sightseeing and excursions alexandria
The Greco-Roman Museum
The 21 rooms of the excellent museum contain about 40,000 valuable relics dating from as early as the 3rd century BC. The museum’s own guide book gives little indication of where to find anything other than the rooms and some numbered exhibits. The collection includes a splendid black granite sculpture of Apis (the sacred bull revered by Egyptians), many statues of Serapis (the fusion Apis and Osiris, the god of the underworld and lord of the dead), and busts and statues of various Greeks and Romans. There are also mummies, sarcophagi, pottery, tiny terra cotta figures, bas reliefs, jewllery ,coins and tapestries.
The Roman Amphitheater
The 13 white marble terraces of the only Roman theatre in Egypt were discovered only recently, when the foundations for a new apartment building were being dug. The terraces, arranged in a semicircle around the arena, are extremely preserved. The site which is still being excavated has now shifted to the north of the theatre, where a Polish team is still working.
Pompey's Pillar and The Serapeum
This massive yet unimpressive 25 meter high pink granite column, which the Crusaders mistakenly credited to Pompey, raises out of the disappointing remains of the far more splendid and acclaimed Serapeum. What was once an acropolis, topped by the Temple of Serapis and surrounded by subsidiary shrines and buildings, including Cleopatra’s library, now merely features excavated subterranean galleries, the ruins of the Temple of Isis, a few sphinxes, and Pompey’s Pillar.
The pillar, which has a circumference of nine meters, was erected amidst the Serapeum complex around 297 AD for Diocletian, not Pompey. During the final assault on the so-called pagan intellectuals of Alexandria in about 391 AD, the Christians destroyed the Serapeum and library, leaving only the pillar.
Catacombs of Kom El Shuqqafa
These Catacombs, the largest known Roman burial site in Egypt, were discovered accidentally 1900 when a donkey cart fell through a part of the roof.
They consist of three tiers of tombs and chambers cut into the rock to a depth of about 35 meters. Constructed in 2nd century AD, probably as a family crypt, they were later expanded to hold more than 300 corpses. There is even a banquet hall where grieving relatives paid their last respects with a funeral feast.
The eerie nature of the catacombs is accentuated by the weird blend of Egyptian and Roman features in the sculptures and reliefs. The catacombs have been excavated but the bottom level is usually flooded and inaccessible.
Montazah Palace
Montazah Palace was built by Khedive Abbas II. It was the summer residence of the royal family before the 1952 Revolution and King Farouk’s abdication. It overlooks magnificent gardens and groves. The adjacent Salamlek Hotel (now closed), also built by Abbas II, was designed in the style of a chalet to please his Austrian mistress.
The magnificent gardens and groves and the semiprivate beach make this an ideal place to spend a relaxing day, although the palace and its museum are apparently no longer open to the public. The grounds, which once featured a menagerie lions, tigers and bears, include the rather tasteless but high-class Palestine hotel, which is a little west of the Salamlek.
Bibliotheca Alexandrina
The new Library of Alexandria "Bibliotheca Alexandrina", inaugurated in October 16, 2003, is a magnificent piece of 21st-century architecture intended to hold eight million books. The Library complex includes the Main Library, Young people's Library, and Library for the Blind, Planetarium, Science Museum, Calligraphy Museum, Alexandrina Archeological Museum, Conservation and Reformation Laboratory, Conference Center of Alexandria, multi-purpose study rooms and exhibition areas. We also want it to be the window of the world onto our own Egyptian culture and civilization --- the longest continuous civilization on earth - with its Pharaonic, Greco-Roman, Judean-Christian, Coptic and Arab-Islamic heritage, and its present day realities...
Fort Qait Bay
This 15th century medieval fort guards the entrance to the Eastern Harbor. It is built on the foundations of the Pharos lighthouse, one of the ancient Seven Wonders of the Word. The lighthouse, Alexandria’s original sentinel, stood about 150 meters high. It had a square lower story with 300 rooms, a double spiral staircase leading up through the octagonal 2nd story, and circular 3rd story leading to the lantern room, topped by a statue of Poseidon. It was built during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus in about 280 BC, on what was then Pharos Island.
Several Muslim leaders attempted its restoration, but the lighthouse was eventually completely destroyed by an earthquake in the 14th century, and left in ruins. In about 1480, the Mameluke Sultan Qait Bay fortified the peninsula, using the foundations and debris of the Pharos lighthouse to build his fort, incorporating a castle and mosque within the walls. Mohammed Ali modernized the fort’s defenses in the 19th century, but the minaret and castle were severely damaged by the British bombardment in 1882.