ISLANDS.

ALEX

ALEU- middle, completes his equipment; and thus furnished, TIAN the Aleutian will venture out to considerable distances at sea, and impel his canoe along at the rate of six or seven miles an hour. ANDER'S These people are said to be very hospitable in their TOMB. dispositions, and to receive their friends with some peculiar marks of respect. Attired in their best apHospitality. parel, they go out beating drums to the shore, and the host and hostess rush out into the sea as high as their breasts and draw the canoe towards the land. They then assist the guests to disembark, and bear them on their backs to the place of reception. The host tastes every thing before he presents it to the company; and after the feast they retire to their favourite amusement of dancing. This is a very rude kind of hop, accompanied with shouts, the shaking of a rattle, made of bladders and filled with pebbles or peas, and the beating of a small drum.

Amuse

ments.

The above description of the natives and manners of Unalashka, for which we have been principally indebted to Captain Cook's journal, compared with the accounts of the Russian navigators, will give the reader a fair impression of the state of the whole of these islands. Indeed, we have been compelled to observe how little matter of any interest the subsequent accounts have added to his. Following the chain now to the westward, we have the Andreanofskie, or central group, between the 52d and 54th degrees of north latitude. The principal are Takavargha, Kanaghi, Ayag, Tshetchina, and Atskak Amlak, the last of which has a very fine harbour. Ayag also has several commodious bays and inlets, but Tshetchina, Kanaghi, and Takavargha, are seldom visited, being each of them little better than volcanic mountains, more or less active. The third large group, proceeding north-westward, consists of Behring's island, Copper island, Attak, or Attoo, Simitshi, and Agattoo, called sometimes by the Russians the nearest Aleutian islands, and lying about 6° off from the shore of Kamschatka. Behring's island is situated in 55° of N. lat. and is about fifty-five miles in length, and stretches from north-west to south-east. The Madenoi, or Copper island, is about ten leagues from the south-east point of Behring's island, and was so called from the quantity of native copper originally found on its shores. Attak is the largest of the rest of the group, somewhat exceeding Behring's island in size, and has two good harbours.

Since the period of the discovery of these islands they have been constantly resorted to, as furnishing the chief supply to the lucrative trade of Russia with China in furs, and the settlements on them have been gradually increasing. In this trade originated the first inducement to the formation of a Russian American Company, which see under AMERICAN COMPANY. See also MÜLLER'S Samlang Russischer Geschichte; Cook's Voyages; Coxe's Russian Discoveries between Asia and America; TOOKE's View of the Roman Empire; MACKENZIE'S, LA PEYROUSE'S, and VANCOUVER'S Voyages, &c. &c

ALEW. See ALOO.

ALEXANDER'S TOMB, an elegant and very ancient sarcophagus, supposed to have once contained the body of Alexander the Great; and now, through the zeal and enterprize of Dr. E. D. CLARKE, deposited in the British Museum. It is an entire block of green Egyptian breccia, a beautiful variegated marble of which

few specimens remain, measuring ten feet three inches ALEX. and a half in length, three feet ten inches in height, ANDERS five feet three inches at the circular end, and four feet two inches at the other end, in breadth; covered with hieroglyphics.

TOMB

the British

This valuable relic of antiquity had been removed by the French from the mosque of St. Athanasius, at Alexandria, when the British troops entered that place; and Dr. Clarke, empowered by letters of the naval and military commanders in chief, found it concealed in the hold of a hospital-ship, in the inner harbour, half filled with filth, and covered with the rags of the sick. Some Manner u merchants of the city waited upon him, with the in- its being formation of its concealment, and all descriptions of obtained the inhabitants and visitants, with whom the learned traveller conversed, concurred in the tradition of "its being the tomb of ISCANDER (Alexander), the founder of the city of Alexandria." On its shipment for England, in the Madras, the Capitano bey, with many Turks of distinction, came on board to pay a last testimony of devotion to this proud trophy of British valour; and, according to General Turner," all solemnly touched the tomb with their tongues." The privilege to render this act of adoration previously, being a contribution of six paras or medins to the iman of the mosque. On taking leave, the Capitano bey expressed his belief that Providence would never suffer the tomb to go safe to England.

