The Beauty in Alexandria’s Ancient

Although everything appears ancient and weathered, Alexandria doesn’t have a jaded feel. It’s vibrant, full of life and ready to test you. Will you take it at face value or dig deeper for the beauty in Alexandria’s ancient façade for its true worth. Afterall, it has been drawing in and possessing travelers, migrants, expats and conqueror’s-Alexander The Great and rulers Cleopatra within its welcoming fold forever.

It’s a lovely gentle town in comparison with its fierce, southern counterpart, Cairo. And due to Alexandria position on the Mediterranean, has always been an ancient gateway for voyagers from Europe. A continuous smorgasbord of cultures: Romans, Greeks, British, French, Lebanese, and Armenians.

One can easily relax here, falling instantly into the welcoming arms of a lovely small town spirit that shines boldly from between the rundown façade.

A Hotel Of Character

Our hotel, on the corniche (Esplanade), had just such a façade. Well used, dusty and with the smell giving voice to its age. Taxidermy pelicans and ducks covered in dust adorned the reception area. But with its wide, shallow-stepped marble staircases, quality wooden balustrades and beautiful, traditional-design floor coverings on real wooden flooring, it was easy to imagine it in its glory days.

The still functioning two lifts may have been the original installations. Their filigree-design metal gates are the type that clang securely back into place behind you and start you traveling (potentially with baited breath at your safety) up and down. You get to see (whether or not you want) the bare internal structure of the building as you pass by each floors’ differing brickwork, concrete, and mortar.

Juice Restaurant

We found a great juice restaurant called El Kobissi 5 minutes’ walk along the corniche from the hotel. It was all about the mangoes, there were other fruits, but this is a mango joint. A mango juice cost about 50c and was tongue tingling delicious. Less sweet than the mangoes I’m used to in Cambodia, Egyptian mangoes have a delicious sweet tang that has a lovely kick at the end to stimulate taste buds into life.

For a reason I never managed to discover, we weren’t allowed to sit on chairs on the footpath in front of this restaurant and another coffee shop on the corniche.  It is definitely not like France where the drink costs more the closer you get to the footpath. No here the price is the same wherever you drink. If I was to guess I’d say it might be something to do with Ramadan, because the next day after Ramadan was over, everybody was sitting outside on the chairs.

The Loss of Two Icons

Alexandria was home to two things worthy of note which were both destroyed in different ways. The first the Pharos Lighthouse the first (known) lighthouse ever built and what lighthouses today are fashioned from. It stood on Pharos Island in Alexandria’s harbor and was the biggest man-made structure at the time alongside the Pyramids of Giza. Before it’s destruction during the 14 century by earthquakes, it was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Of which the Pyramids of Giza are now the only remaining wonder.

The second was the Ancient Library of Alexandria. Its creation was the beginning of the preservation of knowledge in ancient times. Alexander the Great advocated and encouraged filling the Library. When he sent explorers to new lands he ensured they brought back with them written notes of their discoveries to be stored in the Library. As the desire to learn, to be educated and to record learnings flourished, people began to write about their lifestyles, their beliefs, and traditions to have recorded in the Library.

The Library was destroyed over time and there is much debate about how and by whom it all took place. But the consensus is that conflict and wars were the why and fire was the how.