page_title: Alexandria
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Alexandria / Geography
caption_attribution_description: English: Alexandria, Egypt - March 1990 The seaport city of Alexandria, with a population of more than 3.5 million, is built primarily on a sandy strip of land between the Mediterranean Sea and Lake Mareotis. An industrial and commercial city, Alexandria anchors the western extent of the large Nile River Delta. Although most of the city infrastructure is not visible, some of the large modern harbor facilities, including a breakwater structure, are discernible in the small bay. The unusual tan water body southwest of the port facilities is possibly a holding pond for industrial effluents. A narrow band of darker substance in the water current appears to be flowing toward the east, and farther offshore, an interesting light blue turbidity indicates water color boundaries along this part of the Mediterranean Sea. A series of canals and roadways appears within the darker green of the fertile, intensively cultivated and irrigated, agricultural Nile River Delta. Circular field patterns southwest of the city indicate that center-pivot irrigation is being used in addition to irrigation from ditches and canals. The smaller, highly reflective areas scattered among the irrigated farmland are villages and cities.
context_page_description: Alexandria is the second-largest city in Egypt and a major economic center. With a population of 5,200,000, Alexandria is the largest city on the Mediterranean, the sixth-largest city in the Arab world and the ninth-largest in Africa. The city extends about 40 km at the northern coast of Egypt along the Mediterranean Sea. Alexandria is a popular tourist destination, and also an important industrial center because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez.
  Alexandria was founded in c. 331 BC by Alexander the Great, king of Macedon and leader of the Greek League of Corinth, during his conquest of the Achaemenid Empire. An Egyptian village named Rhacotis existed at the location and grew into the Egyptian quarter of Alexandria. Alexandria grew rapidly to become an important center of Hellenistic civilization and remained the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt and Roman and Byzantine Egypt for almost 1,000 years, until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in AD 641, when a new capital was founded at Fustat.
context_section_description: Alexandria is located in the country of Egypt, on the southern coast of the Mediterranean.
caption: Satellite image of Alexandria and other cities show its surrounding coastal plain
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