The chain of evidence by which Dr. Clarke supports Evidence his confident opinion of the identity of this sarcophagus for its with the real tomb of Alexander, is as follows: The identity. body of Alexander, according to Plutarch, being embalmed at Babylon by certain Egyptians and Chaldeans, his funeral was delayed for two years, by the disputes amongst his successors, and, still more, by the immense preparations which were made for that solemnity. A notion prevailed, that the final possession of it would be most propitious to the state with whom it might rest; hence Perdiccas, who afterwards conducted the funeral procession, would have deposited it in the sepulchre of the Macedonian kings; but Alexander himself had ordered it to be taken to the temple of Jupiter Ammon, in Lybia. Diodorus Siculus, (lib. xviii. c. 26.) gives an elegant and most interesting account of its movement thither. The car, on which it was conveyed, was the most magnificent the world had then seen; a prodigious concourse of people attended it from all the cities near which it passed; and Ptolemy Soter, receiving intelligence of its approach, went out with an army as far as Syria to meet it. Pretending to render the highest honours to the imperial corse, he conducted it to Memphis, and there it was detained until the shrine in which he now deterbody mined to deposit it at Alexandria was finished. This is brough described by the above historian as being constructed Egyp with all possible magnificence, and as standing within the city of Alexandria. Pausanias mentions the removal of the body from Memphis; Quintus Curtius its being ultimately carried to Alexandria with great pomp; and Strabo," that there it still lies, though not in its original coffin, a case of glass having been substituted for the gold covering, which a later Ptolemy had removed."

Alexan

sited

Augustus visited this tomb B. c. 30, and Dio Cas-Tomb sius mentions the singular circumstance of the em peror's mutilating the nose, in touching the body; he Augu

B. taken

Ex- placed a golden crown upon it, on departing, and DER'S scattered flowers over it. Caligula is said to have away the breast-plate from the armour in which N. Alexander was buried, and occasionally to have worn LA. it himself. A. D. 202, it was visited by Septimus Severus, who causing a strict search to be made through Egypt for all the monuments of its ancient literature deposited them in the tomb of Alexander, and ordered the shrine to be closed from all future access. a. Caracalla, however, in 213, presumed to violate this injunction, placing a purple vest, splendid rings, &c. on the tomb; and here closes all the direct history of

mb.

its existence.

The Christian zeal against all the idols of the heathen world was exercised so unsparingly at Alexandria, at the close of the fourth century, as to produce the greatest public disorders. The temple of Serapis was converted into a church to the honour of the martyrs; and over the tomb of Alexander a Christian church is said to ver have been erected to the memory of St. Athanasius, that distinguished relic itself being converted into a cistern. On the conquest of Alexandria by the Saracens, happily, as Dr. Clarke thinks, for the indentity of this monument, the church only changed its name for the mosque of St. Athanasius, and the fame of the founder of this city throughout the eastern world was naturally transferred to his tomb. Celebrated in many eastern writings, as "the lord of the two ends of the world," "the king of kings," &c. for ages reverenced as a god by the Egyptians, and spoken of with distinction in the Koran, the veneration now paid to this relic of Alexander seems to have been uninterrupted for centuries. Benjamin of efit Tuleda, a Spanish Jew, who visited Alexandria in the thirteenth century, speaks of "a marble sepulchre, on which were sculptured all sorts of birds and other animals, with an inscription of the ancients which no one can read:" but "they have a conjecture," he adds, "that some king before the deluge was there buried; the length of which sepulchre was fifteen spans, the breadth six." Johannes Leo, in 1491, expressly mentions "a small edifice, built like a chapel, worthy of notice, on account of a remarkable tomb, held in high honour by the Mahometans; in which sepulchre they assert, is interred the body of Alexander the Great, an eminent prophet and king, as they read in the Koran." We now trace it through the testimony of Marmol, the Spaniard; Jahai Ben Abdallathiff (1570); Sir George Sandys in 1611; the reports and enquiries of Dr. Pococke in 1743; Irwin, Sonnini, Brown, and Denon.

TOMB.

ALEXAN

DRIA.

