Introduction To This Blog System

                                                                                                                        

Image used by permission

This is my main blog and all new postings are made here. Postings may be later combined into a compound posting on this blog. Many of the postings concern my observations in various branches of science, but there are also many on technology, religion, economics and, general world issues.

Blogs are organized to be read from top to bottom like a book. There is a list of the postings on each blog to the right of the blog, but you have to click on the months shown. Please use this listing to verify that you have seen all of the postings on the blog. The usual pace of this blog is 1-3 new postings per week.

 

I would really like to thank everyone who reads any of these blogs for your interest.

 

SCIENCE WRITING

 

Most of the postings on this blog are visits to various places around the world, and articles about such topics as history and religion. But much of the writing is about science. I do not write about what is already known but only if I can write something new, or at least a new way of looking at things. If the title of a posting has an asterisk* after it, that means that the posting has already been moved to it's permanent position and will later be deleted from here.

 

If you would like a quick background in the science and mathematics that everyone should really know in the 21st Century, the posting "Scientific Literacy" provides this in about a hundred paragraphs. Similarly, "The Way Things Work" provides a quick background in everyday technology.

 

I am a Christian and I want to show that belief in God is not unscientific at all. I was interested in science long before I was interested in religion, and have never had any trouble believing that God created everything.

 

There are five major scientific theories, each arranged in the form of a textbook. The first four of the following five are on this blog.

 

"The Theory Of Stationary Space" is my cosmological theory of how so much revolves around time being explained by us being in four-dimensional space, with the dimension that we cannot access being perceived as time. This is my version of string theory, with matter actually being strings in four dimensions rather than particles in three dimensions. Everything is ultimately based on negative and positive electric charges, with energy being able to overcome the laws of attraction and repulsion of electric charges. No one has ever explained exactly what time is, and a myriad of explanations of other things fall right into place around it.

 

"The Flow Of Information Through The Universe" is about how so much can be explained by seeing how there is a limited amount of information, and it must be the same information that constructs the highest levels as the lowest levels. A ready example is how the orbits of planets around the sun is based on the orbitals of electrons around the nucleus, in the atoms of which the sun and planets are composed. This concept is extremely useful because, understanding this, we can study things that we cannot directly see by analyzing things that we can see because all must be built on the same information.

 

"The Theory Of Complexity" is about what information actually is, how energy and information is really the same thing, and how we see the universe as we do because of our perspective of being at a higher level of information than our inanimate surroundings.

 

"The Lowest Information Point" is about how, since information and energy is really the same thing and the universe always seeks the lowest energy state, it also always seeks the "Lowest Information Point". So much is explained by how the universe prefers equalities to inequalities and related ratios where the numerator of one ratio is also the denominator of the other. This explains so much from why dust particles are as big as they to why the planets and stars are the scale that they are.

 

"The Story Of Planet Earth", on the geology blog, is about how virtually every major feature of the earth's surface, both on land and seafloor, can be explained by lines of magma emergence from below that were affected by the landing of three Continental Asteroids. Many people believe that land originated from a past "super-continent", but there is no explanation of where it came from.

 

There are a few of what we could call "minor" theories, where there is not as much written as with the major theories. On this blog, there is "How Biology And Human Life Fits Into Cosmology". On the meteorology and biology blog, there is my theory of the nature of water, "Water Made Really Simple".

 

There are compound postings about science which are groupings of writing about a certain topic.

 

Scientific compound postings include, "Computer Science", "Atomic Science", "Measurement", "A Celebration Of The Inverse Square Law", "Our Solar System", "Mind-Bending Cosmology", "The Configuration Of The Solar System Made Really Simple", "In Appreciation Of Electrons", "The Science Of Human Society " and "Orbital And Escape Velocities And Impacts from Space".

 

Compound postings about history and the world include "The House Of Holy Wisdom, Where The Modern World Began", "Niagara Stories", "Economics", "How History Repeats Itself", "The Meaning Of Freedom", "The Western Hemisphere", "Our Language" and, "America And The Modern World Explained By Way Of Paris".

