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ALEXANDRIA
  

very remarkable vault with curious painted reliefs, now lighted by electricity and shown to visitors. The objects found in these researches are in the museum, the most notable being a great basalt bull, probably once an object of cult in the Serapeum. Other catacombs and tombs have been opened in Kom es-Shugafa Hadra (Roman) and Ras et-Tin (painted). The Germans found remains of a Ptolemaic colonnade and streets in the north-east of the city, but little else. Mr Hogarth explored part of an immense brick structure under the mound of Kom ed-Dik, which may have been part of the Paneum, the Mausolea or a Roman fortress. The making of the new foreshore led to the dredging up of remains of the Patriarchal Church; and the foundations of modern buildings are seldom laid without some objects of antiquity being discovered. The wealth underground is doubtless immense; but, despite all efforts, there is not much for antiquarians to see in Alexandria outside the museum and the neighbourhood of “Pompey’s Pillar.” The native tomb-robbers, well-sinkers, dredgers and the like, however, come upon valuable objects from time to time, which find their way into private collections.

Bibliography.—(1) Modern City. See latest editions of guide-books to Lower Egypt (Baedeker, Murray, Macmillan). (2) History. See authorities for history of Egypt. (3) Ancient City and Antiquities. Mahmud Bey el Fallaki, Mémoire sur l’antique Alexandrie (1872); T. D. Neroutsos, L’Ancienne Alexandrie (1888); D. G. Hogarth and E. F. Benson, Report on Prospects of Research in Alexandria (Egypt Expl. Fund Archaeological Report, 1894–1895); Bulletin de la Société Archéologique d’Alexandrie (1898 foll.); O. Puchstein in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopädie, s.v. “Alexandria”; U. Wilcken, Observations ad historiam Egypti Provinciae Romanae (1885); G. Lumbroso, L’Egitto al tempo dei Greci e dei Romani (1882); H. Kiepert, Zur Topographie des alten Alexandria (1872).  (D. G. H.) 


ALEXANDRIA, a city of Madison county, Indiana, U.S.A., about 46 m. N.E. of Indianapolis. Pop. (1890) 715; (1900) 7221 (1002 foreign-born); (1910) 5096. Alexandria is served by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis, and the Lake Erie & Western railways, and by the Indiana Union Traction System (electric). In the city are a Carnegie library and Beulah Park (24 acres), the latter belonging to the Northern Indiana Holiness Association, which there holds summer camp-meetings. The city is in a rich farming country, which produces Indian corn, oats and wheat; and is in the Indiana natural gas region, to which fact it owes its rapid growth as a manufacturing centre. It is one of the principal seats of the glass industry in Indiana—plate glass, lamp chimneys, mirrors, &c., being manufactured here—and also has mineral wool factories and paper mills. The municipality owns and operates the water-works and the gas-lighting plant. Alexandria was founded in 1836 and was chartered as a city in 1893.


ALEXANDRIA, a city of Louisiana, U.S.A., capital of Rapides Parish, on the S. bank of the Red river in almost the exact geographical centre of the state. Pop. (1890) 2861; (1900) 5648 (3142 negroes); (1910) 11,213. The city is served by the Louisiana Railway & Navigation Company, the St Louis, Watkins & Gulf, the Texas & Pacific, the Louisiana & Arkansas, the Southern Pacific, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, and the Missouri Pacific railways. The Red river is navigable to Alexandria during the entire year. Alexandria is on a level plain in the centre of the Louisiana long-leaf pine forests, in which pine is interspersed with various hardwoods. The forests stretch on all sides within a radius of 75 m. In the immediate vicinity of the city, on the Red river, cotton, sugar, alfalfa and garden vegetables are cultivated; south of the Red river is a peculiarly rich farming country watered by Bayou Rapides and Bayou Bœuf. Near the city is the Louisiana Asylum for the Insane. The principal industries are cotton-pressing and the manufacture of lumber and of cotton-seed products; sugar and molasses, artificial ice, mineral waters and brick are other manufactures. The city owns and operates the water-works and electric-lighting plant; the water-supply is derived from artesian wells. Alexandria was named in honour of Alexander Fulton, on whose grant from Spain the first settlement was made in 1785; it was first incorporated as a town in 1818 and received a city charter in 1882. In the spring of 1863 a Union fleet under Admiral David D. Porter, operating on the Red river, co-operated with land forces under General N. P. Banks in pushing the Confederates westward. Alexandria was occupied on the 7th of May 1863, but the troops were soon withdrawn for the Port Hudson attack. On the 19th of March 1864 it was again occupied by the Union forces, who made it the point of concentration for another land and naval expedition against E. Kirby Smith and Shreveport. After the check of this expedition and its abandonment, Alexandria was again vacated on the 12th-13th of May, when the city was almost entirely burned. The Union gunboats, which had passed up the river toward Shreveport at high water, were caught in its decline above the falls at Alexandria, but they were saved by a splendid piece of engineering (a dam at the falls), constructed by Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Bailey (1826–1867), who for this service received the thanks of Congress and the brevet of brigadier-general of volunteers.


