Things to do in Mediterranean Coast
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Samakmak
Owned by Zizi Salem, the retired queen of the Alexandrian belly-dancing scene, Samakmak is definitely one step up from the other fish eateries in the neighbourhood. The fish is as fresh as elsewhere, but customers flock to this place for its specials, including crayfish, marvellous crab tagen (stew cooked in a deep clay pot) and a great spaghetti with clams.
reviewed
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Catacombs of Kom ash-Shuqqafa (Kom ash-Shuqqafa)
About five minutes' walk south of Pompey's Pillar are the Catacombs of Kom ash-Shuqqafa (Kom ash-Shuqqafa). Discovered accidentally in 1900 when a donkey disappeared through the ground, these catacombs are the largest known Roman burial site in Egypt. This impressive feat of engineering was one of the last major works of construction dedicated to the religion of ancient Egypt.
Demonstrating Alexandria's hallmark fusion of Pharaonic and Greek styles, the architects used a Graeco-Roman approach in their construction efforts. The catacombs consist of three tiers of tombs and chambers cut into bedrock to a depth of 35m. The bottom level, some 20m below street level, is floode…
reviewed
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Temple of Serapeum
The Temple of Serapeum is a magnificent structure that stood here in ancient times. It had 100 steps leading past the living quarters of the priests to the great temple of Serapis, the man-made god of Alexandria . Also here was the 'daughter library', the second great library of Alexandria, which was said to have contained copies and overflow of texts held in the Great Library of Alexandria, the Mouseion library.
Unlike at the Great Library, these rolls could be consulted by anyone using the temple, making it one of the most important intellectual and religious centres in the Mediterranean. In AD 391 Christians launched a final assault on pagan intellectuals and destroyed…
reviewed
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Alexandria National Museum
The excellent Alexandria National Museum sets new benchmarks for summing up Alexandria’s past. With a small, thoughtfully selected and well-labelled collection singled out from Alexandria’s other museums, it does a sterling job of relating the city’s history from antiquity until the modern period. Housed in a beautifully restored Italianate villa, it stocks several thousand years of Alexandrian history, arranged chronologically over three cryogenically air-conditioned floors.
reviewed
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Bibliotheca Alexandrina
Opened in 2002, this impressive piece of modern architecture is a deliberate attempt to rekindle the brilliance of the original centre of learning and culture. The complex has become one of Egypt’s major cultural venues and a stage for numerous international performers.
reviewed
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House of Amasyali
One of the most impressive of all Rosetta's fine buildings is the House of Amasyali, one of two restored houses on al-Anira Feriel. The façade here is one of the most impressive in Rosetta, with beautiful small lantern lights and vast expanses of mashrabiyya screens, which circulate cool breezes around the house. Although inside it's devoid of furniture - as are all the buildings - it's still possible to get a clear idea of how the house worked.
A series of rough stone chambers, which would have been used for storage, make up the ground floor. The 1st floor is for the men. One of the rooms here is a reception room, where guests would have been entertained by groups of m…
reviewed
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Montazah Palace Gardens
Khedive Abbas Hilmy (1892-1914) built Montazah as his summer palace, a refuge when Cairo became too hot. Sited on a rocky bluff overlooking the sea, it's designed in a pseudo-Moorish style, which has been given a Florentine twist with the addition of a tower modelled on one at the Palazzo Vecchio. Now used by Egypt's president, the palace is off limits to the public but the surrounding lush groves and Montazah Palace Gardens, planted with pine and palms, are accessible.
They're popular with courting couples and picnicking locals.There's also an attractive sandy cove here with a semiprivate beach (around £E10 to use it, although it's not particularly clean), and an eccentr…
reviewed
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Ship Yards
While steel and fibreglass construction techniques dominate the modern shipbuilding industry, more traditional methods of construction remain in Alexandria. At the Ship Yards at the northern end of Anfushi, yachts are still constructed by hand and made entirely from wood. Along this stretch of coast lie dozens of yachts in various stages of completion, many with the slick modern designs more reminiscent of their fibreglass cousins.
Here, skeletal wooden hulls of three-storey vessels tower over the sand like beached dinosaur exhibits and dozens of smaller craft compete with them for beach space. In between curving hulls, small shacks line the beach housing building materia…
reviewed
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Villa Ambron
Committed fans of Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet might like to search out the Villa Ambron where Durrell lived and wrote during the last two years of the war. Gilda Ambron, whose name appeared in the Quartet's 'Balthazar', painted with her mother in a studio in the garden, shared with their neighbour Clea Badaro, who provided inspiration for the character of Clea in the Quartet.
