Greek and Roman Idealism
Few cities have made so magnificent an entry into history as Alexandria. She was founded by Alexander the Great.
The Founding of Alexandria
  
Few cities have made so magnificent an entry into history as Alexandria.
She was founded by Alexander the Great.
E.M. Forster
Now off Egypt, About as far as a ship can sail in a day
With a good stiff breeze behind her There is an island
called Pharos It has a good harbour From which vessels
can get out into open sea When they have taken in water
Long before Alexander the Great visited the site of Alexandria, Homer wrote the above paragraph in his Odyssey. Only remains of the prehistoric harbor have been found off the shores of the island of Pharos, now the peninsula of Ras-El-Tin.
Opposite of Pharos, on Egypt mainland, was a small village centered around the area where "Pompey's Pillar" now stands. It was called Rhakotis.
Archeological evidence suggests that it existed as long ago as the 13th
Century BC. Because the Ancient Egyptian civilization thrived mainly
along the Nile River, very little is known about both Pharos and
Rhakotis at that time. Was it a strategic defense base to repel raiders
from the West? Was it an important city during the reign of the XXXth
Dynasty where King Nectanebo II was planning to be burried? Probably
throughout most of its ancient history, Rhakotis was merely a fishing
village.
Then came Alexander the Great.
When he reached
Memphis in Egypt, he was welcome by the people who hated Persian rule.
He was twenty five years old. Yet, he was King of Macedon.
He was the hailed conqueror who started a long journey through Greece,
Asia Minor, and Syria, sweeping both Greek and the Persian forces on his
way. He had plans for a longer journey to Persia, Central Asia, and
India. But first, he had to visit the Oasis of Siwa to consult the
Oracle of Amun.
While on his way, Alexander admired that stretch
of land between the Mediterranean Sea and lake Mareotis, and the nearby
island. He ordered a city to be founded there in order to serve as a
regional capital. The location was ideal for it was intermediate between
Greece across the Mediterranean and the rest of Egypt. At that time,
the Nile was connected to the Red Sea through a canal, and Alexandria
could serve as a gateway to the Indian Ocean. The city plan was designed by the Greek architect Dinocrates. The city walls outline was marked by Alexander himself.
Egypt's
new capital was born April 7, 331 BC. She was named after Alexander,
yet he never saw a single building rise there. Only after his death, had
he returned to her to be burried.
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Ancient
Alexandria, founded in 332 B.C. by Alexander the Great, was once the
center of the Hellenistic Empire spanning Europe and Asia. It later
ranked second in importance only to Imperial Rome, serving as the stage
for Cleopatra's ill-fated love affairs with Caesar and Mark Antony. But
evidence of seven centuries of Greek and Roman occupation came almost
exclusively from classical historians, notably Herodotus, Strabo and
Plutarch. In the 19th century, before the science of archaeology became
well developed, the Ottomans laid out the brick and concrete city that
stands today: beneath a sprawling plan of office buildings, houses,
roads and railways, ancient Alexandria was buried forever.
Or so
it seemed until now. Encouraged by new technology, a rash of demolition
that makes ground available for digging, and unparalleled cooperation
from Egyptian antiquities officials, archaeologists are sifting for
traces of ancient Alexandria more extensively and systematically than
ever before. Teams from five countries are involved in the work, but to
date none has produced more impressive results than the Center for
Alexandrian Studies, a group of archaeologists, architects, geologists
and anthropologists formed by Empereur in 1990. "We have so many gaps in
the history of Alexandria," says Gaballa Gaballa, the Egyptian
government's antiquities chief. "We are starting to fill them in."
And
now the colossus of Ptolemy II, along with other underwater finds
including a bust of a Ptolemaic queen represented as Isis and an obelisk
from the time of Seti I, King of Egypt's 19th Dynasty, can be seen
through July in "La Gloire d'Alexandrie" at the Petit Palais in Paris.
The show, bringing together more than 200 pieces from museums throughout
the world, is the first major exhibition of Hellenistic Alexandria ever
mounted outside Egypt. "Alexandria was a beacon of Western
civilization," says Empereur. "But, unlike Rome or Athens, it has been
forgotten."
In 1994, Empereur, a pioneer of seabed archaeology
along Egypt's coastline, began mapping a rich underwater archaeological
site in Alexandria's eastern harbor, near the known location of the
Pharos, which military authorities had restricted for years on national
security grounds. To date, he and his researchers have identified more
than 3,000 fragments, many of which Empereur believes are blocks from
the lighthouse, which was destroyed in an earthquake in 1341. Confirming
a Hellenistic fascination with Egypt, three colossal Ptolemaic couples
in Pharaonic poses have been located in the eerie 7-m depths, along with
more than 28 sphinxes and several obelisks--ancient Pharaonic works
removed by the Ptolemies from Heliopolis, seat of the Pharaonic-era sun
god Re in Lower Egypt, to decorate their capital.
