Before there was civilization in Egypt, or the delta of the Nile had
been formed, the whole country as far south as modern Cairo lay under
the sea. The shores of this sea were a limestone desert. The coast line
was smooth usually, but at the north-west corner a remarkable spur
jutted out from the main mass. It was less than a mile wide, but thirty
miles long. Its base is not far from Bahig, Alexandria is built half-way
down it, its tip is the headland of Aboukir. On either side of it there
was once deep salt water.
Centuries passed, and the Nile, issuing out of its crack above Cairo,
kept carrying down the muds of Upper Egypt and dropping them as soon as
its current slackened. In the north-west corner they were arrested by
this spur and began to silt up against it. It was a shelter not only
from the outer sea, but from the prevalent wind. Alluvial land appeared;
the large shallow lake of Mariout was formed; and the current of the
Nile, unable to escape through the limestone barrier, rounded the
headland of Aboukir and entered the outer sea by what was known in
historical times as the “Canopic” mouth.
To the north of the spur and more or less parallel to it runs a second
range of limestone. It is much shorter, also much lower, lying mainly
below the surface of the sea in the form of reefs, but without it there
would have been no harbours (and consequently no Alexandria), because it
breaks the force of the waves. Starting at Agame, it continues as a
series of rocks across the entrance of the modern harbour. Then it
re-emerges to form the promontory of Ras el Tin, disappears into a
second series of rocks that close the entrance of the Eastern Harbour,
and makes its final appearance as the promontory of Silsileh, after
which it rejoins the big spur.
Such is the scene where the following actions and meditations take
place; that limestone ridge, with alluvial country on one side of it and
harbours on the other, jutting from the desert, pointing towards the
Nile; a scene unique in Egypt, nor have the Alexandrians ever been truly
Egyptian. Here Africans, Greeks and Jews combined to make a city; here a
thousand years later the Arabs set faintly but durably the impress of
the Orient; here after secular decay rose another city, still visible,
where I worked or appeared to work during a recent war. Pharos, the vast
and heroic lighthouse that dominated the first city—under Pharos I have
grouped a few antique events; to modern events and to personal
impressions I have given the name of Pharillon, the obscure successor of
Pharos, which clung for a time to the low rock of Silsileh and then slid
unobserved into the Mediterranean.
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