Fed by the waters of the Lake Maryut and the Nile, the port of Alexandria also benefitted from the safe anchorage conditions found off the island of Pharos, making it an attractive and practical point of transit for merchants travelling between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The city was constructed on the site of an ancient settlement, dating back to 1,500 BC, and was designed by Alexander’s personal architect, Dinocrates. Alexandria has played a pivotal role in Mediterranean trade ever since the city was founded in c.332 BC by Alexander (known as both ‘the Macedonian’ and ‘the Great’.) The second largest Egyptian city, after Cairo, and one of the largest ports on the Mediterranean coast, Alexandria was a major centre of civilization in the ancient world, controlling commerce between Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean, and has continued throughout its long history to act as a vital crossing point for merchants and their trade on the maritime routes between Asia and Europe.
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