Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00On the outskirts of Alexandria, once ancient Egypt's greatest metropolis, archaeologists
00:13search for bodies.
00:22Any clue could shed light on how an ancient megacity vanished almost entirely.
00:51Alexandria, a city of legends with a history stretching back more than 2,000 years to the
00:59era of Egypt's final pharaohs.
01:03Once ancient Egypt's greatest metropolis, today little is known about the lives and
01:10deaths of its earliest inhabitants.
01:14Now archaeologists are finding new ways to get under the city's skin.
01:20To discover how Alexandria was born from almost nothing and then disappeared into near oblivion.
01:33Thirty miles west of the city center, at Taposiris Magna, Dominican archaeologist Kathleen Martinez
01:41is in her 15th season of excavations, trying to unlock Alexandria's secrets.
01:48And Alexandria was the center, the cultural and intellectual center of the world during that time.
01:56Kathleen believes you can't understand a city until you understand its people.
02:03She thinks Taposiris Magna's ancient temple complex is a key place to find evidence of
02:09ordinary life in Alexandria.
02:13There's not much written about that time.
02:16It has been almost erased in history.
02:21This site, from my point of view, is one of the most important sites that show us how Alexandria was.
02:32Chief among Kathleen's discoveries at Taposiris Magna is a huge burial ground not far from
02:38the temple walls.
02:42She believes any bodies in these shallow graves could help her uncover the clues she's looking for.
02:53We need to choose among the graves here.
02:58The cemetery contains dozens of graves, but many have been robbed or destroyed by 2,000 years of storms.
03:07This season, Kathleen has found a collection of burials that may have escaped the ravages
03:12of weather and greed.
03:15I think this one.
03:16Sure.
03:17Let's see if we're lucky.
03:18Ah, I think so, we will be lucky.
03:23Kathleen believes ordinary Alexandrians had good reason to be buried close to this temple.
03:30Taposiris Magna wasn't just a religious site.
03:34It was a multi-purpose hub.
03:38Positioned strategically on the coast just west of Alexandria, the temple at Taposiris
03:44Magna was a prime point of access to Mediterranean trade.
03:49An 1,800-yard-long causeway gave the temple access to the sea, providing a place for the
03:56city's pilgrims and merchants to mingle with traders.
04:01Inside, priests conducted religious ceremonies, ministering to the needs of Alexandria's dead.
04:10But they also oversaw trade to and from the city, making Taposiris Magna a hive of activity
04:17for Alexandria's ordinary folk.
04:24Archaeologist Linda Chapon has helped Kathleen uncover more than a hundred tombs in the necropolis.
04:31Her experience tells her this one could hold precious clues to how Alexandrians lived.
04:37Kathleen, look, look.
04:39You can see here, we see like the remains of plaster from the ceiling.
04:42Yeah, the plaster.
04:44But here there are some.
04:48You're right, this is the plaster.
04:52Finding an intact plaster seal is a good sign.
04:56It's the first thing tomb raiders would break when robbing a grave.
05:01It suggests there may still be a body inside.
05:05It doesn't matter if it looks small.
05:09Usually the smaller stones give us more information than the big ones.
05:14Kathleen needs to prise open the seal.
05:18But she can't just start digging if the grave contains human remains.
05:24She needs to bring in an expert tomb excavator.
05:33In downtown Alexandria, Egyptologist Arto Belekdanyan has come to investigate the origins
05:41of this ancient megacity.
05:45He begins at one of Alexandria's last remaining ancient sites, the Serapeum.
05:52Just look at this place.
05:56Everything is truly on a magnificent scale.
06:00You can tell that this place was a very significant site.
06:08Dating from the 3rd century BCE, this temple is one of very few ancient structures not
06:14covered by the modern metropolis.
06:19The temple's tallest monument is known as Pompey's Pillar.
06:23This was in fact a much later Roman period addition to the city of Alexandria's skyline.
06:32But what is interesting is that block down here.
06:37It's very clearly some kind of reused element from something else that's been incorporated
06:45into the construction of the base.
06:49The otherwise plain black granite block contains inscriptions that suggest it was once part
06:54of an earlier pre-Roman structure, when Alexandria was capital of Egypt.
07:02Look at that.
07:03There's Greek writing on it.
07:08This is a dedication by...it's a little unclear, but here it very clearly says Alexandrius,
07:17the Alexandrian.
