Umm al-Dunya

Egyptians have historically endowed Cairo with this honorific title ("Mother of the World"). But, with all due respect to that great city, I think we need to expand our civilizational horizons a bit. Readers are invited to consult my post "A Tale of Three Cities (and Possibly Four)" to get a better idea of where I am going with this. Those who fail to locate Athens on the above map have forgotten Alexander (note that Alexandria is marked, whereas Cairo is not).

Here we see the heartland of pre-modern world theosophical invention--a perennial source of rich cultural fruit (flowering in art, science, and religion)--where hedgehog and fox eat from the same dish.