Monday Oct 18th, 2010

Our port of call on Sunday was Alexandria. This ancient city was named for its founder, Alexander the Great and was the seat of the Ptolemaic rulers ie: Cleopatra, and brother et al. It was second only to Rome in size and wealth. Very little of the ancient city is left, having succumbed to fire and earthquake.

We took a bus tour of the city’s highlights, me being anxious to see the library. Unfortunately, the library of ancient times has been totally destroyed and not a single manuscript has been salvaged. The new library is state of the art and was pretty impressive with its many leveled open reading rooms.


The city boasts of magnificent sweeping Mediterranean beaches. Beautiful at first glance, but upon closer inspection, it’s evident that the Egyptians have not caught onto 21st c ideas about pollution and recycling.



The tour took us to two palaces, built for the final 2 kings – one of which was the summer palace for King Farouk – yes he was a real person!! (I remember my mother asking me if I thought I was “King Farouk”). Our tour ended with a stop at the Catacombs… very unlike any we’ve seen in Rome. This is supposedly the only place in the world where all three ancient civilizations are manifested, ie: Greece, Roman and Muslim in the architecture and sculptures.