Talk:Alexandria/Archive 1

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Archive 1

Arabic not native

Arabic isn't the native language of Egypt; the sentence comparing it with (among others) Greek is highly misleading, since Greek has been spoken there for far longer than Arabic. Coptic is actually the language with the best claim to be "native" (it evolved from ancient Egyptian languages), but even that is as wrong as saying that English is the native language of the Anglo-Saxons. But I can't really think of a better phrase. "Arabic is the dominant language" perhaps? "majority language"? Suggestions please. PML.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.16.172.8 (talk) 06:56, 18 October 2003 (UTC)

Arabic is both the official language and the language spoken by the indiginous (i.e. Egyptian) population. It is put next to Greek, amongst others, as Greek is spoken by a number of foreigners (and maybe some clergymen?), not by the Egypt-born population, give or take a few exceptions. To say that Arabic is Egypt's native language nowadays is like saying that English is Britain's native language, which is true unless the concept of of 'native' is stretched to its limits. --Santetjan 9 July 2005 18:36 (UTC)

The British Occupation

The entry narrating the justification of the British invasion is biased and rather vague on the details. Either do not attempt to justify anything in this entry or narrate it in more depth. In its current form it is unsatisfactory.—Preceding unsigned comment added by Karmish (talkcontribs) 03:13, 28 March 2005 (UTC)

Modern Alexandria

Great for the history of Alexandria, but could use more information on what the city is like today.—Preceding unsigned comment added by Poiubvcx888 (talkcontribs) 18:07, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Not only today, but something about the great changes that have come over it in the past century. Cranston Lamont 21:55, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

PLEASE READ AND UPDATE ALEXANDRIA ARTICLE

99 times out of 100 I am satisfied if not impressed with the compreheniveness and level of detail in Wikipedia and it's 1,000,000 articles in general. That is what made this article all the more shocking to me. I am not really very good at creating or ediing articles, but I had to make what I considered to be a much needed (emergency) addition to the article. There was basically no information on the modern city in the article which is quite frankly egregious for a city of Alexandrias prominence and renown. It is after all Egypt's second city with well over three million people, not some desert backwater. I hope someone reads my appeal to add an entire section dealing with todays Alexandria as my modifications were barebones according to my skill at editing articles PLEASE READ THIS AND UPDATE!!!—Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.146.173.207 (talk) 06:41, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

I was looking forward to read about this great city, but found the article to short. Some locals should write here, and tell us more about Alexandria. It's quite fascinating to think about how this city developed, from ancient towards modern time, and how buildings where built on top of old buildings and ruins through the time. Ironicaly Alexandria had the greatest libary ever, which disappeared in the 600's. Ships from all over the world entered the harbour, and they had to give away all the books that was on the ship. They got a copy back, and the original books stayed in the libary.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.203.8.61 (talk) 23:50, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

OtherUses template

Please change the article to use Template:OtherUses instead of Template:otheruses it currently uses. The OtherUses template has information about the contents of the article. {{OtherUses|info=information about the contents of the article}} For a sample use of this template refer to the articles Alabama or Algiers—Preceding unsigned comment added by DuKot (talkcontribs) 20:21, 17 July 2005 (UTC)

Note that that functionality is now at {{otheruses1}}. {{OtherUses}} redirects to {{otheruses}}, and is deprecated.--Srleffler 18:41, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

Start Talking about Modern Alexandria

Obviously most of the readers of Alexandria's article have noticed a shortage of information about modern Alexandria. Introducing myself as an Alexandrian, I shall start a new section under the title of Modern Alexandria, but actually I'm not good at writing and editing articles. So I shall post some images that may be stimulating for some wikipedians to start writing about it. TheEgyptian 22/9/2006—Preceding unsigned comment added by TheEgyptian (talkcontribs) 16:12, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Theatre vs. Amphitheatre

I went ahead and changed the tag on the theatre image. A Roman amphitheatre is fully round. The theatre in the picture is clearly semi-circular, and therefore a regular theatre. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Pyzmark (talkcontribs) 00:40, 11 March 2007 (UTC).

I just reverted the edit, as I found it's the name used commonly in Egypt for it.--TheEgyptian 23:54, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Okay fine. It makes perfect sense, since the article deals with modern Alexandria as well. However, and I think this is an acceptable compromise between historical accuracy and modern usage, I felt it necessary to add parentheses to the caption. It won't do to go misleading people on a Wikipedia article - it really is what Wikipedia is trying to avoid these days. Pyzmark 15:07, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

The section about the neighbourhood

Looks like a list. I suggest writing a paragraph, talking about the famous neighbourhoods, and giving a link to the whole list.--TheEgyptian 22:47, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:AlexFlag.gif

Image:AlexFlag.gif is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in Wikipedia articles constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use. Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. If there is other other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.BetacommandBot 19:01, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Alexandrian "Accent"

The section on dialectical differences between the speech of Cairo and that of Alexandria needs to be re-written to follow the norms of the English language. It might also be better to just move it to a new article such as "Alexandrian Arabic" or to the existing article on Egyptian Arabic. -- Slacker 06:19, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Alexandria Language School (ALS)

