Alexandria

Alexan'dria

(properly Alexandri'a, Α᾿λεξάνδρεια, 3 Maccabees 3:20; 4:11; occurs in the N.T. only in the derivatives Α᾿λεξανδρεύς, an Alexandrian, Ac 6:9; Ac 18:24; and Α᾿λεξανδρινός, Alexandrine, Ac 27:6; Ac 28:11), the chief maritime city and long the metropolis of Lower Egypt, so called from its founder, Alexander the Great, was in many ways most importantly connected with the later history of the Jews — as well from the relations which subsisted between them and the Ptolemies, who reigned in that city, as from the vast number of Jews who were settled there, with whom a constant intercourse was maintained by the Jews of Palestine. It is situated on the Mediterranean, twelve miles west of the Canopic mouth of the Nile, in 310° 13' N. lat. and 25° 53' E. long. It owes its origin to the comprehensive policy of Alexander, who traced himself the ground-plan of the city (Plut. Alex. 26), perceiving that the usual channels of commerce might be advantageously altered; and that a city occupying this site could not fail to become the common emporium for the traffic of the Eastern and Western world, by means of the river Nile and the two adjacent seas, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. SEE ALEXANDER THE GREAT. For a long period Alexandria was the greatest of known cities, for Nineveh and Babylon had fallen, and Rome had not yet risen to pre-eminence; and even when Rome became the mistress of the world, and Alexandria only the metropolis of a province, the latter was second only to the former in wealth; extent, and importance, and was honored with the magnificent titles of the second metropolis of the world, the city of cities, the Queen of the East, a second Rome (Diod. Sic. 17; Strab. 17; Ammian. Marcell. 22; Hegesipp. 4:27; Josephus, War, 4, 11, 5). It is not mentioned at all in the Old Testament [see No], and only incidentally in the New (Ac 6:9; Ac 18:24; Ac 27:6).

