Greek and Egyptian

I continue to be fascinated by the many faces of Egypt. On my last trip I had the opportunity to return to Alexandria on the shore of the Mediterranean and explore some of its history.

The city of Alexandria was established on by Alexander the Great on the site of a smaller Egyptian coastal town after he conquered Egypt. First under the Greeks, then the Romans, and finally the Byzantines, it served as the capital of Egypt and home to the Ptolomaic Pharohs, including Cleopatra. As such, it is distinctly different from Arabic Cairo with a Graeco-Roman, Christian foundation overlaid with a modern Islamic, Mediterranean facing society I find fascinating.

Alexandria was the home to 2 of the 7 wonders of the ancient world; the Pharos Lighthouse and the ancient Library of Alexandria. The lighthouse apparently stood from the time of the ancient Greeks through the Crusades and was eventually brought low by an earthquake. Its remains have recently been discovered in the water off a jetty.

If you stand on that jetty where the tower once stood and look back across the bay, you see the post-modern Library of Alexandria. Very much a modern library and museum, it stands in the middle of the old Greek city.

The ancient Library was the home of some of the greatest minds of antiquity. It was as much a university, or Museum, as it was a library. It was originally founded by students of Aristotle, which included Alexander the Great. Great innovations included hydraulics, mathematical map-making, Euclidian geometry, Archimedes discovery of pi, spherical geometry, as well as innovations in anatomy and astronomy.

The Ptolomaic Pharohs also created a strange combination of Egyptian, Greek, Roman and eventually Christian religions in an attempt to bring together Greek and Egyptian subjects. This included the worship of Serapis, who was at once Osiris, Pluto or Hades, and eventually also Jesus.

This is perhaps most evident in burial sites. I had the opportuity to explore a extensive underground catacomb burial in Alexandria called the Catacombs of Kom el-Shuqafa.It is a fascinating and very elaborate underground cemetery. I had images of a Dungeons and Dragons adventure as I was wandering around the chambers and staircases. The walls bore images of Serapis's Apis bull with a sun disk we all know so well from Charles Heston's The Ten Commandments.

I look forward to my next visit to Alexandria. Perhaps I will be able to reach the El Alamein battle ground which is accessed via a road from the city.