ABSTRACT
Intensified by convex mirrors, a wood-fire light shone thirty miles out to sea from the lighthouse at Alexandria. There were steampowered warning sirens for bad weather. Some claim that the lighthouse had a lift (Ferguson 1973:22). A mole three-quarters of a mile long linked the lighthouse’s island with the metropolis. Alexandria was a new city. Designed by Deinocrates of Rhodes, commissioned by Alexander the Great, founded in 331 BC, it received traffic from the sea and the Nile. The city was an architect’s creation. With streets set in a grid pattern, it was divided into five sectors, each logically designated by a letter of the alphabet. Enclosed by a wall nine miles long were such show-pieces as the palace, Alexander’s tomb, the temple of the Muses and of Sarapis, the shrine of Pan, the university and library, the theatre, the zoological gardens, the gymnasium, stadium, and race course (Ferguson 1973:22-4). There were large Egyptian and Jewish communities. In late antiquity the city included colonies from all over the world.
