Bruchium

(Βρυχεῖον). The Royal or Greek quarter of the city of Alexandria (q.v.) enclosed by its own walls. Here were the finest of the public buildings, and upon it the Ptolemies lavished every form of ornament—obelisks, sphinxes, flowers and gardens, and colonnades. Among the great structures that stood here were the famous Library and Museum with its hundreds of thousands of volumes, its corridors, theatre, menagerie, and lecture-halls; the Palace of the Ptolemies; the Caesarium or Temple of the Caesars; the Mausoleum of the Ptolemies (containing the body of Alexander the Great); and the Arsinoëum, a monument raised by Ptolemy Philadelphus to his sister Arsinoé. The name is also written Pyruchium (Πυροχεῖον).