Through a period of upwards of 2,000 years, it is ALEXthus attempted to be shown that the shrine of the son ANDER'S of Ammon has survived himself. Several objections are still taken by antiquaries, however, against the conclusions of our enterprising traveller: that there should be not a single Greek inscription on this alleged tomb of the greatest of the Greeks; that Eutychius, who composed at Alexandria "Annals" of that city in the tenth century, should mention the body of Alexander being brought here, without stating that his tomb remained; the silence of Furer, Boucher, Vansleb, and Niehbuhr, are circumstances that have been thought to weigh strongly against its claims; but in conformity with our general principle of furnishing an impartial record of such opinions (and because we are rather amongst the unbelievers than the converts of Dr. C.'s arguments, we have given them the more fully), we have now placed the whole of this interesting inquiry before the reader, and must leave the decision upon the claims of this monument to the further light that may be thrown on its numerous hieroglyphics, and himself.

ALEXANDRETTA, or SCANDEROON (the latter being its Turkish name), a sea-port town of Syria, in the gulf of Ajazzo. It is the port and road to Aleppo, which gives it all its remaining importance, and from which it is distant about 90 miles, by Antioch, the usual route for the caravans. The anchorage in the harbour is good when it can be reached, but a strong land-wind from the mountains renders this sometimes very difficult; ships making the port have to drag their anchors for several leagues, and during the three or four summer months are often wholly prevented from entering it. The neighbourhood of Alexandretta is marshy, and the town so very unhealthy, that the merchants of Aleppo proposed, according to Volney, some few years before his arrival there, to transfer their trade from this port to Latikia. A hamlet, about four leagues distant, called Beylan, is the frequent resort of the wealthier inhabitants from the ravages of a malignant fever to which the town is exposed. Before the discovery of the passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, Alexandretta was one of the principal entrepôts of the European trade with the east. Its inhabitants are said to wear the most wretched and sickly appearance. E. lon. 36°, 15'. N. lat. 36°, 36'.

ALEXANDRI ARE, in Ancient Geography, a place at the south bend of the Tanais, in European Sarmatia.

PTOL. 1. 3. c. 5.

ALEXANDRIA, by the Turks now called SCANDERIA, a celebrated city of Lower Egypt, once its capital. It is situated on the shores of the Mediterranean, at the western extremity of Egypt, in N. lat. 31°, 12'. E. lon. 30°, 18', between the lake Mareotis and the harbour formed by the isle of Pharos, about 12 miles W. of the Canoptic branch of the Nile, with which it communicates by a canal.

Alexander the Great founded this city in the year

VOL. XVII.

B. c. 332, and had he realized his projects for becom- Founder. ing the undisturbed master of the world, it was hardly possible for him to have selected a more convenient situation for commanding and concentrating its resources. Passing over to Egypt, from the severe check to his ambition which he had received in the siege of Tyre, he evidently designed to divert into a more propitious channel that commercial greatness which he found so difficult to subdue. He is

2 P

ALEX- stated to have sketched the plan of the new city with NDRIA. his own hand. The walls were traced out in small quantities of meal, strewed along the ground, a circumstance which his soothsayer, Aristander, interpreted as an omen of the future abundance of the city. Dinocrates, the celebrated restorer of the temple of Diana, at Ephesus, was engaged as the architect, and in twelve months from its foundation, while Alexander proceeded into Upper Egypt, amazing progress was made in the buildings. He now peopled it with settlers from all nations, and was only interrupted by death in his various designs for its aggrandisement. Hither his body was conveyed from Babylon in a splendid car, and deposited in a temple devoted to his memory. See ALEXANDER'S TOMB.

The old city.

Harbour.

Pharos.

The ancient city, according to Pliny, was about fifteen miles in circuit, peopled by 300,000 free citizens, and at least equal that number of slaves. Diodorus Siculus and Quintius Curtius make its circuit somewhat smaller; but all historians agree in the nobleness of its appearance, and the beauty of its general plan. From the gate of the sea ran one magnificent street, 2,000 feet broad, through the whole length of the city, to the gate of Canopus, and commanding, at each end, views of the shipping in the port, whether sailing north in the Mediterranean, or south in the noble bason of the lake Mareotis. Another street, of equal width, intersected this at right angles, in a square of half a league in circumference, and the whole city appears to have been divided into streets thus intersecting each other. The two more celebrated ones we have mentioned contained the principal public buildings, formed of almost every de scription of costly materials, and erected in a climate peculiarly favourable to their preservation. Hence it is that Alexandria has furnished a store-house of art, and the materials of art to all the subsequent capitals of the world.

