Alexandria

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For my final full day in Egypt I decided to take a day trip to Alexandria, as its fabled history fascinated me. In order to pass the time without having to look at the manner in which our brazen driver was tackling the road traffic, myself and another guy from my group embarked upon game after game of cards. Before we could say, "Gee, how on earth did we get away with our lives in tact?" we were in Alexandria and the three hour journey went by in the blink of an eye.

Our first stop was to visit some catacombs that were discovered by a donkey about one hundred years ago when it unwittingly fell through the earth. Having seen some dirt catacombs in Rome, I wasn't expecting much from this venture into the underground. Much to my surprise, these catacombs were very ornate and provided an interesting glimpse at the merging cultures existing within Egypt during Cleopatra's time. Whilst the heads of the ancient Egyptian gods were still present, their attire was vastly different from the depictions I had seen in the ancient temples of Upper Egypt. For example, Anubis was wearing a Roman toga and the columns of the burial chamber were a combination of Egyptian and Greek design. The catacombs were cut out of rock, with the sarcophagus being entirely carved out of the rock, thus not having a movable lid in an effort to stop tomb robbers getting into these places of eternal rest. Alas, this was to no avail, as obviously the designers or builders of the catacombs knew the secret tunnel from which the bodies had been placed inside each sarcophagus and by the time of their rediscovery thanks to the hapless donkey, there was nothing left but an empty space.

Our next stop was the impressive citadel built by the sultan Qaitbay on the sight of the famed Lighthouse of Alexandria (one of the seven ancient wonders of the world). Whilst this was a military stronghold in ages past, for the modern day tourist the location of this citadel and its outer wall afford magnificent sweeping views of Alexandria and its harbours. One of the local guards must have been quite bored and he gave me a guided tour of the entire place, including the passages underneath the main building where prisoners were chained and met their gruesome end. Whilst neither of us had any knowledge of the other's language, we managed to get by with hand gestures and, in his case, full bodied demonstrations! We had a good laugh and I was a little late getting back to my group, but it was worth taking the extra time to share the experience with a local.

We briefly stopped at a mosque, which gave me the opportunity to enter one of these beautifully constructed buildings for the first time. I found it to be a very peaceful place and left there feeling quite calm. After this quick visit, we headed for our final destination: Biblioteca Alexandrina. This is the strikingly designed library and centre for learning which is intended to recapture the spirit of the original library of Alexandria which was foolishly set alight by the invading Romans of yesteryear, sending untold amounts of knowledge and wisdom up into the sky as smoke and ash. The new building is essentially a tilted circular disc rising from the earth, which is meant to symbolise the sun as the golden rays reflect off its glass exterior. The interior design of the building is no less striking and I thoroughly enjoyed wandering through its unique design.

So, my time in Egypt has come to an end. I feel more complete and fulfilled after having finally seen what I have longed to see since I was a young boy and I'm so glad that I have done so, as no photo or documentary can accurately portray the sheer magnitude and magnificence of the wonders constructed by the ancient Egyptians.

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