 

There are two compound postings about prophecies and the Bible. There is "The Aztec Prophecy" than, for prophecies that are directly made in the Bible there is "New Insight Into Bible Prophecy".

 

"Investigations" is the compound posting that is a collection of any posting about an investigation.

 

The rest of the postings are individual postings. For more detailed information about this blog, see the posting "About This Blog". For general topics of conversation, see "Thoughts And Observations", on the world and economics blog.  

Other Blogs And Books

                                                                        

Lights at night 

Here is a quick look at my other blogs before you start this one.

On this blog, you can see a list of all postings by clicking on the year or month to the right. But on the topical blogs, that is not the case. If you click on a year or month on those blogs, it will display the postings themselves, but the list on the right will still only show those postings that were added most recently.

To access a list of all postings on those blogs, it is necessary to click on the arrow in front of the year or month in question.

http://www.markmeekeconomics.blogspot.com/ is about economics, history and, general human issues.

http://www.markmeekprogress.blogspot.com/ concerns progress in technology and ideas.

http://www.markmeekearth.blogspot.com/ is my geology and global natural history blog for topics other than glaciers. My natural history blogs concerning the impact of glaciers is http://www.markmeekworld.blogspot.com/ .

http://www.markmeekniagara.blogspot.com/ is about new discoveries concerning natural history in the general area of Niagara Falls.

http://www.markmeeklife.blogspot.com/ is my observations concerning meteorology and biology.

http://www.markmeekphysics.blogspot.com/ is my blog about physics and astronomy.

http://www.markmeekcosmology.blogspot.com/ is my version of string theory that solves many unsolved mysteries about the underlying structure and beginning of the universe.

http://www.markmeekpatterns.blogspot.com/ details my work with the fundamental patterns and complexity that underlies everything in existence.

 http://www.markmeekreligion.blogspot.com/ is my religion blog.

 http://www.markmeekcreation.blogspot.com/ is proof that there must be a god.

http://www.markmeekphotos.blogspot.com/ is my travel photos of Europe.

On my photo blogs, Blogspot will not hold all of the photos in each blog in a straight line. To see all of the photos, you must click on the bottom posting listed on the right at the top of the blog after seeing all that there are in the initial showing. The last posting in the North America blog should be "Tijuana, Mexico" and the last posting in the Europe blog should be "Notre Dame Cathedral Door And Arc De Triomphe, Paris". Each photo in the photo blogs can be clicked on to enlarge it to full screen.

My autobiography is http://www.mark-meek.blogspot.com/

My books can be seen at http://www.bn.com/ http://www.amazon.com/ or, http://www.iuniverse.com/ just do an author search for "Mark Meek".   

Los Angeles And San Diego

I would like to express sympathy and support for Los Angeles because of the fires.

Los Angeles is the largest metropolitan area in the U.S., after New York. It is on the coast of southern California and was the natural destination of migrants moving west. It is the city that both introduced the world to the postwar car culture and where the internet began. You are probably already familiar with what the area looks like because it is also home to the best-known movie industry in the world and so much of what is seen on television was filmed there.

Los Angeles is also the port where so many goods from Asia arrive. The following image of endless rows of shipping containers, awaiting transfer to truck or train, is from Google Earth.

For Los Angeles to grow into the major city that it is today, an aqueduct had to be built to carry water from further inland. Today, the Colorado River that flows across America's west is virtually drained before it reaches the sea because of the voracious demand for water.

The cities of California tend to have Catholic names. But what it is really all about is the land of Protestant-style individualism. As we saw in the posting on this blog, "The Would-Have-Been Nation Of Westland", July 2017, the kind of people who headed west were people who didn't want to be told what to do by the establishment "back east".

This is El Pueblo de Los Angeles historical monument, the Spanish mission that was the beginning of Los Angeles. First image from Google Earth. The name of the city means "The Angels". When Mexico became independent of Spain, Los Angeles passed to Mexican control, and then to the U.S. after the war of 1848.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0565689,-118.2385435,2a,60y,30.48h,90.71t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sZagipxetmJwtAbCQtkeVKw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Here is the Historic Core of the city that was the city center for the first half of the Twentieth Century. There are more views of the downtown area. The first two images are from Google Earth.