I've added the school to the Educational Institutions, it is a widely known private school and I am one of its graduates. Its website is http://www.als-eg.net . nÅnNü 18:31, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

  • Yes, ALS is a famous school in Alex. Thanks Nour! --Lanternix 19:20, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

Material from the 1911 article

This page needs some drastic updating by someone familiar with the modern city. I'm moving some of the more dated material from the 1911 article here, for reference; some of it may be suitable for working back in, but I'm willing to bet that much no longer applies. Catherine—Preceding undated comment added at 00:39, 4 March 2003 (UTC)

City

Alien city

This sounds like it should be "more detached from Rome", but I'm not sure.Catherine—Preceding undated comment added at 00:39, 4 March 2003 (UTC)
What is meant here is that Alexandria remained in many ways a Graeco-Roman city, part of the classical European cultural sphere, while the surrounding country turned somewhat away from it, so that Alexandria became something of a foreign entity in its own country. --Santetjan 9 July 2005 18:40 (UTC)

Regarding the Library of Alexandria

The story of Abulfaragius

I have added this section and also kept previous one.

The famous Library of Alexandria had been destroyed much earlier - in 3rd century during a civil war in the time of the Roman Emperor Aurelian. The myth that the Arabs destroyed it was a lie invented by 13th century Christian propagandists. Source: [Sword of Prophet, writer: Robert Goldston, Pg 56, The Dial Press New York, 1979] --Itsalif 21:16, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Roman annexation

Sorry - new to this so unfamiliar with editing. However noticed that the section Roman Annexation includes the following:

"Julius Caesar dallied with Cleopatra in Alexandria in 47 BC, saw Alexander's body (quipping 'I came to see a king, not a collection of corpses' when he was offered a view of the other royal burials) and was mobbed by the rabble."

This quote was not Caesar but Octavian - atributed by both Suetonius (Augustus 18) and Dio Cassius.

Would have to agree with many other comments on this page that this article is in need of a sponsor. I think it would also be sensible to split into two separates articles on ancient and modern Alexandria. Just my view... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tomsants (talkcontribs) 21:17, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Enlarged gallery images

29-Oct-2007: In October, I enlarged gallery images in several articles, by using wikitables. Images become large enough to see trees or window areas, while expanding Internet data transfer only 60% (about 2 seconds longer @dial-up speed for 3 images):

 {| class=prettytable "width:380px;"
 |-
 |<!--Col1-->[[Image:Alexandria 2123021.jpg|299x120px]]
 |<!--Col2--> [[Image:Alexandria 2123028.jpg|299x120px]]
 |<!--Col3--><center>[[Image:Alexandr*2123097.jpg|299x120px]]</center>
 |-
 |<!--Col1-->Alexandria beach
 |<!--Col2-->[[Citadel of Qaitbay]]
 |<!--Col3-->[[Saad Zaghloul]] street in downtown Alexandria
 |}
 

The above 3-column wikitable formats as below:

 
Alexandria beach Citadel of Qaitbay Saad Zaghloul street in downtown Alexandria

Such wikitables stay within the right margin, on 800x600 screens. Column-comments ("-Col2-") help match the captions. I don't know why the "<gallery>" tag generates such tiny images (87px high), but at least the tiny images ("blur-boxes") always appear centered in their boxes, too tiny to upset the artistic balance of a page. With wikitables, some narrow images should be hand-centered (with leading non-breaks "  " or "<center>"), to avoid crowding left-side of image cells. Larger images can be shown as 2-column tables: remember that in larger images, even a 5% further enlargement might clarify details: turning a blurred wall into a stone-work pattern. Often 270px-width is enough to reveal many details, for 2 images side-by-side. Anyway, wikitables help avoid the "blur-boxes" of the "<gallery>" tag, with minimal overhead. -Wikid77 14:09, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

No Mention of Cleopatra?

I could argue that the single most famous, most important Alexandrian was the Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra VII Thea Philopater of the Ptolemaic Dynasty. This woman was one of the most famous and fascinating women of all time: plays were written about her - including ones by William Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw; she was celebrated in numerous books, operas, masterpieces of painting and sculpture, poems, motion pictures, etc. Is not Cleopatra a world icon? Am I wrong in supposing that the Alexandrians have an affection for the legendary Queen as much as Amsterdamers have for Rembrandt Van Rijn or Philadelphians have for Benjamin Franklin? Alexandria is the backdrop of politics, ambition, romance and intrigue during the years of Julius Ceasar, Cleopatra, Mark Antony, and Octavius (later, Augustus)Ceasar. Is there a meaningful way this can be reflected or at least referenced in the article? Buddmar (talk) 03:27, 27 April 2008 (UTC)buddmar

Flag

The city flag is incorrect, I wasn't able to find a correct picture on the internet, please remove or help change, thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.205.229.220 (talk) 22:56, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

