The Unbuilt Alexandria: Deinocrates' Ambitious Plan for Mount Athos

The Roman architect Vitruvius, writing around 30-20 BC in his treatise De Architectura, recounts an episode involving Alexander the Great and the architect Deinocrates. Deinocrates, an ambitious Greek seeking royal patronage, proposed to sculpt Mount Athos in northern Greece into a colossal statue of Alexander holding a city in one hand and a cup in the other, with streams flowing into the cup and then to the sea. Alexander, known for his strategic city foundations, questioned the site's agricultural capacity. When Deinocrates admitted that food would have to be imported by sea, Alexander rejected the plan, comparing a new city to an infant needing nourishment from its mother's milk. Instead, he tasked Deinocrates with designing Alexandria in Egypt, a location with fertile land and strategic trade routes. Deinocrates later worked on the funeral pyre of Hephaestion, Alexander's close friend, who died in 324 BC at Ecbatana. The story is also referenced by Strabo, Plutarch, and Lucian, though Deinocrates's name varies. Vitruvius included this tale to illustrate the importance of practical, sustainable architecture over grandiose monuments, addressing Emperor Augustus directly. Today, Mount Athos is home to over 20 Greek Orthodox monasteries, with a population of nearly 2000 monks. The proposal, if realized, would have prevented this monastic community from existing.