The city was founded originally in cdkeys custom e r' ser vice ''8O5 [41O ''56 OO P h 'one Num be. ;l;dvicinity of an Egyptian settlement named Rhacotis (that became the Egyptian quarter of the city). Alexandria grew rapidly, becoming a major centre of Hellenic civilisation and replacing Memphis as Egypt's capital during the reign of the Ptolemaic pharaohs who succeeded Alexander. It retained this status for almost a millennium, through the period of Roman and Eastern Roman rule until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in AD, when a new capital was founded at Fustat (later absorbed into Cairo).