Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-16
IS A CITY OF SITES
Clever Characterization of
Alexandria, Egypt.
OF MODERN ASPECT
DIFFICULT TO REALIZE IT'S
GREAT ANTIQUITY.
Statues of Mohammedans-The Pharos
Tower-How Way Was Cleared
to the Throne.
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.

BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star and
Chicago Record Herald.
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt, December %, 1903.
Nearly everybody who comes to Egypt
skips Alexandria, which is great mistake,
because 1t is one of the finest ports on the
Mediterranean and is full of historical rem
iniscences. Some one has said that Alexan-
dria is a city # sites instead of sights,
which is a clever epigram and almost true,
because you can only see the places where
the great buildings stood. Nothing Is left
of them except here and there column or
a piece of carved marble which has been
utilized in the construction of a modern
building.
Alexandria is purely modern. 1t is diff
cult to realize that it is the famous capital
of Alexander the Great, the scene Of the
splendors and sensuous luxury of Cleopatra
and the Ptolemies who reigned in the
golden age of Egypt. 1t looks very much
like Bordeaux, Marseilles, Havre and other
French seaports, and for that reason tour
lists hurry through from the docks to the
railway station without stopping to think
of the memories that might be awakened
during visit of a few days.
Great Church Center.
You will remember, perhaps, that Alex
andria, after Antioch, was the headquar-
tiers Of the Christian church In early times.
and st. Mark lived and preached here for
nearly half century. Here. too, occurred
the great theological controversies which
split the followers of Christ into sects; here
was the center of Intellectual culture for
six hundred years, and the great libraries
brought together the most eminent intel
lects of the age. Here, too, was the south
ern capital Of the Roman empire, and these
streets have witnessed some of the most
brilliant pageants that ever astonshed the
world. Cleopatra and Marc Antony lived
here in the greatest splendor. julius and
Augustus Caesar, Trajan, Hadrian and
Constantine the Great were all residents of
Alexandria from time to time, and Zenobia,
Queen of Palmyra, lived here enthroned
from 26S to 273. Volumes have been writ
ten to tell the history of which Alexandria
has been the scene from the days of its
founder, Alexander the Great, to the de-
for Naples in 1879 with three hundred
women from his harem and four ship loads
of treasure which he stripped from the
khedival palaces.
Steamers for India Australia and other
points beyond the SueZ canal land their pas
sengers at Port Said, who go to Cairo by
rail, as told you the other day. Steamers
that go no farther than Egypt have their
entrepot at Alexandria, which is the great
port of the country and handles so per cent
of Its foreign commerce. The harbor is one
of the best on the Mediterranean, and its
natural advantages. which are equal to
those of Marseille and Naples have been
improved by vast engineering works, which
are of great historic Importance as well as
interest to the engineer. This port is
monument to Alexander the Great, for he
made the harbor by the construction of a
vast mole called the "Heppastadion," join
ing the Island of Pharos to the mainland.
While we hear very little about this work
1t is one of the most extensive and brilliant
triumphs in the history of engineering, as
great in its way as the pyramids, and even
greater than the construction of the Suez
canal. Mehemet Ali, of whom wrote you
yesterday, deepened the harbor, which had
become choked by the accumulation Of sand,
lined it with spacious docks, protected them
by Notifications, and cut a canal through
from the Nile, which was built in single
year at a cost Of 81, 800 600 and more than
10000 lives.
A quarter of a million peasants were
drafted from different provinces Of Egypt
and compelled to labor for nothing and
furnish their own food and tools. Thous-
ands died of exhaustion and hunger and
thousands more from infectious Diseases
but the lives Of his subjects were of no value
to Mehemet Ali. Since 1872 SIS, 0OO, 600 more
has been spent on the harbor, and naturally
1t ought to be what 1t is-one of the finest
on the sea.
In the middle of the city great square,
the center of the European quarter, the
focus of business and commercial activity.
1t is surrounded by banks the offices of the
steamship companies and shipping firms,
the consulates the principal hotels and
shops. and is appropriately named after the
founder of the present khedival dynasty,
the same Mehemet Ali whose splendid fig
ure, mounted upon an Arabian charger OF
bronze, stands in the center.
Statues Of Mohammedans.
Visitors who are aware Of the teachings
Of the Koran are naturally surprised to see
statues of famous Mohammedans in Egyp-
tan cities, because their religion forbids the
making Of images. According to a strict in
depreciation a statue. portrait in Oil, q
photograph, an engraving, or even a head
upon coin or model, Is a violation of one
of the injunctions of the prophet. Mobam-
medans believe that any man who makes q
likeness of the human form viii be COM
PEELED to endoweit with soul on the day OF
the resurrection or forfeit his own chances
Of paradise. But vanity prevails in islam
just as II does everywhere else among hui
mankind, and this statue and those in
Cairo and other parts of Egypt were Or
dered by Ismail as ornaments for his cities
and as tributes to his ancestors. Before he
could put them up, however, he lost his
throne. His successors dared not risk the
religious resentment of their subjects, so
the statues were allowed to remain in pack
ing boxes until the English Occupied the
country Then they were taken out and
placed upon pedestals, the inf1del officials
assuming all the risk of losing their iden-
tty in paradise.
There is excellent railway service between
Alexandria and Cairo, as good as any in
Europe or the United States, and except for
the sand and dust, which cannot be avoided
in crossing desert, the journey is quite
comfortable.
Pathway to the Throne Cleared.
About half way is bridge spanning one
of the arms of the Nile, which fifty years
ago was the scene of most extraordinary
tragedy. Ismail Pasha, the younger son of
Ibrahim, had no prospect of reaching the
throne, although he considered himself much
more competent TO administer the duties of
ruler than his uncles and cousins, who had
precedence in the regular order of success
sion. One of his intimate friends and con-
fidential associates was an Armenian aid
venturer, known as Nubar, who had lived
on the family for many years, because he
had killed somebody or stolen something to
oblige Mehemet Ali or performed some other
service which placed him in position to
levy blackmail. Nubar was superintendent
of the Egyptian government railways. and
when a special carrying the brothers and