I drove up to Alexandria this weekend with a group of women on their way to a wedding. One of them said along the way “the problem with Egypt is we have too much of a past and not enough of a future”. This is a pretty melodramatic thing to say, and reflects the severe inferiority complex* a lot of middle and upper class Egyptian have. It is also, at least partially, true.
Alexandria is a prime example of this, a city that as far as I can tell has little to nothing going on currently, none of the excitement of Cairo, none of the business either. It does however have some really old shit, (though not as much as you would think) and a truly stunning location on the Mediterranean.
Here’s some photos
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This is me at “pompie’s pillar” one of the few intact roman artifacts to be found in Alexandria. Its big.
Alexandria library. I think it looks hooky and silly, but it’s the pride and joy of modern Alexandria so I probably shouldn’t talk too much shit.
The Corniche
The view along the promenade is amazing. Having breakfast looking out at this was reason enough to go.
These guys are fishing off the corniche, casting past the garbage line you can see in this photo
Oh yeah and here’s
The view from inside my hotel room
The view from the window of my hotel room
The best thing to see in ancient Alexandria is the catacombs though, a couple of rooms of ancient Roman crypts. They don’t let you take photos down there unfortunately, but the mosaics (with the Egyptian god of the dead dressed in roman century outfits, etc) is totally fascinating and shows the strange mixture of the phraronic and the roman that was ancient Alexandria.
Milo and the Calf 