Independent online, South Africa
March 11 2005
Egypt’s ‘second Rome’ arises from the waters
By Graham Howe
Graham Howe goes searching for Antony and Cleopatra on the road to
Alexandria.
The desert highway runs from Cairo to Alexandria down at the coast.
Risking life and limb, peasants harvest the olive trees separating
the northbound and southbound lanes.
Outside the city gates we pass the Birqash Camel Market on the very
edge of the Western Desert. For centuries, caravans have travelled
the length of Egypt on the Forty Days Road from the troubled region
of Darfur, Sudan, to the world’s biggest camel souq.
Following the Rosetta branch of the Nile after the mightiest of
rivers divides north of Cairo, the highway heads into the salt
marshes of the delta. Resisting the urge to follow alluring signs to
the monasteries of Wadi Natrun, the battlefields of El Alamein and
the city ruins of Zagazig, we zigzag past modern leisure resorts
salvaged from the sands.
Our guide, Dr Wahid Moustafa Gad, identifies the old stone towers en
route as colonies where farmers breed hamam (pigeon), a culinary
delicacy, for Cairo’s best restaurants.
Along the way he points out on the map how the Nile resembles the
lotus, the symbol of Lower Egypt. The ancient Egyptians likened the
delta to the flower; the oasis of al-Fayyoum to the bud; and the main
river to the stem.
Two hours after leaving Cairo, we arrive at the city gates of
Alexandria, the capital of Graeco-Roman Egypt founded by Alexander
the Great in 331 BC.
Under Cleopatra, Alexandria rivalled Rome as the centre of the
universe – and was the setting for her stormy romance with Marc
Antony.
Pharos lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (the
Pyramids of Giza, also on the list, are in Egypt too) symbolised
Alexandria’s status as a beacon of culture.
Like much of ancient Alexandria – including Cleopatra’s Palace,
Alexander’s tomb and the Great Library – the lighthouse is no more,
having been toppled in the earthquake of 1303. (This may come as a
shock to the unwary tourist.)
We stroll round Fort Qaitbey, a magnificent citadel built of
shimmering pink marble on the promontory where the lighthouse once
winked at the world. Fishermen cast a line and fishing boats bob up
and down in the Mediterranean.
We visit the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, an awe-inspiring new library
with space for some 8 million manuscripts. A 21st-century version of
the great classical library of Alexandria, the modern glass-and-steel
structure on the waterfront features giant exterior walls carved with
hieroglyphs and symbols from every known alphabet.
Statues of Alexander the Great and Ptolemy overlook an architectural
showpiece that symbolises the sun rising out of the Mediterranean and
the rebirth of Alexandria in the late 1990s.
A city of literary traditions since antiquity, Alexandria inspired
famous writers such as Lawrence Durrell (author of The Alexandria
Quartet), EM Forster (Alexandria: A History & Guide) and CP
(Constantine) Cavafy (the poet whose home is now a museum).
EM Forster recommended: “The best way of seeing Alexandria is to
wander aimlessly about.” Behaving like most tourists, we heed his
advice and go looking for the past – at sites such as the Roman
amphitheatre, Pompey’s Pillar (aka Diocletian’s Pillar) and the
catacombs of Kom ash-Shuqqafa, the largest Roman burial site in
Egypt.
The guidebooks warn that the Alexandria of Alexander and Cleopatra
lies buried six metres underground and undersea – as well as in
distant capitals. Two of the ancient city’s most famous obelisks,
commonly known as Cleopatra’s Needles, stand by the Thames in London
and in Central Park, New York.
One of the most famous exhibits in the British Museum – the Rosetta
Stone, the key used to decipher hieroglyphics – comes from the nearby
port of Rosetta where the Nile ends its journey 6 680km from its
headwaters on the shore of Lake Victoria.
Historians say ancient Alexandria is as elusive as the fabled city of
Atlantis. CP Cavafy, the poet of early-20th-century Alexandria,
declares somewhat more encouragingly: “It goes on being Alexandria
still. Just walk a bit along the straight road that ends at the
Hippodrome and you’ll see palaces and monuments that will amaze you.”
Visitors will find remnants of the city’s great rulers in the new
Alexandria Museum. The grand Italianate villa of the American
Consulate houses a fascinating collection of treasures salvaged by
divers from underwater sites in the harbour late last decade.
Submerged in shallow water near Abu Qir for more than 2 000 years,
these finds include a colossal granite statue of Isis, a sphinx,
columns and capitals which archaeologists speculate may come from
Cleopatra’s palace: all of them are being exhibited for the first
time.
We were looking forward to lunch after visiting the magnificent
mosque of Abu al-Abbas al-Mursi, where thousands of worshippers were
attending Friday’s midday prayers.
A port with period bars and ahwas (coffee-houses) from the early 19th
century, where people play dominoes and backgammon, Alexandria is
renowned for seafood such as sea bass, sole, squid, shrimp and crab.