07:21So although Alexandria was the capital of Egypt, what we have here is Greek writing,
07:30Greek dedications.
07:32It was very much also a Greek city.
07:37The Serapaeum, with its pillared temple and colonnades, is a clue to Alexandria's heritage.
07:45The vast ancient city looks far more Greek than Egyptian.
07:50Buildings bristling with columns are set along grid-like streets, a design pioneered by the
07:57Greeks.
07:58Near the waterfront is the...
08:16...is a true wonder of Greek design and engineering.
08:21Okay, this is decidedly not Egyptian tradition.
08:29This column capital is of the Corinthian order of Greek tradition.
08:39Why was Egypt's most celebrated city so steeped in the architecture of Greece, hundreds of
08:46miles away across the Mediterranean Sea?
08:51To help answer that, Arto wants to explore how the city was founded.
08:58In the ancient settlement of Philadelphia, 140 miles to the south, Egyptian archaeologist
09:08Bassem Gehad is exploring a necropolis.
09:14This site is outstanding because Philadelphia was built on a fresh land by people from Alexandria.
09:21This was proved by papyri and text from the 3rd century.
09:26It's the same way of building, with the same people, with the same mindset.
09:34Unlike ancient Alexandria, Philadelphia has never been built over.
09:38Beneath the sand, its archaeology is near pristine.
09:44In this desert, Bassem hopes to unearth clues to the culture of the legendary lost city.
09:52This is the only living example that mimics ancient Alexandria.
09:59Evidence of Alexandrian customs and traditions could be just below the surface.
10:07The excavation has got off to a strong start.
10:10Bassem's team has uncovered wall footings indicating the presence of a mud brick structure.
10:19Spanning an area of 35 by 40 feet, it's large.
10:29But what excites Bassem is not so much the building's size as its decoration.
10:36You can feel the brush strokes of the artist.
10:42I've never seen this before in this site.
10:45This is quite a special moment.
10:49The vivid colored artwork doesn't stop at the floor.
10:53Frescoes seem to cover every surface.
10:57There was paintings all over the walls.
11:03This is beautiful.
11:06Just amazing.
11:09As Bassem's team continues to haul away the sand, they begin to reveal the structure's
11:14architecture.
11:16A series of square platforms suggest a porch or walkway.
11:21So we can see remains of columns that give us an indication of that this building was
11:29standing high.
11:31From what I see here, we can say that we have the first mausoleum to be found in Philadelphia.
11:41Great Egyptian mausoleums were structures built by Egypt's wealthiest families to allow
11:46the living to visit the dead.
11:50For us, this is a huge discovery.
11:53The person this structure was built to honor could be close by, perhaps even entombed beneath
12:00the building itself.
12:06In Egypt's Mediterranean city of Alexandria, Arto is investigating the city's earliest
12:13days, trying to explain why the ancient buildings appear so Greek in style.
12:19The oldest known surviving reference to the site where Alexandria now stands appears on
12:25a slab of carved stone dated to 311 BCE.
12:30I'm here looking at an image of the satrap stela.
12:34This is a monumental decree bearing a fascinating text.
12:42The stela refers to a coastal fort at a place called Ra Qardet.
12:47And what it basically translates into is the place of building.
12:53In other words, the construction site.
12:57Right there is the word that indicates construction.
13:02That is a man building a wall right there.
13:06The stela was carved just 20 years after one of the most seismic events in Egyptian history,
13:13the arrival of the legendary Greek empire builder, Alexander the Great.
13:19In 332 BCE, having already taken control of much of Persia, he conquered Egypt and set
13:26about constructing a new city.
13:33Legend says the philosopher Homer visited Alexander in a dream and told him of a site
13:38where he could locate a new capital.
13:42Alexander's architect used grain to map out the city's plan, as a way of blessing
13:49the great conqueror's new venture.
13:53As they lay their outline, birds descended to feast on the seeds, an omen Alexander took
14:00to mean his city would feed the world.
14:05Alexander died before his capital was finished, leaving a line of Greek kings, all called
14:10Ptolemy, to complete the work.
14:16Surrounded by water, Alexandria was easily defendable and had prime access to Mediterranean
14:22trade.
14:26But by building a brand new capital on the coast, the new Greek rulers had taken a gamble.
14:32It meant asking the native Egyptians to abandon 2,700 years of tradition.
14:39When you think about where the ancient Egyptians lived, you instantly think the Nile Valley,
14:45and that is absolutely true.
