Egypt: Alexandria

After our in-depth tour of Cairo, we went up to Alexandria for a short break. Thankfully, Rasha accompanied us. :)

En route, we stopped at the Monastery of Saint Bishoy where we were taken around by an orthodox priest. It was a very interesting experience, but pretty intense - the priest kept quizzing us on the Bible. Eek! Nevertheless, we enjoyed the experience.

We chose to visit Alexandria because everyone kept saying it was beautiful. Beautiful? Not really...interesting, sure. (That's how we felt about Egypt in general - we didn't find it beautiful, but we found it fascinating.) Upon our arrival we visited the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa, which was really, really cool. Decorated with Egyptian and Greek/Roman statues and carvings, there were enough spaces for hundreds of people to be buried. (They have all been exhumed and moved elsewhere so as not to be disturbed by visitors.) Following that we went to Pompey's Pillar and the Roman Amphitheatre (where they still have outdoor concerts).

The following day we visited the Citadel - which was quite nice - the Mosque of Al-Mursi Abu Al-Abbas (which was gorgeous from the outside, but Rasha and I weren't allowed to go inside...men only, apparently), and the incredible Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Now that is a library. If I had access to a library like that, I would probably never leave!

Sorry this particular post isn't very descriptive - while interesting, Alexandria didn't grab our interest the way other places had. It could have been travel fatigue - Egypt was incredibly hot (even though we arrived after the hottest part of the year) and we had already been in Africa 2.5 months when we got there. Whatever the reason, we don't think we'd go back to Alexandria, but we would like to visit Luxor and Aswan someday.

If you're wondering whether or not Egypt is worth visiting, we truly believe it is. Tourism is a huge force in their economy, directly employing some 2 million people who then support 10 million of their family members. Though we had been warned that we would be harassed to no end - particularly in Cairo - we found that that was not the case at all. Everyone was incredibly respectful and kind to us - vendors thanked us repeatedly for coming to Egypt, even if we didn't purchase any of their goods or services. Though the revolution was certainly necessary, it has hurt their progress in the short term. We hope that the upcoming elections will be peaceful and will put their fantastic country on the right track.