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Fort Qaitbey, Alexandria
Built on the former site of the Pharos, in the harbour of the blue Mediterranean Willie Nelson said it best...sometimes you 'just can't wait to get on the road again'. So we hit the road again on Mar. 14th, back up north to Lower Egypt, back to Cairo. The ten hour train ride was right on time, and with the help of a British couple chatting with us, the ride went pretty quickly. We desperately tried to find a different hotel this time around, but the ones we wanted were either full, or too expensive. We ended up back at the old hotel that we had previously stayed at, with our good friend Mohammed greeting us at the door.
Right away he remembered us, and was even happier that we remembered him. He even pretended to 'accidentally' brush against Christine's hand when closing the door (yuk!). It was better this time around, since we knew what to expect, or not expect.
The next morning we set off for round two of the Egyptian Museum. Time to enjoy the bottom floor of the museum that we hadn't seen the first time, due to serious pharaoh fatigue. One of the first things that visitors see when entering the museum is the famous stone Narmer Palette, which
Alexandria
Night time traffic blurs by dates from around 3100 BC. It shows the first unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the pharaoh Narmer, and is in incredibly good condition, considering that it's over 5000 years old. Besides being a historical document, it was also used to grind cosmetics on, hence the name 'palette'. Then we continued on to view the huge granite statues and sarcophagi that filled the ground floor.
Of course we did another run through of Tutankhamun's treasures, which were just as impressive and glittering the second time around. We also decided to splurge and visit the Royal Mummy Room, which on it's own costs double the entry fee of the museum. But it was fascinating; filled with the remains of thirteen of Egypt's kings and queens, some looking serene and incredibly well preserved, and others, like Seqenre II, who died a violent death in battle, looking less than peaceful.
Later that afternoon we ran errands, buying our train tickets to Alexandria, and sending a parcel from the Cairo post office. This ranked a far second behind the complicated process of sending a parcel from India, but nonetheless was just as interesting. The best part was filling in the forms,
Bibliotheca, Alexandria
Triangular windows of the library which were written in Arabic and French. The post office employees spoke little English, which made miming the contents of the package, a purse, skirt, scarf and books, terribly funny.
The next morning we gulped down our complimentary low budget hotel breakfast, which consisted of a small, stale baguette, a packet of jam and a cup of tea. Then back to the station, where we set off to Alexandria. A quick two hour ride through some beautifully lush fields of crops, past small villages, and we were there. Alexandria was just what we needed, with an unbelievable view of the blue Mediterranean sea from the balcony of our hotel room. Great views, laid back, friendly Egyptian people, no hassles, and the sounds of the water to fall asleep to, what a change of pace.
Alexandria is an amazing city. It was founded by Alexander the Great, later becoming his final resting place, and is Egypt's second largest city after Cairo. With such a beautiful location, he must have had pretty good taste. But the strangest part is that it's most famous historical architecture no longer exists. For example, the famous ancient Great Library of Alexandria was once the
Bibliotheca, Alexandria
Alexander's bust greets visitors largest in the world and contained over 700,000 papyrus scrolls. It was destroyed by fire at some uncertain event before 650 AD.
Another one of Alexandria's ancient structures, The Pharos, was the famed lighthouse and one of the original Seven Wonders of the World. It was destroyed by two earthquakes in 1303 and 1323 AD, and the remaining ruins were later used to construct Fort Qaitbey on the same site, out in the harbour. So you can imagine that it was difficult to picture the ancient city as it had been.
One thing we had to see was the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the futuristic library which opened in 2002 to replace the ancient former library on it's original site. The outside walls are carved with massive letters, apparently from every known alphabet. On entry, we had a free guided tour, learning amazing facts such as the library has storage capacity for 8 million books! The triangular windows of the building each have a shade that allows natural light in, but prevents direct sunlight from ever entering. All this, plus the fact that the building looks really strange, interesting and modern.
It was there that we met a nice
Bibliotheca, Alexandria
In front of the alphabet wall couple, Bob and Suzanne from Toronto, who we later joined for lunch at a restaurant called the Fish Market. We feasted on a great meal of fresh fish, seafood, salads and Egyptian beer, chatted and gazed out the windows at the Mediterranean. They were kind enough to treat us, and insisted on paying for our meal afterwards.
After lunch, we walked along the water out to Fort Qaitbey, admiring the boats and beach on the way. It was neat because locals would sit on chairs by the sea and smoke sheesha while drinking tea, there aren't many things to do that are cooler then that! We said goodbye to our fellow Canadians as we went our separate ways.