14:47They had to be convinced that this was not only a nominal capital, but a real, true capital
14:57connected to their ancestors, to their places of worship, to their deities, to their traditions.
15:04So how did the Ptolemies pull this off?
15:11At Taposiris Magna, Kathleen is preparing to break open what she believes is a rare,
15:19intact tomb of an ordinary Alexandrian.
15:24The body inside could reveal clues to day-to-day lives in the Greek-Egyptian capital.
15:30We want to know more about the people of ancient Alexandria.
15:36We want to complete this information that is missing about the ancient Alexandria.
15:42Any human remains inside the grave will be extremely fragile.
15:48So first we will clean around a bit more the sand to see better the closing.
15:56Breaking the seal is a job that requires one of their most experienced burial excavators.
16:03We have a tomb actually, we call the experts, the specialists in excavating tombs.
16:16With the plaster removed from the three stone slabs covering the pit, Kathleen is ready
16:22to open the grave.
16:26This is the moment of truth.
16:28Now we're going to leave the blocks.
16:31This is the reason I do this job and all of us, because this is really exciting.
16:38It's the most delicate of heavy lifting jobs.
16:41One slip could lead to serious injury.
16:46Be careful, be careful with your hand.
16:58Instantly, Kathleen has cause for concern.
17:02This is not a good sign.
17:04The sand is very clean and it's loose.
17:09It's not compacted as we expect it to be after 2,000 years.
17:16Exposed to the elements for millennia, the grave appears to have suffered water damage.
17:23Kathleen needs to find out if the body has survived or if the evidence of Alexandrian
17:29life that it may carry has disintegrated into dust.
17:39In Alexandria, Artaud wants to explore how Egypt's Greek rulers persuaded the native
17:47Egyptians to get behind them and their new capital city.
17:52To learn more, he's come to the city's largest archaeological site, Kom Eldika.
18:02Among the rows of monuments, some objects stand out.
18:09This is the quintessential symbol of the power of the king.
18:14The head of a human being, the king himself, and the body of a regal, powerful lion.
18:22An image that is traditionally Egyptian.
18:26The sphinx had been a symbol of Egypt ever since the age of the pyramids, 2,000 years
18:32before Alexander and the Ptolemies arrived.
18:36The inscription here identifies the king who commissioned this beautiful work of art.
18:42King Psamtek II of the 26th dynasty.
18:48This object was commissioned about 300 years before Alexandria was even founded.
18:56Many of the monuments lining the site appear to have been sculpted hundreds of years before
19:01Alexander conquered Egypt.
19:04Now this can only mean one thing.
19:07These monuments were actually brought at some point to Alexandria, well after they were
19:14first commissioned.
19:17Plato believes the Greek pharaohs weren't simply repurposing existing statues to speed
19:22up building work in the new capital.
19:25They were seeking to prove to the Egyptian people that they belonged.
19:30This was a clever strategy by the Greek rulers who found themselves reigning over a land
19:38that was very foreign to them.
19:43These monuments were brought here granting these Greek rulers legitimacy in the eyes
19:49of the indigenous Egyptian population.
19:55If the Ptolemies' plan was to use ancient statues to prove their Egyptian credentials
20:00to the locals, it seems to have worked.
20:07In just 50 years, Alexandria was catapulted to the forefront of the ancient world, becoming
20:14the most powerful, prosperous, culturally flourishing city the world had ever seen by
20:20that point.
20:23Egypt had a thriving new capital where Greeks and Egyptians lived side by side, ruled by
20:29a Greek pharaoh and surrounded by Greek culture.
20:35Today, the glorious capital of Alexander, Ptolemy I, and Cleopatra has all but disappeared.
20:43So much of ancient Egypt survives.
20:46The pyramids, the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, all these magnificent temples.
20:52But why is it that so little survives of Alexandria?
21:00In ancient Philadelphia, Bassem's team has almost finished clearing the sand from the
21:10painted mausoleum.
21:13The walls were completely painted with colors, yellow squares, frames of white, red and blue.
21:20We call it the Egyptian blue.
21:23This kind of blue is really, really expensive.
21:27Historians believe Egyptian blue to be the very first artificial pigment.
21:33Manufactured by hand, its presence confirms the mausoleum owner's wealth.
21:42With a footprint of nearly 1,400 square feet, this was a funerary house of impressive size.
21:51Two large rooms were likely covered by a shallow vaulted roof.