Alexandria was founded B.C. 332, upon the site of the small village of Rhacotis (Strabo, 17, c. 1, 6), and; opposite to the little island of Pharos, which, even before the time of Homer, had given shelter to the Greek traders on the coast. Alexander selected this spot for the Greek colony which he proposed to found, from the capability of forming the deep water between Rhacotis and the isle of Pharos into a harbor that might become the port of all Egypt. He accordingly ordered Dinocrates, the architect who rebuilt the temple of Diana at Ephesus, to improve the harbor, and to lay down the plan of the new city; and he further appointed Cleomenes of Naucratis, in Egypt, to act as superintendent. The light-house upon the isle of Pharos was to be named after his friend Hephaestion, and all contracts between merchants in the port were to commence "In the name of Hephaestion." The great market which had hitherto existed at Canopus was speedily removed to the new city, which thus at once rose to commercial importance. After the death of Alexander, the building of the city was carried on briskly by his successor, Ptolemy Lagus, or Soter, but many of the public works were not completed till the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus. The city was built upon a strip of land between the sea and the Lake Mareotis, and its ground plan resembled the form of a Greek chlamys, or soldier's cloak. The two main streets, 240 feet wide, left a free passage for the north wind, which alone conveys coolness in Egypt. They crossed each other at right angles in the middle of the city, which was three miles long and seven broad, and the whole of the streets were wide enough for carriages. The long narrow island of Pharos was formed into a sort of breakwater to the port, by joining the middle of the island to the mainland by means of a mole seven stadia in length, and hence called the Hepta- stadium. To let the water pass, there were two breaks in the mole, over which bridges were thrown. The public grounds and palaces occupied nearly a third of the whole extent of the city. The Royal Docks, the Exchange, the Posideion, or temple of Neptune, and many other public buildings, fronted the harbor. There also stood the burial-place for the Greek kings of Egypt, called "the Soma," because it held "the body," as that of Alexander was called. On the western side of the Hepta-stadium, and on the outside of the city were other docks, and a ship-canal into Lake Mareotis, as likewise the Necropolis, or public burial place of the city. There were also a theater, an amphitheater, a gymnasium, with a large portico, more than 600 feet long, and supported by several rows of marble columns; a stadium, in which games were celebrated every fifth year; a hall of justice, public groves or gardens, a hippodrome for chariot races, and, towering above all, was the temple of Serapis, the Serapeum. The most famous of all the public buildings planned by Ptolemy Soter were the library and museum, or College of Philosophy. They were built near the royal palace, in that part of the city called Bruchion, and contained a great hall, used as a lecture room and common dining-room, and had a covered walk all round the outside, and a seat on which the philosophers sometimes sat in the open air. Within the verge of the Serapeum was a supplementary library, called the daughter of the former. The professors of the college were supported out of the public income. The light-house at Alexandria was not finished till the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, B.C. 284-246. It was built by the architect Sostratus. The royal burial-place was also finished in this reign, and Philadelphus removed the body of Alexander from Memphis to this city, and hither pilgrims came and bowed before the golden sarcophagus in which the hero's body was placed. Seleucus Cybiasactes, B.C. 54, is said to have stolen the golden coffin of Alexander. The Emperor Claudius, A.D. 41-55, founded the Claudian Museum; and Antoninus, A.D. 162-218, built the Gates of the Sun and of the Moon, and likewise made a hippodrome. At the great rebellion of Egypt, A.D. 297, Alexandria was besieged by Diocletian, when, in commemoration of his humanity in staying the pillage of the city, the inhabitants erected an equestrian statue, now lost, but which, there is little doubt, surmounted the lofty column known by the name of Pompey's Pillar, the base of which still bears the inscription, "To the most honored emperor, the savior of Alexandria, the unconquerable Diocletian." The port of Alexandria is described by Josephus ( War, 4, 10, 5), and his description is in perfect conformity with the best modern accounts. It was secure, but difficult of access, in consequence of which a magnificent pharos, or light-house, accounted one of the "seven" wonders of the world, was erected upon an islet at the entrance. From the first arrival of Ptolemy Soter in Egypt, he made Alexandria his residence; and no sooner had he some respite from war than he bent all the resources of his mind to draw to his kingdom the whole trade of the East, which the Tyrians had, up to this time, carried on by sea to Elath, and from thence, by the way of Rhinocolura, to Tyre. He built a city on the west side of the Red Sea, whence he sent out fleets to all those countries to which the Phoenicians traded from Elath; but, observing that the Red Sea, by reason of rocks and shoals, was very dangerous toward its northern extremity, he transferred the trade to another city, which he founded at the greatest practicable distance southward. This port, which was almost on the borders of Ethiopia, he called, from his mother, Berenice, but the harbor being found inconvenient, the neighboring city of Myos Hormos was preferred. Thither the products of the East and South were conveyed by sea, and were from thence taken on camels to Coptus on the Nile, where they were again shipped for Alexandria, and from that city were dispersed into all the nations of the West, in exchange for merchandise which was afterward exported to the East (Strabo, 22, p. 805; Pliny, Hist. Nat. 6, 23). The commerce of Alexandria being so great, especially in corn — for Egypt was considered the granary of Rome — the centurion might readily "find a ship, corn-laden, sailing into Italy" (Ac 27:6; Ac 28:11; see Conybeare and Howson, St. Paul, 2, 308, 309). The beauty (Athen. 1, p. 3) of Alexandria was proverbial. Every natural advantage contributed to its prosperity. The climate and site were singularly healthful (Strab. p. 793). The harbors, formed by the island of Pharos and the headland Lochias, were safe and commodious, alike for commerce and for war; and the lake Mareotis was an inland haven for the merchandise of Egypt and India (Strab. p. 798). Under the despotism of the later Ptolemies the trade of Alexandria declined, but its population (300,000 freemen, Diod. 17:52, which, as Mannert suggests, should be doubled, if we include the slaves; the free population of Attica was about 130,000) and wealth — (Strab. p. 798) were enormous. After the victory of Augustus it suffered for its attachment to the cause of Antony (Strab. p. 792); but its importance as one of the chief corn-ports of Rome secured for it the general favor of the first emperors. In later times the seditious tumults for which the Alexandrians had always been notorious desolated the city (A.D. 260, Gibbon, Decline and Fall, c. x), and religious feuds aggravated the popular distress (Dionys. Alex. Ep. 3, 12; Euseb. — H. E. 6, 41 sq.; 7:22). Yet even thus, though Alexandria suffered greatly from constant dissensions and the weakness of the Byzantine court, the splendor of "the great city of the West" amazed Amrou, its Arab conqueror (A.D. 640, Gibbon, c. 51); and after centuries of Mohammedan misrule it promises once again to justify the wisdom of its founder (Strab. 17:791-9; Frag. ap. Josephus, Ant. 14, 7, 2; Plut. Aler. 26; Arr. 3, 1; Josephus, War,

⇒Bible concordance for ALEXANDRIA.

