DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4023#0069
■inula
NEW ALEXANDRIA.
]T may justly be said, that in the new city of Alexan-
dria we find a poor orphan, whose sole inheritance
I has been the venerable name of its father. The vast
extent of the ancient city is contracted in the new,
to a little neck of land, between the two ports. The
moll superb temples are changed into plain mosques;
the most magnificent palaces, into houses of a bad
structure; the royal seat is become a prison for ssaves;
an opulent and numerous people has given way to a
little number of foreign traders, and to a mul-
titude of wretches, that are the servants of those on whom they depend : a
place formerly so famous for the extent of its commerce, is no longer any thing
^ore than a mere place of embarking; in fine, it is not a phcenix, that revives
from its own ashes, it is at most a reptile, sprung from the dirt, the dust, and
corruption, with which the Alcoran has infe&ed the whole country.
Thi s is, in general, the portraiture of the Alexandria of our time. It scarce
deserves, that we mould give a description of it in form. I cannot, however,
decline