The Lost City Of Knowledge: What Life Was Like In Ancient Alexandria | Metropolis | Timeline

This channel is part of the History Hit Network. Over 2,000 years ago, the first great European capital cities rose around the shores of the Mediterranean. More and more people lived in increasingly crowded conditions. The arts, commerce and sciences flourished. Struggling for power and influence, these cities tried to outshine each other by erecting magnificent buildings. People from different cultures and parts of the world were drawn to these cities, seeking prosperity and happiness. The entrance to the harbour of one of antiquity's mega cities, Alexandria. It was founded in 331 BC by Alexander the Great. The Greek commander had just conquered Egypt and wanted to establish a new royal city in his own honour on the western edge of the Nile Delta. His architects designed the city on a grid pattern, to be built on unoccupied ground. For decades, Alexandria was the largest construction site of the ancient Mediterranean. It attracted people from everywhere, among them the most important thinkers of the time. Alexandria became the cultural centre of the ancient world. Today, over four million people live in Egypt's second largest city. The modern metropolis has buried ancient Alexandria under concrete and asphalt. Only deep beneath the city, and in the expanses of the Egyptian desert, can evidence of Alexandria's mysterious past be found. What knowledge was stored in the legendary library of Alexandria? Where stood the famous lighthouse, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world? What drew people to Alexandria from around the world? One of these stories has come down to us, the story of Agnodike, who came from Athens to the young metropolis to seek her fortune. The stellar rise of Alexandria has preoccupied the French archaeologist Jean-Yves Empereur for over 10 years. He's the director of the Centre for Alexandrian Studies. His research reveals that the ancient metropolis was a city of gigantic dimensions. The streets are wider than in any other city. The Via Canopica, the economic way, was more than 30 metres wide. And so it's incredible size if you compare with the ancient cities like Athens or Corinth. It's like New York compared to Paris or London, you know? And even the skyscraper, like the lighthouse. So the Greeks who came from the old trees from the islands were very much impressed when they came to the city. The lighthouse, with its gleaming white marble facade, rose 140 metres into the sky. It was a conspicuous landmark and a symbol of Alexandria's power. Construction of the lighthouse began in 299 BC, based on plans by Sostratus of Cnidus. After 20 years of construction, the gigantic tower was finally nearing completion. It was a symbol of hope for all those making the perilous voyage to Alexandria. It was a beacon for Agnidice too, whose story is told by the Roman scholar Hyginus. Nothing remains of the lighthouse today. Not even its location is certain. However, there are many indications that this is where it stood. Today, the harbour entrance is dominated by a building from the 15th century, Fort Kate Bay. Renovations on this Arab citadel have recently begun. They offer a rare opportunity to uncover the building's secrets. Did the ruins of the lighthouse provide materials to build the fort? According to studies by the Arab authors, the pharaoh's stump is still in the citadel, in the main tower. This can only be investigated by digging. We are now digging around the tower, looking at the rocks through small windows, to see if we can find any traces of the foundations, any traces that point to the lighthouse. Katrin Machinek is an architect on Dr. Empereur's team. Under the fort is a huge cistern which could supply enough water to last out a lengthy siege. The cistern is like a museum of architectural history. There are Corinthian capitals and ancient columns. Do they include fragments of the lighthouse? The site of Kate Bay is a mixed site of architectural pieces belonging to the lighthouse itself. We could, for instance, reconstruct a very huge door more than 12 or up to 13 meters from the lantern to the soil, with very night jams and lintel of granite from Aswan. We have some colossal statues which stood in this place because we have found them parallels one to the other, just in front of their bases. So they are very big statues of the kings, ptolemies and queens which were standing during antiquity at the foot of the lighthouse. Most likely, Fort Kate Bay stands on the spot once occupied by the mightiest lighthouse of all time. It guided mariners safely into Alexandria's harbour for 1500 years, until it was toppled by an earthquake. What has remained is its legend. The best builders of the times were brought to Alexandria to create this architectural miracle. Among them was Kratis, brother of Agnodike's mother. As a young engineer, he had taken up Alexander the Great's call and followed him here. Agnodike has arrived from Athens. Having survived an arduous and dangerous sea voyage. Agnodike has a