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Passengers on the desert road between Cairo and Alexandria
Beyond

Alexandria

The Mediterranean capital of the Ptolemies, 220 km from Cairo.

Founded
331 BC by Alexander the Great
Catacombs
Kom El Shoqafa, 2nd century AD, three levels
Pompey's Pillar
Diocletian, AD 297, on the Serapeum; 27 m
Qaitbay
Citadel 1477, on the site of the Pharos lighthouse

Alexandria was founded by Alexander in 331 BC and was the capital of Egypt for a thousand years. What survives is underground and on the shore: the Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa, Pompey's Pillar, the Roman amphitheatre, the Citadel of Qaitbay on the site of the Pharos lighthouse and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. It is a 12-hour day trip from Cairo by private car.

Visiting

The city of Cleopatra, the Library and the Lighthouse lies mostly under the modern one and under the harbour. The catacombs at Kom El Shoqafa are the largest Roman burial site in Egypt, three storeys cut into the rock with Egyptian gods in Roman dress; Pompey's Pillar stands on the ruins of the Serapeum next door.

The Roman amphitheatre at Kom El Dikka is the only one in Egypt, with the villa of the birds mosaics beside it. On the harbour, the Citadel of Qaitbay was built in 1477 with the stones of the fallen Pharos on its exact site. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina of 2002, a tilted disc of granite facing the sea, holds four museums and the manuscript collection.

The Corniche, the seafood restaurants and the cafés of the old cosmopolitan city are the rest of the day. Our day trip does all of it with a private Egyptologist and a seafood lunch on the harbour.

Tips from our guides

  • Start at 07:00 from Cairo to have six hours in the city
  • The catacombs have 99 steps down; no photos inside
  • Seafood lunch: choose your fish at the counter, pay by weight

Best time: March to June and September to November; summer weekends are crowded with Cairenes.

Questions

Yes if you have three or more days in Cairo and an interest in the Greek and Roman period, or want the sea. With one or two days, the pyramids and the museums come first.
31.2001 N, 29.9187 EOpen in Google Maps

Tours that visit Alexandria