Alexandria

Alexandria is the second largest city and a major economic center in Egypt. Alexandria was founded around a minor Ancient Egyptian town c. 331 BC by Alexander the Great, hence the city's name. A valued city under Hellenistic control, Alexandria remained the capital of Egypt for almost a thousand years until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in AD 641.

Hellenistic Alexandria was best known for the Lighthouse of Alexandria (Pharos), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World; its Great Library (once the largest in the ancient world); and the Necropolis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages. Alexandria was the second most powerful city of the ancient world after Rome.