Durrell's room was on top of an octagonal tower in the garden, though sadly the place has deteriorated badly over the past couple of decades. If you're in for a pilgrimage anyway, from Misr train station walk southeast down Sharia Moharrem Bey, then at the little square at the end turn left…
reviewed
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El Tugareya
Although it may not look like much to the uninitiated (it doesn’t even sport a sign), this 90-year-old institution is one of the most important ahwa s in town. It’s an informal centre of business and trade (the name roughly translates to ‘commerce’), where deals are brokered in the time-honoured tradition – over a glass of tea. The cafe is separated into multiple rooms, covering a whole block. The southern side is a male-dominated area dedicated to games and informal socialising, while along the Corniche you’re likely to be part of a rambunctious mix of writers, film-makers, students, expats, and courting couples filling the hall with a cacophony of animated conversatio…
reviewed
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Commonwealth War Cemetery
On the eastern side of town, along a side road that leaves the main highway at the Greek war memorial, is the Commonwealth War cemetery. It’s a haunting place where more than 7000 tombstones sit on a slope commanding a sweeping view of the desert. Soldiers from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, France, Greece, South Africa, East and West Africa, Malaysia and India who fought for the Allied cause lie here. As you enter, a separate memorial commemorating the Australian contingent is to your right; look here for a small plaque with a relief map giving an insightful overview of the key battlefield locations. The memorial is supposedly visitable outside of regular hours via a ke…
reviewed
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Centro de Portugal
This hard-to-find expat haven is fully equipped for fun: a garden bar in a leafy patio, an inside bar with darts, foosball and pool, plus a tiny disco complete with mirrored ball. Best of all, the beverages are very cold. Drinks are purchased via an unusual card system: E£70 gets you five credits; beers are one credit, while cocktails are two. The food menu (dishes E£40 to E£55) sports Western standards, from noodles to pasta to fish, along with the house speciality – pepper steak. It’s a great place to unwind, hidden away from the hubbub of the city, and meet local expats while sucking down an icy gin and tonic. The entrance is unmarked; look for the gate on the south si…
reviewed
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Mamoura Beach
There are plenty of public and private beaches along Alexandria's waterfront, but the ones between the Eastern Harbour and Montazah are often crowded and very grubby. Mamoura Beach , is slightly better - it even has a few small waves rolling in. The local authorities are trying to keep this beach suburb exclusive by charging everyone who enters the area around £E5; but then there's a further fee of around £E20 to get onto the sand.
Women should note that even here modesty prevails and we recommend covering up when swimming - wear a baggy T-shirt and shorts over your swimsuit. To get here jump in an Abu Qir-bound microbus at Midan al-Gomhuriyya - make sure that the drive…
reviewed
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Arous el Zilzila
This fantastic ahwa across from the Bibliotheca Alexandrina is practically unique in Alexandria – you can sip tea and sheesha to the sound of waves rolling in, smelling sea air instead of petrol fumes. Directly on the water, it has rustic open-air tables and palm trees with cheerful coloured lights, set around a small curving beach where you can hardly hear the traffic. It’s a great place to relax in the sultry breeze, enjoying the Mediterranean vibe. To find it, look for the modern sculpture with three white needles, directly across the Corniche from the library. Walk past the sculpture towards the sea; the entrance is down the steps to the right.
reviewed
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Pompey’s Pillar
The massive 30m column that looms over the debris of the glorious ancient settlement of Rhakotis, the original township from which Alexandria grew, is known as Pompey’s Pillar. For centuries the column, hewn from red Aswan granite, has been one of the city’s prime sights, a single, tapered shaft, 2.7m at its base and capped by a fine Corinthian capital. The column was named by travellers who remembered the murder of the Roman general Pompey by Cleopatra’s brother, but an inscription on the base (presumably once covered with rubble) announces that it was erected in AD 291 to support a statue of the emperor Diocletian.
reviewed
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Kom Ash-Shuqqafa
Discovered accidentally in 1900 when a donkey disappeared through the ground, these catacombs are the largest known Roman burial site in Egypt. This impressive feat of engineering was one of the last major works of construction dedicated to the religion of ancient Egypt. Demonstrating Alexandria’s hallmark fusion of Pharaonic and Greek styles, the architects used a Graeco-Roman approach in their construction efforts. The catacombs consist of three tiers of tombs and chambers cut into bedrock to a depth of 35m. The bottom level, some 20m below street level, is flooded and inaccessible but the areas above are impressive enough on their own.
reviewed
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Hammam Azouz
One of the most extraordinary buildings in Rosetta has to be the Hammam Azouz, a 19th-century bathhouse. Just south of the city centre, this restored ode to Ottoman ablution has a fine marble interior with elaborately carved wooden beams and trimmings. Several bathing rooms encircle the main, fountain-centred bath room, and tall domed ceilings crown each chamber.
Tiny round holes in the domes let in piercing shafts of light (and would have let out steam), with some still covered in colourful stained glass that further bathes the place in a faint rainbow of surreal colours. Tickets for the bathhouse are available at the House of Amasyali.
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Cap d’Or
The Cap d’Or, just off Sharia Saad Zaghloul, is a top spot to relax, and one of the only surviving typical Alexandrian bars. With beer flowing generously, stained-glass windows, a long marble-topped bar, plenty of ancient memorabilia decorating the walls and crackling tapes of old French chanson (type of traditional folk music) or Egyptian hits, it feels very much like an Andalusian tapas bar. Crowds come to drink cold Stella beer, snack on great seafood, or just hang out at the bar and chew the proverbial fat with fellow drinkers. Thursday and Friday nights are more ‘open-minded’ than most nights in Alexandria.
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German & Italian War Memorials
About 7km west of El Alamein, what looks like a hermetically sealed sandstone fortress appears on a bluff overlooking the sea. Inside this silent but unmistakable reminder of war lie the tombs of German servicemen and, in the centre, a memorial obelisk. About 4km further on, the Italian memorial has a tall, slender tower as its focal point. Before reaching the German memorial, you'll notice on the left side of the road what appears to be a glorified milestone. On it is inscribed in Italian Mancò la fortuna, non il valore - 'We were short on luck, not on bravery'.
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War Museum
A few kilometres west of the Commonwealth War cemetery is the War Museum. It has a collection of memorabilia, uniforms and pictorial material of each country involved in the Battle of El Alamein and the North African campaigns, and maps and explanations of various phases of the campaign in Arabic, English, German and Italian complement the exhibits. There’s also a 30-minute Italian-made documentary that you can watch. The turn-off to the museum is along the main highway; just look for the large tank in the middle of the road.
reviewed
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Roman Amphitheatre
While the 13 white-marble terraces of the only Roman Amphitheatre in Egypt may not be impressive in scale, they remain a superbly preserved ode to the days of the centurion. This site was discovered when foundations were being laid for an apartment building on a site known unceremoniously as Kom al-Dikka (Mound of Rubble). Excavations continue to uncover more in the area; in early 2010 the ruins of a Ptolemaic-era temple were uncovered along with statues of gods and goddesses, including a number of the cat goddess Bastet.
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Sayed el Safty
Certainly the most fun, is Sayed el Safty, a 2nd-generation antiquaire who runs a small shop piled to the rafters with antique and reproduction Oriental furnishings in wood and metal – tables, chests, maps, bowls, beautifully inlaid backgammon sets, and more. The store itself is worth the trip alone, with graceful Arabic text carved into the stone walls. Sayed himself is enthusiastic, friendly and knowledgeable. The sign above the store says ‘Ibrahim el Safty’ (Sayed’s father).
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Fort of Qaitbey
About 5km north of Rosetta along the Nile is the Fort of Qaitbey, built in 1479 (just before the sultan’s fort in Alexandria) to guard the mouth of the Nile 6km further on. It was here that the famous Rosetta Stone was found, and there’s a copy inside the fort. The mouth of the Nile is visible from atop the walls. Boats depart from the Corniche near the Museum Garden and make the trip to the fort for around E£50 to E£60 per person return (1½ hours), or you can hire a taxi to take you.
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Mohammed Ahmed
Under no circumstances should you miss this classic, the undisputed king and still champion of fuul and ta’amiyya, filled day and night with locals downing small plates of spectacularly good and cheap Egyptian standards. From the English menu, select your type of fuul ( iskandarani is good), add some ta’amiyya, and choose a few accompanying salads, such as tahini, banga (beetroot) or pickles – then, sit back and wait for the magic to happen.
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Hood Gondol Seafood
When Alexandrians need a quick fix of delicious, fresh and ridiculously cheap seafood, they make a beeline for this local favourite near the Bibliotheca Alexandria. A massive plate of mixed seafood, including prawns, calamari, spicy clams and fried fish. There's no menu and little English is spoken here, just turn up, point to the trays of fresh fish lining the downstairs display and find yourself a seat. It's located down an unmarked alley; ask for directions as everyone knows it by name.
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