Egypt 2009 - Day 4

Sunday, Nov. 15, 2009 – Alexandria

Today we go to Alexandria – the city that Alexander the Great built. Our wakeup call was at 6:00 AM and departure at 7:00 AM. The bus ride to Alexandria was about 3.5 hours.

Along the way, we saw lots of fields with different crops. Some of the most noticeable architecture features along the way were cone shaped structures with lot of small holes in them. Atef told us that they were pigeon dwellings. The Egyptians are very fond of pigeon and consider it a delicacy so they raise pigeons to sell and eat. These structures were everywhere and there were farms (or would it be a ranch?) which would have groups of 8 to 10 very large versions of these structures.

Day 4 - Alexandria

Our first stop in Alexandria was the Alexandria National Museum. The Graeco-Roman Museum was closed undergoing renovation and many of its treasures were temporarily housed here. I was excited about this stop as Atef was telling us about it. Then he informed us that we only had 30 minutes here. There was a groan of disappointment from us. I only got to see some of the basement area. Very little of the displays were actually from Alexandria. Most were from Karnack and other archaeological sites in Egypt. In the very short time that we were here, a massive number of tour groups descended on us. There was a cruise ship docked and about a dozen tour busses all arrived at the same time along with a couple of bus loads of school children. One had to rub against other bodies to move from room to room. Needless to say, I was more than ready to leave in half an hour.

The next stop was the Catacombs of Kom ash-Shuqqafa. This was one impressive place! Unfortunately cameras were not allowed. This complex dates back to the 2^nd century and is the largest Graeco-Roman necropolis in Egypt. It is chiseled into solid sandstone and is 115 feet deep and has three levels. The bottom level is under water and water is seeping into the middle level. We went down a spiral staircase that circled a shaft where the bodies of the dead were lowered to the top level. The top level contained a rotunda and a dining hall where friends and relatives gathered to pay their respects to the deceased. On the middle level there were sarcophagi and burial chambers. On this level, due to the water seepage, we had to stand on sometime rickety boards to stay out of the water. We were told that the water was salt water. Remember that Alexandria is on the Mediterranean Coast. I had to keep reminding myself that this was all hand carved. It felt more like a large natural cave. Walking on the boards reminded me that we were definitely not in the US. Safety rules in the US would never have permitted this. The no photography rule here appears to be well inforced. I could not even find any pictures of it on the web.

A Roman amphitheatre was discovered in 1965 under what had been known as the Kom al-Dikka (mound of rubble) from the remains of a Napoleonic Fort. This site consisted of a semi-circular amphitheatre, part of a Roman mosaic walkway and a display of Egyptian items including an obelisk that had been found in an underwater excavation near Fort Qaitbey. The most spectacular thing about the amphitheatre was the acoustics. There was a round stone positioned in the center of what would have been the stage. If one stood a couple of steps to the side of the stone and said something to the audience in the seating area, it sounded to the speaker like you would expect it to, but if you stood on the stone, the sound that you heard back was like you were hearing the sound amplified by a modern amplified microphone sound system (without any squeak of feedback). I tried it and it was amazing. These folks knew acoustics.

From the Roman ruins, we drove along a road known as the Corniche which follows the harbor coast. Across the harbor, we could see Fort Qaitbey. This fort was built by Sultan Qaitbey in the late 1400s on the site of the Pharos Lighthouse. The Pharos Lighthouse was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. It was built in the 3^rd century BC and stood approximately 492 feet tall. The lighthouse was used for nearly 1000 years until it was destroyed by earthquakes in the 12^th and 14^th centuries. Unfortunately, the day tour did not include visiting this site.

Now for a vocabulary lesson. I was not familiar with the term corniche so I looked it up. First I tried my Webster’s Dictionary and the word was not there. Next, I searched in one of favorite resources – Wikipedia. Here I got a hit that included specific details related to Alexandria. Here is the excerpt:

The word corniche comes from the French route à corniche or road on a ledge — do not confuse with cornice, which comes from Italian. The word corniche typically refers to a road on the side of a cliff or mountain, with the ground rising on one side of the road and falling away on the other.

The word also, in the Arabic language, refers, in general, to a headland formed at land's end, which describes a most remote geographical border of a mainland by a water line, with a natural corner, usually, or a cliff.

In Lebanon and Egypt, the word typically describes a waterfront promenade usually paralleled by a main road, such as the renowned Corniche Beirut. In Cairo, the Corniche runs alongside the River Nile. Luxor, Aswan, Maadi, and Cairo all have such corniches. However, Alexandria's Corniche forms a notable exception: it runs along the harbour.