Book Description

This book is an academic monograph about Alexandria in Egypt - its history, archaeology, and monuments. The book is divided into 4 parts. Part I (preceded with a short introduction 'Alexandria-by-Egypt') entitled 'From Alexander to Amr' describes a history of Alexandria from the time it was settled, to the time it had been conquered by Arabs. Part II 'Sleeping Beauty Awakens' describes the long (and sometimes picturesque) history of research of the topography and architecture of ancient Alexandria, with a strong emphasis on Polish contribution to this research. Part III 'Alexandrian archaeology - a comedy of errors' describes what sort of traps were in store for archaeologists (both professional and amateur) who tried to identify the main monuments of the ancient city, as well as display the difficulties related with the aforementioned identifications and research of the important sites and monuments known from ancient written sources. Part IV 'What is still left - a short guide' - preceded with a short description of the modern state of the city, is a relation to what was remained of the famous ancient Alexandrian monuments, and also description of Alexandrian museums and archaeological finds, such as the Alexandrian necropolises and city remains (again, with a strong emphasis on Polish discoveries) and finally the mysterious world of 'underground city', i.e. the Alexandrian cisterns. The book consists of 3 fully colored plans and 57 illustrations (16 in color and 41 black-and-white).