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About

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Alexandria is the chief port and the second largest city of Egypt. It lies on the Mediterranean Sea at the western edge of the Nile Delta. Alexandria has been a major port and cultural centre since ancient times.

The city lies on a narrow strip of land along the Mediterranean coast. Alexandria has a double harbor formed by a T-shaped peninsula. The Western Desert begins just west of Alexandria, and Lake Mariout is south of the city.

Alexandria is very famous with its beaches where most of the Egyptians go in the summer holidays. Alexandrians live in a variety of houses that range from elegant homes to tar paper shacks. Overcrowding is a problem because many people from the countryside move into the city each year to look for jobs, and it gets more overcrowding in the summer when most of the Egyptians spend their summer holidays in.

The Alexandria metropolitan area ranks second to that of Cairo as an Egyptian industrial centre. It has two oil refineries and a variety of factories. The factories include a car assembly plant, a cottonseed oil processing factory, dyeing plants, and textile plants. Raw cotton exported from the city accounts for much of Egypt's foreign trade. Alexandria attracts many tourists because of its beauty and its location along the sea.