bold plan which she can realise only in Alexandria. The very first traces of the city of Alexandria are found out at sea on a small rocky island off the coast, Nelson Island. Professor Paolo Gallo, after years of negotiation, is the first scientist allowed to explore this barren island in a secure military zone. Here he expects to unearth important information on the origins of Alexandria. His early findings seem to justify his hopes. The most striking feature of what we found, it is that we found the only levels which are intact belonging to this period. I mean in Alexandria itself it is very difficult to find periods of the first Ptolemaic age in which all the things are still in situ. So there we found all the pottery and all the things that were abandoned at once. Much to Gallo's surprise, this outpost was abandoned shortly after Alexandria's founding and has remained uninhabited ever since. Just below ground level, the foundations of a large building have emerged. Was this a temple, a lighthouse or a military installation? On the steep cliffs along the shore, the archaeologists stumbled across the entrance to an underground gallery, part of an ancient system. In the 17th century English sailors sought shelter here. It is written Herod Lukes 1658 and this is his portrait to a man of this period with the Barbish and the moustache. Two thousand years earlier, Alexander the Great's soldiers made camp on the island. We discovered houses belonging to soldiers of this period and for sure there was a military garrison there. We found big bowls of catapults in the houses. The island was strategically positioned facing Canopus, Egypt's most important Mediterranean port until the founding of Alexandria. From this island, Alexander the Great could control the Egyptian harbour and also speed up construction of his royal city. This military garrison was occupied only during a short period, during about almost between 30 and 40 years, no more. So after this was completely abandoned. So we can understand from this that was abandoned because the strategical interest of the island and of Canopus itself and the harbour of Canopus was lost because the new harbour, that of Alexandria, was already working. Was the island perhaps also a kind of planning office for the city going up on the mainland? Alexandria was an experimental city. Newer excavations show the complexity of the work undertaken by ancient engineers. By now, archaeologists from Dr. Empereur's team have become specialists in rescue digs on construction sites. Each time a point of entry to ancient Alexandria is uncovered, a race against time begins for the archaeologists. Many promising sites are rapidly covered over again by the building contractors. For them, every day of archaeological excavation represents a financial loss. This area near the ancient palace has been inhabited continuously since the founding of the city, but it is difficult to interpret the sequence of historical eras. Still, discoveries have been made here that show how far-sighted the Greek city planners were. Cisterns and water pipes have been found. They show the progressive way Alexandrian engineers solved the problem of a city that lacked spring water. The first thing the Greeks laid down for the new metropolis was a network of prefabricated clay pipes for the water supply. As in modern water systems, the mass-produced ancient pipes, with their cone-shaped ends, fitted exactly into one another. Tens of thousands of such pipes must have been laid below ground before work began on the roads. The entire infrastructure, the layout of roads and paths, and the position of buildings must have been determined in detail from the start. A masterpiece of planning. Water from the Nile and from natural reservoirs near the city flowed through canals to the city's ingenious network of water pipes. 200 kilometres inland is the region of Fayoum, which in antiquity was the granary for the city of Alexandria. In this fertile region, time seems to have stood still. To this day, the ancient form of irrigation, as simple as it is ingenious, has been preserved. Powered by the water itself, the wheel raises the precious liquid in its scoops and empties it into canals. When the water reached Alexandria, it had to be stored and distributed. An underground system. Isabelle Airy, from the Centre for Alexandrian Studies, has been researching the hidden water reservoirs of the city for years. The El Nabi system is the preserved. It dates from the time of Arab rule in Alexandria. When the Arabs reached the city during the 8th century AD, they built huge water systems. A thousand years earlier, the Greeks had solved the problem of water supply in a different, but no less spectacular manner. Only a few years after the city's founding in 331 BC, the population of Alexandria had increased to half a million. But its architects had anticipated the growth of the settlement, and had designed a road system built on a grid, which could handle a high volume of traffic. The two main traffic arteries of modern Alexandria date back to when the