Introduction
Alexandria, named for 25-year-old Alexander the Great, who added the area to his conquests in 332 B.C., has had its fair share of abuse. A small but vibrant and cosmopolitan city in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th, Alex was dealt a heavy blow by the 1952 military takeover led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, which resulted in the mass exodus of the Greek and Jewish communities. Since then, the population of the city has expanded dramatically, and much of its character has been buried under a steady spread of charmless cement buildings thrown up to house new inhabitants.
Pay too much attention to what's wrong with the city, however, and you'll miss its charm. Coffee shops and restaurants such as Trianon, Pastroudis, and Delices have been lovingly maintained over the years, and hotels such as the Metropole offer a step back to a time when the city was small and beautiful.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about Alexandria is not what you can see above ground, but what lies...
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The Graeco-Roman Museum
This is a great museum, and with around 40,000 items in its collection, dating back as far as the 3rd century B.C., there's a fair bit to see here....
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- Museums
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Cavafy Museum
This house of poet C. P. Cavafy has been charmingly reconstructed and offers a relaxing way to spend an hour or so away from the crowds. Cavafy,...
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- Museums
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Kom el Dikka
Until archaeologists from the University of Warsaw began to excavate this site in the 1960s, it looked like what the name suggests -- literally...
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