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The Informal Family
in Alexandria

(c) John C. Cross, 1999

Read about Egypt
Links at bottom

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Howdy There Folks!

Here's your friendly "Informal Family" (John, John, Alex and Becky) in front of the Roman Amphitheater of Alexandria (called "Alex" for short). If you come to Alex by train, you will find the amphitheatre right next to the train station. This used to be under the garbage dump for the city, and is now being excavated.

"They went thataway!"

My brother Lloyd points out something at the entrance to the Amphitheatre. Just below him is the old Roman main road that went by thre theatre and I imagine 2,000 years ago was filled with the cream of Alexandrine society.

"Throw them to the Lions"

It looks like a tough crowd tonight, but in fact the amphitheatre would have been used for showing greek-style plays and reading poetry and prose. Major public announcements would have been made here too. I personally have no idea what Alex is doing. I think he thinks he is part of the show.

"I found a big hole!"

Actually, this was a part of the excavation uner the roman road, which showed that the theatre's basement extended under the road just like modern buildings.

 

"The Thinker"

Methinks he thinks too much! John sitting in the amphitheater, and on the other end of town, standing in front of the Fort Qait Bey castle built by Mohammed Ali, Egypt's modernizing ruler of the late 19th century. The castle sits athwart the access to the all important harbor of Alexandria.

"Battle Stations!"

My brother seems to be getting ready for an invasion. you can actually see a ship in the background (the speck on the ocean). The castle was not really designed to withstand a 19th century assault. But it sure is beautiful.

Lloyd stand in front of the main keep of the castle. As you can see, it is a great medieval style castle, but not much use against cannons. Anyway, it now holds the military museum, and has a nice exhibit of weapons.

Another site well worth visiting in Alexandria is at the Serapeum (lair of the Minotaur), where the annex to the Alexandrian Library can be found as well as this column, named "Pompeii's Column", apparently because it used to hold a statue of the aforementioned individual. Believe it or not, but this column, which measures over 100 feet in height, is made out of a single piece of marble.

Quite impressive.

Other Alexandria sites:

Where to eat in Alexandria (we liked the Fish Market--excellent fresh fish with a view of the harbor and reasonable prices--you pick it they cook it.)
Alexandria Sightseeing (Basic info on major tourist sites. Links to Other Egyptian cities.)
Al-Alamein Beach (site of the famous battle for Egypt between England and Germany in WWII.)
Alexandria [bu.edu] (Probably the best site overall for information on history. This is linked to other information on the Ancient world. Excellent stuff.)

 

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The Informal Family Series

The Informal Family in Maadi The Informal Family visits Giza
The Informal Family at Saqqara The Informal Family in Alexandria
The Informal Family in Aswan/Luxor The Informal Family In Sinai
The Informal Family on the Red Sea The Informal Family in Egypt

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