[Illustration: FIG. 9. MILETUS, AS EXCAVATED BY WIEGAND.
(_Archãologischer Anzeiger_, 1911, p. 421.)]


_Alexandria_.

A yet more famous town, founded by Alexander himself, is definitely
recorded by ancient writers to have been laid out in the same
quasi-chess-board fashion, with one long highway, the Canopic Street,
running through it from end to end for something like four miles.[27]
Unfortunately the details of the plan are not known with any
certainty. Excavations were conducted at the instigation of Napoleon
III in 1866 by an Arab archaeologist, Mahmud Bey el Fallaki, and,
according to him, showed a regular and rectangular scheme in which
seven streets ran east and west while thirteen ran north and south at
right angles to them. The house-blocks divided by these streets were
thought to vary somewhat in size but to measure in general about 300 x
330 metres.[28] More recent research, however, has not confirmed
Mahmud's plans. The excavations of Mr. Hogarth and M. Botti suggest
that many of his lines are wrong and that even his Canopic Street is
incorrectly laid down. Mr. Hogarth, indeed, concludes that 'it is
hopeless now to sift his work; those who would treat the site of
Alexandria scientifically must ignore him and start _de novo_'. More
recent excavation, carried out by Dr. Noack in 1898-9, seemed to show
that the ancient streets which can now be traced beneath Alexandria
belong to a Roman age, though they may of course follow older lines,
and that, if some items in Mahmud's plans are possibly right, the
errors and omissions are serious. We may accept as certain the
statement that Alexandria was laid out with a rectangular town-plan;