Alexandria tour

Well Alexandria for sure is a totally different place compared to the rest of Egypt. It is very laid back and very Mediterranean! There are so many people here from all over Egypt for their summer holiday! The population of Alexandria is 5 million during the 9 months and in Summer it goes up to 10 million! Yikes! If you look at the Beach as far as the eye can see there are people after people after people. It almost feels likes you have come to see people and a little bit of the beach and sea! But it is nonetheless very nice to be here, very lively and the night life is great. Sitting at the coffee shop and watching people go by!

Alexandrian family

This morning we visited the national museum in Alexandria. There are three floors in the museum each dedicated to Roman/Greek, Coptic/Islamic and Pharaonic periods. It is very fascinating. As you enter the museum you begin your tour by visiting the ancient Roman/Greek pottery and make up and perfume bottles and ornaments. The Greek pottery is as always very descriptive and beautiful. As you move through the different sections of the Roman/Greek monuments you can see how over the years, these two totally different cultures merged together in Egypt and even brought in the Egyptian culture. This is more apparent in the Coptic/Islamic period. For instance during the invasion of Egypt by crusaders, the Christians living in Egypt refused to join and fight against the Muslims; therefore, they created their own embolism which is a moon crescent and a cross in the middle. Also there are several decorations which were used on their houses to indicate (only to other Christians) that they were Christian, without being obvious to the Romans. The most common decoration used was the Grape leaves which were made in a way that they represented the cross and the grapes which represented the Christians. On some decorations you have crows picking on the grapes, which is suppose to symbolize the Romans, picking on the Christians.

Anyone for a donner kebab

The mixture of these three different cultures were even apparent in their sculptors. Most of the Roman conquerors wished to have their statues built like the Ancient Egyptians. There is one statue which has the Roman head with the olive headband, the Greek outfit, standing in the Egyptian style, with left foot forward. It is quite and some of them look odd!

In the basement there is a mummy which looks so impressive, it still has the golden ornamentation and decorations and their coffins are so impressive. I have taken a photo of it, but I won't be able to send it to you until I reach Cairo, which would be tomorrow.

After the museum we went to visit the Kom El-Shuqafa. This is an underground tombs where over 100 Egyptians/Romans were buried. The tomb was discovered accidentally after a donkey fell into the ventilation chamber of the tomb which at that time was just a place to dump the garbage! Luckily the donkey survived as it had soft landing of rubbish and the tomb was discovered! :)

Beautiful Egyptian Mummy

There are 90 steps that take you down this amazing hallway and half way down the staircase, you can see the vastness of this tomb. In those days instead of carrying the dead bodies on their shoulders, what they did, they passed the bodies one by one down the stairs over a chain of people standing, and as it reached the bottom of the stairs, they pushed them underneath the foot paths until they reached the coffins. The coffins themselves are lucked and they cannot be opened, so there is a gap on the side of the coffin (which is made by stone) where the body was pushed in and the gap was then covered.

The Romans often decorated their walls using statues, however, the Egyptians decorated their tombs with relief, as you saw from Aby Simbel and many other tombs I have been to. In order to come to some sort of agreement and compromise, they decorated their walls with raised relief, which look like three dimensional relief. Again, in their drawings and decorations you can see the mix of cultures. You have the ancient Egyptians gods of Nubus, Isis and Oseiris and God of writing dressed in Roman and Greek outfits. Strange I know! But that is to cover all different cultures and not to offend anyone! :)

Dancing in the street

After the tombs we visited the Pompey pillar (Amud El-Sawari) in the old Alexandria. We had lunch and I finally managed to have my Pizza, as I have been craving it and it was divine! :) simple things you miss!

Now I am relaxing at the Internet cafe, which by the way is the cheapest I have come across in Egypt. Only 1 Egyptian pound an hour. 10 Egyptian pounds is 1 British pound! So you can imagine how cheap this is!

Tonight is my last night with Astrid and Jan. Very sad. They have been one of the highlights of this trip. Very entertaining! :) I sure hope to see them back in the UK.

Day time in Alexandria

Garden in Alexandria

Old Alexandria

Pompey Pillar

Roman shield

Some Egyptian statues