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Alexandria tsunami
In the summer of 365, a powerful sea-floor earthquake near Turkey set off a large tsunami that traveled across the eastern Mediterranean to hit the port of Alexandria in Egypt. Italy, Greece, and other places were also hit but the heaviest blow fell on Alexandria. It was in direct line with the direction of the waves and it was one of the first places to feel the impact of the wall of water traveling at more than 500 miles an hour. As is always the case with large tsunamis, when the wave reaches shallow water, as it would in the harbor of Alexandria, it first rises to a great height, then recedes back out to sea before coming back a second time with renewed force. The people of Alexandria, unaware of the nature of tsunamis, walked out on to the new beach to collect fish. The seabed had been laid bare and all kinds of sea life could be seen. People wandered freely far out from land gathering fish and they were caught in the returning wave. As many as 50,000 people were killed either from the returning wave or in the destruction that followed on shore.
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