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0469586,-118.2514352,3a,75y,319.91h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMg6U17Jv2Gq4QxlSJ12HXVnxxUmK_iW0tojpkH!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMg6U17Jv2Gq4QxlSJ12HXVnxxUmK_iW0tojpkH%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0.21235587-ya43.975693-ro1.2342558-fo100!7i8192!8i4096

A familiar sight is Los Angeles City Hall. Image from Google Earth.

One of the best-known sights around Los Angeles is the Hollywood Sign. The first image is from Google Earth.

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.127285,-118.3265068,3a,75y,72.65h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMPOZeOzI6OdCi9vwB6GVgm2nWujqqhoFWUD4-C!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMPOZeOzI6OdCi9vwB6GVgm2nWujqqhoFWUD4-C%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya295.32455-ro0-fo100!7i7168!8i3584

This is the neighborhood of Hollywood, the sign is above it. Hollywood is all about the movie industry. Few streets in the world are famous in themselves. Los Angeles has several such famous streets. One is Sunset Boulevard, along which the following scenes begin. As the city that introduced the world to the modern car culture, we shouldn't be surprised that Los Angeles has famous streets, three others are Wilshire Boulevard, Sepulveda Boulevard and, Santa Monica Boulevard.

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0904301,-118.3289199,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1svqzhVBRKgWWOBHXCLsfyLQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

The following image of Sunset Blvd is from Google Earth.

Here is the "Walk of Fame" on Hollywood Boulevard.

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.1016381,-118.3337029,3a,60y,1.43h,77.1t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sbNYUoj4A25Lr9ryjUhOJhQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Another well-known Los Angeles neighborhood that is associated with the movie industry is Beverly Hills. The following views there also begin along Sunset Boulevard.

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0736053,-118.4004235,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sBt2kTVqEvm9hDDyOIq964A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

A lot of movie stars and other celebrities have lived in this housing development in Beverly Hills, the Trousdale Estates.

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.1045525,-118.3967976,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1siD_UrMPSmELECqFermqxnw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Not far from Beverly Hills is the vast and well-known university, UCLA, the University of California at Los Angeles. This is actually the birthplace of the internet.

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0694343,-118.4449165,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sZu1JlQw-VCegDwHddNCLfw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

The Greater Los Angeles area extends eastward to San Bernardino. Here is a residential neighborhood.

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.1258193,-117.2851434,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sGzXr19rZ3ulbM4vFeoMGyQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

South of Los Angeles, along the border with Mexico, is the city of San Diego. Like Los Angeles, it began with a Spanish mission during the Eighteenth Century. The focal point of the city later moved to what is now known as the Gaslamp Quarter. The first image, from Google Earth, is of downtown San Diego.

 
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.7136592,-117.1600945,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sJofjWLVNqoxwGyFoKPoelw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

This is more of downtown San Diego. There is a deep natural harbor.

https://www.google.com/maps/@32.7282656,-117.1628729,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sXU7AntTNDADPCQo332ps8w!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 

Does anyone remember, from 1982, a man nicknamed "Lawnchair Larry" got the idea of flying by tying helium balloons to a lawn chair. He attached containers of water to the chair so that he could drop some weight if he wanted to gain altitude. He brought a pellet gun so that he could burst some of the balloons if he wanted to lose altitude. He brought a two-way radio for communication.

The following image, from Google Earth, shows the route of the flight, from southwest to northeast. The flight was of over 16 km, about 11 miles, and reached an altitude of about 5 km, or 3 miles.

The Western U.S. Flag

The southern U.S. sometimes uses the Confederate flag as it's unofficial regional flag, although there is a movement against it. Why doesn't the western U.S. have it's own unofficial regional flag?

The U.S. flag consists of a field of fifty stars, one for each of the fifty states, and thirteen alternating red and white stripes, one for each of the original thirteen states. But all of these original states are in the eastern U.S. The capital, Washington DC, is also in the east. This means that the flag very much favors the eastern part of the country, although it is true that the history of the country began in the east.

