Alexandria

There were a number of reasons for us to visit Alexandria. Not the least of them is that J2 is reading a book on cleopatra and both of us are fans of Lyndsay Davis's "Marcus Didius Falco" books with one of the recent episodes set in ancient Alexandria. Leaving the hotel at 0800 to catch a train that arrived at 1200 meant that it was a half day excursion. We packed a lot in. This began with a Roman amphitheater discovered by accident in 1990 and then whirlwind tour of the brilliant Alexandrian Museum. One new finding was that each Pharaoh had a reserve head made during his life to make his death mask, and then to model all future statues of him, enabling the real Pharaoh to be off doing Pharaoh like things. this led to the catacombs past the largest pillar of granite in Egypt. The catacombs were discovered by the great archeologist Mr Donkey. He fell sadly through an unknown hole in the ground to his demise, but in the process opened up a forgotten world. This was a three tiered cemetery with a reception rotunda, a feasting area and carved tombs in the bedrock of sandstone. The wall carvings are unique in that the artisans used a blend of Greek, Roman and Egyptian designs. Anubis (the Egyptian jackal headed god of mummification) was seen in Roman legion armor, or with the tail of a snake. We saw evidence of the madness of Emperor Carricula who killed 20000 in one day because the locals had mocked him pretending to be Alexander the Great. This included all the horses who had participated in the chariot races presented for the Emperors entertainment. Then it was our great honor to visit the most incredible new Alexandria library built on the site of the ancient library. The design is so inspiring, and the interior a wonderful blend of art, space, light, books, computers that J1 and J2 wanted to go to University there. We even found a book on Australian literature, next to a section on Oscar Wilde! They intend to have some 8 million books, all of which will be digitalized for access through the world. This is where a librarian would be in heaven. This was followed by a trip to the site of the original Pharos lighthouse. It is now an old citadel (restored) that is about 50m tall (one third the height of the Pharos) and at the end of a narrow spit of land stretching out into the surging Mediterranean sea. By this stage, hypoglycemia had struck and we needed food. So off to a famous fish restaurant (yes, another famous one) and we had Grey mullet, prawns and mezzo platter that would feed Noah's ark! Rolling down the steps at the end of the meal we still had time for one more stop before our train. Our guide, Hany is a Copt and took us to the Coptic Cathedral of Alexandria. This is the site of where the first African church was located by St Mark after a miracle where he healed a local shoe repairer. They opened up the crypt for us to go down and see where the remains of St Marks head are located (having been retrieved from Venice). The day was complete of ... rain....yes, real rain in Alexandria.