The City of Alexandria

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2024

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is the story of a city that laid the foundations for our modern world. Sitting at the intersection of East and West, Alexandria has been home to many of humanity's greatest architectural and cultural achievements, like the famous Lighthouse and the storied Great Library. Some of history's most illustrious figures have left their mark there, from Alexander the Great and Aristotle to Julius Caesar and Cleopatra.

Dan is joined by Islam Issa, Professor of English at Birmingham City University and author of 'Alexandria: The City that Changed the World'. Islam explains how a city that started as a vision in Alexander the Great’s mind became a global capital of knowledge.

Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.

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Transcript

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1:06.0	Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's history hit. Homer wrote that after Helen and Paris ran away together,
1:12.0	wildly in love.
1:14.0	They landed on the island of Feros on the southern edge of the Mediterranean.
1:18.4	And what is now, and what was then, Egypt.
1:21.4	The poet also says that on her way back to Greece having been recaptured by her husband
1:27.6	Menelaeus after destruction of Troy, the death of Paris, she also visited that same island on the way home. This story was
1:36.1	well known in the classical Greek world. And that's why when Alexander the Great became the only
1:42.0	Greek warlord to conquer Egypt, it was very natural that this massive Homer fan boy, Alexander the Great, decided to build a huge city on the island of Feros.
	...

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