But its harbour was its chief boast. The island of Pharos, stretching from east to west across a bay of three leagues wide, was joined to the main land by a mole of about a mile in length, and thus divided the inner harbour into two deep and commodious basons, northward and south-ward; the former being called Eunertus, or Eunostus, now the Old Port, the latter the Great Port, now the New Port.

Upon this island Ptolemy Sotor, one of Alexander's generals, and first of the celebrated line of the Ptolemaic kings, erected the famous light-house, called the Pharos (from a word signifying the strait), which, from its importance to this harbour, and to the general interests of commerce in the early ages of Greece and Rome, gave the name to many other similar beacons. To this prince also is attributed the foundation of the celebrated museum and library of Alexandria, and of the Ptolemaic palaces, which occupied, according to Strabo, a third or fourth of the city; and the enlargement of its commercial relations with Syria and Greece. His successors well supported his designs: the library grew into one of the most extensive depositories of ancient learning, containing from 700 to 800,000 volumes, and the port of Alexandria became the commercial centre and capital of Europe, Asia, and Africa. The various productions of Arabia and the east, and of all the known parts of the neighbouring continent, were first conveyed to the western nations through this

commerce

channel; its manufactures of glass, linen, and papyrus, ALEXwere everywhere celebrated; and a long dynasty of feeble ANDRIA monarchs sustained their personal authority and magnificence, to the time of Cleopatra, chiefly on the lucra- Extensive tive commerce and extensive connections of its enterprising inhabitants. To facilitate the conveyance of merchandize to Alexandria, the canal of Necos, from the Red sea to the Nile, was completed by Ptolemy Philadelphus, by whom the temple of Serapis was added to the attractions of the city; and it was not until their own voluptuousness and treachery had prepared them for any chains, that the arms of Julius Cæsar, after some severe repulses, finally subjugated it to the Romans. During this siege the principal branch of the public library, situated in that quarter of the city called the Bruchion, and containing, at that time, 400,000 volumes, was accidentally consumed. But Alexandria did not decline under the dominion of her conquerors.

The suburb of Nicopolis extended along the sea Suburbs. shore, and took its name from a victory gained here by Augustus over Antony; it rose in time to a very considerable town. The city also spread along the southern shores of the Mareotis. A spacious circus was formed without the gate of Canopus for chariot races; and on the east a gymnasium, with splendid porticoes, more than six hundred feet long. Second only to Rome itself, Alexandria enjoyed, under the Roman and Greek emperors, an undiminished reputation for wealth, commerce, and literature. Caligula, Adrian, and Nero, granted distinguished favours to its inhabitants; and here Vespasian was first proclaimed emperor, A. D. 69. Severus gave them a kind of senatorial council, elected from among the richer citizens, and other public privileges, which induced the Alexandrians to erect a column to his honour, called the pillar of Severus by the Arabian historians. Michaelis and some other writers have supposed this to be the same with what is usually called Pompey's pillar; an opinion from which, however, the recent discovery of its inscriptions would induce us to disagree.

Alexandria, as a seat of learning, gave birth to the Litera Eclectic philosophy, and cultivated the mysteries of the Cabala. The almost boundless influx of opinions from the east, as well as from the Grecian and Roman schools; the patronage afforded to some of the principal philosophical sects, and the toleration granted to all of them by the Ptolemies and by the Roman emperors, produced, in this place, a perpetual concussion of systems unknown in the same degree to any other of the ancient seats of learning. Hence originated the effort to establish in the Eclectic philosophy an universal system; and while some have regarded the attempt as wholly unsuccessful, and represent it as having only given to the world a heterogeneous mass of ill-digested terms, others have applauded it. Potamo, of Alexandria, is said to have founded this sect under Augustus and Tiberius; and towards the close of the second century a similar sect arose among the Christians. The mysteries of the Cabala were cultivated here by the Jews with great zeal, and no small success. St. Jerome tells us of a Christian school of eminence in this place from the time of St. Mark. Pantænus presided over it in the second century, succeeded by Clement and Origen. A strange mixture of Platonism in some of its most inferior peculiarities was here engrafted on the simplicity

EX of the gospel, and originated such principles of exORIA. pounding scripture, as few professed Christians of the present day would not shrink to own.

The various political changes to which Alexandria was subject, to the period of its being taken by the Saracens, belong rather to our historical department than to this topographical sketch. After enjoying a fame, never exceeded, for upwards of 1,000 years, and containing, at the time, within its bosom some treasures of ancient literature, of which the world had no other traces, this city submitted to the arms of the Caliph 1 by Omar, A. D. 646. The conquerors themselves were astonished at the extent of their acquisition. "I have taken," said Amrou, the general of Omar, to his master, "the great city of the west. It is impossible for me to enumerate the variety of its riches and beauty; I shall content myself with observing, that it contains 4,000 palaces, 4,000 baths, 400 theatres, or places of amusement, 12,000 shops for the sale of vegetable goods, and 40,000 tributary Jews." It consisted at this time, according to the Arabian accounts, of three distinct towns. Menna, or the Port, in which they included Pharos and the adjacent parts; Nekita (probably the Necropolis of Josephus and the Roman historians); and Alexandria, properly so called, the site of the present Scanderia. The Romans made three powerful efforts to regain a place of such vast importance to the empire; and twice, during the first four years of the Saracen dominion, possessed themselves of the harbour and fortresses. On their final dislodgement, the Saracen general dismantled the walls and towers, but towards the inhabitants his conduct was merciful. The fate of the library has been disputed. See ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY.

t

of

25.

In the ninth century the ancient walls of Alexandria had disappeared, and the present appear to have been added. It was taken by the Magrebians in A. D. 924, shortly after the destruction of its great church, called Al Kaisaria, or Cæsarea, which was formerly a temple built by Cleopatra in honour of Saturn; and on its abandonment to the caliphs by the Magrebian forces, in 928, it was almost depopulated, 200,000 of the inhabitants having, according to Eutychius, perished in one year. In the thirteenth century the commerce of this city was somewhat revived, and the rising civilization of the west shed a faint prosperity on its concerns; but under the dominion of the Turks, and on the discovery of the passage to the east by the Cape of Good Hope, in the close of the fifteenth century, the trade of Alexandria, sunk into complete decay.

Alexandria, in modern times, has been laboriously explored and described. Over a space of from six to seven miles in circuit, almost entirely enclosed by walls, is spread an unequalled assemblage of broken columns, obelisks, and shapeless masses of ancient architecture, rising frequently to a greater height than the surrounding houses. These walls are of the rude architecture of its Saracenic masters, and flanked with numerous towers; but this space must not be supposed to contain the entire ruins of the old town, which extend on every side far beyond it. The lake Mareotis had been for ages filled up, through the negligence of the Turks in preserving the neighbouring canals, when the British army turned the waters of the lake of Aboukir into it, in their operations against the French; the tower of Pharos has entirely disappeared,

ALEX

needles.

