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Caesar entered Alexandria in triumph, but was then attacked by the citizens and Ptolemy XIV's army and had considerable difficulty in maintaining his position in the Regia or "Royal City". Cleopatra was able to win over by her charms first Caesar and later Antony, who lived with her in Alexandria from 42 to 30 B.C. Augustus enlarged the city by the addition of th suburb of Nicopolis. At this... More prosperous period Alexandria was said to have a population of more than half a million; the Greek element predominated, followed by the Egyptian, while there was also a separate Jewish community, originally established in the time of Ptolemy I.

In A.D. 69 Vespasian was proclaimed Emperor by the citizens of Alexandria, largely as a result of the influence of the philosophers of the Museum. In the reign of Trajan (98-117) the Jews, who then constituted a third of the population, were the cause of bloody riots. In the year 130 the Emperor Hadrian (117-138) visited Alexandria and instituted public disputations in the Museum. Marcus Aurelius (161-180) attended the lectures of the grammarians Athenaeus, Harpocration, Hephaestion, Julius Pollux and other scholars. During this period, too, the Greek satirical writer Lucian lived in Alexandria as Secretary to the Prefect of Egypt. Septimius Severus (193-211 ) visited the city in 199 and granted it a municipal consitution. The next Imperial visit was disastrous, for Caracalia (211-217) was derided by the citizens and revenged himself by a bloody massacre and the closure of the Academy. Alexandria suffered still more cruelly during the fighting between Palmyrene and Imperial forces in the second half of the third century, when a large part of the population was carried away by the sword, famine and pestilence.

Tourist Attractions in Alexandria

Alexandria - Catacombs of Kom el-Shukafa Sepulchral Chapel
From the rotunda a staircase continues down and then divides: from this point there is a view of the main burial chambers. At the foot of the stairs is the entrance to the Sepulchral Chapel, with three niches containing sarcophagi. In the central niche the mummy lies on a bier, surrounded by the three gods of the Underworld, Horus, Thoth and Anubis. Round the sepulchral chapel runs a gallery, entered from the vestibule to the chapel, containing 91 loculi, each large enough to accommodate at least three or four mummies.

Alexandria – Corniche
Immediately northof Midan el-Tahrir o the is the Midan Ahmed Orabi, also laid out in gardens, which leads to the magnificent seafront promenade known as the Corniche (Sharia July 26), running round the south side of the old eastern harbor, the principal harbor (Portus Magnus) of the ancient city, in a wide arc.

Alexandria - Graeco-Roman Museum
In a side street opening off the wide treelined Sharia el-Horreya we find the important Graeco-Roman Museum. Most of its collection comes from Alexandria itself, mainly from tombs ranging in date between 300 B.C. and A.D. 300.

Alexandria - Pompey's Pillar
In the southwest of the city, near the large Arab cemetery, is a hill littered with the remains of ancient walls, architectural fragments and rubble on which stands Alexandria's largest ancient monument, Pompey's Pillar, rising from the ruins of the ancient and famous Serapeion (Temple of Serapis). This column of red Aswan granite with a Corinthian capital, standing on a badly ruined substructure and rising to a height of almost 90ft/27m, is traditionally believed to have been erected by the Emperor Theodosius to commemorate the victory of Christianity over paganism and the destruction of the Serapeion in 391. More probably, however, it was set up in 292 in honor of Diocletian, who supplied food for the starving population after the siege of the city.