"Be as smart as you can, but remember that it is always better to be wise than to be smart..." - Alan Alda
We had a day tour of Alexandria and Abu Dzar, my nephew who was studying in Cairo joined us in the tour.
The second largest city and the main port of Egypt, Alexandria was built by the Greek architect Dinocrates on the site of an old village, Rhakotis, at the orders of Alexander the Great. The city, immortalizing Alexander's name, quickly flourished into a prominent cultural, intellectual, political, and economic metropolis, the remains of which are still evident to this day.
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| (A family photo in Alexandria) |
It was the renowned capital of the Ptolemies, with numerous monuments. It was the site of the Lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, as well as the Great Library. It was along these shores that history took a tragic turn at the time of Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, and Octavian.
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| (Iwan and Ja at the Old Lighthouse ruins) |
Alexandria lies north-west of the Nile delta and stretches along a narrow land strip between the Mediterranean Sea and Lake Mareotis. It is linked to Cairo by two major highways and a railroad line. It is one of the most notable summer resorts in the Middle East, for, in addition to its temperate winters, its beaches, with white sands and magnificent scenery, stretch for 140 km along the Mediterranean Sea, from Abu Qir, in the east to Al-Alamein and Sidi Abdul Rahman, in the west.
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| (Ja at the guard house to the Palace) |
Much of ancient Alexandria is covered by modern buildings or is underwater; only a few landmarks are readily accessible, including ruins of the emporium and the Serapeum and a granite shaft called Pompey's Pillar. Nothing remains of the lighthouse on the Pharos, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the World , and the site of the royal palace lies under the older harbor.
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| (The two of us) |
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