h would at the same time be of the highest
importance in a military point of view, and afford a harbour constantly
accessible. The site of Alexandria combined all these advantages: on three
sides it has the sea, or the lake Mareotis, which, according to Strabo, was
nearly 300 stadia long, and 150 broad; the country adjoining this lake was
fertile, and by means of it, and natural or artificial channels, there was
a communication with the Delta and Upper Egypt. Between this lake and the
Canopic branch of the Nile, Alexander built his city: to less sagacious
minds this site would have appeared improper and injudicious in some
respects; for the sea-coast from Pelusium to Canopus is low land, not
visible at a distance; the navigation along this coast, and the approach to
it, is dangerous, and the entrance into the mouths of the Nile, at some
seasons, is extremely hazardous. But these disadvantages the genius of
Alexander turned to the benefit of his city, by the erection of the Pharos,
and the plan of a double harbour, which was afterwards completed by the
Ptolemies; for he thus united in a single spot the means of defence and
facility of access.

Denocrates, a Macedonian architect, who proposed to Alexander to cut Mount
Athos in the form of a statue holding a city in one hand, and in the other
a bason, into which all the waters of the mountain should empty themselves,
was employed by that monarch to build and beautify Alexandria. Its site was
on a deep and secure bay, formed by the shore on the one side, and the
island of Pharos on the other; in this bay numerous fleets might lie in
perfect safety, protected from the winds and waves. The form in which the
city was built was that of a Macedonian chlamys, or cloak; the two ports,
one of which only was built by Alexander, though both (as has been already
observed) were projected by him, were formed and divided from each other by
a moat a mile long, which stretched from the isle of Pharos to the
continent: that harbour which lay to the north was called the Great
Harbour, and the other, to the west, was called Eunostus, or the Safe
Return. In order to secure the vessels from the storms of the
Mediterranean, even more effectually than they could be by the natural
advantages of these harbours, the piers on each side were bent like a bar,
so that only a small space was left for the entrance of vessels.

The successors of Alexander in the Egyptian empire followed his example, in
nou