The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: advantage of the spot which is now Alexandria; and conceived the mighty
project of making it the point of union of two, or rather of three
worlds. In a new city, named after himself, Europe, Asia, and Africa
were to meet and to hold communion. A glance at the map will show you
what an [Greek text: omphalosgees], a centre of the world, this
Alexandria is, and perhaps arouse in your minds, as it has often done in
mine, the suspicion that it has not yet fulfilled its whole destiny, but
may become at any time a prize for contending nations, or the centre of
some world-wide empire to come. Communicating with Europe and the
Levant by the Mediterranean, with India by the Red Sea, certain of
boundless supplies of food from the desert-guarded valley of the Nile,
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