4, 5). Bonaparte took Alexandria in 1798, and it remained in the possession of the French till they surrendered it to the British, Sept. 2, 1801, when they were finally expelled from the country. Mohammed Ali dug a canal, called El-Mahmoudieh (a compliment to Mahmoud, the father of the present sultan, Abd-el-Mejid), which opened a water communication with the Nile, entering that river at a place called Fouah, a few miles distant from the city. All about the city, but particularly to the south and east, are extensive mounds, and fragments of ancient luxury and magnificence, granite columns, marble statues, and broken pottery. The modern city of Alexandria is surrounded by a high wall, built by the Saracens between A.D. 1200-1300. Some parts of the walls of the old city still exist, and the ancient vaulted reservoirs, extending under the whole town, are almost entire. The ancient Necropolis is excavated out of the solid rock. The site of that part known to have been Rhacotis is now covered by the sea; but beneath the surface of the water are visible the remains of ancient Egyptian statues and columns.

Alexandria became not only the seat of commerce, but of learning and the liberal sciences. This distinction also it owed to Ptolemy Soter, himself a man of education, who founded an academy, or society of learned men, who devoted themselves to the study of philosophy, literature, and science. For their use he made a collection of choice books, which by degrees increased under his successors until it became the finest library in the world, and numbered 700,000 volumes (Strab. 17, p. 791; Euseb. Chron.). It sustained repeated losses by fire and otherwise, but these losses were as repeatedly repaired; and it continued to be of great fame and use in those parts, until it was destroyed by a mob of Christians, A.D. 391, or, according to others, burnt by the Saracens, A.D. 642. SEE ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY. Undoubtedly the Jews at Alexandria shared in the benefit of these institutions, as the Christians did afterward, for the city was not only a seat of heathen, but of Jewish, and subsequently of Christian learning (Am. Bib. Repos. 1834, p. 1-21, 190, 617). The Jews never had a more profoundly learned man than Philo, nor the Christians men more erudite than Origen and Clement; and if we may judge from these celebrated natives of Alexandria, who were remarkably intimate with the heathen philosophy and literature, the learning acquired in the Jewish and Christian schools of that city must have been of that broad and comprehensive character which its large and liberal institutions were fitted to produce. It will be remembered that the celebrated translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, SEE SEPTUAGINT, was made, under every encouragement from Ptolemy Philadelphus, principally for the use of the Jews in Alexandria, who knew only the Greek language (see Sturz, De dialecto Macedonica et Alexandrina, Lips. 1808); but partly, no doubt, that the great library might possess a version of a book so remarkable, and, in some points, so closely connected with the ancient history of Egypt. The work of Josephus against Apion affords ample evidence of the attention which the Jewish Scriptures excited. According to Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. 2, 17), Mark first introduced the Gospel into Alexandria; and, according to less authentic accounts, he suffered martyrdom here about A.D. 68. A church dedicated to this evangelist, belonging to the Coptic (Jacobite) Christians, still exists in Alexandria (Rosenmuller, Bib. Geog. 3, 291 sq.). The Jewish and Christian schools in Alexandria were long held in the highest esteem, and there is reason to believe that the latter, besides producing many eloquent preachers, paid much attention to the multiplying of copies of the sacred writings. The famous Alexandrian manuscript (q.v.), now deposited in the British Museum, is well known. For many years Christianity continued to flourish at this seat of learning, but at length it became the source, and for some time continued the stronghold, of the Arian heresy. The divisions, discords, and animosities which were thus introduced rendered the churches of Alexandria an easy prey to the Arabian impostor, and they were swept away by his followers.

