Overland to London - Cairo to Alexandria

The Qait Bey Fortress on the site of the Pharos Lighthouse, Alexandria

Day 42    Sun 6 July            CAIRO - ALEXANDRIA

          On our arrival in Cairo this morning, the Intratour coach will be waiting for us at the station and we will immediately head out of Cairo towards Alexandria by what is known as the Delta Road. This route takes us through the fertile, well-cultivated lands of the Nile Delta. Alexandria is Egypt’s 2^nd city and a major port, founded in 332 BC by Alexander the Great. Since that time Alexandria has played a major role in the commerce of Egypt and from the 3rd century BC had the largest and most important library of scrolls in the ancient world. It is believed the Library was finally destroyed in the late Roman period at the end of the 3rd century AD.

    At the entrance to the harbour of Alexandria, was the famous Pharos Lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World until it’s collapse in an earthquake in the 13^th century. The Qait Bey Citadel was built in the 14^th century on the site of the Pharos Lighthouse. Alexandria has always had a strong Greek influence as can be seen by the names on many of the shops and is very similar to a European Mediterranean city. 

The Al Haramlik Palace in the Montazah Palace complex, Alexandria

Our initial city tour will take us along the Alexandrian seafront as far as the former palace complex of the kings of Egypt, the second-to-last of whom was Farouk who was overthrown in the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, led by Army officers Mohammed Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser. Farouk's 6 month-old son  formally reigned for a year until the Monarchy was abolished in 1953. The Montazah Palace is now a public museum and the gardens are open to the public. 
In Alexandria we will be staying at the Admiral Hotel near the city centre and very close to the sea front.

 COMMENTS:                     CAIRO CAIRO NO MORE SLEEEEEP!      

 Day 43    Mon 7 July           ALEXANDRIA – CAIRO

      We will leave this morning with guide Nadia on a morning tour of the city. This tour will begin with the remarkable Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa, regarded as one of the Wonders of the Middle Ages.

   In the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa, Alexandria        

These Catacombs date from the Roman era (2^nd century AD) and are one of the best examples of the combination art of the Greco-Roman Egyptian epoch. The main tomb was built for a Roman dignitary and his family, although other rooms were added and used for interring other bodies at a later date. The entire structure has been excavated out of under-lying sandstone about 100 feet below ground level. One of the main chambers here has a fine representation of Anubis, god of embalming, busy at work on one of the bodies. The chamber is guarded by two large serpents supporting shields with Medusa heads,

     Next we will visit the misnamed Pompey’s Pillar. This massive granite column was actually built by the Roman Emperor Diocletian to commemorate his saving the people from famine (which had been caused by Diocletian besieging Alexandria) in the 2^nd century AD.

The so-called Pompey's Pillar

The name, Pompey’s Pillar, was given to the column by the Crusaders who thought that it marked the tomb of Pompey. Pompey had been a friend, but became an adversary of Julius Caesar during the Roman Civil War in the 1^st century BC. After his defeat in the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC, he fled to Egypt where he was assassinated on the orders of Ptolemy XIII, Cleopatra’s younger brother, husband and co-ruler. The Romans had been in the throes of a Civil War in which Cleopatra came out on top, after the death of her young brother-husband in the Nile and shortly thereafter her famous liaison with Julius Caesar. Cleopatra VII Philopator was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt and after her death in 30 BC, Egypt became a province of Rome. Cleopatra was, in fact, the last Pharaoh of Egypt. 

Marble fore-arm clutching a ball  

          Nadia will also take us around the interesting Greco-Roman Museum which has many fine works of art from the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. There is an exceptionally fine statue of the sacred bull Apis in the Museum. In one room is a remarkable sculptured fore-arm holding a ball, which accentuates the veins in the arms. This dates from the Ptolemaic period. On one painted panel in the Museum is a representation of the ba of a deceased person. Both the ka and the ba were important in the Egyptian afterlife. The ka represented the life force or spiritual double of the deceased, whereas the ba was the soul, symbolised by a bird with the head of the deceased.

The 'ba' represented as a human-headed bird 

      At the end of the tour we will have a couple of hours free in Alexandria, before heading back to Cairo via the Desert Road, passing close by Sadat City, a new industrial city, established in 1978, and still being laid out with construction just beginning. The Desert Road reaches Cairo at Giza, opposite the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops). Once again we will be staying at the Fontana Hotel.

Day 44    Tue 8 July                  CAIRO

'Egypt Reborn' statue, Cairo 

A free day in Cairo to visit the Egyptian Museum again, or the Cairo Tower, the Citadel or the City of the Dead, or just browse in the bazaars and do any final souvenir shopping. The City of the Dead is the vast Cairo necropolis known as the Qarafa. Over time, and with the increasing population of Cairo, the has been a large increase in the number of people living in the Qarafa with many squatting in the tombs and mausoleums, turning them into improvised dwellings.

 Dinner is at 7.30 and it is rumoured that there could be a drink or two upstairs in celebration  of Ken’s birthday. Beware that it is an early departure for the airport tomorrow morning.

The Qarafa, or City of the Dead, old Cairo 

   

Comments:                  HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEN

Day 45    Wed 9 July                 CAIRO – ATHENS

DEPARTURE TIME: 4.15am

         Early breakfast and off to the airport for our 7.10am flight – TWA 841 – to Athens where we should arrive mid-morning Greek time. Hopefully we will be met at the airport by our new (not literally!) bus (another Ford, I'm told) and driver who, unless things have changed since I rang London 10 days ago, is Tom O’Shea, an Aussie. Hopefully Tom will have brought out visa forms for Bulgaria, and before we reach the hotel (again the Florida) you can complete the forms and I can take your passports around to the Bulgarian embassy this afternoon. The visas cost 360 drachma each, so I’ve been told.

          Nothing will be arranged in Athens for the two nights we are there. Just enjoy the hotel as it will be the last for some time~ We’ll be camping.

 COMMENTS:          No More ‘Bakshish Mistah!  (Thank God)

text & photographs ©Neil Rawlins 

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