Egypt Explorers: A Day in Alexandria

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Today was the day I had been waiting for: Cleopatra, The Catacombs, and The Library of Alexandria. We boarded our bus early and was shocked to see a special forces officer, who was packing numerous weapons around his belt, boarding the bus with us. All kinds of questions entered my head. Had a threat been made against us? Was Alexandria this unsafe? I already felt uncomfortable here much like an outsider or a second class citizen. I was able to ask Mayer what was going on in private, and he said when they did not have an assignment, they would escort tour groups because they did not want anything to go wrong with tourists. Tourism is their livelihood here in Egypt. That eased my mind a little. We were off to see Pompey's Pillars.

Very little of the ancient city has survived into the present day. Much of the royal and civic quarters sank beneath the harbor due to earthquakes, and the rest has been built over in modern times.

"Pompey's Pillar" is the best-known ancient monument still standing today. It is located on Alexandria's ancient acropolis — a modest hill located adjacent to the city's Arab cemetery — and was originally part of a temple colonnade. Including its pedestal, it is 30 m (99 ft) high; the shaft is of polished red granite, 2.7 meters in diameter at the base, tapering to 2.4 meters at the top. The shaft is 88 feet high made out of a single piece of granite. This would be 132 cubic meters or approximately 396 tons. Pompey's Pillar may have been erected using the same methods that were used to erect the ancient obelisks. "Pompey's Pillar" is a misnomer, as it has nothing to do with Pompey, having been erected in 293 for Diocletian, possibly in memory of the rebellion of Domitius Domitianus. Beneath the acropolis itself are the subterranean remains of the Serapeum, where the mysteries of the god Serapis were enacted, and whose carved wall niches are believed to have provided overflow storage space for the ancient Library.

While we viewed the site, our tour guide retold the story of Cleopatra. She was born in Alexandria, the capital of Egypt. When she was 18 years old, her father, who was king, died. She and her brother, Ptolemy Theos Philopator, became the leaders of Egypt. She was queen and her brother was king. Her brother was only 12 years old, so she was the real leader. But some of the men who worked for her didn't like the way she decided everything. A group of them decided to take her power from her, so she had to leave the country. The men who had overthrown Cleopatra were Pothinus, Theodotus and Achillas. Ptolemy was still king, but because he was still a boy, Pothinus and his friends were the real leaders of Egypt.

Two generals were fighting to be the leaders of Rome. They were Pompey and Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar defeated Pompey at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC. Pompey left Rome to live in Egypt. Achillas decided to kill Pompey. He thought Julius Caesar would be pleased, but he was not.

Then Caesar came to Alexandria, the capital of Egypt. Cleopatra decided she must see Caesar, but her brother would not let her. She decided to get into the palace by having her servants roll her up in the carpet. Then the carpet was taken to the palace where Caesar was staying. The guards saw some people carrying a carpet and they didn't stop them. They carried the carpet to Caesar, and told him it was a gift. Then Cleopatra came out of the carpet. Caesar fell in love with her at first sight . At the time, Cleopatra was 21 years old and Caesar was 52 years old.

Caesar decided to make Cleopatra queen again. Ptolemy did not like that. There was a lot of fighting, but Caesar won. Ptolemy tried to leave, but he fell in the river Nile and drowned. Another younger brother became king, but Cleopatra was again the real leader of Egypt.

Cleopatra didn't marry Julius Caesar, but they did have a son. He was called Caesarion.

Soon after Caesarion was born, Caesar was murdered. His place was taken by three rulers. Their names were Octavian, Marc Antony and Lepidus. Octavian soon began to argue with Marc Antony. Marc Antony came to see Cleopatra, and they quickly fell in love, even though Marc already had a wife. Cleopatra soon had three more children. Two were twins, and the father of all three was Marc's.

The fighting between Octavian and Antony became worse, and soon there was war. Cleopatra was very rich and she used her money to help Antony. Her money was not enough to win the war. Octavian won the war. He became the ruler of the Roman Empire and took control of Egypt from Cleopatra. After her kingdom was conquered, she committed suicide by letting an asp (a poisonous snake) bite her. Ceasarion was murdered by Octavian, but her other children were taken as prisoners to Rome. Two of them died of illness, but her daughter became a queen in Africa.

I had forgotten this amazing story, and it was something to hear it again in Alexandria where Cleopatra lived!!!!!!

The next stop on our tour was to the catacombs. Before entering, I had to use the restroom. This was a big mistake. I was introduced to the bathroom custom of tipping an attendant to receive toliet paper. When I entered, I was handed toliet paper. I can honestly say I have never seen anything so nasty! The toliets were covered with feces and swarming with flies. There was a metal pipe coming up from inside the toliet. I thought it was probably for washing yourself. I was scared to push any levers for the fear that water and all the remnants on the pipe may squirt out on me. I began to dry heave and I tried to leave as fast as I could, but my exit was slowed from the bathroom attendant screaming in Arabic at me. I had forgot to tip her. I tried to find some money and came up with 50 plasters and handed it to her. Needless to say, she wasn't happy and began to yell at me lounder. All I could think of was I had to get out of here or I was going to be sick. Unfortunately, Michele was still in there, so she had to deal with her.

