Alexandrian Sightseeing, 1849

Alexandrian Sightseeing, 1849
Samuel Bevan

In the evening (Fumer) insisted on my taking another lesson on donkey-riding, so selecting two of the best looking from the ‘stand’ close to our office door, we cantered through the square towards Cleopatra’s Needle, which forms a prominent object on the sea-shore, just outside the town. . . .

Alexandrian Sightseeing

From the Needles we made a long round to Pompey’s Pillar and the Baths of Cleopatra. There is a good view from the base of the former over the Mahmoudieh Canal, which fertilizes in its course a narrow strip of country, and studded as it is mostly with numerous sails, forms a curious feature in the landscape.

The pillar stands out in solitary grandeur from a vast plain of ruins and tombs, the site of ancient Alexandria. Hard by is a little building bearing some resemblance to a temple; this is a refuge for hard-pressed debtors, a strong-hold against all pursuit, and so long as they remain under its friendly shelter, neither law nor remorseless creditor has power to lay hands upon them.

Our road to what are said to be the Baths of Cleopatra, lay through a bustling and most dirty street of low dwellings, to a kind of quay or shipping place for corn, near to which is a group of quaint looking wind-mills with six or eight sails each, the whole in full motion, spinning round with a rushing noise that sorely alarmed our poor donkeys, although it served to prove to us that there was at least no lack of com in Egypt. A dusty gallop of another mile then brought us to the shore, where we tethered our beasts, and proceeded to examine the spot where it alleged the “Queen of Beauty” used to perform her ablutions.

The Baths consist of three or four rocky caves open to the sea, where sheltered from the scorching rays of the sun, the water acquires an enticing temperature, and ripples in and out at a depth of several feet. Close by the Baths, in a sandy cliff, are some excavations of prodigious size, which an old Arab informed us were Catacombs, but as they contain no bones or relics of mortality, and do not even boast a stray skull or two, he found us somewhat sceptical; the old man conducted us through the outermost apartments, having no candles, and the evening closing in, we could see but little of their dimensions, so pitching him a few paras we hastened homewards.

The crowded streets and bazaars of Alexandria, with their blend of people of all nations and ways of life, astonished the newcomer.

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Alexandrian Street, 1833

Alexandrian Street, 1833
Robert Curzon

We took possession of all the rooms upstairs, of which the principal one was long and narrow, with two windows at the end, opening onto a covered balcony or verandah: this overlooked the principal street and the bazaar. Here my companion and I soon stationed ourselves, and watched the novel and curious scene below; and strange indeed to the eye of a European, when for the first time he enters an Oriental city, is all he sees around him. The picturesque dresses, the buildings, the palm trees, the camels, the people of various nations, with their long beards, their arms, and turbans, all unite to form a picture which is indelibly fixed in the memory. Things which have since become perfectly familiar to us were then utterly incomprehensible, and we had no one to explain them to us, for the one waiter of the poor inn, who was darting about in his shirt sleeves in the manner of all waiters, never extended his answers to our questions beyond ‘Si, Signore’, so we got but little information from him; however, we did not make use of our eyes the less for that.

Alexandrian Street

Among the first thing we noticed was the number of half-naked men who were running about, each with something like a dead pig under his arm, shouting out ‘Mother! Mother!’ (Moyah! water) with a doleful voice. These were the sakis or water-carriers, with their goat-skins of the precious element, a bright brass cupful of which they sell for a small coin to the thirsty passengers. An old man with a fan in his hand made of a palm branch, who was crumpled up in the corner of a sort of booth among a heap of dried figs, raisins and dates, just opposite our window, was an object of much speculation to us how he got in, and how he would ever manage to get out of the niche into which he was so closely wedged. He was the merchant, as the Arabian Nights would call him, or the shop-keeper as we should say, who sat there cross-legged among his wares waiting patiently for a customer, and keeping off the flies in the meanwhile, as in due time we discovered that all merchants did in all countries of the East.

Soon there came slowly by a long procession of men on horseback with golden bridles and velvet trappings, and women muffled up in black silk wrappers; how they could bear them, hot as it was, astonished us. These ladies sat upon a pile of cushions placed so high above the backs of the donkeys on which they rode that their feet rested on the animals’ shoulders. Each donkey was led by one man, while another walked by its side with his hand upon the crupper. With the ladies were two little boys covered with diamonds, mounted on huge fat horses, and ensconced in high-backed Mameluke saddles made of silver gilt. These boys we afterwards found out were being conducted in state to a house of their relations, where the rite of circumcision was to be performed.