21:56A columned portico surrounded the main structure, offering shade and a private entrance for visitors.
22:05Inside, lavish painted decorations covered the floors, walls and ceilings with geometric patterns.
22:13Grand and opulent, it was a mausoleum fit for a wealthy Philadelphian emulating the
22:19glories of Alexandria.
22:26Linked as it is to the ancient capital, Bassem knows this funerary house could hold clues
22:33not just to Alexandrian architectural traditions, but also to Alexandrian mortuary practices.
22:41The most enigmatic thing is that we didn't find yet any of the mummies inside this place.
22:49The only missing clue is finding the mummy.
22:55The plastered mausoleum might have a substructure below it.
23:05If Bassem is to uncover any human remains, he has to find a way under the precious painted
23:11floor to see if there's a crypt below.
23:20At the temple site of Tapasiris Magna, Kathleen's team of tomb excavators carefully brushes
23:28the loose sand from the shallow grave.
23:33This could be her first chance this season to study the body of an ordinary ancient Alexandrian,
23:39if there's anything left of it.
23:42I think we reached the level of the human remains.
23:46What do you see there?
23:47So this is the humerus and here we have the forearm.
23:52So this part is here and then we have this part.
23:55The body appears to be in its original burial position.
24:00This confirms the tomb is undisturbed.
24:04The skeleton is very degraded, but to expert eyes it may still yield valuable evidence.
24:11We are discovering several areas of black colour and it's because it's the remains
24:16of the mummification.
24:18This skeleton was mummified and placed like a mummy inside the grave.
24:24Alexandria's population had strong ties to Greek culture.
24:29But in ancient Greece, nobody mummified their dead.
24:35This grave suggests even less wealthy Alexandrians fully embraced the local Egyptian death rites.
24:44But the Greeks also seem to have brought their own burial practices to Alexandria.
24:50It's an anthropoid tomb.
24:53Instead of bringing a coffin, they created the coffin in the bedrock.
25:01What is interesting is the Greeks were the first ones who started with this tradition.
25:07This side is full of surprises.
25:10If Kathleen is to learn any more, she'll need to exhume what remains of the body.
25:16But 2,000 years of desert storms have taken their toll.
25:21It's better that we go more careful because everything seems to be almost powder.
25:30The bowls are very, very weak, very deteriorated.
25:38At Alexandria's sister settlement of Philadelphia, Bassem is searching for the final piece of
25:46the grand mausoleum's puzzle.
25:49He's on the hunt for the owner's body.
25:53He thinks it could lie beneath the precious painted floor.
25:58This morning, his team has had a lucky break.
26:02Just when we excavate this part of the mausoleum, we just found a broken part that might have
26:09been a hole that was made by the looters.
26:14Now we can look below the painted plaster.
26:18This could be an entrance to the crypt Bassem's been looking for.
26:24Within minutes, archaeologist Mohamed Kamel exposes something in the sand.
26:30Mohamed, what do you see?
26:36Mohamed and Gihad is cleaning and they have just dropped into a mummy that was placed
26:41in this grave.
26:44This job has to be done really carefully.
26:48The first thing to emerge from the sand, wrapped in linen, is a face.
26:54I can see now the head of the mummy.
26:58It is placed in the grave cut below the floor level, this painted plaster.
27:04As Mohamed clears more debris from the void below the painted floor, he's faced with a
27:10surprise.
27:11So it seems that Mohamed found two mummies, not only one.
27:18It's more than Bassem could have hoped for.
27:20But if these are the owners of the tomb, identifying them is going to be a challenge.
27:26The mummy is not in the really good condition, however the wrapping looks really nice.
27:35The poor state of the mummies is a concern.
27:40And so is the condition of the plaster floor.
27:44The mud brick beneath is fragile.
27:47It could collapse at any moment.
27:51We still don't know yet the information we need about these two mummies.
27:56Who are they, their age, whether they are male or female.
28:02If Bassem is going to learn any more about the bodies, he's going to have to examine
28:06them right here, right now.
28:16At the Alexandrian outpost of Tapasiris Magna, the weather is hampering Kathleen's efforts
28:23to excavate the body.
28:26Beneath a protective windbreak, bone specialist Linda delicately extracts the crumbling fragments
28:32one by one.
28:36The smallest clue could add to Kathleen's understanding of ordinary Alexandrian life.