⇒Definition of alexandrian

The population of Alexandria was mixed from the first (comp. Curt. 4:8, 5), and this fact formed the groundwork of the Alexandrine character. The three regions into which the city was divided (Regio Judoeorum, Brucheium, Rhacotis) corresponded to the three chief classes of its inhabitants, Jews, Greeks, Egyptians; but in addition to these principal races, representatives of almost every nation were found there (Dion Chrys. Orat. 32). According to Josephus, Alexander himself assigned to the Jews a place in his new city; "and they obtained," he adds, "equal privileges with the Macedonians" (Ap. 2, 4) in consideration "of their services against the Egyptians" (War, 2, 18, 7). Ptolemy I imitated the policy of Alexander, and, after the capture of Jerusalem, he removed a considerable number of its citizens to Alexandria. Many others followed of their own accord; and all received the full Macedonian franchise (Josephus, Ant. 12, 1; comp. Ap. 1, 22), as men of known and tried fidelity (Josephus, Ap. 2, 4). Already on a former occasion the Jews had sought a home in the land of their bondage. More than two centuries and a half before the foundation of Alexandria a large body of them had taken refuge in Egypt after the murder of Gedaliah; but these, after a general apostasy, were carried captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar (2Ki 25:26; Jer 44; Josephus, Ant. 10, 9, 7). The Jews, however much their religion was disliked, were valued as citizens, and every encouragement was held out by Alexander himself and by his successors in Egypt to induce them to settle in the new city. The same privileges as those of the first class of inhabitants (the Greeks) were accorded to them, as well as the free exercise of their religion and peculiar usages; and this, with the protection and security which a powerful state afforded against the perpetual conflicts and troubles of Palestine, and with the inclination to traffic which had been acquired during the captivity, gradually drew such immense numbers of Jews to Alexandria that they eventually formed a very large portion of its vast population, and at the same time constituted a most thriving and important section of the Jewish nation (Hecataeus, in Josephus, Apion, 2; War, 2, 36; Q. Curtius, 4:8). The Jewish inhabitants of Alexandria are therefore often mentioned in the later history of the nation, and their importance as a section of that nation would doubtless have been more frequently indicated had not the Jews of Egypt thrown off their ecclesiastical dependence upon Jerusalem and its temple, and formed a separate establishment of their own at On or Heliopolis. SEE ON; SEE ONIAS.

We find (Ac 2:10) that, among those who came up to Jerusalem to keep the feast of Pentecost, there were Jews, devout men from Egypt, and the parts of Libya about Cyrene. Of this city, Apollos, the eloquent convert, was a native (Ac 18:24); and of the Jews that disputed with Stephen and put him to death, many were Alexandrians, who, it seems, had a synagogue at that time in Jerusalem (Ac 6:9). Philo estimates them in his time at little less than 1,000,000 (In Flacc. § 6, p. 971); and adds that two of the five districts of Alexandria were called "Jewish districts," and that many Jews lived scattered in the remaining three (ib. § 8, p. 973). Julius Caesar (Josephus, Ant. 14, 10, 1) and Augustus confirmed to them the privileges which they had enjoyed before, and they retained them, with various interruptions, of which the most important, A.D. 39, is described by Philo (1. c.), during the tumults and persecutions of later reigns (Josephus, Ap. 2, 4; War, 12, 3, 2). They were represented (at least from the time of Cleopatra to the reign of Claudius, Jost, Gesch. d. Judenth. p.

353) by their own officer, SEE ALABARCH, (ἐθνάρχης, Strab. ap. Josephus, Ant. 14, 7, 2; ἀλαβάρχης, ib. 18, 7, 3; 9, 1; 19:5,1; comp. Rup. ad Juv. Sat. 1, 130; γενάρχης, Philo, In Flacc. § 10, p. 975), and Augustus appointed a council (γερουσία, i e. Sanhedrim; Philo, 1. c.) "to superintend the affairs of the Jews," according to their own laws. The establishment of Christianity altered the civil position of the Jews, but they maintained their relative prosperity; and when Alexandria was taken by Amrou, 40,000 tributary Jews were reckoned among the marvels of the city (Gibbon, 151). They enjoyed their privileges undisturbed until the time of Ptolemy Philopator, who, being exasperated at the resistance he had met with in attempting to enter the temple at Jerusalem, wreaked his wrath upon the Jews of Alexandria on his return to Egypt. He reduced to the third or lowest class all but such as would consent to offer sacrifices to the gods he worshipped; but of the whole body only 300 were found willing to abandon their principles in order to preserve their civil advantages. The act of the general body in excluding the 300 apostates from their congregations was so represented to the king as to move his anger to the utmost, and he madly determined to exterminate all the Jews in Egypt. Accordingly, as many as could be found were brought together and shut up in the spacious hippodrome of the city, with the intention of letting loose 500 elephants upon them; but the animals refused their horrid task, and, turning wildly upon the spectators and soldiers, destroyed large numbers of them. This, even to the king, who was present, seemed so manifest an interposition of Providence in favor of the Jews, that he not only restored their privileges, but loaded them with new favors. This story, as it is omitted by Josephus and other writers, and only found in the third book of Maccabees (2-5), is considered doubtful.

