Geography

​In the Great Harbor, on entering, there are on the right the island and the tower of Pharos, and on the other hand the reefs and the promontory of Lochias, which has a royal palace. On entering, on the left, continuous with the buildings on Lochias, are the inner royal palaces, which contain many and various apartments and groves; and below these lies the excavated and closed harbor, the private property of the kings, and Antirrhodos, a small island lying in front of the excavated harbor, having both a palace and a small harbor; and they called it so as being a rival, as it were, to Rhodes. Above this lies the theater; then the Poseidion, a certain elbow-like projection extending from the place called the Emporium, containing a temple of Poseidon; to which Antony added a mole, projecting still further into the middle of the harbor, and at its extremity constructed a royal residence which he called the Timonion. This he did at the very end, when, after his failure at Actium, having been deserted by his friends, he withdrew to Alexandria, deciding to lead the rest of his life in a Timonian style, which he was destined to pass in loneliness, deprived of so many friends. Then come the Caesareum, the Emporium, and the storehouses, and after these the shipyards extending as far as the Heptastadion. Such are the matters concerning the Great Harbor.

​Next, after the Heptastadion, is the harbor of Eunostus, and above this the excavated harbor which they also call Cibotus, which itself also has shipyards. Further inland from this is a navigable canal extending to Lake Mareotis. Now, outside the canal, only a small part of the city remains; then comes the suburb Necropolis, in which are many gardens, tombs, and establishments suitable for the embalming of the dead. Within the canal are the Sarapeum and other ancient sacred precincts which have been in a way abandoned because of the construction of the new buildings in Nicopolis; for indeed an amphitheater and a stadium, and the quinquennial games, are celebrated there; while the ancient places are neglected. To speak briefly, the city is full of dedications and temples, the most beautiful of which is the Gymnasium, which has porticoes more than a stadium in length; in the middle of it are the court of justice and the groves. There is also the Paneum, an artificial mound of pine-cone shape, resembling a rocky hill, which has its ascent by a spiral way; from its summit one can see the whole city lying beneath it on all sides. From the Necropolis the longitudinal broad street extends past the Gymnasium as far as the Canobic gate; then there is the so-called Hippodrome, and the other streets adjacent to it as far as the Canobic canal. For one who has passed through the Hippodrome, there is Nicopolis, which has a settlement on the sea not smaller than a city; it is thirty stadia distant from Alexandria. Augustus Caesar honored this place, because here he conquered in battle those who came out against him with Antony, and taking the city at the first onset, he forced Antony to lay hands on himself, and Cleopatra to come alive into his power; but a little later she also laid hands on herself in her prison secretly, by the bite of an asp or by an anointed poison (for both accounts are told), and it happened that the empire of the Lagidae, which had endured for many years, was dissolved.