Our attention was next called to something like a four-post bed, with pink gauze curtains, which advanced with dignified slowness preceded by a band of musicians, who raised a dire and fearful discord by the aid of various windy engines. This was a canopy, the four poles of which were supported by men, who held it over the heads of a bride and her two bridesmaids or friends, who walked on each side of her. The bride was not veiled in the usual way, as her friends were, but was muffled up in Cachmere shawls from head to foot. Something there was on the top of her head which gleamed like gold or jewels, but the rest of her person was so effectually wrapped up and concealed that no one could tell whether she was pretty or ugly, fat or thin, old or young; and although we gave her credit for all the charms which should adorn a bride, we rejoiced when the villainous band of music which accompanied her turned round a comer and went out of hearing. . . . The prodigious multitude of donkeys formed another strange feature in the scene.

There were a hundred of them, carrying all sorts of things in panniers; and some of the smallest were ridden by men so tall that they were obliged to hold up their legs that their feet might not touch the ground. Donkeys, in short, are the carts of Egypt and the hackney-coaches of Alexandria.

Once arrived, Western travelers had to decide whether to continue to wear their European clotheswhich made them stand outor adopt the local dress, which was naturally more suited to the climate and way of life, and had other advantages too . . .

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Muhammad Ali’s Alexandria 1813

A Tourist’s History, 1779
Eliza Fay

24 July, 1779. Having mounted our asses, the use of horses being forbidden to any but Musselmans, we sallied forth preceded by a Janissary, with his drawn sword, about three miles over a sandy desert, to see Pompey’s Pillar, esteemed to be the finest column in the World. This pillar which is exceedingly lofty, but I have no means of ascertaining its exact height, is composed of three blocks of Granite: (the pedestal shaft and capital, each containing one). When we consider the immense weight of the granite, the raising such masses, appear beyond the power of man. Although quite unadorned, the proportions are so exquisite, that it must strike every beholder with a kind of awe, which softens into melancholy, when one reflects that the renowned Hero whose name it bears, was treacherously murdered on this very Coast, by the boatmen who were conveying him to Alexandria; while his wretched wife stood on the vessel he had just left, watching his departure, as we may naturally suppose, with inexpressible anxiety. What must have been her agonies at this dreadful event!

Egyptian Muslims

We saw also the outside of St Athanasius’s Church, who was Bishop of this Diocese, but it being now a Mosque were forbidden to enter, unless on condition of turning Mahometans, or losing our lives, neither of which alternative exactly suited my ideas, so I deemed it prudent to repress my curiosity.

Muhammad Ali’s Alexandria, 1813 
Dr. Charles Meryon

Muhammad Ali’s Alexandria

Alexandria is a large maritime port, and the vast number of vessels in the harbour gave sure evidence of its commerce. At the time to which this narrative refers, the sale of corn by the Egyptian government to the English brought in an immense profit to the pasha of Egypt, who monopolized that branch of commerce entirely; as he had done, by degrees, every branch that was lucrative. Thus the rice mills, formerly held by industrious individuals, whose separate interest excited a competition in the trade, were ... all taken into the hand of the pasha. . . .

To house the grain that is brought to Alexandria, the pasha, in 1815, constructed on the strand of the western harbour a vast magazine, the dimensions of which made it an object of curiosity. It is a single room, one hundred and twenty paces long by fifteen broad, and the roof is supported by one hundred and twenty shafts. . . .

As the pasha holds Alexandria to be the key of his dominions, he has fortified its ramparts, which his courtiers may tell him are impregnable. In 1813, he demolished the old Saracen walls, which took in the circuit of what is called the old city. . . .

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Egyptian Alexandria in Night

Sleepless in Alexandria, 1857
William C. Prime
... I did not sleep on shore the first night in Egypt. . . . Dogs abound in the city of the son of Philip. They have no special owners, and are a sort of public property, always respected. But such infernal dog-fights as occurred once an hour under our windows no one elsewhere has known or heard of. I counted fifteen dogs in one melee the first evening, each fighting, like an Irishman in a fair, on his own account.

Alexandria in Night

Besides this, the watchmen of the city are a nuisance. There are a large number of them, and some twenty are stationed in and around the grand square. Every quarter of an hour, the chief of a division enters the square and shouts his call, which is a prolonged cry, to the utmost extent of his breath. As he commences, each watchman springs into the square; and by the time he has exhausted his breath they take up the same shout in a body, and reply. He repeats it, and they again reply; and all is then still for fifteen minutes. But as if this was not enough, there was a tall gaunt fellow, who had once been a dragoman, but was a poor and drunken dog now, and, in fact, crazy from bad habits, who slept somewhere in the square every night, and who invariably echoed the watchman with a yell that rang down the square, in unmistakable English, “All right”; and once I heard him add, in the same tremendous tone, “Damn the rascals!”

And just before dawn, when the law of Mohammed prescribed it, at that moment that a man could distinguish between a white thread and a black, there was a sound that now came to my ears with a sweetness that I can not find words to express. In a moment of the utmost stillness, when all the earth, and air, and sky was calm and peaceful, a voice fell through the solemn night, clear, rich, prolonged, but in a tone of rare melody that thrilled through my ears, and I needed no one to tell me that it was the muezzin’s call to prayer. “There is no God but God!” said the voice, in the words of the Book of the Law given on the mountain of fire, and our hearts answered the call to pray.

Almost as soon as they arrived, travelers set out to see the country, where so much was ancient or unfamiliar. Two traveling Arab scholars gave loving descriptions of Alexandria in their daywhen that wonder of the ancient world, the Pharos lighthouse, still stood.

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A Guide to Alexandria, c.1000

A Guide to Alexandria, c. 1000
al-Muqaddasi

Al-Iskandariyya (Alexandria) is a delightful town on the shore of the Romaean Sea. Commanded by an impregnable fortress, it is a distinguished city, with a goodly meed of upright and devout people. The drinking water of the inhabitants is derived from the Nile, which reaches them in the season of its flood via an aqueduct, and fills their cisterns. It resembles Syria in climate and customs; rainfall is abundant; and every conceivable type of product is brought together there.

Guide to Alexandria

The countryside round about is splendid, producing excellent fruits and fine grapes. It is a clean town, and their buildings are of the kind of stone suited for maritime construction; it is also a source of marble. It has two mosques. On their cisterns are doors which are secured at night so that thieves may not make their way up through them. The remaining towns here are very well developed; and in the surrounding area grow locust, olives, and almonds, and their cultivated lands are watered by the rain. It is near here that the Nile debouches into the Romaean Sea. It is the city founded by Dhu al-Qamayn (Alexander the Great), and has indeed a remarkable citadel. . . .

The lighthouse in Alexandria has its foundations firmly anchored in a small peninsula, and may be approached by a narrow road. It is firmly set in the rock, and the water rises on the lighthouse on the west side. The same is true of the fortress of the city, except that the lighthouse is on a peninsula on which there are three hundred buildings, to some of which a mounted horseman may go; he may go to all of them using a password. The lighthouse is elevated above all the towns along the shore, and it is said that there used to be a mirror there in which could be seen every ship taking off from the shores of the entire sea. A custodian attends to it every day and night, and as soon as a ship comes into his range of sight, he notifies the commander, who dispatches the birds that go to the shore, that those there may be in a state of readiness.

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Antiquities of Alexandria Egypt , 1183

Some Features and Antiquities of Alexandria, 1183
Ibn Jubayr

First there is the fine situation of the city, and the speciousness of its buildings. We have never seen a town with broader streets, or higher structures, or one more ancient and beautiful. Its markets also are magnificent. A remarkable thing about the construction of the city is that the buildings below the ground are like those above it and even finer and stronger, because the waters of the Nile wind underground beneath the houses and alleyways. The wells are connected, and flow into each other. We observed many marble columns and slabs of height, amplitude and splendour such as cannot be imagined. You will find in some of the avenues columns that climb up to and choke the skies, and whose purpose and the reason for whose erection none can tell. It was related to us that in ancient times they supported a building reserved for philosophers and the chief men of the day. God knows best, but they seem to be for the purpose of astronomical observations.

Antiquities of Alexandria

One of the greatest wonders that we saw in this city was the lighthouse which Great and Glorious God had erected by the hands of those who were forced by such labour as ‘a sign to those who take warning from examining the fate of others’ [Koran XV, 75] and as a guide to voyagers, for without it they could not find the true course to Alexandria. It can be seen from more than seventy miles, and is of great antiquity. It is most strongly built in all directions and competes with the skies in height. Description of it falls short, the eyes fail to comprehend it, and words are inadequate, so vast is the spectacle.

