Lunch in Greek Club with an amazing view over the harbor and the bay

Alexandria has played a very important role in Egyptian history. Founded by the infamous Alexander the Great and Capital of the last great Dynasty of Pharaoh: the Ptolemies. If that name does not ring a bell, I’m sure you’ve heard of Cleopatra, the last of the Hellenistic rulers of Egypt. This city has had it all over the centuries. It was the center of Mediterranean trade, with its enormous harbor and famous lighthouse of Pharos. It was called center of knowledge due to the vast collection of books and scripture in its gigantic library.  However when the Muslims invaded they ignored the capital of Egypt and nestled themselves in Cairo. Since then it has been conquered and reconquered several times, destroying its heritage and pushing it in the background. In two days we explored the remnants of that glorious past and it’s path to renovation.

Alexandria Day 1: A City of the Past and Future

• Sights:          New Library of Alexandria, Museum of Alexandria, Corniche
• Lodging:      Triomphe Hotel
• Budget:          LE 348 pp

The Library of the Future

After a night of waking and sleeping in bits and pieces because of the heat, we got up around 9 and got ready for our first day of exploration in Alexandria. Our hotel was around the corner of the Saad Zaghlol Square. We had some breakfast at Délices, a classy place on the square with both Egyptian and Western breakfast options. We decided to start our day at the Library, Alexandria’s most famous icon. However we are not talking about the old Alexandrian Library, but the new version. We took one of the local mini buses along the Corniche towards the new Biblioteca Alexandrina.

The building is a huge modern complex oriented towards the sea, this caused some confusion about the location of the entrance. eventually we found the ticket office at the back of the complex. The entrance is practically free for students and very reasonable for anyone else. Once inside we wandered around a bit aimlessly through the amazing reading hall and expositions. We were a bit overwhelmed and decided the place was too big to explore without a tour guide. The Library offers free guided tours so we waited for the next English one to start.

Free Tour

We followed the tour guide around along an army of Indian visitors.  The architecture of the main reading hall is even more impressive once explained. A roof designed to let in natural light but no direct sun-rays, to avoid damage to the books. The windows in the roof are designed to look like eyes and eyelashes, with colored glass to ease reading. After the very interesting tour we tried to get into the interactive show hosted in one of the lecture halls. Unfortunately the exposition was not running at the time. Suddenly we realized we had spent almost three hours inside the complex. Never thought I would lose track of time in a library.

Exposition of the Past

We left the library behind and walked towards the small Museum of Alexandria. The place is located in an old Italian Mansion. Although it is small, the place is very well organised and the expositions beautifully displayed. All in all it gives a very good overview of the history of the city. The timeline goes from the earliest dynasties to explore the location of the non-existent to the modern Islamic city and everything in between. The exposition also includes artifacts collected from the now submerged palace of Cleopatra.

After admiring the collection we walk across town to a small restaurant called Abdu Ahmed. Their specialty is the popular fuul bean paste prepared in different ways. We tried out the versions with humus and smoked eggplant. It barely cost us anything and we walked out stuffed and satisfied. We made our way back to the hotel to rest a while before walking towards the souqs area. Once we reached the area, we wandered around the packed streets and explored most of the souqs.

We were still stuffed with our late fuul lunch. So instead of trying one the fresh fish restaurants, we headed to the self-crowned King of Mango and Strawberry. It’s a tiny place along the Corniche that serves delicious fresh juices. Random locals even stop on the tiny parking space to enjoy a juice in their car. We walked back along the Corniche past the wonderful War Memorial to get to our bed in the Triomphe Hotel.

Alexandria Day 2: Roman in Life, Egyptian in Death

• Sights:        Kom El Dikka, Pompey’s Pillar, Fort Qatbay
• Lodging:    Night Bus
• Budget:      LE 587 pp

Roman Life

We started of the day with another Délices breakfast (it was just that delicious), enjoying the fresh sea air in the green little square. After breakfast we walked away from the coast down to the train station. Right next to it lies the entrance to Kom el Dikka. Literally translated it means something like: pile of rubble. Which is exactly what i was before they started clearing that pile to build a parking lot. Underneath that rubble they found a large area of Roman remains.

The site includes the remains of a large bath house, where you can explore the underground chambers that transported the water and produced the steam. The site also has the only Roman Amphitheater in Egypt and the remains of a large villa. The villa was the home of a rich Roman family. It was dubbed the Villa of the Birds because of the detailed mosaics on the flour. Normally you have to pay extra to admire what’s left of this floor-art. However, since nobody bothered to man the entrance, we got that experience for free.

Lonely Pillar

Next on our list of Roman remains was the famous Pompey’s Pillar. It was a long while walking and we did not want to spend on a taxi ride. So we decided to take the very slow and rickety tram that runs through the city. The tram ride was an attraction on itself. It reminded me of the San Francisco cable cars, but without the meticulous maintenance. Another remnant of a more glorious time. We met the very nice woman on the tram and thanks to her we got off right in front of our destination. Besides the huge impressive pillar and two flanking sphinxes, you can explore a network of dark underground halls. These halls were once part of the Serapeum, the ancient secondary library building that housed all copies and overflow of the main building.

Egyptian Death

From the site of the Pillar we walked to the catacombs not so far away. The heat by now was incredibly unbearable but the underground impressive catacombs catered for some relief. The main entrance is a huge spiral staircase circling several meters into the ground. The underground complex of halls and passageways consists of different levels, the lower ones are now flooded. What once started out as a rich family tomb developed into a true necropolis.

Hundreds of small niches are dug out of the rock everywhere to house one or multiple bodies. The main tomb is a very impressive structure. The Romans might not have adapted their lifestyle to the Egyptian ways, but the same cannot be said of their death. The tomb was decorated with Egyptian symbols. I even spotted a relief of Anubis wearing a Roman military uniform. The Romans that lived here even took on a form of mummification, reflecting some of the ancient Egyptian ways.

Fort of Qatbay

We grabbed a cab and instructed the driver to a restaurant we wanted to try. Instead he ignored our instructions and we ended up right next to fort Qatbay. We consulted our trusty Lonely Planet guidebook to check the lunch options nearby. We ended up in the very nice, although slightly to fancy, Greek Club. The heat and dust had changed us into our usual dirty self. We felt out-of-place so we both went to refresh in the bathroom, in order to at least get rid of the layer of dust. The food was delicious and the place has an amazing view over the harbor and the bay of Alexandria.

After our lunch we walked down the street to the Fort. We skipped the rather creepy Fish Museum, full of stuffed fish and reptiles and looked for the entrance to the Fort. The very monotonous colored but impressive Fort Qatbay was the most important defensive structure of Alexandria. It is believed to be built on the site of the famous Lighthouse of Pharos. When you look closely you can even see some out-of-place pieces of stone, supposedly once part of the old lighthouse. We enjoyed the view the view of the sun’s glow on the Fort’s stones for a while and we explored the many corners of the fort.

Picture Perfect Food

We started our long walk along the coast back towards the hotel. Along the way we met one of the diving instructors that organised dives to Cleopatra’s Palace. Walking past some food stand a couple of locals clearly disagreed and we dodged a rather nasty street fight. We killed some time in the hostel before heading out to eat something at Gad, the local fast food chain. We randomly picked out our meal using the pictures on the menu since no English translation was available. I would recommend the chicken shawarma to anyone, at least I think that’s what I had. After our dinner we headed back to the hotel, collected our luggage and took a cab to the bus station out-of-town. Eventually we got on our night bus towards Siwa. The air conditioning was turned up way to cold and we knew or would be a long ride.

Stay tuned for our adventures in the beautiful Oasis of Siwa…