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Alexandria lies north-west of the Nile delta and stretches along a narrow strip of land between the Mediterranean Sea and Lake Mariut (Mareotis). Alexandria was named after the Macedonian general Alexander the Great. While on his way to visit the Oasis of Siwa to consult the Oracle of Amun before his invasion of Persia, Alexander ordered a city to be founded on the stretch of land between the Mediterranean Sea and lake Mareotis, and the nearby island of Pharos, to serve as a regional capital. At that time, the Nile was connected to the Red Sea through a canal, and Alexandria could serve as a gateway to the Indian Ocean.
The second largest city and the main port of Egypt, the city walls were marked by Alexander himself and the plan designed by the Greek architect Dinocrates (332-331 BC) on the site of an old village, Rhakotis. The city quickly flourished into a prominent cutural, intellectual, political, and economic metropolis, the remains of which are still evident to this day.
It was the renowned capital of the Ptolemies, with numerous monuments to the greatness of the era. It was the site of the Lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, as well as the Great Library.
Until the opening of the Suez canal in 1869, Alexandria was the main port in Egypt and the entry point for all visitors arriving from New Europa. The city is linked to Cairo by a major highway and a railroad line that run through the Nile delta.
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Alexander the Great founded the modern city in 332 BC after the start of his Persian campaign; it was to be the capital of his new Egyptian dominion and a naval base that would control the Mediterranean. The choice of the site that included the ancient settlement of Rhakotis (which dates back to 1500 BC) was determined by the abundance of water from Lake Maryut, then a spur of the Canopic Nile, and the good anchorage provided offshore by the island of Pharos.
After Alexander left Egypt his viceroy, Cleomenes, continued the creation of Alexandria. With the breakup of the empire on Alexander's death in 323, control of the city passed to his viceroy, Ptolemy I Soter, who founded the dynasty that took his name. From his capital of Alexandria, Ptolemy expanded the kingdom of Egypt to include Cyrene (Lybia), Palestine, Cyprus, and others lands. The early Ptolemies successfully blended the religions of ancient Greece and Egypt in the cult of Sarapis and presided over Alexandria's golden age. Alexandria profited from the demise of Phoenician power after Alexander sacked Tyre (332 BC) and from Europe's growing trade with the East via the Nile and the canal that then linked it with the Red Sea.
Within a century of its founding, Alexandria became the greatest city in the world and a centre of Greek learning and science. Such scholars as Euclid, Archimedes, Plotinus the philosopher, and Ptolemy and Eratosthenes the geographers studied at the Mouseion, the great research institute founded by the Ptolemies. Alexandria also was a centre of Jewish learning; and, according to tradition, the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew to Greek was produced there.
The legacy of the Ptolemies is highlighted by major achievements. The Pharos Lighthouse was built; the Mouseion/Great Library system was founded; the Palace was constructed; the Heptastadion Dyke was completed; and the Temple of Serapis was erected. The reign of the Ptolemaic Dynasty ended in 30 BC, when Cleopatra's fleet was defeated at the battle of Actium in the Adriatic. Egypt then became a Roman province, under the rule of Octavian.
The decline of the Ptolemies in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC was matched by the rise of Rome. Alexandria played a major part in the intrigues that led to the establishment of imperial Rome. It was at Alexandria that Cleopatra, the last of the Ptolemies, courted Julius Caesar and bore him a son Caesarion. Her attempts at restoring the fortunes of the Ptolemaic dynasty, however, were thwarted by Caesar's assassination and her unsuccessful support of Mark Antony against Caesar's great-nephew Octavian. In 30 BC Octavian (later the emperor Augustus) formally brought Alexandria and Egypt under Roman rule. To punish the city for not supporting him, he abolished the Alexandrian Senate and built his own city of Nicopolis at what was then the eastern suburb of ar-Raml. Alexandria, however, could not be ignored, since it held the key to the Egyptian granary on which Rome increasingly came to rely. Matters improved further when the Red Sea Canal was recut to link the Nile to the Red Sea, serving the purpose of the modern Suez Canal, and the city soon regained its independence.