and a plain square castle occupies its site. Under a large portion of the ruins extend the ancient reservoirs ANDRIA. of the city, in a high state of preservation, and some remains of the noble palace of the Cæsars appear toward the walls facing the sea; but the obelisks, called Cleopatra's needles, are the principal attractions Cleopatra's to this spot. These are of Thebaic stone, about seven feet square at the base; they were about seventy feet in height (for but one of them now is on its pedestal), and each is formed out of one stone. They are covered with hieroglyphics, but of very uncertain origin. While Egypt was in possession of the British forces, Lord Cavan endeavoured to raise the prostrate column, with a view to its being embarked for England, but the project was relinquished, after there had been deposited within the pedestal various British and Turkish coins, covered with a marble slab, containing an account of the recent victories. Pompey's pillar, as Pompey's it is usually called, and the Catacombs, are about pillar. half a league from the city, on the opposite side. The former is a majestic column, of the Corinthian order, measuring sixty-four feet in the shaft, about five feet in the base, ten feet in the pedestal. and from ten to eleven in the capital. A Greek inscription was discovered by the British, which dedicates it to the Emperor Dioclesian, under the government of the Prefect Portius. The opinion sustained by its common name, that it was erected by Cæsar to commemorate his victory over Pompey, has had respectable supporters. Denon, and some other writers, have supposed it part of an immense building, of which they trace the ruins adjoining. It has been sometimes thought to commemorate the favours of Adrian to this city, and still more frequently those of Severus (as we have seen), while some writers ascribe its erection to Ptolemy Philadelphus, in memory of his queen Arsinoe; and others to Ptolemy Eugertes. The Catacombs extend along The Catathe coast, from the termination of the ruins of the old combs. town. The separate sepulchral excavations are small, containing generally only three coffins, standing on each other, and the rock out of which they are cut is of a soft calcareous texture, but the galleries are lined with a very durable plastering.

The present town stands on a peninsula, extending Present into the sea, between the two ports, of which what is town. called the New one, assigned to the use of Europeans, is nearly clogged up with sand, and much exposed to north winds. Into the Old Port, called also the port of Africa, the vessels of the Christians are not suffered to enter. It also is gradually filling up, and, though deep in some places, is difficult of access. Two eminences, with a tower on each, called Aboukir, are the first land-mark on making for the port of Alexandria from the west; and Pompey's pillar is the first object that meets the eye on approaching the town. The houses of Alexandria have flat roofs, with terraces, like those of most of the Levant towns; there are mere apertures in the walls for windows, from which the light is constantly obstructed by projecting lattices; the streets are narrow, unpaved, and without police. Its inhabitants have been variously estimated, from 5,000 to 15,000, and even 20,000, which may be attributed to the constant influx of strangers, and the complete irregularity of all its public offices and government. Turks, Copts, and Jews are the basis of the stationary population; the rich merchants being chiefly of the last description,

ALEX and exercising, perhaps, a more important influence in ANDRIA. this place, than Jews in any other part of the globe. Though compelled to pay a higher per centage to the customs than European merchants, they contrive to preserve so much better an acquaintance with the markets, as to compete successfully with any foreign commercial houses in the place. The public authority is vested in the Turks, who also compose the garrison which is kept up in the Pharos, and are the more opulent artisans and shopkeepers of the town. The Copts are in general very poor, and engaged in the lowest offices of life. The Venetians and Geonese appear to have been the parents of its modern trade with Europe, which is still very considerable; but latterly it has fallen almost entirely into the hands of the English and Commerce. French. Its principal exports are gum, myrrh, frankincense, cinnamon, drugs, Mokah coffee, mother-ofpearl, and rice; linen cloths, camel skins, and ox and buffalo hides. It imports from Europe, lead, copper and iron; woollen cloths, cutlery, silks, and cottons. The Coptic, or ancient Egyptian, is very little spoken here; the Arabic and the European languages of the various settlers occupying its place. Alexandria, with the whole of Egypt, is under the nominal authority of the

pacha of the Porte; which, since the French invasion, ALEXand the re-delivery of the country into the hands of the ANDRIA Turks, by the British, has been far better established; but it is a miserable and ill-sustained government.

This city offered little opposition to the French forces under Buonaparte, in 1798, who entered it on the 2d of July, twenty-nine days previous to the discovery, and subsequent defeat of the French fleet by Admiral Nelson. In the immediate neighbourhood of this city, Sir Ralph Abercrombie obtained that memorable victory over the French, on the 21st March, 1801, which deprived his country of his invaluable services, and resulted in the expulsion of the French from Egypt. Alexandria was entered by General Sir John Hely Hutchinson on the 2d of September, and transferred to the Turks on the 18th of the same month. In 1806, on a rupture with the Porte, a second British expedition to Egypt took possession of the very heights before the town on which Abercrombie had gained his famous victory, and on the 21st of March, entered the place. The English ministry, however, had been deceived as to the state of the country at this time, and were shortly after obliged to abandon their lodgments on this coast.

