Book contents
- The Nile Delta
- The Nile Delta
- Copyright page
- For Mona Abaza
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Call Me by My Names
- 3 The Nile Delta before the Pharaohs
- 4 The Khetem-Border-Posts in the Delta during the New Kingdom
- 5 New Land amongst New Rivers?
- 6 The Mareotis Area
- 7 From Memphis to Alexandria
- 8 Growing with the Empire? From Village to Town
- 9 Mapping the Cult of Christian Saints in the Nile Delta from the Fifth to the Ninth Century CE
- 10 Alexandria
- 11 Imperial Power, Tribal Settlement and Fiscal Revolts in the Early Islamic Delta (Seventh to Ninth Century CE)
- 12 The Nile as Nexus
- 13 Water and Prices
- 14 Water Development in the Medieval Western Delta
- 15 The Nile Delta in European Cartography, 1200–1800
- 16 Just Passing Through?
- 17 Reclaiming the Archive
- 18 Short Commentary on Accounting Documents from a Vanishing Cotton Estate (ʿIzba) in the Nile Delta
- Index
- References
10 - Alexandria
A Brief Overview of the Major Hydraulics of the City, from Its Foundation to the Arab Conquest
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2024
- The Nile Delta
- The Nile Delta
- Copyright page
- For Mona Abaza
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Call Me by My Names
- 3 The Nile Delta before the Pharaohs
- 4 The Khetem-Border-Posts in the Delta during the New Kingdom
- 5 New Land amongst New Rivers?
- 6 The Mareotis Area
- 7 From Memphis to Alexandria
- 8 Growing with the Empire? From Village to Town
- 9 Mapping the Cult of Christian Saints in the Nile Delta from the Fifth to the Ninth Century CE
- 10 Alexandria
- 11 Imperial Power, Tribal Settlement and Fiscal Revolts in the Early Islamic Delta (Seventh to Ninth Century CE)
- 12 The Nile as Nexus
- 13 Water and Prices
- 14 Water Development in the Medieval Western Delta
- 15 The Nile Delta in European Cartography, 1200–1800
- 16 Just Passing Through?
- 17 Reclaiming the Archive
- 18 Short Commentary on Accounting Documents from a Vanishing Cotton Estate (ʿIzba) in the Nile Delta
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter gives an overview of the major hydraulic works that have been undertaken in Alexandria from its foundation to the Arab conquest. Fresh water in and around Alexandria is positioned as a historical agent around which the city’s plurisecular history wove itself. Built on a rocky substrate that, until recently, protected it from the subsidence that affected most of the northern edge of the Delta, the city stood on a locus that was rich in subterranean water. This chapters shows how for centuries, Alexandrians were careful to collect, store, and distribute this underground freshwater as a way to keep themselves alive. Concomitantly, geoarchaeological and written evidence document sustained yet at times interrupted attempts by state authorities to enhance the city’s commercial appeal and water supply by tying it to the Nile via artificially maintained canals. These canals’ histories, as well as those of the city’s known hyponomes, cisterns, and other lifting devices, allowed the Macedonian foundation to develop on a grand scale, and to survive during periods of water crisis.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Nile DeltaHistories from Antiquity to the Modern Period, pp. 362 - 396Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024