ISKANDARIYAH, AL-

muhafazah (governorate), Lower Egypt. The muhafazah is densely settled in the north in and around its capital, Alexandria (Arabic al-Iskandariyah); it includes a desert hinterland extending south more than 50 mi (80 km) into the Western Desert. Its area is 1,034 sq mi (2,679 sq km). Alexandria, in the northeastern panhandle of the muhafazah, is built on a strip between the Mediterranean and Buhayrat Maryut, the classical Lake Mareotis, and juts northward into the Mediterranean on an artificial T-shaped promontory, creating two harbours. Ongoing land reclamation has brought about 190,000 ac (77,000 ha) into agricultural production. There are natural gas wells at Abu Qir, on a natural promontory just northeast of the city. The Alexandria urban area has numerous industries and port and land transportation facilities. At Abu Qir are the extensive remains of the ancient Egyptian centre of Pe-Gewat, known in Hellenistic times as Canopus. A pleasure resort in Ptolemaic times, it had an important temple of the god Sarapis; the temple was destroyed in the 4th century AD. Pop. (1983 est.) 2,708,000.