the background while cairo flourished the discovery of america and the way round africa changed the great reat highroads high roads of trade and its importance as a commercial centrum was lost the rule of the turks into whose hands bands alexandria fell in 1517 did the rest napoleon 1 I conceived the idea of annihilating tte tle trade of england oia oa the mediterranean and to check her progress in bast I 1 ildia in order to gala adu theme theae projects be planned his egyptian expedition on july 1 8 his fleet appeared before alexandria and the city fell the next day into his bis hands bands on went the conqueror cairo fell ayad and from egypt he be bent his wv way northward anpo palestine jaffa was taken march Kar vh ath 1799 but aga against ilist the fort jean W d arc the invader cowd could do nothing he was compelled tp to return to egypt and owing to political intricacies at home departed for france the french neet fleet was destroyed by Nel the expedition in egypt by the united efforts of the eng and the turks brought into such a hopeless no pelesa sitha situation tion that they had to capitulate on the 2nd and september 1799 alexandria was taken by the ED english glish and the french commander with his remnant of troops had to be transported back to france OB english ships tho the resurrection of alexandria is due chiefly to mohammed all who repaired its canals and expended large sums on its restoration but bat its trials were not yet over A spirit of dissatisfaction satisfaction had bad taken possession possession of the officers of the egyptian army who complained nied that they could not dot get their pay and that foreign officers were preferred to them in the service one of the officers arabi bey who on this account had taken part in a demonstration against the now new khedive tewfik pasha had been sentenced in a martial court and resolved to take revenge he placed himself at the head bead of the dh dissatisfied satio troops and compelled the khedive to flee to alexandria and implore england for protection the insurrection spread like a prairie fire over the whole coun no chris tian or jew was safe in egypt any fled to alexandria or doport to port said but in the first named city itself the insurrection raged many europeans europea ns were murdered and their houses burned by uw tip fanatical fanatic nl followers of arabi akey had in the meantime taken possession jossef sion of the fortifications and awaited already the bombardment of the english fleet which was drawn up in the harbor on J uly alth 1882 the bom the troops were soon landed arabi fled pursued by the english who finally completely beat Ws bis troops troop eat at tel el kabir where the bold insurgent leader was made captive and after much deliberation banished to the island of cyprus alexandria Alex aLdris has bus not yet quite recovered from its last shock As the most noteworthy points of the city at present may be mentioned the so called place mehemet all ali and the pillar of pompey the two obelisks areas is well known know no longer here one ode adorns the foggy the thames and the other has been transplanted to american soil after the fashion of the old bar bi b beriau i rian conquerors w who h 0 u aeed sed to d drag rag such egyptian F g monuments to rome and constantinople V the place mehemet ali forms the centrum of the european part of alexandria it is a great square surrounded with ma magnificent 9 ent buildings and ornamented with trees flower beds and water fountains tn in the midst thereof rises an 11 dhigh statue of mohammed all the father of the modern egypt I 1 suppose e that the edans who aro from m religious motives hate bate all im agoa must look upon this beautiful statue with much the same feelings as we would have were the chinese to erect one of their idols on a square in new york or still worse san 49 other proof that the mohammedan power is broken is needed than the presence of this statue in one of their chief cities the pillar of pompey is the only antique monument still lett left in Alexan alexandria alexandr Jr 1 a in good condition it is a round pillar hewn out of a single piece i ece m high its diameter fa Is at the top 23 m at the basis 27 m it stands oia OB a rude ped pedestal estul built from fragments of fin an ancient temple bearing in hieroglyphics the name of 1 I it is finished with a top pi piece ece in corinthian style and presents on its lofty eminence a grand imposing view 1 I he monumental pillar aillar is made of red granite from asuan and is in all m high pound bound about the pillar are strewn fragments of egyptian statues the presence of which in this place Js is one of the enigmas of egyptian archaeology there are two versions as ae to the object of the erection of this pillar one says it was reared by pompey in the beginning of the fourth century in honor of the emperor cl and thata that a statue of this emperor originally covered the top of it another version has it thus had bad besieged alexandria for eight months when the city at laa fell into his hands he commanded the to be massacred and aad said he be would not cease to shed their blood until it touched the knee of his hia horse but this happened soon for as he be yode rode about on the field of carnage his horse stumbled over a and the k anees dees were soiled boiled with the blood ou seeing this and remembering his word the emperor comm commanded anaed the slaughter to cease and the citizens erected the pillar with the statue of a horse on it to in remembrance of this event napoleon I 1 is said to have once taken his breakfast on the top ot this pillar J M 8 january 1890 |