We measured one of its four sides and found it to be more than fifty arms’ lengths. It is said that in height it is more than one hundred and fifty qamahs [one qamah = a man’s height]. Its interior is an awe-inspiring sight in its amplitude, with stairways and entrances and numerous apartments, so that he who penetrates and wanders through its passages may be lost. In short, words fail to give a conception of it. May God not let it cease to be an affirmation of Islam and preserve it. At its summit is a mosque having the qualities of blessedness, for men are blessed by praying therein. . . . We went up to this blessed mosque and prayed in it. We saw such marvels of construction as cannot faithfully be described.

Amongst the glories of this city, and owing in truth to the Sultan, are the colleges and hostels erected there for students and pious men from other lands. There each may find lodging where he might retreat, and a tutor to teach him the branch of learning he desires, and an allowance to cover all his needs. The care of the Sultan for these strangers from afar extends to the assigning of baths in which they may cleanse themselves when they need, to the setting up of a hospital for the treatment of those of them who are sick, and to the appointment of doctors to attend them. At their disposal are servants charged with ministering to them in the manner prescribed both as regards treatment and sustenance. Persons have also been appointed who may visit those of the strangers who are too modest to come to hospital, and who can thus describe their condition to the doctors, who would then be answerable for their care.

Travelers of earlier generations who had acquired a classical education were far more at ease with the background to many of the sites they visited than many tourists are today. Eliza Fay, though not an educated woman, on her way through Egypt to India, is a good example of someone with such classical knowledge. Dr. Meryon, Lady Hester Stanhope’s doctor, and others saw Alexandria with a more modem eye.

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Passing through Egypt, 1843

Passing through Egypt, 1843
Fanny Pratt

My darling children, Since our landing in Alexandria our journeys have been so rapid and fatiguing that it was out of my powers to write, but now we are safely on board this vessel and have been refreshed with rest and sleep I hasten to give you an account of our adventures. My last letter was closed as we approached the Egyptian coast. It is unlike any country I have seen; it is very brown and flat. Pompey’s Pillar stands in solitary splendour and can be seen immediately on entering the harbour, also Mohammed Ali’s Palace, manufactories, dockyard and a number of windmills, twelve in one group. The Pasha has a monopoly of the mills. We found difficulty in obtaining rooms as there are but two hotels, but Papa succeeded in doing so. It was the rainy season but we got on shore ere it commenced, passed under the bows of so many fine ships, which have quite the appearance of English vessels.

Passing through Egypt

On entering the hotel we hired a carriage and drove to see Mohammed Ali’s Palace. It was a very large building and splendidly fitted up after the French fashion and full of painting and gilding. The floors are beautiful: each room laid in different patterning in mosaic of cedar, satin, rosewood and others. The walls are covered with damask of warm colours, curtains the same, and each room has a couch from end to end. There is a billiard room, and one small boudoir fitted up for cold weather with an English grateit is called the Fire Room. In spite of having rain to Pompey’s Pillar and Cleopatra’s Needle they are splendid monuments of antiquity and in excellent preservationone of the Needles is still lying prostrate [this is the one that now stands on the Thames Embankment in London], and I fear will be covered with the rubbish that abounds on all sides. Alexandria appears but a city of ruins, with the exception of the portions the Pasha has rebuilt.

We dined at the Table d’Hote with 150 persons I should think and at daybreak next day, started off for the Mahmoudieh Canal. . . . There were three commodious boats provided and a steam tug to tow us. We passed the day very pleasantly though there was little country.

Some travelers came to Egypt across the desertfrom the south, the west, or, like Friar Felix, from the Holy Land and the east.

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Alexandria Egypt

Alexandria Egypt , c. 960
Ebn HaukalEskanderia, Alexandria Egypt , is a considerable town, built on the sea-side: the houses, the other edifices, are of marble. And out in the sea there is a minareh [lighthouse], or watch-tower, of hard stone, and very lofty. It contains about three hundred houses. No one without a guide can arrive there.

Alexandria Egypt

The Day of Our Landing, 1183
Ibn Jubayr

The first day of the month was a Sunday and the day after our arrival in Alexandria. The day of our landing, one of the first things we saw was the coming on board of the agents of the Sultan to record all that had been brought in the ship. All the Muslims in it were brought forward one by one, and their names and descriptions, together with the names of their countries, recorded. Each was questioned as to what merchandise and money he had, that he might pay zakat, without any enquiry as to what portion of it had been in their possession for a complete year and what had not. Most of them were on their way to discharge a religious duty and had nothing but the bare provisions for the journey. But they were compelled to pay the zakat without being questioned as to what had been possessed by them for the complete year and what had not . . .