The dreadful persecution which the Jews of Alexandria underwent in A.D. 39 shows that, notwithstanding their long establishment there, no friendly relations had arisen between them and the other inhabitants, by whom, in fact, they were intensely hated. This feeling was so well known that, at the date indicated, the Roman governor, Avillius Flaccus, who was anxious to ingratiate himself with the citizens, was persuaded that the surest way of winning their affections was to withdraw his protection from the Jews, against whom the emperor was already exasperated by their refusal to acknowledge his right to divine honors, which he insanely claimed, or to admit his images into their synagogues. The Alexandrians soon found out that they would not be called to account for any proceedings they might have recourse to against the Jews. The insult and bitter mockery with which they treated Herod Agrippa, when he came to Alexandria before proceeding to take possession of the kingdom he had received from Caligula, gave the first intimation of their dispositions. Finding that the governor connived at their conduct, they proceeded to insist that the emperor's images should be introduced into the Jewish synagogues; and on resistance being offered, they destroyed most of them, and polluted the others by introducing the imperial images by force. The example thus set by the Alexandrians was followed in other cities of Egypt, which contained at this time about a million of Jews; and a vast number of oratories-of which the largest and most beautiful were called synagogues-were all either levelled with the ground, consumed by fire, or profaned by the emperor's statues (Philo, In Flacc. p. 968-1009, ed. 1640; De Leg. 9; Euseb. Chron. 27, 28). Flaccus soon after published an edict depriving the Jews of the rights of citizenship, which they had so long enjoyed, and declaring them aliens. The Jews then occupied two out of the five quarters (which took their names from the first five letters of the alphabet) into which the city was divided; and as they were in those times by no means remarkable for their submission to wrong treatment, it is likely that they made some efforts toward the maintenance of their rights, which Philo neglects to record, but which gave some pretense for the excesses which followed. At all events, the Alexandrians, regarding them as abandoned by the authorities to their mercy, openly proceeded to the most violent extremities. The Jews were forcibly driven out of all the other parts of the city, and confined to one quarter; and the houses from which they had been driven, as well as their shops and warehouses, were plundered of all their effects. Impoverished, and pent up in a narrow corner of the city, where the greater part were obliged to lie in the open air, and where the supplies of food were cut off, many of them died of hardship and hunger; and whoever was found beyond the boundary, whether he had escaped from the assigned limits or had come in from the country, was seized and put to death with horrid tortures. So likewise, when a vessel belonging to Jews arrived in port, it was boarded by the mob, pillaged, and then burnt, together with the owners. At length King Herod Agrippa, who staid long enough in Alexandria to see the beginning of these atrocities, transmitted to the emperor such a report of the real state of affairs as induced him to send a centurion to arrest Flaccus, and bring him a prisoner to Rome. This put the rioters in a false position, and brought some relief to the Jews; but the tumult still continued, and as the magistrates refused to acknowledge the citizenship of the Jews, it was at length agreed that both parties should send delegates, five on each side, to Rome, and refer the decision of the controversy to the emperor. At the head of the Jewish delegation was the celebrated Philo, to whom we owe the account of these transactions; and at the head of the Alexandrians was the noted Apion. The latter chiefly rested their case upon the fact that the Jews were the only people who refused to consecrate images to the emperor, or to swear by his name. But on this point the Jewish delegates defended themselves so well that Caligula himself said, "These men are not so wicked as ignorant and unhappy in not believing me to be a god." The ultimate result of this appeal is not known, but the Jews of Alexandria continued to be harassed during the remainder of Caligula's reign; and their alabarch, Alexander Lysimachus (brother of Philo), was thrown into prison, where he remained till he was discharged by Claudius, upon whose accession to the empire the Alexandrian Jews betook themselves to arms. This occasioned such disturbances that they attracted the attention of the emperor, who, at the joint entreaty of Herod and Agrippa, issued an edict conferring on the Jews of Egypt all their ancient privileges (Philo, In Flacc. p. 1019-1043; Josephus, Ant. 18, 10; 19:4). The state of feeling in Alexandria which these facts indicate was very far from being allayed when the revolt of the Jews in Palestine caused even those of the nation who dwelt in foreign parts to be regarded as enemies both by the populace and the government. In Alexandria, on a public occasion, they were attacked, and those who could not save themselves by flight were put to the sword. Only three were taken alive, and they were dragged through the city to be consigned to the flames. At this spectacle the indignation of the Jews rose beyond all bounds. They first assailed the Greek citizens with stones, and then rushed with lighted torches to the amphitheater to set it on fire and burn all the people who were there assembled. The Roman prefect, Tiberius Alexander, finding that milder measures were of no avail, sent against them a body of 17,000 soldiers, who slew about 50,000 of them, and plundered and burned their dwellings (Josephus, War, 2, 18, 7; comp. Mt 24:6).

