After the Ottoman Empire took occupation of the city in 1801, Governor Mohammed Ali of the Khedivate of Egypt decided to rebuild the modern city of Alexandria atop the ruins of the old city. In the twentieth century, excavations of the site were started under the Italian imperial governor, Evaristo Breccia.[1] Calisthenis states that Alexander the Great visited the city on his way to Siwa Oasis, which gives credence to the theory that there must have been a town here in the Hellenistic period.[2]