Before the building of the Suez Canal, Europeans bound for India either sailed round the tip of southern Africa or took the overland route through Egypt, as the Pratt family did in 1843. Fanny Pratt wrote to her three sons left in England of her experiences in Egypt.
 
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At Alexandria Egypt and Elsewhere

Arriving in Egypt
At Alexandria and Elsewhere

Arriving in Egypt, whether coming from the sea to the dry land or from the desert to the kindly land of the Nile, is an experience to be savored. The Nile came out to meet the traveler from the Mediterranean, as the French statesman Chateaubriand noted. To some other travelers, Alexandria was their first meeting with the ‘East.’ Whether arriving from East or West, Alexandria, with its ancient buildings, its history, and its kaleidoscope of peoples, fascinated all who came.

Alexandria Egypt

As the Nile Flows into the Mediterranean, 1806 F.R. Chateaubriand
On 20th October, at five in the morning, I perceived, upon the green and ruffled service of the sea, a line of froth, beyond which the water was pale and placid. The captain came up, and tapping me on the shoulder, said, in the Frank language, "Nilo!” It was not long before we entered the celebrated river, whose water I tasted and found salt. Some palm trees and a minaret indicated the site of Roetta, but the land itself was still invisible. This coast resembles the savannahs of Florida: its appearance is totally different from that of the shores of Greece or Syria, and strongly reminds you of the effect of a tropical horizon.

At ten o’clock we at length discovered, below the tops of the palm trees, a line of sand running westward to the promontory of Aboukir, which we should have to pass in our way to Alexandria. We were then exactly facing the mouth of the Nile at Rosetta, and were going across the Bogaz. The water of the river in this place is red, inclining to violet, of the colour of a moor in autumn. The Nile, whose inundation was over, had been for some time falling.

It was eleven o’clock at night . . . when we came to anchor in the commercial harbour, in the midst of vessels lying before the city.

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El Mamura at Alexandria Egypt

Just two miles east of El Mamura lies Abu Qir, the scene of a famous battle. On August 1, 1798, Admiral Nelson of the British fleet, defeated Napoleon’s navy after a major sea-battle. This established British naval supremacy. One of the islands along the coast is named Nelson Island in commemoration of the battle and its commander. It was while Napoleon’s engineers were stationed forty miles east of Alexandria at Rosetta that they discovered the famous Rosetta Stone in 1799. Today Abu Qir is a tiny fishing village with a fine beach and numerous restaurants which serve delicious and really fresh fish. The village children will come and sell just-caught sea urchins to the guests in the restaurant. In front of their customers the children dexterously open the shells of the sea urchins which are as prickly as hedgehogs. This seafood tastes wonderful and is quite cheap.

Abu Qir Egypt

Back in the center of Alexandria is the Greco-Roman Museum. This is where I became entranced by the exhibits of beautiful Roman glass. Some of this glass had been hurried so long before being discovered that it had turned a silver color and now emits a strange iridescent light. Relics of Roman glass have been found in Lebanon and Syria as well as in Alexandria.

I lost my heart to one piece in particular. I found it in an antique shop next to the St. George Hotel in Beirut, but someone purchased it before I was able to do so. After tracking it for a number of years, I finally heard that it was located in an antique shop in of all places my hometown of Tokyo. Upon my return to Japan, I rushed to the shop only to find that once again the piece had eluded me; it had been purchased just a few months before during a department store exhibition. I still feel that my heart belongs to this particular object rather like an unrequited love and as a result I have lost interest in all other pieces of glass.

The increased traffic of military and merchant vessels in the harbor has created a noticeable increase in the amount of pollution in the waters off Alexandria. It is said that the waters of the harbor were once so clear that at it was possible to see the remains of the Pharos Lighthouse and its island on the seabed. This may be a folktale, but certainly today the harbor is very polluted. The really good swimming beaches are further west.

I once rented a house for the summer at the lovely health resort of Sidi Abdel Rahman. Few people visit this area and it was possible to lie awake at night hearing only the gentle lapping of the waves. The sea, a cobalt blue, washed up on silver-white beach. The area appeared to be untainted by pollution. However, after swimming or walking along the breakwater, I would be surprised to find little black smudges of oil, obviously discharged from ships, on the soles of my feet.