city was founded. They are the same size they were over 2,000 years ago. Magnificent palaces and temples lined the avenues in those days. But how did ordinary Alexandrians live? Grzegorz Majerek, from Warsaw University, has managed to excavate the remains of residential buildings from the city's beginnings. Each owner was allotted the same lot of land, roughly 25 by 25 meters, to build his house on it. And we think that this system that goes back to the time of Alexander the Great was retained at least for four centuries in Alexandria. A well-to-do family lived on about 600 square meters of land, enough for a spacious villa surrounded by gardens and stables. Discoveries such as this house with its Greek mosaic are rare, but everyday items from Alexandria are even rarer. Alexandria's Greco-Roman Museum houses the few remaining artefacts from that time, including the precious Tanagra figurines. They were always found in the graves of young women, for whom the figurines were probably companion, toy and lucky charm. Ancient Alexandria was not only the most modern city of its time, but also the centre of knowledge. Only here can Agnodike fulfil her greatest wish, to study medicine and become a doctor. Even in Alexandria, this was unthinkable for a woman. A taboo Agnodike must break if she wants to achieve her goal. In cosmopolitan Alexandria, the image of women was shaped by Greek ideals. The proof is in the details of the Tanagra figurines. The elaborate painting has survived the centuries. The figurines show Alexandrian women followed Greek fashion in their clothes and hair. But did they follow Greek conventions in other respects as well? In Alexandria, the Greeks had encountered a pharaonic tradition, whereas in Greece, a woman's life was intended to be passed within the confines of the home. Egypt boasted some powerful female rulers. You could find all the races of the people of the world. All the languages were spoken in Alexandria, and even in the library you could find papyri books, between brackets, written in many languages of the world and translated from Egyptian to Greek, from Aramaic and Hebrew to Greek and so on. So it was the melting pot of antiquity. Like every big city, Alexandria was from the outset a major centre of production. One effect of living so closely together was the division of labour and specialisation. People sold their goods and bought their food on the street. The only meal that ordinary people usually had at home was the evening meal. Breakfast was generally bread dipped in wine. Where fishermen bring their catch to shore today, the slaves of 2,300 years ago unloaded the merchant ships. Goods from all over the Mediterranean were loaded and unloaded here. Alexandria harbour was Egypt's gate to the world. At the beginning of the 19th century, ancient Alexandria had been almost completely forgotten. Then by pure chance, the driver of a cab made an astonishing discovery. It brought to light the history hidden beneath the city, and gave a fascinating insight into this Greek settlement in Egypt. Early one morning, he hitched up his horse and went to work on the streets of Alexandria. In one of the narrow lanes, the road suddenly gave way beneath him and revealed the entrance to a long-forgotten world. The city of the dead, the catacombs of Qom el-Shukafa. Twenty metres beneath the bustle of the modern port city lies an extensive network of caves carved out of the rock. Here, the people of Alexandria buried their dead. This sarcophagus is decorated with Greek vine leaves and with Egyptian gods. It expresses the peaceful coexistence between the newly arrived Greek settlers and the indigenous Egyptians. This coexistence was fostered by General Ptolemy, who assumed power here after the death of Alexander the Great. His heirs continued this policy, and thus Ptolemaic culture came into being. Cosmopolitan and dedicated to progress, Alexandria became a centre of knowledge. This is why Agnodike II has come to Alexandria. But because official avenues are closed to her, she is resorting to a dangerous ruse. She must become a man. Her uncle Kratis tries to change her mind, but she will not be deterred by his warnings. Agnodike is bold, but she is also keenly aware of the danger she must face if she is to enter the world of knowledge to which only men have access. Knowledge is power. That was the insight of the Ptolemaic rulers. Their legacy was some splendid monuments. For Dr. Empereur, the Temple of Taposiris is an impressive example of the magnificent buildings that must once have graced Alexandria. Taposiris is in the westernmost part of Alexandria. It indicates the size of the area ruled by the Ptolemies. The whole region was a flourishing commercial district with a harbour, warehouses, vineyards and small workshops. The position of this temple is strategic because we are here at the end of the territory of Alexandria. There was a wall, what they called the Arab Wall here, to prevent any people to enter this area without paying the customs. So they had to go through a gate there on the lake and even all the