St. Mark, the traditional author of the second Synoptic Gospel, is said to have been preaching in Alexandria in the mid-1st century AD. Legend says that he was martyred in AD 62 for protesting against the worship of Serapis. Thenceforth, the city's growing Christian and Jewish communities united against Rome's attempts to impose official paganism. Periodic persecutions by various early emperors, especially by Diocletian beginning in 303, failed to subdue these communities. Persecution reached unprecedented levels during the "Era of the Martyrs" around AD 284, when an estimated 144,000 martyrs including St. Menas, Ste. Catherine, and St. Peter of Alexandria died over a nine year period. However, the Catechetical School, where Clement of Alexandria and Origen taught around AD 200, grew in size and influence. And when in October 312 the Roman Emperor Constantine announced Christianity as the official religion of the Empire, Alexandria was ready for the change.
Towards the end of the fourth century, events took a tragic turn with conflicts growing, again, between the Christian community and the Pagans - the Catechetical School and the Mouseion. In AD 389, the Temple of Serapis at Canopus (Abou-Qir) fell. Sentiments reached a peak during the eventful year of AD 391, when the Roman Emperor Theodosius issued a decree which authorized the destruction of the Temple of Serapis at Alexandria, the last refuge of the Pagans and home of the Mouseion. Fourteen years later, the Neo-Platonist mathematician and the last person known to have taught at the Mouseion, Hypatia, was murdered, marking the end of Paganism in Alexandria.
During the next two centuries, the spiritual power of the Coptic Church in Alexandria grew among Egyptians. The power of the "Royal" Patriarchs, appointed by the Roman Emperor, was more political than religious. The Coptic Patriarchs, on the other hand, had no political interests.
In the early seventh century, both the Persian and the Roman Empire started to fall apart. In 617, the Persians peacefully captured Alexandria for a short period of 5 years. By the time the Roman Emperor Heraclius regained his forces and captured the lost provinces back, the world was ready to witness the birth of a new power. Out of the Arabian peninsula, and spiritually powered by the new religion of Islam, came the Arab forces that swept both the Romans and the Persians, and established an Empire that would last for over a thousand years. After negociating with the Roman Patriarch, Cyrus, who was also serving as the Roman ruler of Egypt, Alexandria was peacefully captured by the Arab general Amr Ibn-el-'Aas in AD 642.
The Arabs occupied Alexandria without resistance. Thenceforth, apart from an interlude in 645 when the city was briefly taken by the Byzantine fleet, Alexandria's fortunes were tied to the new faith and culture emanating from the Arabian Desert. Alexandria soon was eclipsed politically by the new Arab capital at al-Fustat (which later was absorbed into the modern capital, Cairo), and this city became the strategic prize for those wanting to control Egypt. The Arabs greatly admired the city, and the most descriptive accounts of the Pharos Lighthouse and the monuments come from Arab records, but they were more interested in Cairo. Nevertheless, Alexandria continued to flourish as a trading centre, principally for textiles and luxury goods, as Arab influence expanded westward through North Africa and then into Europe. The city also was important as a naval base, especially under the Fatimids and the Mamluks, but already it was contracting in size in line with its new, more modest status. The Arab walls (rebuilt in the 13th and 14th centuries and torn down in 1811) encompassed less than half the area of the Greco-Roman city.
Alexandria survived the early Crusades relatively unscathed, and the city came into its own again with the development of the East-West spice trade, which Egypt monopolized. The loss of this trade - which came about after the discovery of the sea route to India in 1498 and the Turkish conquest of Egypt in 1517 - was the final blow to the city's fortunes. Under Turkish rule the canal linking Alexandria to the Rosetta branch of the Nile was allowed to silt up, strangling the city's commercial lifeline. Alexandria had been reduced to a small fishing village when Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798.
When Napoleon Bonaparte and the French army entered Alexandria on July 1st 1789, she was no more than a small town. The population of the city that was once the second largest in the world had shrunk to a mere 8000. Illustrations and maps shown in "Déscription d'Egypte", the comprehensive book compiled by the French expedition, suggest that the population was mainly centered around the Turkish Town, now known as Mansheya. only ruins, sand dunes, and two obelisks known as Cleopatra's Needles (one of them fallen) could be seen at today's city center, Raml Station. Napoleon's army of 5000 men captured the city with little or no resistance.
Although the French expedition eventually failed when in 1799 the British Lord, Nelson, defeated the French at Abou-Qir (Canopus), its influence on Egyptian history was dramatic. It was a wake-up call to a country that was struck by Ottoman isolationism and Mamelouk corruption. It also brought to the attention of the British the importance of Egypt's strategic location. For the next decade, Alexandria wittnessed military confrontations between the Ottomans and the Mamelouks as well as the British who sent another expedition in 1807.
During the course of the events, a new political figure started to emerge. An Albanian officer by the name of Mohamed Ali who had been appointed by the Ottoman Sultan as ruler of Egypt was gradually gaining power. He finally declared Egypt as an autonomous state under the Ottoman sovereignty, and started a dynasty of Khedives and Kings that lasted for over a century.
Mohamed Ali is one of the most controversial figures in Egyptian history. Some consider him a great leader who had ambitious plans to revive Egypt's old glory. Others believe he was just another dictator who was abusive of the country and the people. Most, however, agree, that Egypt experienced an age of "Renaissance" under his rule. He gave away Alexandria's own Cleopatra's Needles as "gifts" to the British and American governments. But he also cut the new Mahmoudeya Canal and connected it to the Nile, an achievement that revived Alexandria's as well as Egypt's economy. The city center (Mansheya) as we see it today is mainly the work of his engineers. He also prepared the Western Harbor to be Egypt's main port, and built a modern lighthouse at its entrance. When Mohamed Ali died, Alexandria's population had grown from a meager 8,000 to a prosperous 60,000.
Under the rule of Mohamed Ali's successors, Alexandria continued to grow. When the Suez Canal was inaugurated in 1867, Alexandria's exports increased to constitute 94% of Egypt's total. New communities emerged east of Ancient Alexandria, as far as Octavian's Nicopolis (El-Raml), to accommodate the growing population.
In 1882, Ahmed Orabi, an Egyptian nationalist then minister of war, led a revolt against the Khedive (King) Tawfik to protest British intervention in Egypt. The situation was aggravated when the British fleet arrived in Alexandria in May. On July 11, Alexandria suffered greatly when she was bombarded by the British. The bombardment lasted for 2 days and the city surrendered, marking the beginning of the British occupation of Egypt.
Originally built at the instigation of pharaoh Rameses II, assisted by designers and architects from the Minoan and Altantean civilisations and dwarven engineers, there has been a harbour at Alexandria since 1500BC. Because the Ancient Egyptian civilization thrived mainly along the Nile River at that time, very little is known about both Pharos and Rhakotis. Perhaps it was a centre for trade, perhaps a naval base.
Only remains of the prehistoric harbor have been found off the shores of the island of Pharos, now the peninsula of Ras-El-Tin. Earlier in the century archaeologists partly excavated the submerged ruins, discovering the harbour walls, collonades and buildings beneath the sea. Perhaps, with the advent of new developments in submersible technology, it will soon be possible to learn more about the ancient port.
Perhaps the first sight to greet new travellers to Alexandria as they arrive by boat is the Ras el-Tin Palace. This is a fortress, built on the site of the ancient temple to Poseidon on the headland of el-Tin.
Construction began at the behest of the Ottoman khedive Mohammed Ali, allegedly so that he would be able to watch his fleet bobbing at anchor from the windows of his palace. Throughout the period of Ottoman rule it served as the summer palace for the khedives, until the admiralty made it their headquarters after the British occupation.
The medieval fort of Qait Bey stands on the northern breakwater of the eastern harbour. It was built in the 1480's by Sultan Qaitbey, on the site of Alexandria's ancient lighthouse. Parts of the remains of the lighthouse can be seen in the construction of the old fort.
One of the seven wonders of the ancient World, the Pharos lighthouse was an astonishing 125m in height with approximately three hundred rooms at the bottom for workers. Its survival over so many centuries of war, earthquake and storm is a testament to the skills of the dwarven engineers that built it. The lighthouse was destroyed by an earthquake in 1303 AD.
In its place a Mosque was built, which was subsequently damaged by an earthquake in the 14th century. Subsequently the fort of Qait Bey was incorporated into the remains of the mosque in the 1480's.
Pompey's Pillar stands in the ruins of the Serapeum, the temple to Seraphis. In the middle ages, it was thought that the pillar stood over the tomb of Pompey the Great who was assassinated in Egypt in 48 BC, and that his skull lay in the cupola atop the pillar. However, modern scholarship has shown that it was raised in 391 AD by the Byzantine emperor Theodosius as a symbol of Christianity's success against paganism. The Arabs called it "Amoud el-Sawari", Column of the Horsemen.
Excavations at the site in the last years of the century have unearthed a number of headless figures, a water basin and two sphinxes carved from red granite, which can be seen in the Graeco-Roman Museum.
A scenario based on discoveries made in the ruins of the Library at Alexandria can be found at Jerome Darmont's Castle Falkenstein site for those hosts who read French.
The Ptolemaic Palace system covered the promontory of Silsileh, and stretched south and west for about a mile along the shores of the Eastern Harbour. The palace system was connected to the Mouseion, and the Caesarium which was built later by Cleopatra in honor of Julius Caesar. An Island Palace, called Antirrhodus, was erected off of Alexandria's mainland in the Eastern Harbour. In later periods, water levels rose, and the Island subsided; remains of the Island Palace are submerged underneath the water of the Harbour.
The museum was first built in 1892 as a small building located on Horreya Road. In 1895 it was transferred to the present site near Gamal Abdul Nasser Road. It started with eleven galleries, and has been gradually enlarged in later renovation stages. The main collection held here is a wide variety of coins from different countries, chronologically arranged, and dating back from 630 BC to the Ottoman period in the 19th century. The collection, which covers the period from the 3rd century BC to the 7th century AD, is a fascinating record of civilization in the process of change as religions merged and society evolved.
In Alexandria, Graeco-Roman and Pharaonic religions mingled in the cult of Serapis; the shift from pagan religions to Christianity can also be seen in the exhibits which include mummies, Hellenistic statues, busts of Roman emperors, Tangara figurines, and early Christian antiquities.
The most recent archaeological discovery in Alexandria has been the tombs at Kom es-Shouqafa. These tombs were tunneled into the bedrock in the age of the Antonine emperors (2nd century AD) for a single wealthy family still practising the ancient religion. As a privately financed project, it is an engineering feat of some magnitude. These tombs represent the last existing major construction for the sake of the old Egyptian religion. Though the funerary motifs are pure ancient Egyptian, the architects and artists were schooled in the Graeco-Roman style. Applied to the themes of Ancient Egyptian religion, it has resulted in an amazing integrated art, quite unlike anything else in the world.
A winding staircase descends several levels deep into the ground, with little chapels opening from it, furnished with benches to accommodate visitors or mourners bringing offerings. There are niches cutout to hold sarcophagi. The vestibule and central tomb chamber are the main chambers. In the center of the facade, the familiar solar disk is carved below frieze of serpents. Left and right are two serpents wearing the crowns of upper and lower Egypt, though these are not the lithe cobras of Saqqara or Thebes. In the Tomb Chamber, the dead lies on a lion-shaped bier attended by Horus, Thoth, Anubis, and other familiar funerary deities and funerary equipment: Canopic jars, the priest in his panther skin, and the king making an offering to the deceased in the form of Osiris. These figures are rendered in Graeco-Roman style. To the traditional scenes are added bunches of grapes, Medusa heads, and a variety of Greek and Roman decorative devices. The overall impression conveyed is not easily analyzed and yet is unmistakable.
The Caesarium was a temple built by Cleopatra in honor of Mark Antony. The temple's beauty was highlighted by two obelisks known as Cleopatra's Needles. They were originally set up in Heliopolis (near Cairo) by Thothmes III and were transported to the temple site following Cleoptara's death.
Nothing remains of the Temple of Augustus. Founded by Cleopatra in honor of Mark Antony, it may well be in this temple that Cleopatra committed suicide in 30 BC. The temple stood near the shore at the center of the great harbor. It was a lavish temple with porticoes, propylalea, parks and libraries. The temple was rededicated to Caesar Augustus, Mark Antonio's conqueror. With the adoption of Christianity, it became the Cathedral of Alexandria in the 4th century AD. It was destroyed in 912 AD. In front of the temple stood two red granite obelisks called "Cleopatra's Needles", though they bear the names of Tuthmosis III, Seti I and Ramesses II. The obelisks were brought to Alexandria from Heliopolis by the Romans 20 years after Cleopatra's death. These giant Obelisks stayed still facing the old Harbor until 1877, when the British forces took them and shipped them away. One was removed to the Thames Embankment in London, and the other was taken to New York where it stands in Central Park.
