Alexandria-on-Tigris

This follows on "Ancient Roman environment" paragraph halfway down here: the blog post about the Roman road network ended up observing the vastly different water regime in ancient Mesopotamia. 

Fox News Digital ran a feature titled Alexander the Great's long-lost city located after nearly two millennia: ‘Absolutely stunning’ about Alexandria-on-the-Tigris (Charax Spasinou, summary at bottom). That falls smack dab in the middle of that map region. I simply recycled the previous map with Ancient World Mapping Center (AWMC) at UNC-Chapel Hill data for that period.

Charax Spasinou was originally founded as Alexandria (or Alexandria on the Tigris) by Alexander the Great in 324 BC, replacing a small Persian settlement called Durine. It was later rebuilt by Antiochus IV and briefly renamed Antiochia (or Antiochia in Susiana). 

That description sits here with relevant  AWMC data tabulated, c/w two archaeological reports here and here on the. last decades' excavations: check out the stunning shallow geophysical mapping results for what may have been the largest port city of mid-1st Millennium BC. 

I sorted the Pleiades ancient place names database for features that mention Alexander (the Great) and found only two. Alexandria didn't show up, so i simply pulled the location and plotted it on the map.

click to enlarge, original here

You can clearly see why the port "then declined as the Tigris shifted and the Gulf shoreline migrated, leaving the port stranded" (summary below): the current shoreline today is way south of Alexandria then; that is the same with ports at the time of the Crusades on the French medieval coast of Provence.

Here are the previous maps from the prior blog that show the change in water regime mentioned atop:

click to enlarge, from blog post

News Summary (Perplexity)

Archaeologists have confirmed the precise location and layout of Alexandria on the Tigris, a long-lost city founded by Alexander the Great in what is now southern Iraq near the Persian Gulf, revealing a remarkably well-preserved ancient trade hub.

What was found

• The city is Alexandria on the Tigris, founded in 324 B.C. as a port linking trade between India, Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean via the Persian Gulf.

• It declined after the 3rd century A.D. when the course of the Tigris River shifted and the site fell into obscurity.

How they located it

• Since the 2010s, and especially from 2016, archaeologists have used drone imagery and high‑resolution geophysical scans to map fortification walls, street grids, city blocks, temples, workshops, harbor and canal systems.

• Work began under British archaeologists Jane Moon, Robert Killick and Stuart Campbell, with more recent leadership by Stefan R. Hauser of the University of Konstanz.

Significance of the site

• The mapped area covers about 2.5 square miles, which Hauser calls enormous for an ancient city, surpassing even major capitals like Seleucia on the Tigris or Alexandria on the Nile in block size.

• Buildings are preserved just beneath the surface, giving an almost unique opportunity to reconstruct an entire ancient city plan without later construction disturbing the remains.

Historical and research context

• Ancient sources such as Pliny the Elder (citing older accounts) report that Alexander personally chose the site for its strategic position at the junction of river and sea, when a new harbor for Indian trade was needed in southern Mesopotamia.

• The city later became important under the Parthian Empire, which Hauser describes as one of antiquity’s most understudied powers; the site may therefore illuminate Parthian history, structure and culture.

Current and future work

• Fieldwork has been difficult because of security conditions (including ISIS control in parts of Iraq in the 2010s), extreme summer temperatures above 120°F, and air pollution; early surveys were conducted under close military or police supervision.

• Researchers plan to investigate city quarters, workshops and kilns further, funding permitting, and hope to complete the geophysical mapping of the entire site soon.