Our tour guide told us this ancient burial site was found accidentially by a farmer. Legend has it that he and his donkey fell through a crumbling ceiling. Sadly to say, the donkey didn't make it. The catacombs date back to the 1st or 2nd centuries A.D. The site consists of three tiers of burial shafts carved into the rock 100 feet below ground and was the final resting place of hundreds of Romans, from noblemen to gladiators. No bones can be seen today because most of the graves, like much of Alexandria, were under water and the bones dissoved except for those belonging to horses. In one area, there was a large dispaly full of bones. Our guide explained that this was the area where The Three Muskateers were burried. Their horses were buried on top of them to protect them in the after life. I am not sure just how true this story is. Our tour guide may be confused from the Egyptian heat!

Our last stop in Alexandria was the new library. We learned that the old library was staffed by many famous Greek writers and scholars, and contained a vast collection of books, and over 700,000 scrolls and papyri. It was a tradition that if any book was found in a ship that visited Alexandria. This was taken to the Library to be copied and hence no manuscript was available in any library worldwide and not in Alexandria. Documents were arranged in systematic order in the form of books, as they are now known. Scientists, philosophers and artists from allover the world were invited to study and enrich the university and library, that made Alexandria carry the beacon of civilization until it was burned by the Romans in 48 BC.

The first call to revive the Ancient Library came from Alexandria University, which allocated the land very close to the original location. It takes the shape of a circular diaphragm wall "“ 160 meters in diameter and 33 meters high - representing the sun. It consists of 11 floors with a total area of 85,405 square meters. The whole complex includes two other libraries (Library for the Blind and Young Peoples' Library), a large convention center, planetarium, four museums (science, calligraphy, manuscripts and archeological) as well as the International School of Information Studies, Center for the Preservation of Rare Books and Documents, as well as research center and exhibition areas. The library is planned to contain 8 million books, 4000 periodicals, 50,000 manuscripts and rare books, 50,000 maps as well as audio-visual and multimedia materials and computer data bases.

After our day in Alexandria, we headed back to Cairo to catch the sleeper train to Aswan. We made good time, so we stopped at a papyrus factory where we watched papyrus being prepared into scrolls. It was very interesting. We were also informed to be careful when purchasing papyrus from the market becuase most that was sold there was sugar cane. One way to tell if the paper is made from papyrus is by a criss cross pattern that runs through the paper. Sugar cane will not have this pattern. While there, I became very ill, and stayed in the restroom most of the time. Mayer stopped at a pharmacy for me, but the medicine did not help much. I was panicked driving to the train station because I knew how hard it would be in the crazy Cairo traffic to stop if I needed the bathroom. Mayer insisted we arrive four hours early to catch the train. I was totally miserable in the heat, It had to be 110 degrees or hotter. We had no place to sit nor did we have any shade. I felt myself getting dehydrated. I watched train after train pull in and I was glad they were not our trains. I told Michele we would take a taxi if we had to ride in something like that for fourteen hours! I had waited as long as I could, and I was desperate to find a restroom. As I entered the door, I knew I was in for it. I thought the restroom at the Catacombs was bad, but this was worse. I had never seen a squat toliet, nor did I ever want to use one. My instincts took over and as soon as I reached the door, I began to roll up my pant legs. It was not a pleasant experience. One of the ladies on the tour with me said she watched a video on how to use such a toliet and the first step was to roll up your pants. I told her I did not need to see the video because my instincts just took over.

Finally, our train arrived around 8:00 p.m. and I was so glad to get out of the heat. It was clean and air conditioned. Our compartment was the size of a small closest, but the way I felt it didn't matter. I was actually glad I would be on this train for 14 hours! Throughout the night, I became more ill. I started to chill and vomit. I wondered if I had typhoid fever and would ever see my family again. I tired to sleep on the top bunk, but someone was smoking in the cabin next to us and it was making me feel worse. Michele, being the nice person she is, switched spots with me, and I started to feel better.


By Missy

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Photos

Pompey's Pillar
Michele and Missy in front of Pompey's Pillar

Pompey's Pillar
The Sphinx at Pompey's Pillar

Fort Qaitbey
Built between 1477 and 1480, some of the material is believed to come from the Pharoh's lighthouse. Which is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was toppled by an earthquake.

The Library of Alexandria
A statue of Alexander the Great outside the new library

The Library of Alexandria
Inside the library

The Library at Alexandria
Inside the library. New meets old traditions.

Outside wall of Library
Outside wall that contains carvings of letters from all the known languages.

Train Station
A passenger train at the Cairo train station

Train Station
Michele waiting in the hundred degree heat for our train

Passenger Train
Michele and I became very worried when we saw this train! We would just take a taxi if our train looked like this

Our Gap Travel Group
Patiently waiting on our train while I was getting sicker by the minute.