"Alexandria: The Greatest City" is another show about the ancient world hosted by Bettany Hughes. You can tell she really loved talking about the city and her excitement permeated the show. During the course of the show, she discussed the city's founding during the time of Alexander the Great (it was one of many cities named after him), the multinational aspects of the town, the university, the work of Galen and the great library--the greatest repository of knowledge in the ancient world. She also, sadly, discusses some of the city's downfall--but only some. Oddly, she never mentioned the great earthquake during the 4th century after which much of the town fell into the sea. This odd omission is one of the reasons I scored it a 7 and not higher. However, like her other wonderful documentaries, it is STILL well worth seeing.
7 Reviews
Fascinating history that we would do well to understand and remember
seamariehere19 February 2024
This was a very good summary of Alexandria's history. Of course, there is always more to tell but no one can capture everything in a short hour. This was a fine piece describing the fascinating streams of influence and the great scholars that studied there and made Alexandria the jewel that it was. Most people do not know who Hypatia was. I appreciate the narrator taking the time to explain her significant contributions. We are facing an eerily similar challenge, as people who consider themselves to be righteous turn away from science and call for the banning of books. This is an important story to tell and to tell in a compelling way, which is what this documentary did.
Very interesting but unreliable facts
maggiebarnard9 December 2014
Warning: Spoilers
The documentary is interesting mainly because of the photography and the interesting people interviewed. I was a little shocked to see that the end of the documentary becomes a thinly veiled warning against Christians who are politically active! The destruction of the famous Alexandrian library is laid clearly at the feet of a Christian mob stirred up to murder Hypatia, an innocent pagan scientist. I thought this unlikely so I did some research and came up with a good site that considers the three perpetrators alleged throughout history to have destroyed the library: Caesar, Theosophilus and Omar (a Muslim conqueror). The relevant documentation is examined and the author believes that Caesar is guilty party. He says that Gibbon (author of Rise and Fall of the Roman Emperor) was the first to claim it was a Christian bishop and that Carl Sagan popularized it, adding the story of Hypatia's murder, which has no relevance to the library, to the mix. To check it out for yourself, go to http://www.bede.org.uk/library.htm.
Anti-Christian Diatribe
jgordonanderson6 April 2021
Warning: Spoilers
The movie starts off interesting, but by the end is a screed against Christianity. It was the Muslims who destroyed the city and its library, not Christians, but the narrator says nothing about that. She also says nothing of the many invasions and attacks on the library by the Romans. (See the wikipedia entry "Library of Alexandria.") To hear her tell the story of the city it was a peaceful utopia of higher learning for thousands of years until the evil Christians came along and ruined everything. What a disappointment.
Sadly mediocre, lazy documentary on a great city
WildBullWriter30 November 2023
This documentary is remarkably lazy and mediocre. Disappointing, really, to have such junk produced about what is truly a great city with an amazing history. The glib pitter-patter from the host, Bettany Hughes, is repetitive and superficial. Seems evident that the production budget was so low that it barely covered a trip to Egypt. Lots of stock shots. Nothing new or interesting in terms of information, really. The documentary could have been 20 minutes long instead of 45 minutes and nothing would be lost. In the end, I felt I'd wasted my time, and that's unfortunate. I will look to see if I can't find something on Alexandria that is more professional than this unfortunate production.
So sad. She made a propaganda doco
mendovasilevski25 July 2023
Calling Macedonia Greek LOL , even though all real historians know the truth. North of Greece WTF you mean the part of Macedonia that was stolen by the Greeks.
Like watching a documentary on Hitler and calling him Jewish LOL He killed and conquered Greece and many countries.
I really respect this lady in so many documentaries. It's really sad to know she's just a presenter and not knowledgeable at all.
Alexander the Great was Macedonian and admired both Greek and Roman civilisation. He was blending lots of things in this area and creating a new world order. It's hilarious how this can actually be produced.
Like watching a documentary on Hitler and calling him Jewish LOL He killed and conquered Greece and many countries.
I really respect this lady in so many documentaries. It's really sad to know she's just a presenter and not knowledgeable at all.
Alexander the Great was Macedonian and admired both Greek and Roman civilisation. He was blending lots of things in this area and creating a new world order. It's hilarious how this can actually be produced.
Mostly Fiction
ed_christopher26 September 2023
Warning: Spoilers
That Hypatia was killed by a Christian mob seems to be true. But she leaves you with the impression that the Christians also destroyed the Library by showing them tearing apart the Library when they kill Hypatia. From what I understand, the Library and the books (scrolls) were already gone at the time Hypatia was murdered by the city's Bishop and a mob of Christians. I think it was mostly Romans fighting over the city on a couple of different occasions, and much earlier, that destroyed all the books. For a documentary this is really lacking in facts. I think she just wanted to vent about what happened to Hypatia, so she conflates the two.
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