The Pearl of the Mediterranean

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To ensure Erin took it easy, we got sent to Alexandria for 5 days, timed so that we would make it back before the "Little Feast" at the end of Ramadan. With its beaches and plentiful sea breezes, Alexandria is a popular summer holiday destination for Cairenes but we were told that since summer has come to an end, it shouldn't be too busy. Now compared to Cairo, it wasn't busy at all, but it was far busier than we have ever seen it, in the past having visited during early spring. Like Cairo, it seems at times like there are too many people and too many cars, and just walking down the street becomes an exercise. We stayed in a lovely hotel right on the waterfront with a view of the Mediterranean. Outside, the honking traffic is gridlocked for much of the day apart from Muslim breakfast time (about 6-7pm) and morning prayer time (4-5am), not to mention swarms of pedestrians talking loudly. We couldn't hear any mosques from the hotel, but with the traffic it isn't easy to get a good night's sleep. It is about 10 degrees cooler than Cairo right now but the humidity is up around 85% so it actually feels just as hot.

Being Ramadan, we imagined it might be difficult to find somewhere to eat during the day, but to our surprise many restaurants were open and serving food, and there were quite a few Egyptians eating in them. We found cafes serving drinks and shishas, and they also had no shortage of local customers. We saw people eating, drinking and smoking in the streets, something we didn't see in Cairo. In the evenings, the cafes along the waterfront are busy and we even saw ladies smoking shishas. Having said that, there are a lot of ladies fully veiled, something we didn't notice so much last time we were here. Another thing we noticed was that people are bigger here, in fact we saw quite a few tall and large framed people, like they are a different stock than in Cairo and the Nile Valley. Even the cats were bigger!

Alexandria was established by Alexander the Great when he conquered the Persians in 330BC and so lacks the older Pharaonic history of other parts of Egypt. The Arabs fortified the city after their conquest in 641AD but it declined when they turned their attention to their capital in Cairo and when Napoleon arrived it was little more than a fishing village. Very little remains of the ancient city. Mohammed Ali built a modern European style city in the 1800s. The main ancient attractions in Alexandria are the Roman Amphitheatre, Pompeys Pillar and the Catacombs, but having visited these previously, we were keen to see the things we hadn't. One of these was the Alexandria National Museum, set up in 2003 and the first Egyptian museum designed to display and educate, rather than store artefacts. It took us a while to find it but it was well worth the effort, with an eerie subterranean mummy tomb, early Christian artefacts and Greco-Roman items found on the ocean floor. Ancient Alexandria was largely a Greek city, yet Greek culture (and later Roman) was combined with local Egyptian culture to create a distinct style. This meant things like Greek/Roman sculptures of emperors with Egyptian headdress, the cult of Serapis (Roman/Egyptian deity), and combined Greek/Roman/Egyptian burial techniques.

Another attraction new for us was the new Alexandria Library. This is the flashest library we had ever seen and we got to experience a show in the Planetarium. In the evenings, we joined the locals and sat at a cafe under our hotel. There was a stream of pedlars selling watches, tissues, appliances and toys, as well as less fortunate people asking for alms. Some of these people were disabled, Egypt does not have a social welfare system like we do and such people are forced to rely on their families and the goodwill of the community for support.

We arrived back in Cairo to find the streets empty and no taxi drivers jostling for our patronage at the station. When we did find one to take us into town, he said it was because it was the first day of Eid. All the shops and businesses are closed for 3 days, then it will be back to normal. We will be in Cairo for the next 2 weeks and should be back in Sadat in the first week of October.

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Photos

Alexandria
Alexandria waterfront

Alexandria
The Ancient Lighthouse

Alexandria
Bust of Akhnaton, Alexandria Museum

Alexandria
The waterfront at night during Ramadan.

Alexandria
Catacombs at Al Mex, since photo was taken these have been either built over or destroyed.

Alexandria
Planetarium at the new Library, doesn't it look like the Death Star?

Alexandria
The New Library.

Alexandria
The New Library

Comments

[nice little sis]

hi mel, is that a pool outside the library? it does look flash. i would like to go to alexandria, those ptolemy books i was reading talked a lot about all the greek stuff and building the light house and about how they invented serapis. all that ancient stuff is so interesting.

[kiwibyrd]

Yes it is an ornamental pool. Alexandria has interesting history but there is hardly anything left now, a lot of the ancient buildings are at the bottom of the harbour.

[kiri]

wow
Like the library, it looks as though it belongs in Dubai rather than Egypt. I bet that you enjoyed the planetarium too. Am working my way backwards so hopefully I'll find out soon what happened to Erin. I'm pleased that you got to enjoy the comforts of a nice hotel, hope you took your ear plugs. Blimmen humid here at the mo. The forecasted thunderstorm has finally come and so things may get a bit better once it blows over.