ALEXANDRIA, a town of Rumania, situated among the rich corn-lands of the Teleorman department, on the right bank of the river Vedea. Pop. (1900) 13,675. Its chief trade is in grain, despatched by rail to the Danubian port of Zimnicea, or by river to Giurgevo. Alexandria was named after its founder, Alexander John Cuza, prince of Rumania from 1859 to 1866.


ALEXANDRIA, a manufacturing town of Dumbartonshire, Scotland, situated on the right bank of the Leven about 3 m. north of Dumbarton, on the North British and Caledonian railways. It owes its origin almost entirely to the cotton printing and bleaching works of the vicinity, for which there is an abundant supply of excellent water, and contains one of the largest of the Turkey-red dyeing establishments in the Vale of Leven. The public buildings include a public hall, the mechanics’ institute with library and lecture-hall, an institute for men, with library and recreation rooms, a similar institution for women, banks and other important commercial offices. Pop. (1891) 7796; (1901) 8007. Alexandria is connected with Bonhill, on the opposite bank of the river, by a bridge which replaced in 1898 one bought three years earlier by the county council from the Smollett family, who have been closely associated with the district since the time of Sir James Smollett, the novelist’s grandfather. The industries of Bonhill centre in the calico printing, dyeing and bleaching which find their headquarters in the valley. Population (1891) 3843; (1901) 3333. Jamestown, about 1 m. to the north-east of Alexandria, with a station on the Forth & Clyde railway from Balloch to Stirling (North British), contains some of the largest cotton-printing works in Scotland. Population (1891) 1668; (1901) 2080.


ALEXANDRIA, a city and a port of entry of Alexandria county, Virginia, U.S.A., on the W. bank of the Potomac river, 6 m. below Washington, D.C., with which it is connected by a ferry. Pop. (1890) 14,339; (1900) 14,528, of whom 4533 were negroes; (1910, census), 15,329. Alexandria is served by the Baltimore & Ohio, the Chesapeake & Ohio, the Southern and the Washington Southern railways; by the Washington, Alexandria & Mount Vernon electric railway; and by several lines of river and coasting steamboats. It is a quaint, old-fashioned city, with quiet, shady streets, and a number of buildings dating back to the 18th century; of these the most interesting is the old Christ Church in which George Washington and Robert E. Lee worshipped. The city has a public library. About 21/2 m. W. of Alexandria is the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia, opened here in 1823 and chartered in 1854; in 1906–1907 the Seminary had a faculty of 7 and 46 students. Alexandria is a distributing and jobbing centre for the north-east counties of Virginia. Among its manufactures are fertilizers, bottles, carbonated beverages, flour, beer, shoes, silk thread, aprons, brooms, leather, bricks, and tiling and structural iron. The total value of its factory product in 1905 was $2,186,658. The municipality owns and operates its gas-lighting plant. Alexandria, first known as Belhaven, was named in honour of John Alexander, who in the last quarter of the 17th century had bought the land on which