Alexandria Dreaming

 Ancient Alexandria, a city unlike any other, the capital of Hellenic Egypt, one of the great international ports of its day, one of those rare creations, a planned city,  and the burial place of Alexander the Great and where , about 300 years later, Cleopatra lived and loved. It was the home of one of the seven Wonders of the world, together with a fabled Library, dozens of schools,  and was a place where historians, philosophers, scientists, astronomers, artists and thinkers of every kind lived, discoursed, and created.   The city where Heron came up with all his ingenious inventions, where Euclid spent most of his adult life, where the Septuagint was created, and where the architect Parmenion oversaw the sculptural beatification of the city in its early days. 

It was a city built in the Hellenic style, with long straight roads, well defined neighborhoods or quarters for different ethnicities, and strong defences both landward and on the sea side. The city had two large harbours divided by a causeway leading to the island of Pharos with its famed lighthouse.  To the East, the Great Harbour was overlooked by the royal palace, and had two smaller harbours within it. To the West was the Eunostus Harbour, named for the god of flour - Alexandria was the port from which the abundant grain of Egypt was shipped all around the Mediterranean world.

How sad, then, to think that you can no longer walk these magnificent streets, full of monumental buildings. But wait - yes you can! Ferd Frederix and his team have been working on a years-long project to bring Alexandria back to life, on Outworldz grid. 

These pictures were taken on the enormous build that seems to go on forever, with fields, towers, ordinary houses, fortifications, palaces and of course water everywhere. Not just the sea, but the lifegiving canal that ran through the city. 

Ferd Fredrix: Joe Builder, me, and Debbie Edwards made it. Joe is a contractor. I hired him to do a lot (as in a LOT) of uploading of mesh and he did a lot of the building and placement while I worked on the roads and bridges and the tower. Then we did it all again for the other five 4X4 regions. 

Alexandria's lighthouse has fired up the fantasy of historians, engineers, and storytellers of every era. It was begun in 300 years before the birth of Christ and survived, battered by earthquakes and neglect until the 1400's, when the ruins of the building were taken to form part of the nearby fortress of Quait Bay. The exact location of the lighthouse was lost until the 1990s when a team of French underwater archaeologists found remains that pinpointed the spot where it stood. 

It's a city of dreams. Alexandria was founded by Alexander in 331 BC as he swept across Asia conquering all in his path, with an eye to creating a new capital for Egypt, away from the old-fashioned, hidebound city of Memphis. 

In reality, Alexander never lived to see the city flourishing; after his death in 323 BC aged just 32, his empire was carved up between his generals and Alexandria fell to the Ptolemy family, who built, it is thought, the famous Library as a showplace of the culture of the Eastern half of the Mediterranean, rather than as a place of learning. 

Alexander was buried in a massive tomb in the city, but like so much else, its exact location and appearance are lost to us. A few travel writers and historians give some glimpses that allow a certain amount of informed speculation, and that's really all we have to go on.

  The fractured dynasty of the Ptolemies lasted about three centuries, and eventually leads to Cleopatra, her run-ins with a couple of Caesars, an asp and the beginning of the end of the grand city as a showcase for luxury and learning.

But on Outworldz, it's possible to stop the clock and explore the world as it would have been in her day. It wasn't always easy! 

Ferd Fredrix: We added Cleopatra's rooms and a scratch built avatar. Cleopatra's avatar alone took over a year.  Isis Ophelia's Egypt and that made me consider doing the entire city. Then followed 6 months of planning and research, with a long wait for Assassins Creed Origins to come out so we would have reference photos. It took 3 years to complete what it is today.

It's an extraordinary achievement, and a huge investment not only in time and talent but hard cash too - and the attention to detail and quality are evident  everywhere. This Map screenshot gives you an idea of the build - but when you visit, don't be surprised if you find it even bigger. 

Flowers, fields, statues, lighting, sound, and atmosphere - the place is full of it.

Plenty of cuteness, too especially for cat lovers!  

The wonderful thing about this build is to see a scene like this, and know the 'backdrop' is actually a place you can walk or ride to, across the region.

To wander alone here is to feel the oppressive loneliness of a city where it often feels like the people have just stepped away - swept away or turned to invisible ghosts. It's an appropriate sensation, in this unreachable city, so faded and ground away - so unfairly, when one things of all the other ancient cities - Rome, Athens, Istanbul, Damascus , that still have so many visible fragments to remind of those glory days and layers of history.

Alexandria endured repeated onslaughts by the Romans and those who followed in the faltering footsteps of the empire, in terms of war, siege, and appropriation, and commercial and natural crises over the years - it even got hit by a tsunami in 365 AD. The famous Library, often held up as a figure of dramatic tragedy, in reality was damaged and destroyed not all in a single moment, but through vandalism, violence and above all neglect over many years. Here is a painting of a trireme, and Ferd's 3D version of the same - impressive!

If the build captures the fragility of all this magnificence in its lonely streets, it also does, here and there, with animesh or NPC figures, bring the build back to a more human dimension, and the spell is completed.  Far from over, this is an ongoing work of art - who knows when or even if Ferd will ever feel that he has finished it. While some of the mesh was purchased, plenty of bits are his original work, like this ship, translated from a 2D painting into  3D perfection. This is a megaregion that you'll love whether you are a history buff, of just want to immerse yourself in an Egyptian fantasy of your own dreaming. 

HG Address: www.outworldz.com:9000:Alexandria