Alexandria's founded by Alexander

Alexandria's founded by Alexander the Great (by year BC): 334 Alexandria in Troia (Turkey) - 333 Alexandria at Issus/Alexandrette (Iskenderun, Turkey) - 332 Alexandria of Caria/by the Latmos (Alinda, Turkey) - 331 Alexandria Mygdoniae - 331 Alexandria (Egypt) - 330 Alexandria Ariana (Herat, Afghanistan) - 330 Alexandria of the Prophthasia/in Dragiana/Phrada (Farah, Afghanistan) - 330 Alexandria in Arachosia (Kandahar, Afghanistan) - 330 Alexandria in the Caucasus (Begram, Afghanistan) - 329 Alexandria of the Paropanisades (Ghazni, Afghanistan) - 329 Alexandria Eschate or Ultima (Khodjend, Tajikistan) - 329 Alexandria on the Oxus (Termez, Afghanistan) - 328 Alexandria in Margiana (Merv, Turkmenistan) - 326 Alexandria Nicaea (on the Hydaspes, India) - 326 Alexandria Bucephala (on the Hydaspes, India) - 325 Alexandria Sogdia - 325 Alexandria Oreitide - 325 Alexandria in Opiene / Alexandria on the Indus (confluence of Indus & Acesines, India) - 325 Alexandria Rambacia (Bela, Pakistan) - 325 Alexandria Xylinepolis (Patala, India) - 325 Alexandria in Carminia (Gulashkird, Iran) - 324 Alexandria-on-the-Tigris/Antiochia-in-Susiana/Charax (Spasinou Charax on the Tigris, Iraq) - ?Alexandria of Carmahle? (Kahnu)

Thursday, March 15, 2018

The Canal of the Pharaohs, the Suez Canal of antiquity

The Canal of the Pharaohs in Egypt’s Tell el-Maskhuta, located northeast of Cairo, was already known in the 1800s but was never adequately documented until now.

Excavations started around a partially visible wall belonging to a square fortress near Wadi Tumilat. This valley was an important turntable for commercial and cultural exchanges with Palestine and Syria, all the way into Mesopotamia. An enormous wall of 22 meters in length and a height of eight meters leads to the fortress with its two twelve meters long walls. The construction measured 200x300 meters, and as part of Tell el-Maskhuta, stays hidden underneath the desert sands for at least one kilometer.

Excavations have revealed that the Hyksos built the settlement as far back as 1,500 BC and used it during the Ptolemaic era (3rd-1st century BC) as the foundation for this fortress. So far, it has been established that this was one of the Nile Delta's largest fortresses before the arrival of the Romans.

The first canal to connect the Red Sea to the Nile and ultimately to the Mediterranean ran past Wadi Tumilat and was built as early as the 19th century BC! Although it was difficult to maintain because of the ever-shifting desert sands, it was still functioning during the reign of Ramses II in the 13th century BC. When Darius the Great conquered Egypt in the 5th century BC, he was keen to optimize the canal for his imports of wheat and the transport of his troops. The first stone for this canal was laid around 520 BC and was retrieved in 1866 during the construction of the modern Suez Canal. The precious stone and inscription can be seen at the Louvre in Paris.

This is more than sideline information, as the very existence of the canal so early in history was known to Alexander when he entered Egypt.

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