Hello!
Up this morning about 7 am. For as chaotic as this city is during the day, at least it really quiets down at night! We both slept really well! Yeah!! According to R, the shower isn’t a patch on the one at the Hilton in Cairo, but, as he says, it serves the purpose. We went downstairs for breakfast about 8 am. This Hilton does not have a special “Executive Lounge” but it does have a nice restaurant on B2 (Basement 2) where we get free breakfast, soft drinks, juices, and snacks all day long, and then hot food and beverages are available at 7 pm. I’m guessing that this is the hotel’s 24/7 restaurant, and they have two buffets during the day – breakfast until 11 am, and then dinner starting at 7 pm. As we were eating dinner at 5:30. pm yesterday, I’m not sure we can wait until 7 pm, but we’re going to give it a good try! The breakfast buffet was fine, albeit interesting. There were salads available, including tahini, hummus and baba ghanoush which I’m expecting we’ll see tonight, as well as other hot items. The beef schwarma this morning was great at breakfast, along with little mini-frittatas which were fabulous. Looking forward to seeing the spread for dinner! Certainly saves one the necessity of finding someplace else to eat!
R's breakfast this morning!
About 8:45 am we headed out to Kom al Dikka, the old Roman ruins that were re-discovered in 1967 when the foundations were being laid for an apartment building. Kom Al Dikka apparently translates to “Mound of Rubble.” Our Uber driver wasn’t exactly sure where to let us off, but we could see the ruins through the fencing, so we got out and said it was fine. So now … we had to find the entrance. Well, not so easy, let me tell you! But part of the adventure of traveling is being able to find things, even if you get lost! Which is what we did today! Do we walk right or left? We can see the site right in front of us, but absolutely no idea how to get in. So, we walked right … down the street, and turned the corner. Got to the end of the next street, and of course, it was becoming fairly obvious that we had chosen poorly, as it says in Indiana Jones. Dead end. So, walk another block and we found ourselves on a much larger street; one that had lots of shops and people on it. Headed up that street. It was fairly obvious to us that we were actually circumnavigating the entire site! But how to get it still eluded us! Finally, R suggested we stop and ask someone. [And they say, “Men never ask for directions.” Hah! – R] Well, the first man didn’t speak any English, but he called to his friend across the street who did – so he came over to help. I’m showing them the map on my phone, of where we want to be, but of course, nothing at all on the map is in Arabic. Finally, I heard one word that I actually understood – “Romani” – Roman! Of course! Now they all got it – just continue up the street and turn left at the end! Wow! It didn’t help, though, that there was a military installation between us the site entrance, and of course, no cell phones or photos are allowed there AT ALL. I didn’t even want to take my cell phone out of my purse, as I didn’t want to cause any international incidents … so we just kept walking, and finally, whew! There it was! Amazing! Bought our tickets and entered, and, while it seemed to be a very busy place – guards, police, etc., as tourists, we had the place to ourselves!
 |
| We could see it ... we just couldn't find the front door! |
 |
| Amphitheatre; the only one in Egypt |
 |
| Maltese crosses! |
 |
| Classroom! Note benches and teacher's chair |
 |
| Roman bathhouse |
 |
| One of the most beautiful mosaics! |
A really unusual thing, though – we have spent lots and lots of time exploring Rome and places the Romans have been – from Hadrian’s Wall in England, south into Sicily and even into Germany and Austria – but this time, because we have spent the last week in the WAY distant past, it seemed like the Romans were here yesterday, and the real land of the Pharaohs SO far away! Interesting feeling, that’s for sure! So … to the “Roman stuff…” This was apparently a well-off residential area in Graeco-Roman times, with lovely villas, bathhouses and a theatre. Turns out that after the area was initially used as housing, it later was turned into a very large school! There are about 50 small rooms grouped next to each other, and each one (sizes varied) has at least one, and sometimes as many as three, rows of stone seats for the students set into the walls along the sides. At the short end of the room was a large stone “chair” built in for the instructor. It was amazing to see! And finally, we came upon the “Villa of the Birds” – a wealthy home set with wonderful floors of mosaics; some were absolutely exquisite! The Polish Archaeological Mission in Alexandria is still work on the site, in conjunction with the local Bureau of Antiquities. It was really good!
From there, we decided to hit the Library of Alexandria. I’m sure most people who have heard of it are aware that it was destroyed in ancient times. Reading about it in Wikipedia, it was the largest library in the entire world (at that time); estimates range that it held between 40,000 to 400,000 papyrus scrolls at its height. Alexandria prided itself upon its collection, as well as the numerous scholars that it attracted to study and teach there.
 |
| The Library of Alexandria! |
According to Wikipedia again, the library was not destroyed in a single act but rather deteriorated over time. Part of the collection was accidentally burned by Julius Caesar during his civil war in 48 BC. The library dwindled during the Roman period, and between 270 and 275 AD, the city of Alexandria saw a Palmyrene invasion and an imperial (Roman) counterattack that probably destroyed whatever remained of it. (Note: The Palmyrene Empire was a short-lived breakaway state from the Roman Empire in the 3rd Century, named after its capital city, Palmyra. It encompassed parts of Turkey, Syria and Egypt.)
Wooden head of a Pharaoh
 |
| An amazing sculpture! |
 |
| Beautiful statue in the "Greek" style |
 |
| "Greek" style sculpture |
The idea of reviving the Library of Alexandria dates back to 1974, with construction starting in 1995 and inauguration in 2002. It has shelf space for eight million books, with the main reading room covering 220,000 square feet. There is also a conference center, specialized libraries of several kinds – maps for the blind, a children’s section, four museums, a planetarium and a manuscript restoration laboratory. In one word: WOW! This is truly an amazing building (designed by Snohetta, a Norwegian architectural firm associated, with Austrian architect Christoph Kapeller and Egyptian architect Ihab El Habbak). It is circular, and the outside granite exterior walls are carved with letters, pictograms, hieroglyphs and symbols from more than 120 different human scripts. We went through their Antiquities Museum first – which wasn’t nearly as good as I had thought it would be, but then we entered the library itself. Don’t quite know how to describe it: Jaw-dropping? Breath-taking? Both would certainly apply! I hope the photos R took can give you some idea of the spaces – numerous floors cutting in at all angles; sculpture and art work from ancient to contemporary. The sloping roof design, with windows specially designed to let sunlight flood in but keep out direct rays that might harm the collection. Incredible! As I say, hopefully some of the photos can capture a bit of the magic – it’s one of those things that need to be seen to be believed!
After a really good wander, we decided to head out and back to the hotel. We did stop at the library’s small café. R had a croissant, and I had a piece of White Forest cake, which was very good! It was just nice to sit down for a bit!
From the library, we headed back to the hotel, and are now in for the day.
When we were in Cairo, we used the Uber app to schedule our Uber car to get us to Alexandria. We thought we could do the same thing to get back to the Cairo airport tomorrow; it’s going to be a long day! However, for some reason, the Uber here in Alexandria wouldn’t let us reserve ahead! Thinking about it, and not wanting any untoward surprises tomorrow, we headed to the Concierge desk to ask their advice. Turns out the hotel has a car and driver that can be rented – so we did, for not much more than the Uber charged us to get here. Our plan is to have breakfast, repack and “hang out” here until 11:30 am. Then, we’ll head directly to the Cairo airport for our early evening flight to Aswan. So … I’m thinking that as tomorrow will be an all-day traveling kind of day for us, I won’t be blogging again until we’re in Aswan! So, more from Aswan!
Lots of love,
m
xxx
No comments:
Post a Comment