28:43It's challenging, but I think Linda is the best, so if there's anything to be rescued,
28:51she will.
28:53The work is painstaking.
28:55Every stroke of Linda's brush could damage the remains.
28:59There was another one, not so big and not so small.
29:11As evening approaches, Linda and Kathleen can finally transfer the bagged bones to shelter
29:18for analysis.
29:25It's not going to be easy.
29:32And identifying such degraded bones requires patience and an expert eye.
29:39This is the area of the forearm.
29:44Fragments are very damaged, but anyway, even if they are damaged, they can give us a lot
29:47of information about who was bullied there.
29:51These are the ribs.
29:52Yeah, you see the sand is very wet, so it's difficult to clean them.
29:56So usually I let them dry a little bit, then it's easier.
30:01The bones' size suggests they belong to a fully grown individual.
30:06But the best preserved remains offer more detail.
30:09The best evidence we have is the tooth.
30:12We were very lucky to find a tooth because it gave us a lot of clues about the age, about
30:19the way of life.
30:20And at what age do you think?
30:23I think it's quite young, probably around 30, 35 range of age.
30:29Yes.
30:30It's a very healthy tooth, but it has big holes.
30:33That's interesting.
30:34But it's not damaged at all.
30:38Almost all ancient Egyptians had poor teeth, worn down by the grit present in their bread.
30:44The tooth's otherwise healthy condition suggests this Alexandrian had a good diet.
30:53Even those buried cheaply in shallow graves seem to have benefited as the blooming city
30:58of Alexandria prospered.
31:02This is the first time that something about this part of the Necropolis has been studied.
31:08It's vital because it gives us important information about the people.
31:16It's very rewarding when you are the first person to see somebody that is not known for
31:242,000 years.
31:27I feel touched.
31:30Kathleen's evidence suggests that the lives and deaths of ordinary Alexandrians were different
31:35from anything that came before.
31:38Mummified like Egyptians, but buried in tombs pioneered by Greeks, these two ancient civilizations
31:46were fusing to create a population altogether new.
31:51But Kathleen's journey to understand life in Alexandria is only just beginning.
31:56This is only one shallow grave among many, many more.
32:03Each tomb helps us to put together a piece of the puzzle.
32:10Today Kathleen is one step closer to completing the picture.
32:22In the ancient Necropolis of Philadelphia, Bassem hopes the mummies he's discovered beneath
32:33the Alexandrian-style mausoleum will reveal how wealthier Alexandrians dealt with death.
32:40He needs to confirm who they are, but he can't extract the bodies without them falling apart.
32:51His only option is to examine them, cramped up in their crypt.
32:58The grave that we have found in this painted structure contains two mummies, however it's
33:04so fragile, so for the safety of the mummies we have moved a portable x-ray machine.
33:15A well-oriented x-ray will see through the mummies' bandaging and give Bassem clues
33:21to their age and sex.
33:24But the mummies' positions are causing problems.
33:29It's difficult because the tight space that we are working in, condition of the mummy
33:35and also unstable electricity.
33:39Using the machine itself is a skill, but also using it in the desert is another skill.
33:47Bassem's radiographers must slide the x-ray plate behind the mummies' head.
33:53To create an image, they need to blast the head with radiation, but avoid exposing themselves
33:59to the rays.
34:03Any false move with the plate and the mummy could simply disintegrate.
34:17In ancient Philadelphia, Bassem is hunting for evidence of Alexandrian mortuary practices.
34:24In the excavation's field tent, he is finally able to analyse the tomb's occupants.
34:31He's looking for any clues that could confirm who they were.
34:36The mummy was wrapped with a very thick linen wrapping, especially in the head area, so
34:42almost eight centimetres of textile.
34:45But we can clearly see and measure what we call the mastoid process, which is this bone.
34:52It's slightly larger in the male.
34:56So we know from the x-ray that this is an adult male.
35:00He also lost one tooth, which is the right canine.
35:05But the degree of the wear, we can estimate the age between 35 to 37 years old at this.
35:13Life expectancy was low in ancient Egypt.
35:17But elite classes stood a better chance of surviving to their late 30s and accumulating
35:23the wealth needed for an elaborate tomb, built by the best Alexandrian craftsmen.
35:32Bassem's attention turns to the x-ray images of the crypt's other occupant.
35:37The mummy that was placed on top of the second one was for sure a female.
35:45The grave appears to contain a couple, perhaps husband and wife.