The field of fifty stars, in contrast, represents every state equally. The West is generally drier than the east, meaning less cloudy, so that the stars are more visible. Why doesn't the western U.S. adopt just the field of stars on the flag as it's unofficial regional flag? Image from the Wikipedia article "Flag of the United States".

The posting about the western U.S. is "The Would-Have-Been Nation Of Westland", July 2017.

The Diamond In The Sky

If you look at the western sky on a clear evening you will see a light that looks like a brilliant diamond. It is Venus, which is the closest planet to the earth.

Venus is the brightest object in the sky, other than the sun and moon. You can also see Sirius, which is the brightest star in the sky, but Venus is brighter. Remember that one way to tell a planet from a star is that bright stars tend to "twinkle", while planets shine with a steady light. Another way is that the planets move over time, as they orbit the sun, but stars stay in fixed positions.

Jupiter is another easily visible planet, and is almost as bright as Venus. In fact, Jupiter is visible in the eastern sky in early evening at this time. 

The way to tell Jupiter and Venus apart is that Jupiter is further from the sun than earth while Venus is closer. This means that Venus is only seen after sunset or before sunrise, it is never seen in the middle of the night. Jupiter is visible in the middle of the night.

For more information see the posting "Stargazing", February 2024.

Mercury And Theia

There is a saying about "putting two and two together". Why don't we see if we can apply it today?

It is widely believed that a planetary object once collided with earth. The fragments of this object collected together by gravity to form the moon. The object has been named "Theia". There is also believed to be parts of Theia embedded in earth's mantle.

There is reason to believe that the moon formed from such a collision. First, the moon lacks a large iron core like the planets have. Iron is as far as the ordinary fusion process goes, in the star that preceded the sun that exploded in a supernova. This is why iron is so abundant in the inner Solar System. It is the most abundant element on earth by mass. We know that the moon is made of rock, lacking a large iron core, because it is 1/64 the volume of the earth but only 1/81 the mass of the earth. The moon also has practically no magnetic field, which is created by an iron core.

Another reason for believing that the moon formed from fragments is how it's surface gravity varies from place to place. This actually caused the first astronauts that landed on the moon to miss their intended landing site by several km.

My geology theory expands on this concept of Theia to explain the continents as part of the planetary object that remained on earth, instead of being hurtled back into space to form the moon. 

An abbreviated version of the geology theory, on this blog "Geology Theory With Satellite Imagery And Maps", March 2024.

But how could such a mass of rock like Theia have formed in the Solar System without an iron core? This would be completely unlike the rest of the inner Solar System. Or is what remains of Theia, including an iron core, still out there somewhere?

Now let's go to another mystery in the Solar System, that of the planet Mercury. The smallest and closest planet to the sun has the opposite mystery to the missing iron core of the moon. The iron core of Mercury occupies a much higher proportion of the planet's cross section than that of earth. Mercury's rocky mantle and crust takes up a much lower proportion of it's cross section than that of earth.

The following diagram represents the cross section of the earth. The inner red circle is the iron core and the outer blue circle is the rocky mantle and crust.

In the following diagram the double circle at left represents the cross section of Mercury. The inner red circle is the core and the outer blue circle represents the rocky mantle and crust. The circle at right represents the moon, made of rock but without a significant iron core.

There is speculation that Mercury must have underwent some type of collision to have lost much of it's former rocky mantle. I can't see that anyone has "put two and two together". What if Mercury, which is the smallest planet, is the remainder of Theia, which collided with the earth to result in the formation of the moon? The collision caused it to lose orbital energy so that it fell into a lower orbit closer to the sun, where we see it today as Mercury.

Something else that is interesting is that Mercury has undergone a tremendous impact in it's past. There is an impact crater, known as Caloris, that is one-third of the diameter of the planet. The impact was so great that it distorted the terrain on the diametrically opposite side of the planet. The crater is said to be from relatively recently in the planet's history, because it doesn't contain as many craters as the terrain outside the crater, but this could be due to a factor like lava emerging from the crater and possibly the crater is from the impact with earth.