With expectations high, we headed for the Mohamed Ahmed restaurant, a
culinary landmark billed as The Great Pyramid of Alexandria. Jostling
with the locals in the clattering café, we tucked into a feast of the
city’s native dish, foul (rhyming with “cool”) Alexandria.
Mashed into a paste (ta’amiyya), puréed into a dip with garlic and
fried onion (besara) or with tomato, garlic and eggs (foul mesdames),
the famous fava beans are a versatile legume served at breakfast,
lunch and dinner throughout Egypt.
We also relish delicious mezze, frittata and fried goat’s cheese –
all served without any culinary preventions on metal plates with
fresh pita bread for cutlery.
“So where’s the chicken?” asks one of our bemused party, “I ordered
fowl.” When they serve foul in Alexandria, they mean beans, beans,
beans – any way you like. Of course, you could order a McFelafel
(chickpea patties) at the ubiquitous McDonald’s.
A popular seaside resort, the promenade at Alexandria runs for some
20km along the turquoise shores of the Mediterranean with a
never-ending bar, hotel and café strip. In its modern heyday from the
1900s to the 1950s, this melting pot of the Mediterranean attracted
settlers from all over the Levant.
A thriving community of 80 000 Jews lived in Egypt early last century
– dwindling in the city to the 200 who still observe Shabbat at the
city’s pink marble synagogue.
In The Alexandria Quartet, Lawrence Durrell writes in the late 1940s:
“The communities still live and communicate – Turks with Jews, Arabs
and Copts and Syrians with Armenians and Italians and Greeks … the
hundred little spheres which religion or lore creates and which
cohere softly together like cells to form the great sprawling
jellyfish which is Alexandria today.”
Alexandria lost its cosmopolitan heart when many left after Gamel
Abdel Nasser’s revolution of 1952.
Our guide, Dr Wahid, says Alexandria has been occupied by Alexander
the Great, the Greeks, Romans, Fatimids, Turks, Napoleon and the
British.
Today the Moorish seaside palace built by the kings of Egypt is a
retreat for President Hosni Mubarak, while the lush Montazeh Palace
Gardens and neighbouring Salamlek palace are open to the public and
tourists.
Who could come all the way from the Cape to Cairo without going for a
swim in the Mediterranean?
We head past once-grand Victorian hotels such as the Windsor Palace
and the Cecil – a winter retreat for No~Ql Coward, Somerset Maugham,
Winston Churchill and the British Secret Service – and past
Pastroudi’s coffee shop, the haunt of literati in the 1920s
immortalised in Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet.
At Mamoura, the most exclusive beach suburb, taking a dip turns out
to be quite a mission. After paying a toll to get past the entry
boom, we pay a second toll to get on to the sand. After paying a
third fee at the changing booth and a fourth for a deckchair, we’re
finally ready for our expensive swim, clutching tickets that cost
R20.
On the beach an unusual sight awaits us: all along the high-tide
mark, fully dressed adults sit in a long line of deckchairs gazing
out to sea. Finding a way through the human barrier, we wade
self-consciously into the waves, feeling hundreds of curious eyes
upon us. We are the daily entertainment.
It is worth all the effort. We are adrift in a completely foreign
culture in the Mediterranean, on the northern tip of Africa,
thousands of kilometres away from Cape Town’s familiar southern
realms.
No one sunbathes on the sand at Alexandria, a right of way for the
vendors who hawk everything you could ever need on the beach, from
swimsuits, towels, sunglasses and hats to peanuts, pastries and
cooldrinks.
Sitting on the edge of Africa, I recall the words of Happy Mahlangu,
South Africa’s ambassador to Egypt, who told me: “South Africa looks
north to Africa and plays a leadership role on the continent. Egypt
looks north to Europe and the US and plays a leadership role in the
Middle East.”
Graham Howe was a guest of EgyptAir, the Egyptian Tourist Authority
and Egypt & Beyond.
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Some Facts
Visas: Obtain a tourist visa to Egypt from your travel agent (at a
variable cost of R235) or obtain free of charge direct from the
Egyptian Embassy at 270 Bourke St, Muckleneuk, Pretoria, tel:
012-343-1590.
Cost: From R12 999 for a 7-day tour, including flights
Johannesburg-Cairo and Cairo-Luxor and all transfers, taxes,
accommodation, tours, entry charges and a fully inclusive
three-night-and-four-day Nile cruise.
Health: Inoculations for cholera, hepatitis A, tetanus and typhoid
are recommended. Avoid all ice and fresh water unless in a sealed
bottle. Carry tissues for toilet paper.
Currency: Take US$ traveller’s cheques or currency. One Egyptian
pound = R1.
Best months to visit: October-November and March-May.
Tipping: Baksheesh is widespread at all tourist destinations.
Security: Egypt maintains tight security at all tourist and transport
points, including the entrance to many hotels.
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