The flag was correct!! Please, can some one upload the flag again? Mcwaly (talk) 00:10, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

The flag was totally incorrect trust me, I am an Alexandrian Yosef1987 (talk) 13:57, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Naming convention for large cities strawpoll

I wanted to let everyone know that I have posted a strawpoll that deals with the naming conventions of large cities throughout the world on the English Wikipedia. Please vote. Wikipedia:Large cities naming convention strawpoll. Some cities already follow the naming convention that I am proposing while others do not, but because it affects this municipalities future name, I am posting the link here. Cheers. Rorry1 (talk) 22:58, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

American English

Can we please, wherever possible, try and avoid Americanisms which always give English prose such a vulgar, uneducated flavour.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.42.252.250 (talk) 21:40, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

While you may well have a point, such a sweeping and critical remark should come with some examples. Also, Americans are not all vulgar and uneducated and we do not have a monopoly on such perspectives; I've seen "The Benny Hill Show". Cranston Lamont 21:52, 30 April 2006 (UTC)
Agreed. "Pardon me, could you please direct me to the nearest restroom? Thank you" sounds like the gruntings of a drunk australopithecus compared to the sonorous utterance of "OY! Warez da bloo'y toilet at, loike?!" from the sublime tongue of an Englishman. Wormwoodpoppies (talk) 17:57, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Five races of Alexandria?

The 6th paragraph in Durrell's Justine begins: "Five races, five languages, a dozen creeds: five fleets turning through their greasy reflections behind the harbour bar." The dozen creeds aside does anyone know whether Durrell was referring to five races and five languages on purpose or did he just draw a number from the air to represent Alexandria's diversity? Perhaps the five fleets have a historic basis? If anyone can clear this up I'd be much obliged. Ahassan05 15:48, 16 June 2007 (UTC)ahassan05

Perhaps Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs...and Ottomans? Wormwoodpoppies (talk) 17:59, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Image of Alexander the Great

Does anyone agree with me that the image Drhmmh keeps adding of Alexander the Great to the top of the article does not even belong here? It's pretty obvious that the top left corner of an article is no place for an image, but is it even worth adding further down? --timsdad (talk) 06:47, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

It shouldn't be there, I agree, and I also do not think the image is useful anywhere in the article. I can't understand why it's been put there. Dougweller (talk) 11:36, 21 July 2009 (UTC)
I just didn't want to continue reverting without getting another opinion first. That's good enough for me, I'll remove it. Thanks a bunch, timsdad (talk) 11:45, 21 July 2009 (UTC)
I moved the file to the neighborhood section of the article since it is a landmark of the BabSharki neighborhood and marks the entrance to the old city --Drhmmh (talk) 21:28, 21 July 2009 (UTC)
I'm not sure it really belongs anywhere in the article, even in that section. I'm sorry, but it's not a very good image. Just because you took it... I really mean no disrespect. --timsdad (talk) 06:39, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

Alexandria's government.

I am doing a school project on Alexandria and I am wondering since the entire city was based off of Hellenistic ways, was the government as well?—Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.188.185.218 (talk) 23:57, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

Poseidon/Athena Statue Info?

What is the name of the statue that supposedly features two gods making love in a predominately Moslem city? This seems...unlikely and with the absence of the name of the statue (or a picture showing it) it seems like it could be a hoax/vandalism. 76.15.238.242 (talk) 09:32, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

Considering no information was provided, the information has been erased. The picture is kept but the description of sex is taken out, as there is no proof of any such sex shown in the statue. A highly clever vandalism if so. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.15.238.242 (talk) 09:32, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Pompey's pillar

Under the section "Ancient remains", second paragraph, the first sentence is written as: "Pompey's Pillar" is the best-known ancient monument still standing today.

Is this statement correct? Could somebody please clarify or give a reference? Wikislemur (talk) 13:24, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

It is the best known by me although I don't think I would have put it that way. Perhaps saying it is one of the best known monuments would be better. Zacherystaylor (talk) 18:10, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for the edit. Wikislemur (talk) 11:08, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

The weather in alexandria is Mediterranean climate NOT DESERT CLIMATE!!

i dont beleive in Koppen climate classification its completely nonsense. I think that arid Mediterranean climate as an intro. works the best. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.234.151.187 (talk) 23:08, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

I second the above opinion. --Ⲗⲁⲛⲧⲉⲣⲛⲓⲝ[talk] 23:20, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

Where is your reference stating that Alexandria has a Mediterranean climate?? I don't think you'll find one, and your "opinion" is just WP:POV or at best WP:OR. Koeppen, and all other climatoligists, show Alexandria as having an arid climate. With less than 200mm of annual precipitation and negative ETP it is clearly not a Mediterranean climate (Csa) zone, in spite of its location in the Mediterranean basin. Although a slight bump in winter precipitation shows a Med pattern, it is not enough. I have two references and could easily provide 10 more. Please discuss before reverting. Koppenlady (talk) 22:30, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Correction Needed In List of Orthodox Churches and General Orthodox Information

