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ALEXANDRIA (Ancient city) EGYPT
Bruchium (Brucheion). The Royal or Greek quarter of the city of Alexandria (q.v.) enclosed by its own walls. Here were the finest of the public buildings, and upon it the Ptolemies lavished every form of ornament--obelisks, sphinxes, flowers and gardens, and colonnades. Among the great structures that stood here were the famous Library and Museum with its hundreds of thousands of volumes, its corridors, theatre, menagerie, and lecture-halls; the Palace of the Ptolemies; the Caesarium or Temple of the Caesars; the Mausoleum of the Ptolemies (containing the body of Alexander the Great); and the Arsinoeum, a monument raised by Ptolemy Philadelphus to his sister Arsinoe. The name is also written Pyruchium (Purocheion).
MAREIA (Ancient city) EGYPT
Mareotis or Mareia (he Mareotis or Mareia limne, Strab. xvii. pp.
789-799 ; Mareia, Steph. B. s. v.; Mareotis Libya, Plin. v. 10. s. 11; Justin.
xi. 1), the modern Birket-el-Mariout, was a considerable lake in the north of
the Delta, extending south-westward of the Canopic arm of the Nile, and running
parallel to the Mediterranean, from which it was separated by a long and narrow
ridge of sand, as far as the tower of Perseus on the Plinthinetic bay. The extreme
western point of the lake was about 26 miles distant from Alexandreia; and on
that side it closely bordered upon the Libyan desert. ‘At its northern extremity
its waters at one time washed the walls of Alexandreia on their southern side,
and before the foundation.of that city Mareotis was termed the Lake above Pharus.
In breadth it was rather more than 150 stadia, or about 22 English miles, and
in length nearly 300 stadia, or about 42 English miles. One canal connected the
lake with the Canopic arm of the Nile, and another with the old harbour of Alexandreia,
the Portus Eunostus. The shores of the Mareotis, were planted with olives and
vineyards; the papyrus which lined its banks and those of the eight islets which
studded its waters was celebrated for its fine quality; and around its margin
stood the country-houses and gardens of the opulent Alexandrian merchants. Its
creeks and quays were filled with Nile boats, and its export and import trade
in the age of Strabo surpassed that of the most flourishing havens of Italy.
Under the later Caesars, and after Alexandreia was occupied by the
Arabs, the canals which fed the lake were neglected, and its depth and compass
were materially reduced. In the 16th century A.D. its waters had retired about
2 miles from the city walls; yet it still presented an ample sheet of water, and
its banks were adorned with thriving date-plantations. The lake, however, continued
to recede and to grow shallower; and, according to the French traveller Savary,
who visited this district in 1777, its bed was then, for the most part, a sandy
waste. In 1801 the English army in Aegypt, in order to annoy the French garrison
in Alexandria, bored the narrow isthmus which separates the Birket-el-Mariout
from the Lake of Madieh or Aboukir, and re-admitted the sea-water. About 450 square
miles were thus converted into a salt-marsh. But subsequently Mehemet Ali repaired
the isthmus, and again diverted the sea from the lake. It is now of very unequal
depth. At its northern end, near Alexandreia, it is about 14 feet deep, at its
opposite extremity not more than 3 or 4. Westward it forms a long and shallow
lagoon, separated from the sea by a bar of sand, and running towards Libya nearly
as far as the Tower of the Arabs. The lands surrounding the ancient Mareotis were
designated as the Mareotic Nome (Mareotes Nomos, Ptol. iv. 5. §§ 8, 34); but this
was probably not one of the established Nomes of Pharaonic Aegypt.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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