Halfway between this area and Alexandria is the famous battlefield of El Alamein, the scene of fierce fighting in the autumn of 1942 between General Montgomefy’s British troops and the soldiers of the Axis powers under General Rommel. The Axis powers lost this battle, and casualties on both sides amounted to 30,000. The struggle between these two forces is embodied in the present-day name of the place, the Arabic for “The Two Flags.” Under cloudless blue skies and amid the dusty yellow of the desert stretch the carefully tended cemeteries of the British, the Germans and the Italians. The El Alamein War Museum is also here with helmets, pistols, machine guns, flags, maps and the other materiel of the war. Old tanks stand in front of the museum.

A young Egyptian soldier named Wagidi, who showed me around, told me that land mines were still being found in the desert. “A few months ago,” he said, “someone stepped on one and was blown up and killed.” He went on to tell me that he had only been in the army a year but that he loathed war and wanted to study to become an agricultural engineer.

One of the exhibits I found most interesting. It was a scene reconstructed with life-sized dolls and depicted villagers of the area selling information to Rommel. According to Wagidi, a villager named Ali Heida, who was living in the Siwa Oasis was simultaneously selling information to Rommel and Montgomery. Ali Heida is still alive and occasionally shows up in El Alamein, bewailing his present fate and saying that he really made “quite a killing in the old days.”

During the Fourth Middle East War, tank battles more fierce than those in El Alamein took place on the Sinai Peninsula, between Israeli and Egyptian troops. Now, a little on the far side of El Alamein, an oil-drilling platform overlooks the cemeteries of the dead of the last world war. General Montgomery, the victor of El Alamein, received a dukedom from the British crown which carried the formal title of Lord Montgomery of Alamein. But the victor, too, has gone, dying peacefully at the end of a full life on March 24, 1976, at the age of eighty-eight.

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The Montazah Palace in Alexandria Egypt

The Montazah Palace, formerly the residence of Farouk, is surrounded by a large garden, with a number of other buildings standing nearby. The palace itself has been converted into a museum, and one of the buildings in the grounds is now a casino. The walls of the galleries in the three-story palace are hung with pictures, some depicting love scenes from the Middle Ages.

The Montazah Palace in Alexandria

Twelve miles east of the Montazah Palace lies the El Mamura coast, where Sadat has his country retreat. I was fortunate on one occasion to interview the president’s wife, Jehan, there. My real objective was an interview with the president himself, and I had hoped that I could somehow persuade Madame Sadat to intercede with him on my behalf. It was by appealing to Madame Dewi, the wife of Sukarno, that I managed to get an interview with him in Jakarta in 1965, and I was hoping to be as fortunate in securing an interview with the president of Egypt.

My interview with Madame Jehan Sadat took place over tea at a table on the beach. I noticed from the marks on the teacups and napkins that the Sadats were using the Palestine Hotel, which overlooks the sea at El Montazah, to do their catering. I found it very difficult to raise the subject of an interview with the president, and only managed to hint at my real intention at the very end of the interview by saying, “I hope most sincerely that the next time we meet, you will be accompanied by your husband the president.” But Madame Sadat merely acknowledged this with a polite “Thank you.” During my stay in Egypt, I always regretted not asking her more directly to help arrange an interview with the President.

Despite my failure to meet her husband, the interview with Madame Sadat was delightful. During the course of our conversation she told me about a few behind-the-scenes incidents of the revolution. In his book, The Revolt of the Nile, Sadat states that the uprising by the “young Turks” had been brought forward an hour. Sadat was not informed of this and was watching a movie at the time of the outbreak. Madame Sadat smiled as she told me the story from a slightly different perspective. “Actually he had gone with me to see the movie. When we got back there was a message from someone at my husband’s desk. He read it and rushed out again. He didn’t say a word to me and it wasn’t until the next morning, when I heard the voice of my own husband reading out the first communique of the revolution over the radio, that I knew what had happened. That was the first I had heard of the revolution.”

Madame Sadat is a tall, beautiful women, with a little English blood in her. I can see her now as I write, her hair floating in the sea breeze. The place where we had tea was sheltered from the sea by a fence so that it is impossible for anyone to peek into the house from the sea.

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Ancient Alexandria and Egyptian Pharos

The climate of Alexandria is milder than that of Cairo. Facing the Mediterranean there is more rain, and in September, especially, the humidity is high. The fact that it is known as the city both of Alexander and of Cleopatra makes it a great attraction for tourists. Besides being intrigued by its history, tourists are lured there in summer by a number of fine beaches.