The most important Greek Orthodox churches in Alexandria are Saint Anargyri Church, Church of the Annunciation, Saint Anthony Church, Archangels Gabriel & Michael Church, Saint Catherine Church, Cathedral of the Dormition in Mansheya, Church of the Dormition, Prophet Elijah Church, Saint Georges Church, Church of the Immaculate Conception in Ibrahemeya, Saint Joseph Church in Fleming, Saint Joseph of Arimathea Church, Saint Mark & Saint Nectarios Chapel in Ramleh, Saint Nicholas Church, Saint Paraskevi Church, Saint Sava Cathedral in Ramleh, and Saint Theodore Chapel. In communion with the Greek Orthodox Church is the Russian Orthodox church of Saint Alexander Nevsky in Alexandria, which serves the Russian speaking community in the city.

"Church of the Immaculate Conception in Ibrahemeya" cannot possibly be Orthodox - either the name is incorrect or this is not an Orthodox Church

In general, better information about the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and Dioceses are also needed. Information could be used from the Orthowiki site:

[1] --Strannikcom (talk) 06:51, 17 February 2010 (UTC)

Abou El Fadl family has Spanish roots. La Familia Abou El Fadl

Abou El Fadl family has Spanish roots; Our far grandfathers came from Granada in Spain. They were Muslims of Spain “Andalusia”. In other words the family roots go back to Celts and Visigoths who became a very strong real Muslims and built a great civilization in Spain in the golden era. When it became hard for Muslims to stay in Spain in the seventeenth century they had to escape form their homeland to other lands. They reached the North West coast of Egypt. Part of them went to Safitt Al Huriah in Al Bihairah in Egypt and established Abouel Fadl family and the rest of them continued their trip till Damascus and Anatolia. That is why a lot of Abouel Fadl sons still have Aryan “Caucasian “physical characteristics such as a light skin and nice complexion. Also they still have good morals such as honesty and faithfulness. You can find Aboul Fadl family now in Al Bihairah, Alexandria and Al Saiyeda Zainab Cairo Egypt.

La Familia Abou El Fadl Mi familia tiene raizes en España. Nuestros antepasados vinieron de Granada en España. Ellos eran musulmanes de España ( Al Andalus ). En otras palabras las raices familiares se datan a los tiempos de los Celtas y los Visigodos, que se convirtieron en verdaderos Musulmanes y construyeron una gran civilizacion en España, la Época Dorada. Cuando se volvió difícil para los Musulmanes permanecer en España ( Al Andalus ) en el S. XVII tuvieron que escapar de su país a otras tierras. Llegaron a las costas del Noroeste de Egipto. Algunos llegaron a El Behireh y se establecieron como la familia AbouEl Fadl y el resto continuaron su viaje hasta Damasco y Anatolia. Esta es la razóñ por la que muchos descendientes de la familia Abou El Fadl tienen rasgos ários ( caucasianos ). Están además bien complexionados y todavia tienen buenas morales como la honestidad, fidelidad y lealtad. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.232.127.79 (talk) 17:47, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

Weather box

I removed the weather box as it kept being vandalized. I believe it is better not to have data (I kept the references for those who are interested) than to have wrong data. Calimo (talk) 13:08, 30 June 2011 (UTC)

I see someone restored the box again… with wrong numbers. I really don't see the point of having a table with erroneous information. I restored the correct numbers but I'll be removing the box if it still gets vandalized. Calimo (talk) 14:54, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

File:Alexandria Landmard.png Nominated for Deletion

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Wrong Link

In the main article Alexandria, section History, fourth paragraph, there is mention of Cleopatra VII and a link. Pushing the link takes one to the wrong place: Cleopatra Selene II instead of to the correct place: Cleopatra VII. Could someone please change this link? I don't know how to do it. Joachim M. (talk) 19:58, 24 September 2011 (UTC)Joachim M.

 Done I've fixed the link to go to Cleopatra VII now. -- Marek.69 talk 20:02, 24 September 2011 (UTC)

File:College saint marc.jpg Nominated for Deletion

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The Expulsion of the Greeks by Nasser

I think that someone should have mentioned that the Greeks were the majority in Alexandria until Nasser threw them out in the '50s. Someone should mention that.Ericl (talk) 18:20, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

Alexandria local government

Is Alexandria only a governorate, or is there municipal government apart from the governorate? I guess what I'm asking is if the urban settlement of Alexandria has an associated local government, or if it's essentially governed by the provincial government? --Criticalthinker (talk) 03:42, 10 July 2012 (UTC)

Eratóstenes

Incluir informação sobre ERATÓSTENES. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 187.53.185.20 (talk) 00:45, 14 January 2013 (UTC)

Number of foreigners

How many foreigners were there living in Alexandria before the 1960s? Does anyone know? And how they broke down into Italians, Greeks, Armenians...? Ahassan05 17:01, 16 June 2007 (UTC)ahassan05