Archaeologists
believe that the monuments were submerged when the coastline subsided.
Empereur has brought up 36 pieces and put them through a costly
desalination process, but he would like to leave the others where they
are lying and create an underwater archaeological park for diving
enthusiasts. However, the current excavations will continue for many
more years.
Empereur's work on land has been no less remarkable.
Thanks to the upturn in Egypt's economy in the 1990s, developers are
tearing down scores of old buildings in Alexandria and putting up new
office blocks and residential high-rises in their place. Amid the
construction boom, antiquities officials have been granting permission
for archaeologists to carry out what Empereur calls emergency salvage
operations. At a depth of no more than 10 m, he says, "you find more
than 2,300 years of history. We follow the strata downwards, from modern
Alexandria to the Ottoman period, the Mamluks, the Fatimids,
Byzantines, Romans and finally the Greeks."
For the
archaeologists, working conditions at the site are far from ideal. But
at least they provide a glimpse into the past, often with wonderful
results. One of the most beautiful art treasures ever exhumed in
Alexandria is a mosaic of Medusa, dating from the 2nd century A.D.,
which Empereur's team discovered in 1994 after developers had torn down
the historic 1930s Diana theater in downtown Alexandria.
Nowhere
is the struggle to rescue Alexandria's past from its present better
illustrated than in Empereur's dig in the city's Gabbari district. Last
year, the Egyptian government's roadworks department was nearly finished
building a vital new highway, designed to carry 80% of Egyptian exports
to Alexandria's port. But with only 500 m to go, the antiquities
department obtained an order halting the construction and enabling
Empereur to uncover Alexandria's ancient burial ground. This major find,
in turn, has set off a fierce bureaucratic battle that remains
unresolved: it could cost as much as $300 million to build a suspension
bridge to save the necropolis--100 times the cost of simply paving over
the site as was originally intended.
To some, the construction
hold-up seems a small price to pay for a better understanding of this
important lost city of the ancient world. And many modern Alexandrians,
bruised by the greater attention given to Pharaonic and Islamic Egypt,
are delighted to see their city receive its due at long last. "We are
recovering Alexandria from beneath the water and the earth," says Ahmed
Abdel Fattah, director of the city's Greco-Roman Museum. "It has been buried long enough."
 
click on the picture left to learn the alpha- or click on the picture right to get more history.....
www.hol.gr/greece/mythology/gvrGreek.html
cliick on the link for a direct styudy of the roman/greek mythos...
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Stonehenge
yes and no............................................
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yes : stonehenge was used by the druids
no : It wasn't created by them or bodica(celt warrior)
yes : stonehenge has a purpose
no : it isn't an calendar, it's a clock
no : blood sacrafices was done there or exercised by druids
yes it is quite old 400,000 years to be exact give or take a day...
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Atlantis Q and A
q: was atlantis an ancient city or race of people
a:
no, it was a mini city designed on an extended piece land that was
banked by 3 parts of water....designed by the greeks and roman outcast
to help in the local connection of goods copying that alexandriana the
libras desired
q: was it a high tech city with ancient weapons
a:
yes and no (yes) it had its share of marvels cause after the design of
the libra, many a greek of thought found it to be a second home, but
(no) weapons wasn't allowed on the island like mass the roman guards and
the inovational tools that became weapons protected it well....
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click on the picture of Alantis, to see more on that...
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crop circles
"destiny finds in all things named and from this it learns its place"
Question : what are the crop circles for...?
Answer
: Before others stared to mess with the land, well they were advanced
map like directions to tell those traveling from high outer orbit where
they are..
on a designed land area.... not to
contact ancient astronauts, shamans and city gods used these as in (a
way to design their version of self god hood, however like most things
created for ones own ego they tend to age as soon as they
stand...(un-like the stones of the henge)
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Secret
rituals of pagan religions taught and known only to initiates who had
developed a higher spirituality. Such mysteries were kept from the
popular worshipers, and the initiates took a binding oath of secrecy.
This is why even today the knowledge of these mysteries is partly
conjectural.
The typical mystery cults were those of Eleusis
in Greece in the 15th century BC, which may have part of their origins
in the mystery religions of ancient Egypt and the mysteries of Mithras, a
Persian deity. Traces of Mithraism still exist in Britain. Many present
secret societies claim their ritual descend from ancient traditions
AtlantisAveburyBlue StoneLeysLia FailMarrying of the Gods MegalithsRollright StonesStonehenge
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