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Published: January 17th 2006
Hotel Union
Our beautiful room in Alexandria.Shane and I woke up early today to catch the train to Alexandria. I didn't sleep very well anyways with the muezzins bellowing out of the amplified speakers, calling Islamics to pray, starting at 5 am.
Alexandria is a bustling city, home to five million Egyptians and was founded in 331 BC by Alexander the Great. Almost immediately, he left for Siwa to consult the famous oracle there (why? - find out the answer with the next blog entry). He then gathered his army and marched for Persia, followed by India where he died two years later. His body was supposedly returned to Alexandria for burial although no one knows where since it was destroyed by the Romans. Also interesting is that Alexandria is home to one of the the no longer standing seven wonders of the world. Ptolemy, one of Alexander's generals, ordered a great tower to be built, which took 12 years to complete. It was of massive proportions and was inaugurated in 283 BC ("The Pharos"). It was believed to have been used as a lighthouse in the 1st century when the Romans added a becon. In all, Pharos withstood for 17 centuries before being toppled over
Eastern Harbour in Alexandria
This is the view of the harbour that $35 CAN will get your in Alexdandria. Ahh! in 1303 by a massive earthquake.
For me, Alexandria is a fantastic Mediteranean coast city to chill out in. The salt sea air appealed to me immediately! It is slightly less chaotic than Cairo and appears to be more conservative. We saw very few women bare their heads; most were adorning beautiful headscarves. We also saw far more women wearing the long, black, all-concealig abeyya.
After a 3 hour train ride from Cairo to Alexandria, Shane and I showed up to a downtown hotel called Union Hotel and managed to snag a huge room with a private bathroom with a balcony, revealing fantastic views over the Eastern Harbour. Ah bliss! This plus breakfast as well as taxes set us back 160 LE (about $35 CAN). The same view at the Cecil Hotel next door (run by the international hotel chain of Sofitel) would have cost $150-200 US and the hotel is reputedly not as clean. Perhaps the staff at the Cecil Hotel speak English instead of staring at you blankly and saying "yes, yes" to all your questions but meh! I say that's what the tourist information booth phone number is for.
After dropping off our packs,
Pompey's Pillar
Not so very exciting. Wish we could have taken pics in the catacombs! Shane and I set off to lunch at Mohammed Ahmed, which enjoys the reputation as the best fuul and ta'amiyya joint in town. It was unbelievably busy and teeming with Egyptians - nevertheless, they immediately cleared a table for us and invited us to eat! I had fuul (a native bean) with hummous while Shane had fuul with a tomato sauce (which was really good) and we shared a plate of ta'amiyya (mashed, deep-fried fava beans - also sometimes called felafel here) and some mezza (appetizers). Shane nearly fell out of his chair when he saw the bill, claiming it couldn't be so cheap! Lunch was a whopping 11.25 LE (less then $3 CAN) and Shane claims it's been the best meal he's had in Egypt as of yet!
First on the sightseeing list was the Catacombs of Kom Ash-Shuqqafa and this was definitely the highlight. Something straight out of an Indiana Jones movie. Unfortunately, no pics were allowed (sigh!) although some people took their camera phones. The catacomb, the larest known Roman burial site in Egypt, were discovered accidently in 1990 when a donkey fell through the ground. Originally built in the 2nd century, the catacombs housed more
then 300 corpses. They consist of 3 tiers of tombs and chambers cut out of the rock to a depth of about 35m. It was incredible! Also creepy yet strantely beautiful at the same time, especially the Principal Tomb which is decorated with ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman death iconography.
Next were Pompey's Pillar and the Roman Amphitheatre, which were okay. Nothing much to write home about.
That night, we went for a seafood feast at the famous Fish Market since Alexandria is known for its seafood cuisine! Since Shane is not a seafood enthusiast, he filled up on mezza (they brought it out to accompany the fish but there was enough mezza to feed more than two people for supper) while I feasted on seabass, prawns, clams, and calamari! Oink!
An interesting day all in all and we could easily spend another couple of days here but there is too much to see and not enough time! So it is off to Siwa Oasis tomorrow!
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