Visit Alexandreia in Second Life – a mirror of the true ancient world

Hello, my dear readers. Do you know that feeling when you saw a movie that you really liked so you watch it again, and again? This has been happening to me many times, and in SL it happened with places i discovered and really enjoyed being there. Two years ago me and Cris were exploring inworld for historical or fantasy places, and so we landed, by chance, in Alexandreia. Created from scratch by a brilliant builder, this sim reflects incredibly realistically what once was the largest city in Egypt and the intellectual and cultural centre of the ancient Mediterranean.

We recently revisit Alexandreia and this time we had the pleasure of meeting Κλεοπάτρα νεοτέρα (Kleopatra Alpha), a very nice and friendly lady from Switzerland. Her passion for history is pure and reflected in the way she speaks about the ancient world; i feel like i would sit for hours listening to her sharing all the things she knows.

Kleopatra has always been fascinated by Ptolemaic period, so when she came back in SL, in 2016, she decided its time for her to build a dream. A very ambitious project, especially because of the building structures, something that had not yet been done in Second Life.

“Why Ptolemaic? Because it’s a macedonian-egyptian culture. And the first Ptolemy, Alexander’s the Great friend, has been a true genius in politic, culture, strategy. Instead to force the Greek culture in Egypt, he mixed both, with no rebellion. In fact, Alexandreia was called the “brighting city”. Sadly, old Alexandreia is now underwater… So it was my dream to build it here, in SL.” Κλεοπάτρα νεοτέρα (Kleopatra Alpha), Queen and owner of Alexandreia, Second Life

She found a top level builder, from Italy, who worked meticulously on every structure and detail: “We have improved every building because we never stopped to read, search for new discoveries who could help us to be “more realistic”.”

And it is. Everything is so well done, you really have the feeling of traveling back in time, visiting the real ancient world.

Once you land, you see these small low-quality, poor buildings; they intriguated me from the first time we have visited Alexandreia, so i asked Kleopatra what they represent:

“The place where we are is the western side of Alexandreia, called Rhakotis. It was the poor city and we wanted to let everybody see that Alexandreia had also workers, farmers etc. – not only wonderful buildings.” Κλεοπάτρα νεοτέρα (Kleopatra Alpha), Queen and owner of Alexandreia, Second Life

On the left side we see the Pharos of Alexandria, recognized as one of the Seven Wonders of the World and the most famous lighthouse in antiquity. Its construction has been started by Ptolemy I Soter, then finished after his death by his son, Ptolomeu Philadephus. The Lighthouse of Alexandria was built to help sailors find the port and to warn them if they were in danger of hitting rocks, using the fire at night and the reflections of the sun’s rays during the day. 

We are heading to the Library of Alexandria, the greatest monument built by humanity in the name of the culture of the whole world, the largest but also the most famous library of the ancient world. In 297 BCE Demetrios puts on paper the design of what would become the most impressive library of all time. The Alexandrian library was part of the famous Museion, the world’s first museum, a place dedicated to the muses who patronized various intellectual activities, reserved for scientists, philosophers and poets for the purpose of scientific research and the exhibition of works of art. It resembled a modern university complex that gathered reading rooms, laboratories, the Great Library, an astronomical observatory and two gardens: one zoological and one botanical. 

Ptolemy I knew many of the secrets of Egyptian wisdom, passed on by Thales, Pythagoras, Herodotus, Plato, Solon, Lycurgus or Plutarch. He wanted all these collected and carefully kept in one place, and so he realized that he needed a library and someone skilled in building it. After several searches, he meets Demetrios from Phalera, once a good friend of Aristotle, a good public speaker and former governor of Athens, which he led for more than 10 years. The story is fascinating and sad at the same time; i will post soon another article about the entire story of the library and how it was, unfortunately, destroyed.

Each building you pass by says a story, reveals a page of history. Like Caesareum of Alexandreia, conceived by Cleopatra VII of the Ptolemaic Kingdom, the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, to honour her first known lover Julius Caesar or Mark Antony. The edifice was finished by the Roman emperor Augustus, after he defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra in Egypt.

We stopped in front of the Serapeum of Alexandria, impressed by the details of each element. This was an ancient Greek temple built by Ptolemy III Euergetes and dedicated to Serapis, the protector of Alexandria, Egypt. It has also been referred to as the daughter of the Library of Alexandria and used as a learning center, having one of the largest collection of books in the city of Alexandria.

And if we were impressed by the brilliant talent of the builder from what we’ve seen so far, once we arrived in front of the Royal Palace we were enchanted by its beauty.

The Ptolemaic Royal Palace was the residence of the Ptolemaic pharaohs of Egypt from 323 BC to 30 BC. It was occupied well into the Roman era until the Severan dynasty, and sank in 365 CE due to a tsunami created by an earthquake of the island of Crete.

It is worth visiting this sim. There is so much to see and learn about the ancient history. And beside the trully fascinating experiece you have exploring Alexandreia, you should know that this is also a role-playing community. Between 09.00 AM SLT and 15.00 PM SLT you can join the various events held here: roleplay activities based on Kleopatra`s period with Marcus Antonius, mini-modern party`s, sometimes belly dance events or concerts like Madonna, Prince, etc.

Teleport to visit Alexandreia. And please let us know how was your experience while being there.

 

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