The above was written a very long time ago, but I have to relate that the Greeks weren't foreigners. The community dated back from the time of the Ptolomies and thus they were native. They were all expelled in 1956Ericl (talk) 18:18, 6 February 2012 (UTC)
It is doubtful many-if any- of the Alexandria Greek community dated back from the time of the Ptolemies as in the early 1800s Alexandria was a tiny port city of little importance, smaller then Damietta or Rosetta. The Greek (and Arab Egyptian and Levantine, and Italian) communities were by and large the product of 19th century immigration to Alexandria. Many (not all) were foreign as the Greeks and Italians and Armenians and Levantines and French and British often carried non-Egyptian passports that meant they were not subject to local laws. Ahassan05 (talk) 03:59, 19 February 2013 (UTC)ahassan05

The Koine Greek Name of Alexandria

The use of κατά in this translation is as "in" does not utterly denote this word's nuance: κατά (as highlighted in Liddell and Scott) more so indicates a "downwards" motion, as if Alexandria had been stamped upon Egypt as a colony rather than built within the bounds of Egypt. Alexandria was (at least in the Classical Greek and subsequent Hellenised periods) considered to be 'other' to the rest of Egypt, mostly because the Alexandrians considered themselves to be Greeks rather than Egyptians; the dissimilarity of Naukratis to the rest of Egypt is an earlier parallel and precedent of a Greek colony within Egypt as well as other Greek poleis scattered around the Mediterranean, e.g. Sybaris in Magna Graecia. A more rounded translation would be "Alexandria upon Egypt"; though the Greeks had the word ἐπί to denote such an meaning the use of κατά is a less passive term in this context and thus shows the 'otherness' of the Alexandrians to the Egyptians.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.106.63.219 (talk) 20:31, 9 July 2013 (UTC)

Ancient population

The article currently claims that some estimates put the ancient population at more than a million people, which would be extremely high, and requires a good source. 71.191.165.124 (talk) 00:31, 3 January 2015 (UTC)

What is missing from the recently created city timeline article? Please add relevant content. Contributions welcome. Thank you. -- M2545 (talk) 16:03, 19 May 2015 (UTC)

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distans2kairo

?81.11.233.147 (talk) 06:56, 29 March 2016 (UTC)

Are you querying the road distance to Cairo given in the Highways section? It says:

The Desert road. (Alexandria - Cairo /220 km (137 mi) 6-8 lanes, mostly lit)

Do you have a source that gives a different figure? Polly Tunnel (talk) 16:37, 29 March 2016 (UTC)

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Dubious

How is it possible that the table states that the city of Alexandria has a number of population more than or equal to the whole province of Alexandria?

The same for the city's size, is claimed to be bigger than that of the whole province! --Mahmudmasri (talk) 02:14, 16 April 2014 (UTC)

I don't have exact numbers but I believe the overall population of the Alexandria governorate is only slightly larger than the city itself. The governorate is composed of 3 cities and the other 2 cities have populations around 100-150k each. If the population of the governorate is listed as higher than the city, it might just be because the information is a couple years apart. 2602:306:32DA:88F0:5CD7:E4D8:1F8:C273 (talk) 05:08, 10 September 2017 (UTC)

Yes, highly dubious. Neither area figure is sourced, of course. Batternut (talk) 09:32, 11 May 2018 (UTC)

Coptic Name for Alexandria

There is no clear evidence that Alexandria was rather called as 'ⲣⲁⲕⲟϯ' years after the city has been founded. Instead, there are a lot of historical records (in Egyptian or Coptic) that show that the mainstream Egyptian name for the city was actually 'ⲁⲗⲉⲝⲁⲛⲇⲣⲓⲁ'.

For example, a satrap stela (in Egyptian language) from 311 BC explains that the 'old' name for the city was 'Rhacotis'.

That being said, if Egyptians already treated 'Rhacotis' as an 'old' name, and used 'Alexandria' as the mainstream name as long as Demotic/Coptic Egyptian language has been spoken after the city was established (i.e. from 331 BC to the date), then using 'ⲣⲁⲕⲟϯ' instead of 'ⲁⲗⲉⲝⲁⲛⲇⲣⲓⲁ' at the head of the infobox is misleading.

The claim that the Coptic name is 'ⲣⲁⲕⲟϯ', and not 'ⲁⲗⲉⲝⲁⲛⲇⲣⲓⲁ', needs a clear explanation. I added a 'citation needed' tag until this issue is resolved, otherwise I strongly suggest that we replace ⲣⲁⲕⲟϯ with ⲁⲗⲉⲝⲁⲛⲇⲣⲓⲁ in the infobox. Quafios (talk) 01:40, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

Official names inclusion in lede and infobox

This is English Wikipedia, not a Greek or another foreign language Wikipedia. The general norm is to only use English and an official foreign language name (i.e. Arabic in this case) in the lede. If we start adding all the scripts that a city is known by in the lede, it will become unreadable for readers. Please note that MOS:LEADLANG states: a single foreign language equivalent name can be included in the lead sentence, usually in parentheses... Do not include foreign equivalents in the lead sentence just to show etymology. Khestwol (talk) 07:53, 18 May 2020 (UTC)

