3.01 Alexandria-By-Egypt: A Status Report
Placido Costanzi: Alexander the Great Founding Alexandria - Walters Art Museum Collection- WikiMedia
Transcript:
King of Kings,
Strategos Autokrator,
Hegemon of The Hellenic League,
King of Persia,
Son of Zeus,
Son of Amoon,
My Lord, Alexander III of Macedonia,
Three years ago I had an idea for a project. I went around between a variety of my countrymen and nobles, asking that my introduction to your royal presence would be facilitated. All of them kindly received me, and promised to accomplish my wish at the earliest.
I knew that they promised me fairly, but they were slow in performing; waiting, as they alleged, for a proper occasion. I also knew that you were setting out of Macedonia with the army. So I had to take my own course.
I came to your royal tribunal, when you were judiciating cases with your immense wisdom. I had anointed myself with oil, crowned my head with a wreath made of poplar leaves, and threw a lion’s skin around my shoulder. I looked as glorious as I would ever be, just to seek your attention.
And it worked. My appearance caught the attention of the people in the court. And when you discovered what they were fixated upon, you ordered the crowd to make way for me and demanded to know who I was.
“A Macedonian architect”, I replied. “A Macedonian architect who suggests designs and schemes, worthy only of your royal renown”.
I suggested building a city in your glory on top of Mount Athos, carving the mountain itself in your shape. With your left hand you would be holding the city, and with the right a cup, into which all the streams running down the mountain would be collected, which shall then be poured into the sea.
It would’ve been the greatest structure man had ever made. The Pharaohs of Egypt would have felt jealous in their modest tombs. Queen Amytis would’ve left Nebuchadnezzar to come and live at your hand.The gods would’ve descended from Olympus just to come and steal a glance at it.
I was wrong. I now understand why you asked me whether the surrounding soil is fertile enough to yield sufficient produce for the city. I understand why you looked into the practicality of such a city, rather than it being a wonder. Architects like me always go for the opportunity of a lifetime, for designing what was thought impossible to design. Not practicality. But I see now that a city built in your glory, needs to be exactly like you. Immortal.
I only understood that when I came here. The location you’ve chosen for the new city is perfect. It’s nestled between the sea in the north and Lake Mareotis in the south, giving it both a defensive advantage and harbours on both the sea and The Nile. I can see now how this city will survive for thousands of years. The sea port will connect Egypt to Greece and the rest of The Mediterranean. While the port on Lake Mareotis will connect the city to the rest of Egypt, Nubia, and Punt.
I overheard Cleomenes once telling a story that when the army was camping on your way to Amoon’s Temple in the oasis, you had a dream. Homer came to you in the dream and started reciting parts of his Odyssey.
“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 Pharo. It has a good harbour from which vessels can get out into the open sea when they have taken in water”.
Cleomenes said that you woke up and decided to choose the island of Pharos and the village on the shore in front of it, Rhakotis, to build your city. It seems that Homer is not just a great poet, my lord, but also a great architect.
The weather is very predictable. The locals here know a year ahead exactly when it will rain, exactly when there will be a sand storm, and exactly when The Nile will flood. They’ve arranged their whole life around this consistent yearly schedule. Usually cities built around lakes have heavy stifling air in summers, because the heat evaporates water turning lakes into filthy marches. Not here. The flood of The Nile coincides with summer, so the canals that flow into Mareotis provide the lake with freshwater.
Since you were here, we’ve started laying out the plans for the city based on your orders. Cleomenis and I started gathering the men that will work on the city. We then went on to mark the circumference of the city in the shape of a Macedonian chlamys, the famed military cloak. The long sides of it are those that are washed by the two waters, having a diameter of about thirty stadia, and the short sides are the isthmuses, each being seven or eight stadia wide, pinched in on one side by the sea and on the other by the lake.
My king, the scale of the city is so large that workers had already run out of chalk to mark the design of the city on the second day. And, when that happened, they started using barley flour to mark the layout of the city. This of course was a feast for flocks of birds from every kind and they ruined what was laid down. The Egyptian priests though say that this is a good omen. It means that people from every land and colour will come flocking to this city that will feed them all.
Cleomenes is worried, my lord, that when we finish building a city so large we wouldn’t find enough men to inhabit it. And even if we find enough men, he says, the lands would not be able to provide for enough necessities of life to support them. I told him of our plan to move people out of Canopus and into Alexandria, and turn Canopus into farm lands. I regret doing so, Hegemon. When he heard the plan his eyes glew with evil and said that those people would pay anything not to be moved from their lands. I do not trust Pseudo-Greeks, ones that came out of generations of Greeks living in outposts like Naucratis where he’s from.
We laid out the city in a grid shape, with one main road extending from the eastern gates of the city to the western gates, called the Canopic Road. All other roads in the city are either parallel to it or perpendicular. The city will be divided into five sections: Alpha, for Alexander, will hold the royal quarters. Beta and Gamma, for βασιλεύς and γένος, being the Greek quarters will hold The Gymnasium and Library. Delta, Δίος, will be the Jewish quarter, and Epsilon, ἔκτισε, for the Egyptians.
Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon.
Alexander βασιλεύς γένος Δίος ἔκτισε.
Alexander, The King, Son of God, he who built it.
I’ve also set the construction plan for The Heptastadion, the road that’s going to connect the mainland with Pharos. This will also create two separate ports instead of just one, The Great Port on the east of The Heptastadion and the Portus Eunostus, the safe return harbour, on its west. I have in mind a magnificent project for the ports and the island of Pharos that will rival The Pyramids themselves. And don’t worry my lord, it’s not just a vanity project. It will lighten up the future of your greatest city for eternity.
Moreover, we’ve commissioned Crates of Olynthus, the most esteemed hydraulics engineer, to design the waterways and sewage system of the city. He is planning the most advanced plumbing system I would ever see. He is planning to build tunnels under the city that would bring in fresh water from Mareotis and the sea to cleanse the city from underneath. He came up with an ingenious idea to design those tunnels that, frankly, I will be copying when designing the streets. He plans to get a set of mirrors that in the light of day would reflect a perfect straight line of light, which we would follow to lay the cornerstones of the streets. This will ensure that we build everything in perfect straight lines. This city will be perfect in each and every aspect.
In my calculations, all of the work listed above will take no more than one year to accomplish. In two years from now, I’m anticipating that the city will grow to be the biggest port in the whole world. And, in less than two generations, will be the biggest city in the whole world.
This city, as we’re planning, will not be a part of Egypt. The citizens will want nothing more from Egypt than trade. They will also want nothing to have with the rest of the world than trade. They will live, generation after another, being envied by others. Looking at their glorious city. Trying to come to it and failing. Trying to conquer it and failing. Then trying to be it, and failing.
This will be the greatest city that ever was and will ever be. Founded by the greatest, Alexander, that ever was and will ever be.
Your humble servant,
Dinocrates of Rhodes.
Sixth of Loios,
Alexandria-by-Egypt.
Music:
Alexandria - ElDor ElAwal
Alexandria (Ya Salam) - Giannis Kotsiras and Alkistis Protopsalti