After the close of the war in Palestine, new disturbances were excited in Egypt by the Sicarii, many of whom had fled thither. They endeavored to persuade the Jews to acknowledge no king but God, and to throw off the Roman yoke. Such persons as opposed their designs, and tendered wiser counsels to their brethren, they secretly assassinated, according to their custom. But the principal Jews in Alexandria having in a general assembly earnestly warned the people against these fanatics, who had been the authors of all the troubles in Palestine, about 600 of them were delivered up to the Romans. Several fled into the Thebaid, but were apprehended and brought back. The most cruel tortures which could be devised had no effect in compelling them to acknowledge the emperor for their sovereign; and even their children seemed endowed with souls fearless of death and bodies incapable of pain. Vespasian, when informed of these transactions, sent orders that the Jewish temple in Egypt should be destroyed. Lupus, the prefect, however, only shut it up, after having taken out the consecrated gifts; but his successor, Paulinus, stripped it completely, and excluded the Jews entirely from it. This was in A.D. 75, being the 343d year from its erection by Onias. The Jews continued to form a principal portion of the inhabitants, and remained in the enjoyment of their civil rights till A.D. 415, when they incurred the hatred of Cyril, the patriarch, at whose instance they were expelled, to the number of 40,000, and their synagogues destroyed. However, when Amrou, in A.D. 640, took the place for the Caliph Omar, he wrote to his master in these terms: "I have taken the great city of the West, which contains 4000 palaces, 4000 baths, 400 theaters, 12,000 shops for the sale of vegetable food, and 40,000 tributary Jews." From that time the prosperity of Alexandria very rapidly declined; and when, in 969, the Fatemite caliphs seized on Egypt and built New Cairo, it sunk to the rank of a secondary Egyptian city. The discovery of the passage to the East by the Cape in 1497 almost annihilated its remaining commercial importance; and although the commercial and maritime enterprises of Mehemet Ali have again raised it to some distinction, Alexandria must still be accounted as one of those great ancient cities whose glory has departed. When Benjamin of Tudela visited the place (Itin. 1, 158, ed. Asher), the number of Jews was not more than 3000, and does not now exceed 500 families of African Jews, besides about 150 families of the Italian community (Benjamin's Eight Years in Asia and Africa, Hannov. 1859, p. 230). The entire population, at present, is rapidly increasing, but the statistical statements greatly vary. Pierer's Universal Lexicon (Altenburg, 1857) gives 60,000; Chambers's Encyclopedia (Edinburgh and New York, 1860, vol. 1), 80,000; the Almanac de Gotha for 1860, 400,000. It is now called Scanderia or El- lskenderiyeh (Mannert, 10:615 sq.; Forbiger, Handb. d. alt. Geogr. 2, 777; Ruppell, Abyssinien, 1, 82; Niebuhr, Trav. 1, 32 sq.; Ukert, Erdbeschr. 5, Afrika, 1, 183 sq.; Descr. de l'Egypte, 18, 83 sq.; Olivier, Voyage, 3, 1 sq.;

Schubert, Reis. 1, 484 sq.; comp. Penny Cyclopoedia, s.v.; Smith's Dict. of Class. Geogr. s.v.; M'Culloch's Gazetteer, s.v.). SEE EGYPT.