Historical background (The Old Alexandria Medical Faculty):
IN 332 BC, Alexander the great conquered Egypt and started building the city of Alexandria. His followers Ptolemy the first (Soter) and Ptolemy the second (Philadeiphus) established the old Alexandria medical Faculty as a part of the old Alexandria University.
Famous teachers and scientists of the old medical Faculty were Herophilus (called father of anatomy) who was the first person to systematically dissect the human body and Erasistratus (called father of pathology) who first coined the term “pathology”.
Famous graduates of the Alexandria medical Faculty are Soranus of Ephesus and Rufus of Ephesus. The famous physician Galen (called Galinus by the Romans and Arabs) studied and practised in Alexandria before travelling to Rome to establish his medical reputation there. Other famous scientists of the old Alexandria University were Ptolemy the geographer, Archimedes of buoyancy fame and Erastothenes who accurately calculated the perimeter of the planet earth by measuring the shadow of a stick in Alexandria and Aswan (see Appendix I).
Establishment of the (Modern Alexandria Medical Faculty):
The Faculty of Medicine of Alexandria University was established following the Royal Decree No. 32 pronounced in August 1942 by His Majesty King Farouk the first. Teaching started in the academic year of 1942/1943. The establishment of the Faculty was the culmination of the efforts of many Alexandrian scholars and physicians headed by Mi Ibrahim Pacha (Professor of Surgery, born in Alexandria) and Dr. Mohamed Mahfouz Bey (a famous Alexandrian ophthalmologist and head of the Alexandria Eye Hospital). The pre-clinical teaching took place on the premises of the Abbaseya Secondary Faculty, while the clinical teaching took place in the Municipal (Amireya) Hospital the largest hospital in Alexandria built by Khedeve Ismail in 1876. A new hospital was subsequently established to house all the clinical departments of the Faculty. Four new buildings were also added with four large amphitheatres to house the academic departments.