I think this deserves some consideration because it is just "putting two and two together".

Farewell To A Very Good President

Joe Biden's term of office will be over this week and I think he has been a very good president. To be classified as "great" a president has to serve two terms, or to be assassinated to prevent that from happening. But I would classify Joe Biden as very good.

Joe Biden presided over the "Decade From Hell". But that was because of global issues and wasn't at all his fault. The U.S. President had no control over the Covid pandemic that did so much to set the world back.

The inflation that we have been dealing with for the past few years has nothing at all to do with the president. It is because the Baby Boom Generation has been retiring by the millions. There is more old people, relative to young people, than ever before. Retired people are still consuming goods and services, but are not producing them anymore. That raises the ratio of consumers to producers, and this is what is causing inflation.

High fuel prices contributed to inflation because goods have to be transported and, when fuel gets expensive, it makes everything else more expensive. But this wasn't the president's fault. There was not so much a shortage of oil as a shortage of refineries. With electric vehicles on the horizon, oil companies don't want to invest the tremendous amount of money that it takes to open a refinery.

Joe Biden's performance in the debate with Donald Trump had nothing to do with senility. Joe Biden suffers a little bit from stuttering. I used to suffer from it myself and I recognized it immediately.

President Biden was like a captain steering a ship through some wild storms and I think he did a pretty good job of it. Now he is closing out his term with a peace agreement in Gaza.

AI And Traffic Lights

Everyday there is more in the news about how quickly AI is developing and all the amazing things that it can do, although it is worrying some people.

But here is what I think is the most important question about AI. When is all of this wonderful technology going to get applied to traffic lights? Ever since I first read about AI I have been waiting for it to be applied to traffic lights.

Traffic lights are wasteful beyond belief. How many times have you seen a dozen cars lined up at a red light but no cars on the green light side? Can you imagine all the time that is wasted at red lights that should be green? How much fuel does this waste and how much does the resulting exhaust contribute to global warming?

Traffic lights are an example of what I refer to as being "technologically forward but system-backward". We develop a new technology and implement a basic system to manage it. We make progress in the technology but it is limited by the fact that we are still using the same primitive system as at the beginning. There is so much discussion nowadays about "smart" technology but traffic lights are about as dumb as it can get.

What if the traffic light could see or sense the cars, including the indicators as to which way the car was turning, and then make the logical decision as to which way should be red and which way green? There would be no more unnecessary waiting at red lights.

The fuel saved would not only be due to the elimination of idling but also the car's momentum is lost when braking for a red light and must be regained, at the expense of fuel, when the light turns green. The reduction in stops that must be made would also save drivers money because brakes would have to be replaced less frequently.

Technology is wonderful, until we get dependent on it and it doesn't work. But if this AI system ever breaks down, it would be relatively simple to implement a mechanism that would shift it back to the automated system that we have now. The AI system could be programmed to automatically turn to a green light for emergency vehicles.

This should have been done already. There are AI-powered cameras and sensors watching everything that we do. When is this going to be applied to traffic lights to eliminate unnecessary stopping and waiting?

Greenland

Since Greenland is so often in the news, why don't we have a look at it?

ALL IMAGES ARE FROM GOOGLE STREET VIEW 

Greenland is considered as the world's largest island, with Australia being considered as the smallest continent. It is high in the Arctic and the vast majority of it is covered with a sheet of ice.

Politically, Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark. Nuuk is the capital city of Greenland, and it is what we will be seeing today. As we might expect, this vast island is very sparsely populated. Nuuk is a city of about 20,000 people, which is about a third of the population of the island. The Danish name for Nuuk is Godthab. 

In the following image you can see the Greenlandic flag to the right and the Danish flag to the left.

Notice how long the shadows are, of the light poles. Since Greenland is at such high latitude it means that the sun is low in the sky. Nuuk is less than 3 degrees from the Arctic Circle. But since it is below the Arctic Circle the sun always rises and sets once every 24 hours. The Arctic Circle, as well as the Antarctic Circle, is 23.5 degrees from the pole because that's how much the earth is tilted on it's axis, relative to the plane of it's orbit around the sun.

