Much of it's gone now. They're almost certain Alexander is buried here but can't find his tomb. Other than textual evidence and a few coins bearing her image, there is nothing left of Cleopatra's palace which was engulfed in a tsunami in 4th c. AD. The lighthouse toppled over into the sea from an earthquake in the 1300s. The great Library with all of its books and scrolls burnt to the ground. In the aftermath of the 1952 revolution, industries were nationalized and much of the expat communities left. Today, Alexandria is as Egyptian of a city as Cairo: the mosques, calls to prayer, coffee shops patronized only by men, Koshary shops, the piles upon piles of trash in the streets, traffic even more dangerous than Cairo, and major pollution, a big problem as the population has grown to 5 million.
But if one looks a little closer, there are hints of the past. Some of the old French street signs are still up. Some of the grand old cafes are still there with wooden interiors, ornate ceilings, and wide picture windows, though they don't serve french or greek pastries anymore. We had dinner at the Cecil Hotel whose guestbook includes writers like Somerset Maugham and Noel Coward and has a lovely antique elevator. The Cecil was where the British Intelligence purportedly hatched their deception plan at El-Alamein. As you walk along the streets and look up, there are still some elegant balconies with ornate iron scrollwork. Plus, from what our guide said, whenever they try to dig up any ground for building or renovation, work has to be stopped because they inevitably find some piece of antiquity.
OK, now for the photos. :) These are from Ramses train station in Cairo (we took the train to Alex). I tried to surreptitiously take a photo of the men praying on a tarp which had been laid out for that purpose. We were in the station for about 45 minutes and people were continually coming up and praying for about 5 minutes and then going on their way.
The view from our hotel room. The Mediterranean and Montazah Gardens. The Montazah Gardens were created by a Sultan in the 1800s who wanted to make his Austrian mistress feel more at home!! You can see the tower of the Haramlik Palace in the background which we then visited the next morning. President Mubarak uses it to host foreign dignitaries.
This was the site of a Greek temple, the Serapeum, dedicated to the city's god Serapis...a god concocted to blend elements of the Egyptian god Osiris with the Greek god Dionysus in order that both peoples in Alexandria could worship it. Apparently, it worked. There are remains from the temple scattered throughout this site, but the two objects in the photo on the left are not from them. The piece with the hieroglyphics had been brought up from ancient Heliopolis and the pillar was erected to the Roman emperor Diocletian.
A side street decorated for Ramadan.
A Roman theater. According to the Arab general who conquered in 641 AD, Alexandria had about 400 at the time.
One photo from the Alexandria National Museum, just because it looks neat: a bust of Akhenaten. Many of the pharoahs blur together for me, but he's one that stands out.
These last two photos are from walks we took the last few nights of Ramadan. We had been warned about the crowds shopping but it was really crazy as people were shopping before Eid. We actually saw clothes flying through the air, vendors had clothes spread out on blankets on the street and were shouting at the top of their lungs. At one point, all the vendors picked up their blankets and ran off, in 30 seconds the street was empty of vendors. We were wondering what was going on until we saw the police car slowly pass through. After the police had passed, the vendors were back, shouting and the crowds gathered round again. We enjoyed the show. :)
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