Excursion to Alexandria

At 6:30 in the morning we’ll leave from Cairo towards Alexandria, the most important Mediterranean city in Egypt.

We’ll begin our tour of the Alexandria port, visiting the Qaitibay Citadel. This defensive complex was constructed in the 15th century by the Sultan Qaitibay, where the famous Lighthouse of Alexandria once stood. The lighthouse was destroyed by several earthquakes, whose remains were then used to build the citadel.

Then we head to the south of the city, where we’ll head to the Kom el Shoqafa Catacombs, where the relief artwork shows the fusion of Egyptian and Greco-Roman culture. We’ll see its three different levels, to get to know its passages, tunnels and galleries along which the tombs of the necropolis are distributed. near these catacombs can be found Pompey’s Pillar, just where the temple dedicated to the Greco-Egyptian God Serapis was once found.

We’ll then enjoy lunch in the centre of Alexandria, with a menu including fish, and seafood rice. Then in the evening we’ll see one of the most important modern buildings in the city: The New Alexandria Library. Built in homage to the library, built in the 3rd century BC and burnt down, perhaps during the Roman Civil War in 48 BC, which housed thousands of papyrus scrolls and was one of the world centres of scholarship and knowledge in the ancient world. Today the library, reinaugurated in 2002, is one of the most important cultural spaces in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Finally, late in the evening, we’ll return to the hotels of Cairo.

Changes to the itinerary

The New Library of Alexandria will not be visited on Fridays and Saturdays as it is closed on these dates.