International ARC Seminar Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto

Delineation of Ancient Alexandria for Sustaining the Cultural Heritage: Approach of Remote Sensing, GPR and GIS for Sustainable Development

Mohamed Soliman National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG) 12/18/2019

A narrow strip of land between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and Lake Mareotis to the south was an excellent strategic site for a city accords to the requirements of the new conquers, Greek. Alexandria had access to the Mediterranean countries through its two sea harbors as well as access to the rest of Egypt via the inland harbor on Lake Mareotis. All the trade and goods transported by ship from across sea and by boat on the lake and the River Nile, would pass through Alexandria making it a very wealthy city. Alexander the Great appointed in 332 BC one of the best architects of that time was asked to build Alexander’s new city: a Greek named Deinocrates of Rhodes. Alexander died eight years later in 323 BC in Babylon, and his body was brought back to Egypt by one of his army general, Ptolemy, who buried him in Alexandria which became Egypt’s new capital city. Alexandria had five quarters named after the first five letters of the Greek alphabet; Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon. The streets lay in a Hippodamic (crisscross) pattern. There were two long, very wide avenues lined with marble columns. One stretched from north to south, whilst the other, called the Canopy avenue, crossed Alexandria from east to west. The first two Ptolemaic kings erected many splendid buildings in Alexandria. The most famous of these was a magnificent lighthouse built on the Island of Pharos that was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Island of Pharos was joined to the mainland by a mole, a thick wall built in the sea called the Heptastadium. To the east of the Heptastadium was the Great Harbor, and to the west, the Eunostos Harbor, or “Harbor of Safe Return”. A 17km long canal was dug from the nearest branch of the River Nile to Alexandria. A complicated network of underground canals, cisterns and aqueducts supplied fresh water throughout the city. War, economic and natural hazard integrated to change the urbanism of Alexandria and create 2-10m of multi-archaeological layers beneath the contemporary city, furthermore the submerged antiquates. The battle of Actium 30BC transformed Alexandria to be capital of Romanian province instead of independent empire of Polemics. However, this modest political position, Alexandria did not misplace its civilized value, which has no negative effect in urbanism, the same happened during the civil ideological Christian war in the third and fourth centuries during. Christianity as monotheist ideology refuses worship of the Roman emperor in Alexandria that has her own philosophy and sacrificed with martyrs in the third century. Finally, Emperor Theodosius authorized Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire and in 391 CE he ordered all the pagan temples including those in Alexandria to be closed. This deceleration encourages escapers Christians and monks to return back in density to the city; they demolished or adopt the pagan buildings according the Christian ritual. The city shrank after the Muslim conquest in 641CE by Amr ibn al-Aas due to several aspects, including establishment of el-Fustat south of Cairo as capital of Islamic Egypt, migration of the Roman and Jew community, demolishing the fortifications by Amr ibn al-Aas to prevent possible attacks by the Byzantine Empire. Alexandria extends once again steadily throughout successive Islamic eras; the fortifications of the city were reconstructed during the Tulunid period 9th Cent., and also during the Ayubid and Mamluk periods 12th -16th Cent. Ottoman invasion besides the new geographic discoveries in 15th and 16th Cent., reflect negatively on Alexandria that transformed to be a village for fishermen after shiny age as the main medieval world trade center. Along the upcoming three centuries, Alexandria lost most of fortifications; population speedy decreased that created a compact urban pattern of the Delta and occupies the Heptastadium that became the Arab district at that time. After the civilization collapse during the Ottoman period and after the Napoleonic campaign (1798-1801), Alexandria expanded once again during Mohamed Ali dynasty (1805- 1952 CE), due to the European modernization trend trespassed the city appropriating to Mohamed Ali’s and the European community’s taste.

By late 19th Cent., a European district erected south and south-east to the old city (Arab district), which recovered the Hippodamic pattern again in modern architectural style this time. Other major factors accelerated modernization and effected on the urban expansion, where transportation (railway station 1954 CE, el-Raml Tramway 1862 CE) and infrastructure (lighting company 1865, water company 1879 CE, electric company, drainage network 1878) were triggers of urban expansion eastward. On the other hand, Alexandria as costal city overlooking on the Mediterranean Sea was not so far from natural disaster, the shoreline has been hit by violent earthquakes that have flooded the northern part of the city that exposed to sea attacks, as well.

Date Date H Lat. Long. I M Location Source N E 396 31.3 29.55 VI 5.1 Alexandria Lyons, 1907 672 108 30 29.21 VII 6 Alexandria Sieberg, 1932,a,b,7,9,11 1303 702 22.9 32.8 VII- 5.8 Mediterranea Maamoun, VIII n 1984 Table 1; Samples of the most destructive earthquakes on Alexandria (Riad Samir; 2005)

Alexandria was surveyed by foreigner travelers, officers, and spies as well for several purposes produced historic maps; some were not precise enough due to technical reasons or for rushing. Chosen historic maps extracted from; “Atlas Historique de la ville des ports d’ Alexandrie” collected by M. Gaston Jondet in 1921 CE, includes 55 cards mapping the topographic evolution of the city since Ugonem Comminelli’s maritime map in 1472 CE to M. G. Jondet’s map surveyed in 1920 CE. Khedive Ismail (1863-1897 CE) commissioned Mahmoud Pasha el-Falaki (the Astronomer) in 1866 CE to survey Alexandria for civil purposes that produced one of the most accurate historic maps. El-Falaki’s map shows some deep ancient natural and human landmarks still exist so far; lead to trace the topographic changes. In the same context, the application of GPR in archaeological assessment is quite known procedure. Three areas have been examined using GPR technique at Alexandria. These areas are Sultan Husain Street, Khartom Square and Nabi Danial Street. The investigated sites were selected based on the previous archaeological information. For this study, the used GPR device is the unique Russian system LOZA model LOZA-V. The system was attached to 200 MHz bi-static antenna operated is point mode. The data was significant and has indicated the possibility of archaeological remains. Some other features were noticed which require additional geophysical techniques. Therefore, another episode of geophysical survey is required. Eventually, using advanced multi-purposes applications (remote sensing, GPR and GIS) for delineating Alexandria through its successive historical eras provide informatics database supports the national sustainable development strategy of 2030, mainly the capacity of the urban area, roads, traffic and transportation, add to the tourism industry.