ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT
Last night I took a sleeper train from Aswan back to Cairo, and this time I shared a cabin with a friendly Taiwanese tour guide named Vincent (Chinese name: Shya) who's leading a group of eleven tourists on a tour similar to mine. We had a good chat, although throughout the evening he kept leaving the cabin to check up on his tour group--and bring them more alcohol! He invited me to join their pizza party, but I figured the last thing I needed was to party with some hard-drinking Chinese tourists on an all-night train ride. I did accept his offer of a bedtime drink of vinegar, though. It's not as bad as you might think, believe it or not, although this was special Chinese drinking vinegar, and not the usual salad stuff. (It's supposed to be good for digestion, he told me.)
We arrived at the Giza station at 7:30 this morning, and I was picked up once again by my faithful driver Tamer. Not stopping in Cairo this time, we drove right past the pyramids (an awesome sight in the early morning sun) and headed out on the desert road to Alexandria. For much of the way, it's an eight-lane highway with big billboards and periodic Shell stations and rest plazas, just like the US. There were even tumbleweeds tumbling around, which I though was an American thing, too, but I guess not.
Anyway, after a couple of hours we arrived in Alexandria, a huge, sprawling metropolis on the Mediterranean. Compared to Cairo it's a lot more modern, with a really long beachfront and lots of luxury hotels. We then picked up my guide for the day (whose name I forget), who pointed out a number of local sights including the new Library of Alexandria (ultra-modern, and built on the site of the ancient one), and several royal palaces and gardens. We then stopped at Qaitbey Fort, a 15th-Century construction which is built on the remains of that ancient wonder of the world, the great lighthouse of Alexandria. Right next door was a tiny Aquarium, so of course I had to go inside and check out the tanks. It had a pretty sorry collection of sea life, including some sad-looking sea turtles and a lethargic octopus--but it was free, so I guess I shouldn't have expected much.
After taking some pictures of the exterior of the fort (I didn't go inside), we then proceeded to Alexandria's famous catacombs, discovered by accident in 1900 when a donkey fell into a deep hole (sadly, he didn't survive). There were hundreds of tombs down there constructed in a mixture of Egyptian and Greco-Roman styles, which were pretty interesting to see. No bodies were in the tombs, though, and I guess grave robbers got any loot that was down there. Typical. Strangely, there were also several tombs for prize horses, which had to be lowered down an extra-wide shaft in order to be buried there. (If you ask me, they should have laid the donkey to rest in one of those.)
After the catacombs, we visited Pompey's Pillar, a famous lone Roman pillar standing tall amid a few other ancient temple remains (sphinxes, columns, etc.), that apparently had nothing at all to do with Pompey. I forget the story, but somehow the pillar is more associated with the emperor Diocletian. We then visited an ancient Roman amphitheatre which was discovered by accident in 1923 during building construction. Next to that were displayed some of the finds dredged up from the sea near Qaitbey Fort--among these were pieces of the famed lighthouse, as well as other worn parts of statues and whatnot that at some point had collapsed into the ocean. Cool.
After that, we dropped of my guide and drove back to Cairo, where we got caught in ridiculous rush hour traffic. Finally, we made it to the Noran Hotel, where Tamer dropped me off for my final night's stay in Egypt.
Last night I took a sleeper train from Aswan back to Cairo, and this time I shared a cabin with a friendly Taiwanese tour guide named Vincent (Chinese name: Shya) who's leading a group of eleven tourists on a tour similar to mine. We had a good chat, although throughout the evening he kept leaving the cabin to check up on his tour group--and bring them more alcohol! He invited me to join their pizza party, but I figured the last thing I needed was to party with some hard-drinking Chinese tourists on an all-night train ride. I did accept his offer of a bedtime drink of vinegar, though. It's not as bad as you might think, believe it or not, although this was special Chinese drinking vinegar, and not the usual salad stuff. (It's supposed to be good for digestion, he told me.)
We arrived at the Giza station at 7:30 this morning, and I was picked up once again by my faithful driver Tamer. Not stopping in Cairo this time, we drove right past the pyramids (an awesome sight in the early morning sun) and headed out on the desert road to Alexandria. For much of the way, it's an eight-lane highway with big billboards and periodic Shell stations and rest plazas, just like the US. There were even tumbleweeds tumbling around, which I though was an American thing, too, but I guess not.
Anyway, after a couple of hours we arrived in Alexandria, a huge, sprawling metropolis on the Mediterranean. Compared to Cairo it's a lot more modern, with a really long beachfront and lots of luxury hotels. We then picked up my guide for the day (whose name I forget), who pointed out a number of local sights including the new Library of Alexandria (ultra-modern, and built on the site of the ancient one), and several royal palaces and gardens. We then stopped at Qaitbey Fort, a 15th-Century construction which is built on the remains of that ancient wonder of the world, the great lighthouse of Alexandria. Right next door was a tiny Aquarium, so of course I had to go inside and check out the tanks. It had a pretty sorry collection of sea life, including some sad-looking sea turtles and a lethargic octopus--but it was free, so I guess I shouldn't have expected much.
After taking some pictures of the exterior of the fort (I didn't go inside), we then proceeded to Alexandria's famous catacombs, discovered by accident in 1900 when a donkey fell into a deep hole (sadly, he didn't survive). There were hundreds of tombs down there constructed in a mixture of Egyptian and Greco-Roman styles, which were pretty interesting to see. No bodies were in the tombs, though, and I guess grave robbers got any loot that was down there. Typical. Strangely, there were also several tombs for prize horses, which had to be lowered down an extra-wide shaft in order to be buried there. (If you ask me, they should have laid the donkey to rest in one of those.)
After the catacombs, we visited Pompey's Pillar, a famous lone Roman pillar standing tall amid a few other ancient temple remains (sphinxes, columns, etc.), that apparently had nothing at all to do with Pompey. I forget the story, but somehow the pillar is more associated with the emperor Diocletian. We then visited an ancient Roman amphitheatre which was discovered by accident in 1923 during building construction. Next to that were displayed some of the finds dredged up from the sea near Qaitbey Fort--among these were pieces of the famed lighthouse, as well as other worn parts of statues and whatnot that at some point had collapsed into the ocean. Cool.
After that, we dropped of my guide and drove back to Cairo, where we got caught in ridiculous rush hour traffic. Finally, we made it to the Noran Hotel, where Tamer dropped me off for my final night's stay in Egypt.
posted by John Kuge at 7:49 PM
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