Located in the heart of the Attarine District, the Attarine Mosque was dedicated to Saint Athanasius in 370 and converted into a Mosque at the beginning of the Arab conquest. The Mosque sits on the site of the famous Mosque of a Thousand Columns.
This mosque on the Rue Nebi Daniel is said to stand on the site of the tomb of Alexander the Great.
This beautiful mosque, with its high minaret and four domes, is Alexandria's largest and one of the most important Islamic monuments. In 1775 the Algerians built the mosque over the tomb of the thirteenth century Andalusan saint Ahmed Abu al-Abbas al-Mursi who had joined and then lead the Shadhali brotherhood. The interior is made up of eight monolithic granite columns and a colonnade of elongated arches. It is one of Alexandria's foremost religious buildings and women are not allowed inside the mosque proper, but may only visit a room at the back of the mosque.
Built in 1677, Terbana Mosque is one of the few remaining ancient mosques in Alexandria. It is located at the corner of Terbana street and Suq el-Tabakheen Street. The entrance of the mosque is a portal of bicolor bricks. A visitor can see two enormous granite columns with Corinthian capitals, and there are a number of ancient columns that are scattered inside the mosque. The mehrab, a corner in the mosque which shows prayers directions to Mecca, is covered with North African style ceramics.
Kom el-Dekka literally means "Mound of Rubble." It was a hilly pasture garden during the Ptolemaic period known as the Park of Pan. Its limestone summit was carved in the shape of a pinecone, a phallic symbol, and thus a sacred icon. In later centuries, the Romans built villas and public buildings over the park. When excavating the site, archaeologists found on top of the garden second century AD Roman baths and ninth century Moslem tombs.
The necropolis is located west of Alexandria in the Wardian district. The tomb is dated to the 2nd century BC and was built for a rich man in Alexandria during the Roman era. The decoration of the tomb is influenced by the ancient Egyptian motifs of funerary art. In the tomb is a mural of a mummified corpse that was laid on a bier and a figure of two mourners connected with the goddesses Nephthys and Isis. On the top of the bier is the winged sun-disk.
The tomb dates from the third century BC and was patterned after an old Greek house with an entrance, a front room, and a back room. It is considered to be Alexandria's oldest tomb.
The graveyard includes four tombs dating from the second century BC, all of which are in excellent condition and beautifully decorated. The graveyard was named after Mostafa Kamel, one of Egypt's greatest twentieth century political legends. His most famous phrase is, "If I was not born as an Egyptian, I would love to be an Egyptian."
This church reputedly was established by St. Mark the Evangelist who brought Christianity to Egypt. The current church is built on the remains of an earlier church and is in the basilican style. The church has a large hall that leads to the 11th century cemetery of Coptic archbishops.
This 115 acre complex is surrounded by great walls from the south, east and west, and with the beach on its north side. This area used to belong to the Mohamed Ali family, that ruled Egypt from the mid 19th century. The construction was started in 1892 by King Abbas II, who built a large palace inside the complex called the Salamlek. The rest of the 115 acres is nothing but beautiful gardens. Palm trees and gazelles cover the area. This is a wonderful spot to enjoy the beauty of Alexandria.
Wadi Natrun is one of the prime attractions for the Christian religious tourist that comes to Egypt. The word Wadi stands for valley. The reason that this area is called a valley is because it is a flat land surrounded by 10 lakes. The water mainly comes from the rainwater of desert storms. The area is rich with salts and carbonates of sodium, which ancient Egyptians used to mummify their dead. The Romans extracted silica for glass from here. More recently, a railroad system was built to move the salt in the valley to Cairo. The history of the Wadi and its importance to the Copts goes back to the 4th century. Anchorites inhabited caves around the valley and built monasteries. After the Arab invasion to Egypt, the Khalifa of Moslems in Arabia gave Christian monks in Egypt the amnesty to practice their religion. For that reason, the area became the official residence of the Coptic patriarch. Even now the patriarch is elected from Wadi Natrun monks. A Coptic monk has to wait for ten years before being considered as a hermit monk. After that time he quests for a cave around the area or digs one for himself. This tradition has been carried out for centuries among Copts. Most of the monasteries in the area have been rebuilt and restored between the 8th and 11th centuries. The early churches had similar Roman/Coptic Architecture. The monasteries were divided on the inside into three sections, including communion, reading catechism, and a basin for sinners to bathe.
