Founded by Alexander the Great as the new capital of Egypt and one of the world’s greatest cities for many centuries during the Ptolemaic, Roman and Late Antique periods. Little of the ancient city remains but a few highlights: the great harbour, the Serapeum, crowned by Pompey’s Pillar (in fact erected by Diocletian, not Pompey) and a pair of majestic sphinxes, and the catacombs of Kom es-Shoqafa among them.