Founded in 332 B.C. by Alexander the Great, Alexandria was
intended to supersede Naucratis (q.v.) as a Greek centre in
Egypt, and to be the link between Macedonia and the rich Nile
Valley. If such a city was to be on the Egyptian coast, there
was only one possible site, behind the screen of the Pharos
island and removed from the silt thrown out by Nile mouths. An
Egyptian townlet, Rhacotis, already stood on the shore and was a
resort of fishermen and pirates. Behind it (according to the
Alexandrian treatise, known as pseudo-Callisthenes) were five
native villages scattered along the strip between Lake Mareotis
and the sea. Alexander occupied Pharos, and had a walled city
marked out by Deinocrates on the mainland to include Rhacotis. A
few months later he left Egypt for the East and never returned
to his city; but his corpse was ultimately entombed there. His
viceroy, Cleomenes, continued the creation of Alexandria. The
Heptastadium, however, and the mainland quarters seem to have
been mainly Ptolemaic work. I