The lack of trees means that telephone poles have to be made of metal.

But God is up here just as much as He is anywhere.

This is the mall in Nuuk.

Here is a general look around Nuuk, which was formerly known by the Danish name of Godthab.

The rest of Greenland, which is the vast majority of the island, looks like this.

The first question that most people probably have about Greenland is how on earth it got it's name. It is sometimes said that Iceland and Greenland should exchange names. Iceland is where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge pokes above the surface of the water. So it has geothermal heating as a source of warmth, but Greenland has no such warmth.

Actually it was named by Erik the Red in the hope that it would attract people to his settlement. We tend to think of the Arctic as a relatively new frontier but there were European settlements on Greenland in medieval times.

Erik the Red had a son named Leif Erikson. He is believed to have founded a settlement at the northern tip of Newfoundland, called Vinland. The Vikings ultimately abandoned the settlement because of conflict with the native Indians. It would be nearly five hundred years before Europeans, led by Christopher Columbus, would settle the western hemisphere again.

The settlement at Vinland has been recreated. With the scarcity of wood notice how the structures, in the following images, have been built of sod, or blocks of earth, and the surface soil with grass has gone to make the roof. We can presume that the original settlement of Greenland was built in the same way.

Alexandria

Alexandria is a city in Egypt that is northwest of Cairo, along the Mediterranean coast. The city is not as big as Cairo, but is much older. Alexandria is today Egypt's major port, but is not on the Suez Canal. It was founded by Alexander, the Greek conqueror, in 331 B.C., and was the capital of Egypt for nearly a thousand years, and one of the greatest cities of the ancient world. Alexander never returned to Egypt after founding the city. In a way Alexandria took the place of the ancient port of Tyre, on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, which Alexander had conquered and destroyed.

Alexandria has been the natural window on the world for Egypt, and has been an important city to the world ever since it was founded. It was one of the early centers of Christianity. In the Hellenistic era, which followed it's founding, Alexandria probably surpassed even Athens as a center of Greek civilization. It was not an entirely new city, but absorbed the Egyptian town of Rhakotis, which was already in the location. this town became the "Egyptian Quarter" of the city when it attracted migrants from all over. Unlike Cairo, there are no pyramids in Alexandria.

The city of Alexandria changed the dynamic of Egypt, making it less a part of Africa and more Mediterranean. Moslems would later move the cultural center back to the south, by founding Cairo more than a thousand years later, but not as far south as it had been in ancient Egypt.

After the breakup of Alexander's vast empire into several pieces, a general named Ptolemy founded a dynasty that would last for about three hundred years, and ruled Egypt from Alexandria. The Ptolemies claimed to be Egyptian pharaohs, but continued speaking Greek. The last queen, the legendary Cleopatra VII, claimed to be a reincarnation of the Egyptian god Isis. She was born and died in Alexandria.

Alexandria was a great intellectual center and was known for it's outstanding library. The location of the library isn't exactly known today. The city had a thriving Jewish community during the Hellenistic era. As their children began to forget how to speak Hebrew, the community had the Jewish scriptures translated into Greek. The translation was known as the Septuagint, because seventy scholars worked on it, and would become the basis for the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.

Alexandria was laid out around two main streets that met near Alexander's tomb. He died in Babylon, but was finally buried by Ptolemy in Alexandria. However, the location of the tomb is now not known. Some areas sank into the water, due to earthquake activity, and quite a bit of underwater archeology has taken place there.

The island of Pharos was joined to the mainland. There was a great lighthouse in Alexandria, that was one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. It was about 137 meters high, but was damaged in earthquakes and the remaining stones were used to build the Citadel of Qaitbay on the site. This is what the lighthouse is believed to have looked like, from the Wikipedia article "Lighthouse Of Alexandria".

This is Pompey's Pillar, which has stood in Alexandria since Roman times, although it was built much later than the time of Pompey. It is in the form of an ancient Egyptian obelisk, but is in the style of a column. This image is from the Wikipedia article "Pompey's Pillar".

