Alexandria day trip

Hi everyone,

I’m feeling a bit better today after some sleep. Jet lag did its usual thing and woke me throughout the night, but I still managed an ok sleep.

This morning I was up at 5am, then caught an Uber to the meeting point for my tour to Alexandria. Catching an Uber here is interesting because the number plate comes up in the app in our alphabet, but the actual number plates have Arabic numbers on them. I downloaded a list so I know which ones I’m looking for!!

My tour was with Mohammed, the same guide from downtown last night. There were two other women on my tour - Meghan and Minda from LA and Seattle respectively. They were very bubbly like me and we passed the three hour ride to Alexandria quickly by Meghan telling us stories of her treasure hunting adventures in the USA. Yes you read that right - on the side when she’s not teaching, she hunts for hidden/lost treasures from state coach robberies and similar. Mohammed also told us that occasionally you can find treasures at markets in Egypt. He once bought a coin off a man for 40 Egyptian pounds (about $3.50 Aussie) and when he took it to be cleaned and valued, he discovered it was from the year 30 AD!

They had me a little worried when Minda asked to stop at McDonalds on the way and we stayed for 20 minutes though - I just wanted to get to Alexandria and this seemed to be stressing our guide out too. As the day unfurled though, the interesting dynamic of their friendship revealed itself to me. Meghan was actually quite annoyed by Minda, as she was always late back, quite ditzy and very loud. Several times she interrupted our guide mid explanation to ask a completely unrelated question. Ah well!

After our three hour drive, we arrived in Alexandria. Along the way I found it interesting that people here just walk across the highway. Wouldn’t fly at home!!

Alexandria is so named because Alexander the Great came here in 331 BC and named the town. He didn’t really spend much time there though, he left after six months and didn’t return before his death. When he died in India, his body was brought back to Alexandria and buried in a gold sarcophagus. Around 300 years later, Cleopatra needed some money so melted this sarcophagus down and replaced it with a glass one. To this day, it has not been located since. A few months back they thought they had found it underneath Alexandria, but it was not his. The reality is it will likely never be found because the city sits on top of many layers of history since his time including Roman and Greek artefacts, not to mention the buildings on top  that its 16 million inhabitants now live in.

Our first stop was the Catacombs of Kom Ash Shuqqafa. These were discovered in 1900 when a donkey fell down a 30m shaft, and are the largest example of a Roman burial site in Egypt. There were so many people in here it was a little scary, they really needed to only let a certain number in at once. We saw a fairly open first floor which was where families would have dinner after burying their dead, and then a second floor which was pretty claustrophobic. The wall decorations were really interesting because they featured a mish mash of pharaonic and Roman styles. There was also a third level, but it’s submerged in water now and can’t be accessed. Unfortunately, the water has damaged many of the wall decorations. It is also thought that at some point this area was part of the ocean, as coral forms some of the walls.

Nevertheless, some wall decorations are still there to be seen. It’s estimated these catacombs are from the second century AD. Egyptian symbols including Horus and Anubis (the god of mummification) were there. You can't take photos but I saved some from Google for you to see. 

Most bodies have been removed due to the water in the catacombs, but a few sealed sarcophagi remain. It is unknown who is in these, and hoped that one day thermal scanning will reveal their identities.

Back on the road and we got caught up in an Alexandrian traffic jam. Worse than what I have experienced in Cairo, due to the narrowness of the roads compared to Cairo. Along the way, Mohammed explained that the reason some of the houses here don’t have windows is that people who can’t afford the house taxes don’t put in windows, hence their house is still viewed as “under construction” and they don’t pay the tax.

Second on the agenda was Alexandria’s National Museum. It’s set in a beautiful villa. We saw exhibitions and artefacts starting in the ancient Egyptian times, graeco Roman times, all the way up to modern times. As well as having an impressive collection, the interior of the building was gorgeous. Unfortunately no photos could be taken.

We then drove to the sight where the lighthouse that was one of the wonders of the ancient world (the Pharos of Alexandria) once stood. It was 133m tall with a golden statue of Poseidon sitting atop it. Built in 280 BC, it came down in the 9th century due to an earthquake. It was fixed in the 12th century, but another earthquake sealed its fate soon after. Nowadays, the Citadel of Quaitbay is at this site. It was built in the 14th century and is made of limestone blocks, some of which are from the lighthouse. It’s beautiful! We walked along through a market and had a nice view of the Citadel and the Mediterranean Sea. 

Our final stop in Alexandria was to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Our bags were checked three times on the way in! Alexandria’s ancient library was one of the best in the world (arguably the best) and housed some incredible ancient works. Unfortunately, it was set on fire in 48 BC during a war, and the scrolls that were salvaged from this fire were destroyed in 391 AD in another war. Once upon a time, it held 70 000 scrolls. 

The new library complex was opened in 2002 and cost $220 million US to construct. It includes the reading room, a conference centre that holds 700 conferences a year, a planetarium, 15 permanent exhibitions and 3 museums. The exterior of the building has symbols from 120 different languages on it. 

The reading room was my favourite. It’s the largest open reading room in the world, with people on the first all the way up to the eleventh level able to see one another. With a 16 degree gradient, the roof allows for plenty of light but not in a way that damages the books. It was modern but looked like a lovely, bright and open place to research. The library today contains 2 million items including 80 different languages. I joined a free tour while the other two wandered, and then had a quick wander myself. I saw some old printing presses, and an antique piece of the Kiawah of the Kaaba (a fabric) dating from 1830. As well, we were shown a digital scanner that digitises books into very high quality digital copies. It was very interesting. 

The ride home took forever, and on approach to Cairo we got caught in a monster traffic jam due to an accident (the worst yet). For some reason my itinerary for the day trip said we returned at 5pm, but we only left Alexandria at 5. By the time I got back to my hostel, it was 8.30pm. Mohammed dropped me a 10 minute walk away too which wasn’t ideal. I walked alone, only because it was an extremely well lit street with lots of people around. I crossed my first road alone though which was pretty nerve wracking! No locals were crossing for me to follow.

I’m back in my room now absolutely wrecked. Thankfully the store next door had some cups of fruit, so that’s dinner I suppose! They keep drilling outside though so I hope my ear plugs do their job tonight!

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox