Egyptian pound wavers vs. USD in early trade    SCZONE showcases investment opportunities to eight Japanese companies    Egypt urges Israel to accept Gaza deal amid intensifying fighting    Egypt, ADIB explore strategic partnership in digital healthcare, investment    Egypt's PM meets Tokyo governor, witnesses signing of education agreements    Egypt welcomes international efforts for peace in Ukraine    Al-Sisi, Macron reaffirm strategic partnership, coordinate on Gaza crisis    Egypt's Sisi, France's Macron discuss Gaza ceasefire efforts in phone call    Contact Reports Strong 1H-2025 on Financing, Insurance Gains    Egypt, India's BDR Group in talks to establish biologics, cancer drug facility    AUC graduates first cohort of film industry business certificate    Egypt to tighten waste rules, cut rice straw fees to curb pollution    Indian tourist arrivals to Egypt jump 18.8% in H1-2025: ministry data    Egypt prepares unified stance ahead of COP30 in Brazil    Egypt recovers collection of ancient artefacts from Netherlands    Egypt harvests 315,000 cubic metres of rainwater in Sinai as part of flash flood protection measures    Egypt, Namibia explore closer pharmaceutical cooperation    Fitch Ratings: ASEAN Islamic finance set to surpass $1t by 2026-end    Renowned Egyptian novelist Sonallah Ibrahim dies at 88    Egyptian, Ugandan Presidents open business forum to boost trade    Al-Sisi says any party thinking Egypt will neglect water rights is 'completely mistaken'    Egypt's Sisi warns against unilateral Nile measures, reaffirms Egypt's water security stance    Egypt's Sisi, Uganda's Museveni discuss boosting ties    Egypt, Huawei explore healthcare digital transformation cooperation    Egypt's Sisi, Sudan's Idris discuss strategic ties, stability    Egypt to inaugurate Grand Egyptian Museum on 1 November    Greco-Roman rock-cut tombs unearthed in Egypt's Aswan    Egypt reveals heritage e-training portal    Sisi launches new support initiative for families of war, terrorism victims    Egypt expands e-ticketing to 110 heritage sites, adds self-service kiosks at Saqqara    Palm Hills Squash Open debuts with 48 international stars, $250,000 prize pool    On Sport to broadcast Pan Arab Golf Championship for Juniors and Ladies in Egypt    Golf Festival in Cairo to mark Arab Golf Federation's 50th anniversary    Germany among EU's priciest labour markets – official data    Paris Olympic gold '24 medals hit record value    A minute of silence for Egyptian sports    Russia says it's in sync with US, China, Pakistan on Taliban    It's a bit frustrating to draw at home: Real Madrid keeper after Villarreal game    Shoukry reviews with Guterres Egypt's efforts to achieve SDGs, promote human rights    Sudan says countries must cooperate on vaccines    Johnson & Johnson: Second shot boosts antibodies and protection against COVID-19    Egypt to tax bloggers, YouTubers    Egypt's FM asserts importance of stability in Libya, holding elections as scheduled    We mustn't lose touch: Muller after Bayern win in Bundesliga    Egypt records 36 new deaths from Covid-19, highest since mid June    Egypt sells $3 bln US-dollar dominated eurobonds    Gamal Hanafy's ceramic exhibition at Gezira Arts Centre is a must go    Italian Institute Director Davide Scalmani presents activities of the Cairo Institute for ITALIANA.IT platform    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Alexandria for a day
Published in Daily News Egypt on 27 - 04 - 2007

On a steamy, sand-stormed day in Cairo in early April, the seafood in Alexandria tasted especially fresh.
The waterfront walk down the Corniche, charming in its own right with Technicolor fishing boats bobbing in a harbor framed by the modern build-up of Egypt's long-ago trumped second city, was all the better knowing that in Cairo that day there was no Mediterranean breeze but the swirl of desert air and city dust - a minor turab.
It will be a few months until Alexandria and its coastal environs fill with Cairenes fleeing the heat of the capital. Before then, steal away from Cairo for a day on the north coast.
While staying a night might suit, there is satisfaction in cramming it all in.
Leave Cairo early morning by train or bus, arrive in Alex before lunch, have a day around town that ends with the afternoon sun and the sea crashing against Fort Qaitbey, where the Pharos lighthouse might have stood - and be back in Cairo by nightfall for dinner and a felucca, trading the Mediterranean for the Nile.
Alexandria's hubristic tagline, 'gem of the Hellenistic world,' is more justified by history than by ruins, which are noticeably short in a city running off the sea breeze and an imagination of its busy, layered past.
It is still a meeting point of religions (ancient Egypt meets ancient Greece and Rome; Coptic Christianity and Islam) whose ancient monuments are a scattered shred of a city whose history includes Alexander the Great and Cleopatra.
Most of ancient, Rome-rivaling Alexandria is under layers of sediment and building, or underwater. The Roman catacombs of Kom Ash-Shuqqafa, discovered in 1900 when the ground gave through for a passing donkey, are most interesting for their Roman-Egyptian wall art - think Anubis in a tunic.
The only Roman amphitheater in Egypt was not discovered until the mid-20th century, but even now its placement confuses.
Surrounded by weary modern apartment blocks like the mound topped by Pompey's famed pillar, the amphitheater site relates more about the contemporary city than anything having to do with Augustus, as brutal modern buildings and the faded pomp of Lawrence Durrell's pre-World War II city are piled on the city's literally sunken past.
The city of Durrell's Alexandria Quartet may have withered too under nationalization and Nasserism, after King Farouk's yacht scooted out of the harbor for Italy, but you can still find a strong cup of coffee in the city.
Sexual liaisons and political intrigue worthy of the Indian-born British writer, by all accounts, have been imported west, to Al-Agami.
The Alexandria National Museum, in a restored Italianate villa, houses Greco-Roman, ancient Egyptian, and Islamic and Coptic art. It is well-lit, air-conditioned, and except for the sweeping, slanted beams that cut through the villa's stairwell and ornate galleries - an overzealous attempt at some vaguely architectural flash in a perfectly grand old building - it is an ideal stop before lunch.
Which leaves the seafood. Many of the city's pick-your-fish restaurants, where ordering means selecting your fresh seafood and specifying how to cook it, are spread out near and along the Corniche in Anfushi.
Fish Market is the city's most famous, and so most-frequented fish restaurant. The knocks are the tourist crowds and the higher prices. The charms are fresh salads and fresher seafood - grilled sea bass, calamari, and shrimp - served in a room perched above the harbor.
Alcohol is served, and looking around the restaurant at the silhouettes of businessmen raising glasses of white wine by a window in front the open harbor, one could be mistaken for Miami or Boston on a good summer day.
Spearing fresh seafood and watching old fishing boats lean on their moorings, it could be the 1940s, except for the reflection of a huge sun disk down the Cornice that is the roof of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a modernist reincarnation of the city's ancient library.
It is waiting to be filled with books.


Clic here to read the story from its source.