ships sailing on this lake had to go through a small bridge and to pay also the customs to enter Alexandria territory. This area was heavily populated. The temple was surrounded by its own town with its own infrastructure. Next to the temple district were extensive residential areas and artisans' workshops producing goods of all kinds. To this day, the shards of hundreds of thousands of amphorae still lie here. So this is only a very small part of the big dam and you can see there are some bottom amphorae and it's pointed to stand in the sand, to stand in the keel, to stand in the ships where they were transported to exploitation. This is a handle, double handle, you see, a very strong one, with a fingerprint of the pottery maker, you can see it when he did it. So thousands of amphorae made by many, many people who participated to this production, mass production for mass exportation to Alexandria and to the rest of the Mediterranean. In ancient times, mass production probably looked much like this. In a remote inland river valley, thousands of amphorae are still produced today. The process has not changed. People still get their clay from the river. Even today, people cannot imagine daily life without amphorae, which are used to keep food cool or to transport it. Just as in the workshops around ancient Alexandria, there are no machines here. Everything is made entirely by hand. A chance discovery revealed how so many clay vessels could be produced at once. These are the remains of an enormous amphora kiln destroyed by an explosion. Until recently, it was hidden under a mountain of shards. In this kiln, more than 600 amphorae could be fired simultaneously. You have a lot of questions with such a kiln and I think that they have a lot of problems. You can see the eye of the dump. They have broken a lot of amphorae because I think it was very difficult to control, to check up the firing. You know, the fire chamber is more than two and a half metres high. Kilns like these are still used in the hinterlands of Alexandria today. They are lit once a week to fire all the pottery on hand. Clay was the universal material of antiquity. It was cheap, freely available, easy to shape and durable. As they did in ancient times, the men feed the fire and keep it burning all night long. Whether it was amphorae or water pipes, this early mass production of everyday items was one of the prerequisites for the development of large cities. Agnodike's transformation is now complete. But will the deception work? The library of Alexandria, the goal of Agnodike's dreams. Here, the greatest minds of her time teach and conduct research. Archimedes, Euclid or Eratosthenes, who had discovered that the earth was not flat, but a sphere. The library was renowned throughout the ancient world. 700,000 scrolls of the collected knowledge of antiquity were stored here. The Ptolemies went to unusual lengths in their pursuit of knowledge. Every ship that docked in Alexandria had to hand over to the library all its written materials and received copies in return. A treasure trove of knowledge opens up before Agnodike. No one here could know that not a single scroll will survive. The library and its treasures were destroyed by fire in the 3rd century AD. However, there is one place where papyrus scrolls from that time have been preserved. Teptunus, at the edge of the desert. For the past 20 years, a French-Italian team has been excavating the remains of a Ptolemaic city here. What in Alexandria is hidden beneath numerous layers of history here lies directly under the desert sand. The extraordinary feature of Teptunus is not the ruins. The extremely dry desert climate has preserved thousands of written documents dating back to the founding of Alexandria. It is an El Dorado for the papyrus specialist Professor Galazzi who leads the dig. The papyrus was used in all Egypt and also in Greece and in Europe. But in Greece and in Europe it is impossible to find papyri. As it is impossible to find papyri in Alexandria because the humidity destroyed all this kind of material. In this small village, the sand, the desert, preserves all. For that, Teptunus is one of the rare places of Egypt where it is possible yet now to find papyri. And my mission is to find about 3,000 papyri. The discoveries made in Teptunus suggest what treasures must once have been stored in the library of Alexandria. These papyri already provide unrivaled insight into life in ancient times. All the papyri give us a view of daily life. We have the receipt of the taxes that allows to know the name of the owner of the building. We have the account of the food bought by the family. Sometimes we have official acts of birth or death, of marriage. We have a contract, so if you join all this text, all this information, you can really have exact view of the life in this village 2,000 years ago. There were no libraries in the provinces. The Teptunus papyri come from private dwellings, offices or temples. With its geometric layout and its broad processional avenue, Teptunus has similarities to the capital, Alexandria. And