Day 2 in Alexandria, we headed out in search of the Catacombs...the largest burial site in Egypt. A 35m long shaft in the center was used as a dumb waiter to lower corpse. The most stunning burial area complete with pillars, statues & art work was for Romine Emperor Caracalla...hated by the locals as he'd killed over 20,000 that opposed him...many burned there in the catacombs with him. The seemingly endless dark tunnels had cavities in all the walls. Creepy!!
Next to Pompey's Pillar-25m-guarded by two sphinx and built on the ridge. It's surrounded by partially excavated the ancient acropolis & Serapeum. It's really got nothing to do with Pompey...misnamed by Crusaders who thought Pompey's ashes were encased on the top.
We were glad to get out of the cold wind and marvel at the Bibliotheca Alexandria (new library opened in 2002). A throughly modern building with seating for over 2000. Skylights with some blue & green stain glass made for a enchanting place to learn. So fitting for this city.
In the basement, the Antiquity Museum was filled with more treasures including the mosaic floor of the ancient library.
The Sadat Museum was in another wing and was a tribute to all he did in his life. The uniform he was wearing when he was assassinated in 1981 made me think of JFK. He'd been asked after his peace treaty with Israel's president & Carter what he'd like on his tombstone: That I lived for peace and died for my principles.
Another wing was a tutorial about how & what you could access...a massive amount of information on their website: www.bibalex.org
We spent over 5 hours absorbing just a fraction of what Bibliotheca has to offer!!!
I'd hoped for a nice seafood dinner but getting anyone to understand English here is near impossible & it was too cold to walk far...so we popped into the first warm restaurant ...KFC. Got back to our room, Rog hit the sack while I visited with a girl from England & then caught up on writing.
Next morning, we were able to get to the National Museum to see the items revived from under the sea thought to be from Cleopatra 's palace. And our final stop was at the Roman amphitheater discovered only recently when a donkey disappeared into a pit. Makes you wonder what else is where we were walking.
We caught the 2 pm train back enjoying once again the view from the train window.
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