Nonsense. Relevant foreign names are allowed (and Coptic is not even foreign) per WP:NCGN Relevant foreign language names (one used by at least 10% of sources in the English language or that is used by a group of people which used to inhabit this geographical place) are permitted. Local official names should be listed before other alternate names if they differ from a widely accepted English name. Other relevant language names may appear in alphabetic order of their respective languages – i.e., (Estonian: Soome laht; Finnish: Suomenlahti; Russian: Финский залив, Finskiy zaliv; Swedish: Finska viken). Separate languages should be separated by semicolons. The city has a huge Greek community until recently, so WP:NCGN applies. This is policy and is not negotiable. And there is absolutely no policy that only official names are allowed in the lede. Don't make stuff up. Khirurg (talk) 17:23, 18 May 2020 (UTC)
Khirurg, WP:NCGN is about article naming conventions, and not relevant to content inside the article. Elizium23 (talk) 23:31, 18 May 2020 (UTC)
Elizium23, I think WP:NCGN is clear enough: Wikipedia articles must have a single title, by the design of the system; this page is intended to help editors agree on which name of a place is to appear as the title. Nevertheless, other names, especially those used significantly often (say, 10% of the time or more) in the available English literature on a place, past or present, should be mentioned in the article, as encyclopedic information. Two or three alternative names can be mentioned in the first line of the article; it is general Wikipedia practice to bold them so they stand out. If there are more names than this, or the lead section is cluttered, a separate paragraph on the names of the place is often a good idea. --Ramses Nagib (talk) 23:39, 18 May 2020 (UTC)
Ramses Nagib, in the available English literature on a place - yes, that is why we need sources, because I personally doubt that the English literature frequently mentions Coptic names. Elizium23 (talk) 23:40, 18 May 2020 (UTC)
Elizium23, and that's why Khirurg has already quoted the other passage to show you why foreign names (with the suggested 10% criterion to assist us) need to be included in the 'encyclopedia.' Finally, it's very weird to suspect the mentioning of the coptic name in the English literature. You've never read a history research paper? --Ramses Nagib (talk) 23:46, 18 May 2020 (UTC)
Fine, show me the sources. Elizium23 (talk) 23:48, 18 May 2020 (UTC)
See my reply to your comment below, Elizium23. Thanks a lot! Ramses Nagib (talk) 23:52, 18 May 2020 (UTC)
What Khirurg said. Stop the ideological edit-warring before you get reported. Dr. K. 17:45, 18 May 2020 (UTC)
Hi all, thanks for moving the discussion to the talk page. Appealing to the 'general norm' doesn't constitute a valid argument. In that case, Giza, Luxor, Benha, and other pages do not follow the 'general norm' as claimed by Khestwol. Please kindly note that MOS:LEADLANG doesn't universally prohibit you from adding foreign names in the lead paragraph. We are not showing etymology by listing the Coptic/Greek name. The intention here is to include the necessary 'Coptic' information for a city that is in fact Coptic/Greek in nature (like most of Egypt.. in fact, Coptic means Egyptian).
Another example is Beirut, which has a significant French population. Wikipedia is an 'Encyclopedia.' That said, I agree with Khirurg, Dr. K, and WP:NCGN. I think it makes more sense to keep the information until there is consensus to remove it, not the other way around.
Finally, as we suggested already, we can also make use of the other_name field in the infobox. Thanks all!
--Ramses Nagib (talk) 23:25, 18 May 2020 (UTC)
I also noticed that these languages are unsourced. I will tag them "citation needed" because English-speaking editors should not be expected to know foreign-to-us languages, without checking sources. Elizium23 (talk) 23:32, 18 May 2020 (UTC)
Elizium23 Thanks for adding the citation-needed tags, please kindly note that the information that you tagged as uncited is already cited in the history section, check Pollard and Reid for example. I will add the required citation notes in the leading paragraph. Ramses Nagib (talk) 23:51, 18 May 2020 (UTC)
It is trivially easy to source these names, to the point where we are in WP:BLUESKY territory. Khirurg (talk) 00:41, 19 May 2020 (UTC)
Hi Elizium23, assuming good faith, why did you remove the Arabic names in your last edit? Thanks --Ramses Nagib (talk) 15:07, 19 May 2020 (UTC)
Ramses Nagib, because they are unsourced. Elizium23 (talk) 21:22, 19 May 2020 (UTC)
I think Arabic names, being the natural language of Egypt, don't need to be sourced. I don't think this is a reasonable demand. Dr. K.
I do not speak Arabic. I don't think we can expect ordinary enwiki editors to speak Arabic and know the name of Alexandria. The maintenance templates will be replaced until you can comply. Elizium23 (talk) 22:10, 19 May 2020 (UTC)
I don't speak Arabic either. I'm just being reasonable and AGFing the WP:BLUESKY names. But don't address me with the second person personal pronoun. I have nothing to comply with and I also have better things to do with my life and wiki life than playing catch up with someone's petty tagging. Dr. K. 22:34, 19 May 2020 (UTC)
Dr.K., 'you' is also plural. Elizium23 (talk) 22:36, 19 May 2020 (UTC)
Hey Elizium23, could you please stop adding unnecessary citation-needed tags? The article is well-sourced. I am trying to assume good-faith, but your recent edits are not constructive. I reversed the unjustified more-citations-needed tag you've added in your last edit. Thanks --Ramses Nagib (talk) 23:43, 19 May 2020 (UTC)
Khirurg, Dr.K., Elizium23, I added citations for the Egyptian name "r'-qdt" which are already used in Rhakotis. I can't properly add the hieroglyphs to the Infobox (looks little bit messy), so I used the hiero template. Feel free to re-add the Egyptian name to the Infobox if it will look good. I updated the Coptic/greek names to look more readable. --Ramses Nagib (talk) 17:22, 19 May 2020 (UTC)
Thank you, Ramses for all your hard work and for keeping this article in such great shape. I think you are a great editor. Take care and stay safe. Dr. K. 18:04, 19 May 2020 (UTC)
Thanks Dr.K.. I appreciate your cute words. It's a collaborative effort by everyone here (Assuming good faith of everyone :D ) --Ramses Nagib (talk) 23:43, 19 May 2020 (UTC)

