The astronomical orientation of the urban plan of Alexandria

TL;DR

This paper investigates the deliberate astronomical orientation of Alexandria's urban plan, suggesting it aligns with the sunrise on Alexander the Great's birthday, supported by archaeological and topographical analysis.

Contribution

It proposes a novel hypothesis linking Alexandria's main axis orientation to Alexander's birth date, integrating archaeological and topographical evidence.

Findings

The main axis aligns with the sunrise on Alexander's birthday.

Topographical analysis supports the deliberate orientation hypothesis.

The argument is speculative but grounded in archaeological context.

Abstract

Alexander the Great founded Alexandria in 331 BC. The newly founded town was conceived as an orthogonal grid based on a main longitudinal axis, later called Canopic Road. We analyse here the astronomical orientation of the project and propose that the main axis was deliberately oriented towards the rising sun on the day of birth of Alexander the Great. The argument is admittedly speculative as any Archaeoastronomy argument not backed up by written sources. However, it is nested accurately into the archaeological records and into what is known on the foundation of the town. Further, a topographical analysis is given to sustain the thesis.