The monastery was named after St. Bishoi. He and the hermit, John the Short, escaped to Fayoum for refuge in 340 AD. Many of his Coptic monk followers went after him. Between 385 and 390 AD he built a church. That church, which was restored many times, is now a Coptic museum. The icon of the church of Bishoi washing Christ's feet came from an interesting story. The story says that Bishoi was a very kind and modest man. It was a common practice for he and his followers to wash the dust from the feet of travelers. One day, as he was administering to the feet of a traveler, he discovered the stigmata (wounds of Christ). The monastery recently purchased 400 hectares of land, where they planted olive groves, fruits, vegetables and pasturage, and established medical clinics to serve the community.
The monastery was bought by Syrian merchants to host their monks. It was destroyed in the 14th century after several raids from nearby Bedouin tribes. These continual raids forced the monks and the monastery inhabitants to flee the area. During the 15th century, Coptic and Syrian monks again inhabited the monastery. The monastery now has more than 3000 ancient and fairly new books. It plays an important role in global culture.
By the 6th century, the monastery, also called "Deir Anba Makaryus", used to be the official residence of the bishops of Alexandria. The heads of the Coptic Church were forbidden to reside in Alexandria because of the Byzantine rulers of Egypt at that time. It is now the official residence of the Coptic patriarch. In this monastery, the first Wadi Natrun library was established in the 17th century. The monastery consists of at least four churches and a winery. St. Magar lived as a hermit monk in a cave. He received divine revelation in the form of a dream to build a church. Another interesting church inside the complex is The Church of Forty-nine Martyrs. This church has beautiful icons of St. Magar, St. George, St. Mark and the Virgin Mary.
Built in the fifth century, the Basilica of Arcadius was built in the center of a glamorous complex just south of Alexandria in Karm Abu Menas. Its roof is supported with 56 marble columns. The Baptistery is located in the western end of the Basilica with corners rounded in semicircular, polychrome marble niches. This is the only Coptic monument that shows the use of these elements in ancient Christian architecture. A church is located in the west side of the basilica with a strong Egyptian and Byzanthine architectural influence.
A community of monks founded the monastery in the 5th century. It is located in el-Dekhiela, which lies on the Mediterranean coastal road between Alexandria and Mersa Matruh. The monks traces were found further south of the Western desert near Mariut and Wadi Natrun.
Built in the 3rd century, the monastery commemorates an Alexandrine soldier, Menas, who was an officer in Diocletian's army. Menas refused to kill any Christian after his army won. He declared his Christianity publicly, which was a tremendous motive for other Christians to bear the suffering and abuse from Diocletian's army. The monastery is located south of Alexandria, in the midway between Wadi el-Natrun and Alexandria. Legend has it that Menas' remains were brought back from Phrygia by camel and was buried were the animal refused to walk any more. A water well in the desert came up from that spot. These water wells made the area full of vines and olive trees. It was an oasis called Saint Menas Vineyards. Today, only ruins and the desert are the witness of once a beautiful oasis.
The temple was built in the Ptolemy era and finished the construction of Alexandria. The temple is located in Abusir, the western suburb of Alexandria. The temple was dedicated to Osiris. Only the outer wall and the pylons remain from the temple. There is evidence to prove that sacred animals were worshipped there. Archeologists found an animal necropolis near the temple. Remains of a Christian church show that the temple was used as a church in later centuries. Also found in the same area are remains of public baths built by the emperor Justinian, a seawall, quays and a bridge. Near the beach side of the area, we can see the remains of a tower built by Ptolemy II Philadelphus. The tower was an exact replica of the destroyed Alexandrine Pharos Lighthouse.
Built in the 5th century to accommodate the increasing number of Christian pilgrims, the Thermal Basilica used to store the curative waters which were used for the heated baths and pools surrounding the Basilica. Legend has it that pilgrims used to fill tiny flasks with water from the Basilica. The flasks were stamped with the seal of Saint Menas. The seal was a picture of Saint Menas standing between two kneeling camels. During the 5th and 6th century, many buildings were built around the Thermal Basilica. A 48,000 square yard monastery was built to the north side of the Basilica. Archeologists excavated an entire town with houses and cemeteries. They even found the house of the potters who made the flasks, the shop, and the remains of some flasks, lamps and toys.
