Alexandria Travel Log Part 2: A Look at Cleopatra's Palace and Beyond
The following is a travel log documented by Nancy Prager-Kamel, Chairwoman of the Association of Foreign Press Corrrespondents (AFPC-USA).
Alexandria is crumbling , yet eternal, wrapped in a brilliant cloak of blazing Sun and aquamarine waves. Its history ebbs and flows with time and natural vicissitudes. Historians generally agree that in its earliest incarnation, Rhakotis, or Râ-Kedet, there was a settlement established before the fourth century B.C. before it was designated as a city by Alexander the Great in April 331 BC and renamed Alexandria, meaning defender of the people or defender of human kind. The city was one of many derived from Alexander’s vast conquests and he wished to build a large Greek city on Egypt's coast that would bear his name.
Once among the greatest cities of the Mediterranean world and a center of Hellenic scholarship and science, Alexandria was the capital of Egypt from its founding until its surrender to the Arab forces led by Amr ibn al-As in 642 CE. Alexandria declined as a result of its conquest by Muslim Arabs in the 7th century CE; however, while the city’s political primacy was lost when the capital was moved to the interior, Alexandria remained an important center of naval operations, maritime commerce, and craft production. As late as the 15th century, the city prospered as a transit point in the trade conducted between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean basin.
Beginning in the 16th century, however, the city suffered a period of protracted decline owing to epidemic disease and administrative neglect; by the end of the 18th century, traces of Alexandria’s former splendor had largely vanished. By the time French troops invaded Egypt in 1798, Alexandria had been reduced to a town of some 10,000 inhabitants, significant mainly for its role in Ottoman maritime networks. When it flourished in the 19th century as a major center of the booming cotton industry, the modern city had come to bear some common elements with the ancient metropolis.
Now one of Egypt's largest cities, Alexandria is also its principal seaport and a major industrial center. The city lies on the Mediterranean Sea at the western edge of the Nile River delta, about 114 miles (183 km) northwest of Cairo in Lower Egypt. With the significant increase in agricultural exports, the influx of native Egyptians to the city, and the formation and integration of the Egyptian state, Alexandria became seminal to the lives and actions of the greater population. As a result, it also became the locus of an emergent Egyptian national character.
Here is a city regarded for its archeological sites, a stunning arts and crafts bazaar featuring everything from high end to tourist quality fabric, silver, housewares, and souvenirs. It’s a city known for its food, filled to the brim with great restaurants and even better desserts, particularly the ones inspired by the French. Though the French only occupied Egypt between 1798 and 1801, they’ve influenced life, habits, and tastes to this day.
To best experience the scale and scope of the city of Alexandria you can begin at the ancient port in-the northwest section of the meandering corniche.
CLEOPATRA’S PALACE
1,400 years ago, a powerful earthquake created a huge tsunami that destroyed the lighthouse on Alexandria’s coast, erasing one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It is was here, in Alexandria, that the archeologist Franck Goddio discovered the underwater ruin with sunken remnants of what is believed to be Cleopatra’s palace. In the year 2000, the city of Heracleion, which was once the largest port in Egypt, was also discovered underwater after more than 2,000 years. Flourishing as long ago as the waning days of the pharaohs, the city of Heracleion, just 30 km east of Alexandria, was later destroyed as the city was weakened by a combination of earthquakes, tsunamis and rising sea levels, according to archaeologists.
Important monuments and numerous artifacts from the city’s legendary Portus Magnus have now been identified, and the landscape on which they once stood in the Hellenistic era of Egypt has been revealed. These are stunningly visible in an underwater environment, enclosed in glass, allowing a visitor to experience an incredible sense of oneness with these treasures.
RESTAURANTS
AROUND THE CITY