The following day, we walked through a maze of the dusty back streets of Alexandria to see Pompey's Pillar and the Serapeum. If you're wondering what a Serapeum is, as we were, it was an ancient temple dedicated to the god Serapis. He was the god of Alexandria, created to integrate the Egyptian religion, by merging it with Hellenistic beliefs. Sadly, the temple was destroyed in 391 AD; there is almost nothing left of the site, except for a 30
meter high granite column. There were also a few impressive sphinx statues, originally from another site.
Then on to the Catacombs of Kom Ash-Shuqqafa. We walked around, then descended down into the underground grave site that used to hold up to hold up to 300 bodies. Now they are used to please tourists who come to enjoy them, just like us. These catacombs are the largest known Roman burial sight in Egypt and were accidentally discovered in 1900 when a donkey fell through the ground into the vaults below. For some strange reason, like many historical sights in Egypt, we weren't allowed to take any photos, which was a bit annoying.
We also stopped to visit the ruined Roman Amphitheatre, also known as Kom Al-Dikka. The well preserved site was discovered when the foundation for a new building was being excavated. We walked around, admiring the statues that had been brought up from the ocean floor from the ruins of the Pharos. There were also Roman baths, white marble terraces of the theatre, ruins of villas and some colourful mosaics of ducks, birds and peacocks. An amazing site.
Later on, we wandered out to Fort Qaitbey to
Alexandria Harbour
Beautiful coastline watch the busy throng of Egyptians walking, laughing, fishing, eating snacks of ice cream and peanuts, riding mopeds and horses, all along the walls of the harbour. It was a lively spot, but also strangely relaxing, and no one paid us any attention. We sat hypnotized, taking it all in and awaiting the incredible sunset.
That evening we ran into a guy named Alan from Winnipeg, who we went out with for dinner and some drinks. On our last night in Alexandria, we met him again, and a guy from England named Simon that he had run into earlier. We all decided to go to a place called The Portuguese Club for dinner and drinks. It was a ways out of town, so we hailed a taxi. Simon spoke quite a bit of Arabic; he had lived in London his whole life, but his parents are Egyptian, and he explained to the driver where we wanted to go.
Our driver set off, driving so fast that we felt our lives pass before our eyes. We asked Simon how to say 'slow down' in Arabic and he laughed. We got to the area, then drove around in circles asking
Fish Market, Alexandria
Waiting to enjoy our delicious fishy lunch people for directions, since our driver had no idea where, or what the club was. We finally got him to drop us off in the general area after almost an hour of searching.
After asking many people, and walking in every direction, we finally saw a guy who we thought might know where it was. Laughing, he walked with us and led us to a gated place with no sign, where we had to ring a buzzer to get let in. No wonder we walked by it at least three times without finding it! And what were we getting ourselves into?
A well dressed guy answered the door, asked us to 'sign in', then led us to an area where a bunch of people, mostly expats working in Alexandria, were hanging out. It was like entering into some sort of secret organization. We ordered dinner and drinks, which required us to purchase a drink points card beforehand. It was a bizarre system, beer was 1.5 points, and each card was 5 points, which made sharing the tab way too complicated! The four of us started to relax a bit after a few drinks, and we started to really
enjoy the place, it turned out to be pretty cool. We drank beer and smoked sheesha until two in the morning, before finally calling it a night, and a good one at that!
Too bad we had to wake up early the next morning. After a short sleep, we felt like crap, but that didn't stop us from walking to the train station and successfully catching the train. Back in Cairo, we finally managed to avoid old Mohammed and his nasty hotel, which was a nice feeling just on its own. We found a nice hotel after some great haggling, even though we had to turn down the first three we looked at.
We did some last minute Egyptian shopping, had a few more delicious falafel, then had the pleasure of hailing a taxi just after midnight to get to the airport. We got the price that we wanted for the taxi and all seemed well until the driver got totally lost. He tried to get us to get out of the cab in the wrong area, then wanted extra money because the ride ended up being longer. We told him to shove it and after a little
Pompey's Pillar, Alexandria
All that's left of the Serapeum arguing, and directions from some helpful strangers, we finally made it to the correct terminal.
A perfect way to end our Egypt adventure. It was a very interesting experience to spend a month there, to say the least. To see Egypt's past, yet be surrounded by it's almost overwhelming present. It was certainly a rollercoaster of experiences, the hassle of Luxor, the heat of Aswan, the chaos of Cairo and the beauty of Alexandria. So many interesting local people, but also the annoying touts of the tourist trade. The lush green Nile, the harsh arid desert, and the blue-green Mediterranean.
To finish things off we had to catch our flight at four in the morning, first to Amsterdam, then on to Athens. On to the beginning of our European journey and some more great sights and history. On to smooth sailing...or on to the unexpected.
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