Ancient Alexandria

Historically, Alexandria’s port has been even more important than Beirut, the main port of the Middle and Near East. Tense relations with Israel have driven consideration for everything else into the background so that Alexandria has been reduced to a less-than-lovely town. However, if peace returns and the city is cleaned up, Alexandria should turn into a better port and a charming city.

Alexandria was built on the site of the ancient village of Rhakotis. The actual spot lies a little south of the Central Station and is marked by Pompey’s Column. Further south of Pompey’s Column lies the monument known as Kom-el-Shogaba “The Hill of Shards” with its marvelous catacombs. These were built in three stories, the lowest of which now lies far below sea level. Nothing is known about the numerous burial chambers and tombs contained in the catacombs, not even if they are the graves of ordinary people or of nobility. The air of the burial chambers is always cool, even in the height of summer. Standing there in the subdued light, I could not help but contemplate the history of the country and the many unsolved mysteries that exist in Egypt.

The bulk of the construction of Alexandria was carried out by Ptolemy II Philadelphus, in the first half of the third century B.C. Ptolemy II was an extremely erudite monarch who undertook the building of both the great library of Alexandria and the lighthouse of Pharos. He made Alexandria a center of learning, inviting scholars from throughout the ancient world to help compile a history of Egypt. So much of Hellenic culture was infused into this part of the Mediterranean it was said that the only thing Alexandria lacked was the snow of the Greek mountains. All the great men of ancient times the geometricans Euclid and Archimedes; Timochares, the astronomer; and the poets Callimachus and Appollonius have strolled along the shores of the Mediterranean at Alexandria, enjoying the sea breezes that still cool the land.

Here in Alexandria in 30 B.C., Cleopatra placed the asp on her breast. Her suicide brought about the beginning of the decline of the great empire created by Alexander. Yet the traces of splendor that characterized Alexandria lingered on for centuries. When General Amr arrived in Alexandria at the head of the invading Islamic armies some six hundred years later, he sent an amazing description to Omar, caliph of Baghdad: “This is a truly breathtaking city. There are over 4,000 palaces, 4,000 public baths, 400 theaters and 1,200 parks.” Little, however, is left in Alexandria to recall its days of greatness, although modem roads still follow the original pattern, running from the center in a north-south or east-west direction. This design was adopted in the original city to allow the northern breezes to blow through the town. Even today, the main trunk road of El Hurreya, follows the same route it did two thousand years ago when Cleopatra passed along it.

Pharos, the island which prompted Alexandria to establish his great city here and the landmark of this fine harbor, no longer exists. The only trace of it is in Ras-el-Tin “The Headland of Figs” which used to be joined to the northwest comer of the island, and which juts out between the western and eastern harbors. The western harbor was the main one and has a great breakwater running along it, but Pharos was located in the eastern harbor close to what is now Qaitbei Fort. The lighthouse on the Island of Pharos was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Some 400 to 600 feet high, the Pharos lighthouse is said to have been constructed completely of white marble in steps comprising a set of four to eight flights of stairs in all.

The lower staircases wound around a rectangular shaft and the upper ones around a circular one; all were enclosed by balustrades. An enormous bonfire was kept blazing at the very top of the tower day and night so that it looked like a “pillar of fire by night and a pillar of smoke by day.” The lighthouse had over three hundred rooms with hundreds of windows facing every direction and was manned constantly by soldiers, so it was also extremely useful as a lookout point. An enormous mirror of translucent stone amplified the light of the bonfire on the top of the tower. The rays emitted from the lighthouse could be seen from three hundred miles at sea.

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Journey from Cairo to Alexandria

Alexandria  Witness to Greatness
The invasion of Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C., arrested the decline of the Pharaoh’s power, providing a new leader for the government and even hope for the people. Alexander’s subjugation of Egypt was swift. After a short pause at the foot of the Sphinx at Giza, his invading armies went on to conquer Memphis and then turned north, looking for an oasis. Reaching the coast he discovered Pharos Island in the Bay of Alexandria, or Iskandariya, as it is called as Arabic. He connected the island to the mainland, creating a wonderful harbor, and made it his stronghold, establishing the town of Alexandria here in 331 B.C.

