Also known as the Brucheum or Broucheion, or "Greek" District, the Royal Quarter was from the first the site of the palaces of the Greek Ptolemies. Here were the luxury homes of Greek courtiers, millionaires, ambassadors, the highest generals in the army - all who had both the clout and the money to build the best that Alexandria could offer and afford to live in it. In Roman times, once the last Queen was dead, the Royal Quarter was the headquarters for the highest Roman administrators and those who sought prestige in Rome's wake.

You may find a map of the Royal Quarter (in the late 4th century) here.

The actual palace of the kings apparently jutted out on a promontory northeast of the city, known as Antirhodos. Only in the past decade has its location been found - now deep under the waters of Alexandria harbor, possibly resulting from a catastrophic earthquake which sank a portion of the city.

The great Library of Alexander was part of the Museum Complex in the Brucheum Quarter (a smaller library was in the Temple of Serapis). The primary museum complex held 128,000 distinct works from ancient Greece, Rome, Mesopotamia, and other great ancient cultures, making it the greatest single library in the ancient world (Marc Antony offered Cleopatra the library of Pergamum to replace volumes destroyed during Julius Caesar's occupation of the city). Here also was the Museum and the medical and scientific schools which were world famous until the riots of the late third and fourth century, when warring Christian sects destroyed the 'pagan' libraries of the ancients, the destruction being completed following the Moslem invasion. The Royal Quarter was also repeatedly sacked, including by the Roman Emperors Aurelian and Diocletian, and was largely in ruins by 400 A.D.

SOURCES: Map courtesy of Hypatia World

A clickable map of ancient Alexandria may be found here.