I just realized that I didn't push the tab for publishing last night's post from Alexandria. I was up until after midnight getting it ready and must have been too sleepy to realize what I wasn't doing. As a result today's post about visiting a monastery on the way back is published after this one and the photos from Alexandria are not included. I will add them in a later blog.
We began our day at 5AM, hustling about to get some breakfast and putting all of our things together to be ready to leave for Alexandria at 6. Our guide, Maged, seems to operate on Cairo time, however, so it was closer to 6:30 when we got away. It was a good plan to leave early as the highway out of Cairo was quite clear. Cairo is at the southern end of the Nile delta, right at the point where it splits into smaller channels on its way to the Mediterranean. Alexandria is on the coast close to the western end. There is a direct but perhaps more heavily travelled highway to Alexandria but we took what is called “the desert highway,” a road that skirts the outer western edge of the delta. It was interesting to drive through that area (the trip was about 2 ½ hours) and to see the conditions there. The government is trying to push development in desert areas, in part to reduce the incredible congestion in Cairo itself. For this reason there is a long-range plan to move all government services outside the city into the kind of area that we passed through. Many billboards dotted the highway in certain areas announcing the coming of various companies and communities. What influence the world-wide economic turn-down will have on plans of this kind is hard to say. We have seen a fair number of buildings started and abandoned in different places.
Alexandria was founded in 332BC by Alexander the Great after he defeated the Persians. For centuries it rivalled Rome as a centre of commerce and culture. Currently it is Egypt`s second largest city – about 7.5 million citizens, with about another 4-5 million added in the summer. We drove through the part of the city furthest from the sea to visit a large burial site and catacombs that date from the 2nd century AD. Their presence was unknown until about a hundred years ago when after a heavy rainfall a well-laden donkey fell through into one of the chambers. Excavations began shortly afterward, revealing many rooms carved out of rock quite deep under the earth. The tombs there had large sarcophaguses in carved out niches. Symbols of Roman, Greek, and Egyptian gods were carved into the walls. It was in catacombs of this kind that the early Christians would meet for prayer. We walked down into the catacombs, along shallow steps cut out of rock, and into some of the rooms. Some were quite large and high. One room had three stone slabs where relatives of the dead would come once a year and sacrifice an animal, cook it, and lie about on mattresses brought for the purposes, having a small feast in honour and memory of the departed one.
The part of Alexandria which is most sought after and most richly appointed is the part along the sea shore. At the sea is a many kilometre long “corniche,” a cement walkway up against the sea wall. In Mexico at Puerto Vallarta this is called the “malicon.” At one extreme end is the Citadel, a large fortress built in, I believe the 14th century. Previous to its structure the site was the place of the Alexandrian lighthouse, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. We drove out to the citadel and walked on the sea wall for a better view of it. I was talking a picture of Mark beside an older wooden boat (his favourite) when a bunch of young boys got interested in us and were calling to us, saying “hello” and “hi.” We invited them into the picture and they leapt at it, all standing together with Mark at the boat. They wanted to see the picture of themselves then and were kidding one another about how they looked. Very cute.
From there we went to see Pompey`s pillar, erected at a 2nd century temple. The pillar is a 27 meter piece of red granite which had been brought from Aswan, far up the Nile. There were two sphinxes there, much smaller than the large one at the pyramids in Giza. They have a human face and the body of a lion – human intelligence and animal power. After our walk around this area we were well and truly hungry. Maged took us to a restaurant that seems to specialize in groups. We had some dishes of appetizers with thin pita pieces, a fish broth, a plate of calamari, prawns, another battered fish, rice – thicker and sweeter than we have, and a few vegetables; finally, a vanilla pudding. It was a lot of food. It was about $15 Canadian each. The food is quite inexpensive here, at least with our higher valued currency.
Afterward we went to the new Alexandrian library. The original was destroyed centuries ago. It probably was the largest library in the world up until that time, containing knowledge from many cultures and in many languages. Only one scroll was saved at the time of the fire that destroyed it. The new library opened in 2002 and it is magnificent. We were given a tour by a young woman, very likely a graduate student at the affiliated university. They have an enormous program of making knowledge of all cultures available across the world. Their books can be downloaded from their web site. There is a science centre and a planetarium within the large complex which, like the original library, is right at the shore of the Mediterranean. There is also a museum of antiquities.
We came to our hotel finally, about 5:30. It is right on the Corniche. Our room is on the 10th floor overlooking the storied Alexandrian harbour. We napped, walked on the corniche and had a terrific pizza (me) and fish and chips (Mark) at the restaurant downstairs. In the morning we will head back to Cairo, stopping to see a monastery of the Coptic religion on the way. In Cairo we will also go to the main souk or market, which should be fun. Egypt is not yet a place to which we have lost our hearts, though it is certainly interesting. There is so much Third World decay, dirt, and poverty. A lady from Holland with whom I spoke at the airport at Cairo said that she and her husband come often. They usually spend their time at Aswan which she told me is lovely, much smaller than the places we have seen so far.
Again, scroll down for more pictures. Take care. Cheers. Brenda.
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