British Planning Schemes for Alexandria and its Region, 1834-1934

As the Ottoman Empire declined, so British influence in the Eastern Mediterranean grew. In 1882, the occupation of Egypt was finally bringing to an end British ambitions for alternative routes to India. Britain’s hold on Egypt weakened further in the second decade of the 20th century following a rise in nationalist feeling and British involvement in the First World War. In 1922, the Egyptian Declaration of Independence put an end, at least nominally, to a 40-year occupation. This chapter focuses on the British contribution to the planning of Alexandria and its surrounding region. Firstly, we shall consider the work of British engineers who installed the basic physical transport infrastructure, namely the Overland Way and the railway from Alexandria to Suez. Whilst reshaping the geography of the Delta, these projects also created transit points at Alexandria and Cairo. Secondly, we shall examine three early projects for the wider region of Alexandria, namely the development of Ramleh as a garden city ante litteram, the reclamation of Lake Aboukir (1887-1888) for agricultural purposes and the foundation of the frontier town of Burg el Arab (1918), one of the first projects intended to redefine the border with the Western Desert. We shall then focus on the City of Alexandria Town Planning Scheme, prepared by “civil engineer and imperial planner” William H. McLean (1919) (Home, 1997, p.152), as well as on the building of Smouha City and the company town of Beida Dyers. British schemes for Alexandria and its region may help us to gain a better understanding of Alexandria’s position at the centre of a wider ‘geographical theatre’: Alexandria ad Ægyptum, as the Romans said, sufficiently near Egypt to benefit from its riches, sufficiently distant for independence.