When Alexander the Great decided to build his new capital on the site which was to become Alexandria, he is said to have laid his cloak on the ground and to have instructed his architect, Deinocrates, to draw its outline and thus to determine the shape of the city-to-come. Grain was sprinkled around the cloak's edges and, to the horror of Alexander's entourage, birds flew down and consumed the grain and then flew away. Alexander reassured his followers however that his city was now carried up into the sky and so would endure forever.

Deinocrates continued to supervise the design and construction of the city after Alexander's death.