Journey From Cairo To Alexandria

The journey from Cairo to Alexandria takes three hours by train and five by road. As one heads for Alexandria by train, just to the right of Cairo Central Station is a building that is frequently overlooked but shouldn’t be. This is the Railway Museum which contains fascinating information about the history of trains in Egypt. According to records in the museum, the first train ran from Alexandria to Cairo in 1852. Both the construction of the railroad and the production of the locomotives were handled by the Robert Stevenson Company, managed by the son of George Stevenson, inventor of the steam locomotive.

Since the exhibits in the museum are not confined exclusively to the railroad, there is also much significant information on the history of transportation from the time of the Pharaohs, with interesting sketches depicting how thousands of laborers used logs and levers to move the great blocks of stone into place for the Great Pyramids.

The trains now running between Cairo and Alexandria were produced in Hungary. The reclining seats in the “Deluxe” coaches are very restful. Meals are served to the passengers at their seats on aluminum trays. These air-conditioned cars are so comfortable that they are even slightly more pleasant than those of Japan’s “bullet train” which whizzes between Tokyo and Osaka.

But because these carriages are comfortable does not mean that the startling cannot happen when riding one. During a trip I was making on this line, a waiter suddenly appeared and prostrated himself at my feet. Naturally, I was astonished but convinced that he wished some great favor of me. I was mistaken, however, for without saying a word the man placed his forehead on the floor of the carriage and began praying, turned towards Mecca, while the train hurtled forward to Alexandria.

About fifteen miles out of Cairo, the train passes the Delta Barrage, the area known to Egyptians as Bath-el-Bakkarah “The Cow’s Stomach.” Here the Nile branches into the Rosetta and Damietta rivers. Although Napoleon was the first to think of constructing a barrage here to control the amount of water flowing into the two rivers, the actual construction work was begun by Mohammed Ali in the nineteenth century.

Irrigation has created a fertile area with arable land stretching as far as the eye can see, broken only by the tall sails of feluccas as they glide along the numerous irrigation canals which crisscross the Delta. To eyes only used to the dry, light brown color of the desert, the green and blue of this area is superbly refreshing. President Sadat was born and raised on a farm in the Delta. He describes himself as having the “quiet personality of the Egyptian farmer, having been brought up on a farm.” He still maintains a country retreat in this area.

Although irrigation has transformed the Delta into a rich agricultural land, most of the farmhouses are still made of brick and mud. Delta homes are still not fully supplied with the amenities of running water and electricity so most of the water is drawn by hand and light is usually provided by oil lamps.

Families in rural areas tend to be large, and there is nothing extraordinary about a couple having six or seven children. Children are expected to work and are traditionally considered part of the labor force. The domestic animals oxen, donkeys, goats, ducks and chickens are treated as members of the family, so that a stay in an Egyptian farmhouse can result in being afflicted by fleas and all other manner of insects which plague domestic animals.

Alexandria library

There are a number of cotton fields and vineyards in the Delta. Most of the grapes produced here are used for Egypt’s flourishing wine industry. The domestic wines are often given such stirring names as “Ptolemy,” one of the kings who ruled Alexandria when the city was at the height of its prosperity; “Aphrodite,” the goddess of love; “Osiris,” the god of the underworld; and “Omar Khayam,” the poet. Farmers in the Delta rise early and ride their donkeys into the fields.

Despite the complex irrigation system of the barrage, farming here has remained unchanged for centuries. The implements, hoes and ploughs, are rather small and water is drawn from the irrigation ditches by oxen or donkeys slowly treading round and round the same path. Water required for cooking is carried from wells in pitchers balanced on the women’s heads so that the scene from a train window is almost like experiencing a huge time gap; the daily life of people during the time of the Pharaohs seems to have been revived.

Families in rural communities are not wealthy. Although the country people exhibit a quiet personality and have a strong sense of fatalism, an ever-increasing number of them are moving to the towns in search of a better life. The same phenomenon is occurring all over the world. And as in other countries, making it to the city does not guarantee a magic improvement in the standard of living.

Too frequently the opposite is true. In one of his short novels, The Scorpion, Abd al-Rahman al-Sharkawi, a famous Egyptian writer and native of the Delta, describes the tragedy of people in the rural communities. His hero, a young man called Hassan, leaves the Delta where he was born to live in Cairo. But life is no better in the big city and Hassan returns to his village and finds work catching scorpions. He is paid one piasta for every scorpion he catches. A catch of ten or more means he can buy meat or a shirt. He is doing well, better than ever before, but one day he is stung on the foot by one of the creatures he hunts. . .

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