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The 16th Century

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The 19th Century

The evidence of travellers

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Around 1603 a plan was made by a spy working for the King of the Two Sicilies. It is an extremely interesting document, unpublished to date. This document is part of a manuscript that comprises letters exchanged between the Marquess of Santa Cruz and the King of Naples. It proposes the organisation of an attack on Alexandria by a fleet of ships from Christian states. The attack was never carried out. The importance of this plan lies in the fact that it was made by a spy - perhaps a civil engineer, or an officer in disguise - who was solely concerned with reproducing what he could see, without exaggeration or enhancement.

The 1665 plan of De Monconys is rather sketchy. In 1687 the French engineer Razaud drew two plans that can be called scientific. In 1699 two French pilots of the King, Christian Melchien and Antoine Massy, drew two different plans of the two ports giving detailed soundings of the area.

It seems that the French had a particular and continuing interest in the cartography of the ports of Alexandria during the 17th, the 18th and the 19th century.

In 1731, the Russian monk Vassili Barkij, drew a bird's eye panoramic view of Alexandria and its ports giving important details as an eye witness.

That same year the French scholar Bonamy visited Alexandria and drew a map of the city, in a first attempt to show how Alexandria was in antiquity and more precisely at the time of Strabo.

Captain Norden drew two reliable plans in 1738.

Richard Pococke illustrated his "Description of the East" with a plan drawn in 1743.

The "Plan d'Alexandrie" of D'Anville, drawn in 1766, was used by Bonaparte for his landing at Alexandria of 1798.

Savary's plan of 1798 is largely based on the work of D'Anville.

In 1795 Allezard drew two versions of a plan focusing on the two ports.

The French Expedition of Bonaparte produced the known monumental work la Déscription de l'Egypte. Our knowledge of Alexandria as of the rest of Egypt greatly benefited from the detailed and profusely illustrated description of sites and monuments.