ALEXANDRIA, in Ancient Geography, was a name common to many other cities besides that of Egypt, the greater part of them being built by Alexander the Great, to mark the progress of his arms, and perpetuate his fame. Thus we find a second Alexandria, in Thrace, on the Macedonian frontiers, built by Alexander when but seventeen years old. Stephanus. A third, in Caria, near mount Latmus. Steph. A fourth, on the north coast of the island of Cyprus, near the promontory of Callinusa. Steph. A fifth, in Syria, called Alexandria ad Issum, and Alexandretta; built by Alexander, on the Issic bay. Plin. lib. v. c. 22. now Scanderoon. See ALEXANDRETTA. A sixth, in Susiana, situated between the rivers Tigris and Eulæus, where they approach each other before they enter the Persian gulph. Alexander the Great built it, and left in it the soldiers of his army who were past service. The city was destroyed by an inundation of the rivers on whose banks it stood; but being rebuilt by Antiochus the Great, and secured from the floods, by Pasines, an Arabian prince, it obtained the name of Charax, from its strength. Plin. 1. vi. c. 31. A seventh, in Assyria, Plin. 1. vi. c. 16. which Harduin thinks was near Arbela, and built by Alexander in memory of his victory over Darius there. An eighth and ninth, in Sogdiana; one on the river Oxus, called Alexdria Oxiana, and another further east, called Alexandria Ultima. This last was the limit of Alexander's conquests towards Scythia, to commemorate which he raised an altar on the spot. Ptol. 1. vi. c. 12. Plin. 1. vi. c. 18. A tenth, in Bactriana, built by Alexander, near Bactra, the capital. Plin. 1. vi. c. 25. An eleventh, in Aria, founded by this prince on the river Arius, four miles in circuit. Strabo, 1. xi. & xv. Plin. 1. vi. c. 25. A twelfth, in Margiana, built by Alexander, and overthrown by the barbarians of the country; upon which Antiochus raised a new city on its site, which he named Antiochia, and here Orodes, the Parthian monarch, conveyed his prisoners after the defeat

of Crassus. Plin. 1. vi. c. 18. A thirteenth, at the pass of the Paropamisus, or Caucasus, on the Indian side, by which Alexander entered the country, partly colonized by Macedonian troops. Arrian Exped. 1. iv. c. 22. and I. iii. c. 28. and thought by D'Anville (Antiq. de l'Inde) to be the present Kandhar. A fourteenth, in Arachosia, on the river Arachotus. Ammianus, lib. xxiii. c. 6. called Alexandropolis, by Isidore, now Scanderie. A fifteenth, built by Alexander, in the country of the Malli, at the confluence of the rivers Acecines and Indus. Arrian, lib. vi. c. 15. A sixteenth, built by him in the country of the Sogdi, where the Hyphasis enters the Indus, further south than the preceding. Quint. Curt. l. ix. c. 25. D'Anville supposes it is the modern Bukor. A seventeenth, on the coast of Gedrosia, erected under Alexander's orders, during the expedition of Nearchus. Plin. 1. vi. c. 26. An eighteenth, in Carmania, near the river Salarus. Plin. 1. vi. c. 27. Ptol. l. vi. c. 8. A nineteenth, in Palestine, near the sea, on the river Schan, 10 miles south of Tyre.

There was also an island in the Persian gulph, named Alexandria, and Aracia, in which was a lofty mountain sacred to Neptune, Ptol. 1. vi. c. 24. Plin. l. vi. c. 18.

ALEXANDRIA, a town in the government of Cherson, in Russia, 70 miles W. of Ekaterinosky; a town in the government of Volhynia, on the river Hovyn, formerly a part of the Polish palatinate of Wolynsk; and the name of various towns and villages of inferior note in the Russian empire, particularly in the governments of Ekaterinosky and Pultowa.

ALEXANDRIA, or BELHAVEN, in Virginia, North America, situated on the southern bank of the Patomac river, in Fairfax county; about five miles S. W. from the Federal City, 60 S. W. from Baltimore, the same distance N. from Fredericksburgh, 168 N. of Williamsburgh, and 290 from the sea. stands in a pleasant and elevated part of the country; its streets are laid out on the plan of Philadelphia,

It