RFC

Are citations unnecessary for foreign-language names of a topic on the English-language Wikipedia? Elizium23 (talk) 22:41, 19 May 2020 (UTC)

This RFC is irrelevant to this page, Elizium23. The non-English names are all cited within different parts of this article. I see you've also cited the Arabic name (thanks a lot for that). If you disagree with Dr.K. on some point, you can discuss it on Dr.K.'s talk page or at any other relevant place. Thanks Elizium23. -- Ramses Nagib (talk) 00:03, 20 May 2020 (UTC)
A citation in always necessary if a citation has been asked for: WP:CHALLENGE. This includes the lead: WP:LEADCITE. But just because one can ask for citations does not mean that one should do so spuriously. Spurious requests are disruptive. – Finnusertop (talkcontribs) 00:57, 12 June 2020 (UTC)
  • Comment: I do not see why do we have the non-English and non-Arabic names there in the first place? Is it added by Greek nationalist editors? We do not see non-English names, for example, in the New York City article, despite it being a native American area, and then a 17th-century Dutch speaking city. Khestwol (talk) 03:48, 12 June 2020 (UTC)
Which names get to be included in the lede is governed by WP:NCGN. Instead of making ad hominems, you would do well to familiarize yourself with it. And anyway, that's not the topic of this RfC, so stop spamming. Future personal attacks will be reported. Khirurg (talk) 04:04, 12 June 2020 (UTC)
As I wrote above, in my opinion, only the commonly spoken and official language, Arabic, must be displayed. It will make the lede more easily readable. Also, the relevant policy MOS:LEADLANG discourages the use of non-English names unless essential: a single foreign language equivalent name can be included in the lead sentence, usually in parentheses... Do not include foreign equivalents in the lead sentence just to show etymology. Please note that Greek is neither commonly spoken nor an official language of Egypt. Khestwol (talk) 05:24, 18 June 2020 (UTC)
BTW: as the closing admin will know, WP:NCGN cited by Khirurg is about article naming conventions, and not relevant to content inside the article. Thanks, Khestwol (talk) 05:36, 18 June 2020 (UTC)
As I understood it, this was a discussion about whether each of the names needed to be cited in the lead, not whether they should be there. Since the city was founded by Greeks, Greek was the de facto official language there for the next nine hundred years, and the English name is a standardized version of the Greek name (as well as being the root of the name in both Coptic and Arabic), it would be absurd to excise the Greek name from the lead. Coptic of course is the modern form of ancient Egyptian, and thus the native language, so it is logically included; Arabic is the primary language spoken in Egypt today. If I were writing the lead, I would place the names in chronological order. The only reasonable question about inclusion is whether there need to be two different Arabic forms, but since they transliterate differently in English, it seems reasonable to give both. P Aculeius (talk) 14:09, 18 June 2020 (UTC)

Where is it located in present day?

Where is it located in present day? Anonymous — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.120.64.141 (talk) 17:55, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

formatting error?