There are vast underground catacombs in Alexandria, dating from the Middle Ages, which were accidentally discovered in the Twentieth Century. The following image is from the Wikipedia article "Catacombs Of Kom El Shoqafa".

After the times of the Ptolemies and then the Romans, Alexandria was ruled, over it's long history, by the usual parade of conquerors in this part of the world, the Sassanids, the Byzantines, the Fatimid Caliphate, the Mamluks, and then the Ottomans. Rosetta was a nearby medieval city, somewhat of a rival to Alexandria, that was a commercial center during Mamluk and Ottoman rule.

The Qaitbay Citadel was founded in 1477, by the Mamluks on the site of the former lighthouse, and some of the remaining stones of the lighthouse were used in construction of the Citadel. It was later restored by the Muhammad Ali Pasha Dynasty, which began when an Albanian Ottoman officer named Muhammad Ali established independent rule of Egypt, that was recognized by the Ottomans.

Here are some views of the Citadel of Qaitbay, and the surrounding area. The island, later joined to the mainland, on which first the lighthouse and then the Citadel of Qaitbay was built, is very reminiscent of the offshore island on which Tyre had been built, and which Alexander reached and conquered by filling in with rubble. this citadel in Alexandria is, of course, reminiscent of the citadel in Cairo, where the main structure is the Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha. Notice the similarity between this structure and the Sultan Hasan Mosque in Cairo, because both were built by the Mamluks. The first four images of the Qaitbay Citadel are from Google Street View. 

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow you can then hide previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.2137144,29.8856402,3a,75y,350.93h,93.1t,-5.4r/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s39oiLytxkk6L92GY8XBpIw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D39oiLytxkk6L92GY8XBpIw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D76.00648%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Here is an area in Alexandria with ancient ruins, from the Greek and Roman era, but not going back to ancient Egypt. The first three images are from Google Street View.

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.2010732,29.900991,3a,75y,300h,100t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipP0FHRY_3751r-RqJopx_Y5kC8YhWeOzJpF0Ug!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipP0FHRY_3751r-RqJopx_Y5kC8YhWeOzJpF0Ug%3Dw900-h600-k-no-pi-10-ya255.02991485595703-ro0-fo100!7i5760!8i2880?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTEyNC4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

This is the central area of Alexandria. The first eight images of central Alexandria are from Google Street View. 

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.2007319,29.9095781,3a,75y,277h,83t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipO0OjG1pu5b0AiulHFpajcecSvk3JoaFyHk6bZe!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipO0OjG1pu5b0AiulHFpajcecSvk3JoaFyHk6bZe%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-7-ya27.499979-ro-0-fo100!7i6000!8i3000

Here are some scenes east of downtown in the city.

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.2150826,29.9457958,3a,75y,280h,100t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNcurItR1qGIM_FWMXGFl1uEJP1_G-Jo1-oM6w!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNcurItR1qGIM_FWMXGFl1uEJP1_G-Jo1-oM6w%3Dw900-h600-k-no-pi-10-ya306.3573608398438-ro0-fo100!7i5760!8i2880?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTEyNC4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

This is around the Green Plaza Mall. This is an open air mall. There is such an open air mall on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, but Alexandria is a little bit warmer in the winter. The first six images of the Green Plaza Mall are from Google Street View. 

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.206592,29.965447,3a,75y,81.06h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-LpD_QzKtxPc%2FVXoPclRm8xI%2FAAAAAAAAHLo%2Fbl4S1UVUvi0hRY5vgEPYuSkKQX9MmmBOACJkC!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh6.googleusercontent.com%2F-LpD_QzKtxPc%2FVXoPclRm8xI%2FAAAAAAAAHLo%2Fbl4S1UVUvi0hRY5vgEPYuSkKQX9MmmBOACJkC%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi0-ya80.85692-ro0-fo100%2F!7i13700!8i6850

The Ottomans ruled Egypt from 1517-1798. Napoleon then ruled Egypt, which was what brought ancient Egypt into the world's consciousness, many artifacts to the Louvre and, one of the obelisks known as "Cleopatra's Needles", although they far pre-dated her time, and were not from the Alexandria area, to where it remains today in the center of Place Concorde in Paris.

Another of the three "Cleopatra's Needles" is on the side of the Thames River, in London, the other is in New York's Central Park. This one in London is from the Wikipedia article "Cleopatra's Needles".

Alexandria was really revived, and moved back as being more prominent than Rosetta, by the Muhammad Ali Dynasty's construction of the Mahmoudiyah Canal, from the Nile River to Alexandria.

Has anyone ever noticed a historical pattern in Egypt? Alexander conquered Egypt, in 332 B.C., and one of his generals, Ptolemy Soter, established a ruling dynasty after the death of Alexander. The Ottomans conquered Egypt in 1517, and an Ottoman general, Muhammad Ali, established a ruling dynasty after Ottoman rule had temporarily been interrupted by Napoleon? These two events, more than 2100 years apart, follow exactly the same historical pattern. In fact, the length of time that the Muhammad Ali Dynasty ruled Egypt in modern times is just about identical to the length of time that the Hyksos ruled Egypt in ancient times.

There are a number of palaces today in Alexandria. The Montaza Palace was built in 1892. Anwar Sadat, former president of Egypt who was assassinated in 1981 for trying to make peace with Israel, lived there. The following image is from the Wikipedia article "Montaza Palace".

The Ras El Tin Palace was the Royal Palace of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty, built in 1847. King Farouk, the last of the dynasty, signed the abdication here. The following image is from the Wikipedia article "Ras El Tin Palace".

The following scenes are in the area where there are two palaces.

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.2874379,30.0204996,3a,75y,314h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-mURgaQp-nyA%2FV2BHdYtO-LI%2FAAAAAAAABgw%2Fv9lDivPsDF8BdYubMIxKRg_LWEWGMRWuwCJkC!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh4.googleusercontent.com%2F-mURgaQp-nyA%2FV2BHdYtO-LI%2FAAAAAAAABgw%2Fv9lDivPsDF8BdYubMIxKRg_LWEWGMRWuwCJkC%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi-2.9999962-ya317.5-ro-0-fo100%2F!7i10240!8i5120

Gamal Nasser, an army officer who overthrew and replaced King Farouk in 1952, was reenacting the expulsion of the Hyksos from ancient Egypt. The Muhammad Ali Dynasty was a foreign, Ottoman, dynasty that ruled Egypt until expelled in a way that was like a mirror of the Hyksos. Many European ex-pats enjoyed living in Alexandria, which is just across the Mediterranean from Europe. Rudolf Hess, who would become the Nazi third in command, was actually born in Alexandria. But that changed when Nasser's nationalization policies were announced.

Alexandria is also known for, of course, the beach. It was so reminiscent of Miami Beach that a section of beach has been named after it. The first six images along the beach are from Google Street View. 

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.2700176,29.9908196,3a,75y,180.64h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipM3CodArwLrcSuqIixA0a9IxSyEuSd-0zo3bTk!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipM3CodArwLrcSuqIixA0a9IxSyEuSd-0zo3bTk%3Dw900-h600-k-no-pi0-ya268.30387032724144-ro0-fo100!7i5760!8i2880?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTEyNC4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

This is some more of the city near the beach.

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.2593149,29.9893319,3a,75y,260h,110t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNzPNLY4E8MD8HaAvFtrevfwUQeoYAtsXp6tE8!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNzPNLY4E8MD8HaAvFtrevfwUQeoYAtsXp6tE8%3Dw900-h600-k-no-pi-20-ya36.5155944824219-ro0-fo100!7i5760!8i2880?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTEyNC4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

Finally, here are some scenes in the far western part of Alexandria.

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.2816171,30.0131782,3a,75y,92.12h,120t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPdImq1cZQreffWHn4Rpp7zXO3Ie-AKQ0iTr_Q!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPdImq1cZQreffWHn4Rpp7zXO3Ie-AKQ0iTr_Q%3Dw900-h600-k-no-pi-30-ya166.65606022460938-ro0-fo100!7i5760!8i2880?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTEyNC4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D