35:53This habit was proved in many places in this area, all around this mausoleum.
35:59And it become like, let's say, the fashion of being buried together.
36:04I would assume that this male and female was the owners of this mausoleum, who built this
36:11painted structure.
36:15Not only has Bassem unearthed Alexandrian architecture, he's found first-hand evidence
36:21of how the wealthy treated their dead in Egypt's Alexandrian age.
36:32After mummification, the body was taken to its final resting place, with priests, mourners
36:39and grave goods accompanying the coffin.
36:43The mummy was interred beneath the mausoleum floor, and mourners would hold vigil over
36:50the tomb.
36:53The family met regularly to honour the dead, and shared food with the deceased above the
37:00tomb.
37:04The mourners would smash plates at the end of the meal, a classically Greek custom deep
37:10in the heart of Egypt.
37:15For me, this is special because we have solved the mystery of this mausoleum.
37:24Bassem's painted structure is a vivid portrait of Alexandria's lost culture.
37:34We have been gifted in this site.
37:36It's a cutting-edge information that makes everything that you could read in history
37:44comes to the reality, so you can touch it by your hand.
37:49These people were so important.
37:50They played a very big role in the history of Egypt.
37:56Bassem's discovery proves wealthy Philadelphians adopted Alexandria's fusion of Greek and
38:02Egyptian cultures, ushering in a new era of prosperity in Egypt, far beyond the capital.
38:10But the legendary city where it all began was destined to disappear.
38:20In Alexandria, Arto has come to the waterfront in search of clues to explain the ancient
38:27city's downfall.
38:32Where the famous lighthouse of Alexandria once towered over the harbor now stands the
38:37citadel of Kite Bay.
38:42Now this is an impressive structure.
38:47The fort was built by an Islamic sultan in 1477 CE, but Arto thinks its stonework could
38:56contain evidence of the Greek city's fate.
39:02Look at this doorway.
39:04It's very different from everything else.
39:07Most of the majority of the masonry of this structure is made of limestone.
39:11But this here, this is very clearly pink granite.
39:18Pink granite was a popular material in the time of the pharaohs, used to decorate both
39:23buildings and monuments.
39:26For Arto, the fort's location right where the lighthouse once stood can only mean one
39:31thing.
39:32I believe that these blocks are actually from the site of the lighthouse of Alexandria.
39:42The granite doorway is one of very few ancient blocks visible in the fort.
39:49The fate of the rest of the lighthouse could be a clue to how ancient Alexandria disappeared.
40:00Below the fort's walls, marine archaeologists have taken the search underwater, to the floor
40:06of the harbor.
40:08Their footage shows the silty seabed covered with what appears to be ancient stone.
40:15This is just fascinating stuff.
40:17These are very clearly rectangular blocks.
40:22These are dressed, cut stone blocks from a structure.
40:27Looks like granite, too.
40:28It really does.
40:29Oh, yeah, it's granite.
40:30It's granite.
40:31It's granite.
40:32The ancient granite blocks are not stacked or carefully arranged.
40:38This isn't a drowned building.
40:41Instead, the structure seems to have suffered a cataclysmic destruction.
40:52According to contemporary accounts, on July 21st, 365 CE, a powerful earthquake shook
41:00Alexandria, damaging buildings all over the city.
41:06Shortly after, the water receded, leaving fish and other sea life high and dry.
41:14But the sea returned in a towering wave.
41:19Thousands were caught in this unstoppable flood.
41:25The tsunami swept ships onto the roofs of buildings and reduced much of the city to
41:32rubble.
41:38The lighthouse would have been directly in the wave's path, and so were the rest of
41:43the jewels in Alexandria's crown.
41:48We know the area very close to the shore was, in fact, where the royal palaces were, where
41:55a lot of the most monumental, iconic buildings of Alexandria were located.
42:03Over the following centuries, Alexandria suffered more disasters, leveling the Greek buildings
42:10that made the city famous.
42:14The glorious capital constructed by Alexander the Great's successors may have been wiped
42:19off the face of Egypt.
42:23But today, archaeologists are discovering that its very existence had helped establish
42:28a new, hybrid, Greek-Egyptian way of life, with the living enjoying a fusion of artistic
42:35styles in their architecture, and following the traditions of both civilizations when
42:41burying their dead.
42:46Alexander the Great didn't just found a city.
42:50His conquest gave birth to a new Egypt, and its legacy survives to this day.