In the article, there seems to be a large amount of white space. I’m not sure if it’s section blanking, or a formatting error? TheYeetedMeme (talk) 11:31, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

TheYeetedMeme, like where? I don't see any. What kind of browser/device are you using? Elizium23 (talk) 13:17, 9 June 2021 (UTC)
Elizium23 After going on a different browser, it seems like it was only a visual glitch for me. I was on wikipedia mobile on the chrome browser on IOS, although when I switched to Safari everything was normal. Weird. TheYeetedMeme (talk) 13:58, 9 June 2021 (UTC)
TheYeetedMeme, the mobile views are very much universally hated here. Always select desktop view on a mobile device, is our best advice. Elizium23 (talk) 13:59, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

Okay, thank you for the guidance Elizium23, I will be sure to remember it whenever I try to view wikipedia pages. TheYeetedMeme (talk) 14:09, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

Infobox flag

MOS:INFOBOXFLAG says Human geographic articles – for example settlements and administrative subdivisions – may have flags of the country and first-level administrative subdivision in infoboxes. I see no reason to remove the Egyptian flag from the infobox. Elizium23 (talk) 17:10, 3 January 2021 (UTC)

Hi @Elizium23, The flag was removed by this edit:
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alexandria&direction=next&oldid=1058594929
It looks like we have some anonymous user on Wikipedia who hates flags:
Special:Contributions/213.192.68.53
His previous edits are suspicious. He claims that Alexandria has no flag, but unfortunately the city doesn't only have a flag but also a coat of arms, and I studied both at school since I was like 9 years old.
https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/eg-g-alx.html Ramses Nagib (talk) 17:14, 26 February 2022 (UTC)

Capitalization of names in Alexandria#Theaters

Shouldn't "bearm basha theatre in elshatby" be in capital letters? I haven't fixed it myself as English isn't my first language and I'm not able to dive into the discussions about romanization of (Egyptian) Arabic and into Wikipedia:MOSAR#Definite article etc. and the talk page there to find out how to best romanize "elshatby". But maybe someone feels like fixing the capitalization at least. Thanks in advance for any help and kind regards, --Marsupium (talk) 04:35, 24 May 2022 (UTC)

Requested move 12 October 2022

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved. Favonian (talk) 19:39, 19 October 2022 (UTC)


– Following on the move of Tripoli to Tripoli, Libya, it makes sense that Alexandria, which is the namesake of a much larger number of places, would similarly be disambiguated. Massviews analysis does not show a single topic dominating the name. BD2412 T 18:55, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

  • Weak support this seems to be the most common usage of the single word but may not be primary[[2]]. Crouch, Swale (talk) 20:39, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Weak oppose -- The Egyptian city is the most prominent referent over the centuries... AnonMoos (talk) 22:04, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Oppose. In long-term significance, the Egyptian city outstrips the others combined by far. Walrasiad (talk) 22:48, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Support per nomination and Crouch, Swale. There are 79 entries listed upon the Alexandria (disambiguation) page, with no indication that the number of users researching the city in Egypt would be so overwhelming as to dwarf the combined number of searches for the remaining 78 entries. —Roman Spinner (talkcontribs) 00:37, 13 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Weak oppose, unlike Tripoli I do think this singular city gets more pageviews than the others combined, even account that's it at basename.--Ortizesp (talk) 01:12, 13 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Strong oppose. The move of Tripoli was wrong—contravening Wikipedia article titling policy—and the claim that it didn't get significantly more pageviews than all of the others combined was incorrect, as I pointed out well before someone erroneously stated the opposite just before the discussion was closed—apparently without the closer bothering to check the accuracy of the claim. Using a bad result to justify a worse one is an example of the cart pulling the horse. The only other Alexandria—as a place—that receives a significant proportion of pageviews is the one in Virginia—which receives about 20 to 25% of them all. Alexandria in Egypt receives about 75%, and most of the others less than 1% each, presumably because most of them have between a few hundred and a few thousand inhabitants, and are practically unknown to anyone who doesn't live near them. This is clearly, far and away the primary topic. P Aculeius (talk) 07:28, 13 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Oppose and move Tripoli back.★Trekker (talk) 11:11, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Oppose when I hear "Alexandria", I don't think of Alexandria, New South Wales or Alexandria Township, Douglas County, Minnesota. I think of the Egyptian city. Super Ψ Dro 19:17, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Oppose. The city in Egypt is of world historical importance. Srnec (talk) 20:16, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Oppose. Absolutely obvious primary topic. One of the most significant cities in world history. -- Necrothesp (talk) 13:02, 17 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Oppose. bc, many towns which were founded by Alexander III (the Great) of Macedon, used either the name Alexandreia (Ἀλεξάνδρεια) or Alexandropolis (Ἀλεξανδρόπολις), and then added the suffix of the location, i.e. Alexandria + on the Oxus, Alexandria + Arachosia. I take the example of Alexandria in Egypt (I'm refering to this city). The city of Alexandria became famous and has the most significance, among with other cities founded by the same individual. ad hoc, making Alexandria in Egypt well-known as the city founded by Alexander the Great, and still has inhabitants to this day. Phaisit16207 (talk) 18:27, 18 October 2022 (UTC)
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Glaring error in initial blurb

The pages for both Alexandria and Giza claim they are the second largest city in Egypt. Alexandria, looking at Giza's page, is nowhere close to the same population nor area. In what way is Alexandria the second largest city? I'm not an authorial type, and I'm not sure if it isn't the second largest in some other way, but it would be much better if there was some clarification after "second largest city" at least. 2601:C7:8281:49C0:F90F:A721:5D7A:FDA1 (talk) 02:57, 18 December 2022 (UTC)