as in Alexandria, there are signs of an intermingling of cultures. Greek columns deep in the Egyptian hinterland. This house may have been the home of a rich merchant who made his fortune by trading along the caravan routes. Even in Egypt, the Greeks of the Ptolemaic period retained their Greek lifestyle. They had a special temple dedicated to the god Hermes. And their daily lives in the desert were sweetened by luxurious public baths, which even boasted heated floors. The fragile papyri must be treated on site to ensure their preservation. After centuries in the sand, they reveal their long-held secrets to the scientists. The texts are written in Greek but also in Demotic, the everyday Egyptian script. Papyrus, too, was a mass-produced product, much like modern notepaper. It was necessary to join together the sheets of papyrus and to form a roll of papyrus. Normally, a roll of 20 sheets. It was long, about 3 metres 20 centimetres. And when some person needed to use a small part of the papyrus, cut a part of the roll and use. Most of the Teptunus papyri record ordinary, everyday events. Their sales contracts, tax notices, all lease agreements. But the Library of Alexandria housed the writings of all the great scholars of the time. There were works on mathematics, geometry and astronomy, as well as historical works, maps and pioneering medical treatises. All waiting for Agnidice. But the library also guarded some secrets which were to be withheld from most people. The famous doctor Hierophilus taught in Alexandria. His unusual research methods were not meant to be publicly known. Driven by curiosity, Agnidice dares to mingle with the doctor's circle of students. Hierophilus was the founder of modern anatomy. He gained his insights from the dissection of human cadavers. But even in the city of knowledge, such a practice was strictly taboo. To cut open a corpse instead of burying it with dignity was to go against the will of the gods. Agnidice is suddenly in great danger. If she is discovered, her survival is by no means certain. Professor Galazzi's discoveries generally shed light on matters that are less sensational but in no way less human. This is information concerning a priest meeting with the date, the name of the person invited in the meeting and the information that the member of the association and the person that was invited in the meeting drink some beer. The face of Alexandria has changed many times since its founding. The Greeks were succeeded by the Romans. Then the Arabs ruled the city for a time. In the 1920s, the ancient metropolis took on a Mediterranean look. Nowadays, progress has arrived in the form of newly constructed office buildings. On historic soil. Dr. Empereur's team is on its way to yet another rescue dig. A modern shopping mall is being built. To save time and against all agreements, the developer has buried half the excavation site under a concrete slab overnight. The archaeologists have little time to explore the area still accessible. And yet it was here that they made a significant discovery. In a pile of rubble, they came across the torso of a marble statue. The precious find has been examined and treated in the research centre's workshops. Much to the team's surprise, it turned out to be the marble statue of a Roman emperor. Alexandria had been the queen of the ancient capitals for 300 years when a new metropolis rose to power across the sea. Rome seized control over the entire Mediterranean region. In 31 BC, the Romans subjugated the realm of the Ptolemies. They changed the Greek city radically by building their own on top of it. And imposed their culture on Alexandria. This showy Roman boulevard was built directly over a Ptolemaic residential area. Unlike the Greeks, the Romans took the country by force. The intermingling of cultures ended abruptly. The Romans would tolerate no other rulers. They reduced the glittering metropolis to a provincial town in their empire. Agnodice's plan has failed. She must return to Athens. But fate gives her story an unexpected twist. At the lighthouse construction site, part of the scaffolding has collapsed and buried some labourers working for Kratis. He too has been injured. The accident at the lighthouse gives Agnodice the opportunity to demonstrate her competence. Her help is valued in this hour of need. Agnodice will be allowed to stay in Alexandria and finish her studies. As a woman with the same rights as male students. The story is told that she returned to Athens and worked successfully as a doctor for many years. Alexandria's heyday under Ptolemaic rule lasted only 300 years. It was the Ptolemies who transformed Alexander the Great's vision into reality. They made Alexandria the cultural centre of the ancient world and a stronghold of knowledge and the sciences. Alexandria was also antiquity's most modern city with a perfect infrastructure, incomparable buildings and unique technological achievements. Alexandria was far ahead of its time. Not until the modern period did city planners again dare to attempt such immense urban projects.