Alexandria in 3 days: the city founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, where the most important library in antiquity burned (twice, debatably), where the 135m ancient lighthouse collapsed into the foundation of a 1480 Islamic citadel, and where Cavafy wrote his poems in a Greek apartment above a brothel.
The modern reincarnation: the 11-story Snøhetta-designed library rising from a pool, its circular exterior carved with every writing system ever used, on the approximate site of the ancient library that held 700,000 scrolls.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideAlexandria's most celebrated seafood restaurant: raw fish selected by the customer, weighed and priced, then grilled or fried to order with Egyptian bread, tahini and the Alexandrian fish salads.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe word "pharos" (lighthouse in Greek, phare in French) comes from the island of Pharos where the 280 BC lighthouse stood: the Eastern Harbor seafront with its eroded Italian neoclassical facades and the Mediterranean that Alexandria has faced for 2,350 years.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Greek-Alexandrian poet's preserved apartment: the desk, the typewriter, the books. Cavafy lived above a brothel in the Greek quarter and made it the most celebrated literary address in modern Alexandria.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideOne of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages: Egyptian canonical postures on figures wearing Roman dress with Greek mythological context — the most complete artistic syncretism of the ancient world. The Hall of Caracalla with massacred horses.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe 27m red Aswan granite column (nothing to do with Pompey — a Crusader naming error): it stands where the Serapeum housed the branch library that outlasted the main Library of Alexandria by centuries.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe most important Ptolemaic artifact collection: the realistic Fayum mummy portraits (painted on wood while the subject was alive — the most individualistic ancient portrait tradition), Serapis cult objects and the coins of every Ptolemaic ruler.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThree starches invented by pure pragmatism: the cheapest nutritious meal in Egypt, elevated by the sharp garlic-vinegar dakka and the crispy fried onions that give it texture.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideSultan Qaitbay used the fallen granite blocks of the ancient Lighthouse in the lower walls: the finest harbor view in Alexandria from the battlements, the Mediterranean to the north and both harbors below.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Islamic-era royal collection in Princess Fatima's Art Nouveau palace: the most lavish display of 19th–20th century Egyptian royal jewelry, from the dynasty Mohammed Ali founded in 1805 to its end by revolution in 1952.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe 1930s Greek merchant's café with its original marble counter and mosaic floor: the Alexandrian afternoon ritual of shai binnana (mint tea) and the orange-flower semolina cake, watching the Corniche from inside the last intact piece of belle époque Alexandria.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuide