Surveying and documenting of the cultivated plants and evaluation of air pollution in historical gardens in alexandria, egypt (a)‎ shallalat garden

Abstract EN

Alexandria is one of the largest cities in Egypt in terms of population and urban density, second only to Cairo.

Since its origination in the 300s BC, it has been one of the biggest metropolises in the ancient world, culturally, intellectually, politically and economically.

Alexandria's classy urban environment over the different eras was always reflected in the creation of gardens and public spaces for its inhabitants since the Ptolemaic era.

The loss of area in Shallalat garden is substantially large, rising up to 56% .

This trend represents a serious threat to the other gardens that might be facing the same aggressive urban erosion.

On the other hand, the loss of area in the remaining Alexandria's gardens is existent but not threatening.

The major losses in areas were in Shallalat garden.

However, it is worth mentioning that this loss in area to urbanism didn't affect the quality of the remaining area of the gardens.

This paper aims to present a descriptive profile of the historical gardens in Alexandria, from their initial design to their current state today.

The garden profiles are gathered in the form of two sets.

The first one consists of the archaeological installations including historical background, and a snapshot of the important elements that define this park.

The second set consists of the plant surveying cultivated in the garden.

The garden contains many plant groups such as trees, shrubs, climbers, palms and succulent.

These groups belong to 33 families, 59 genera and 79 species.

The plant groups planted in the Shallalat garden are of high value due to the high age and the few numbers in the Alexandria city.

The garden contains some plant groups, but it lacks a lot of plants to complete the groups in the garden and to restore the beauty and splendor of the historic garden.

In addition to as the garden is located in the center of Alexandria, which means that it is located in a high-density traffic area, and therefore the Air Pollution Tolerance Index (APTI) was calculated for different plants cultivated in the garden.