Alexandria Things to Do Tips by TheLongTone

I'd say that this is Alex's 'must-see' tourist attraction, because it is unique. O.K, the catacombs are amusing but not much more than an atmospheric curiousity. The new library is a stunning piece of modern architecture, a vast steel and glass disc sloping into a pool of water, wrapped round by a wall on which are inscribed examples of all the known alphabets of the world.

In addition to being a working library the building houses a museum of antiquities and a museum of manuscripts, which is worth visiting for its excellent exhibition of the history of Alex and also has on display a part of the emboidered cover of the Kaaba in Macca, which was presented by the family of Talaat Harb, to whom it had ben given.

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Address: Shatby
Directions: take tram to drop you in Shatby tram station or simply walk East along the Corniche.

A prominent landmark on the Corniche about halfway between the downtown area and the fortress of Quait Bey, the present structure was built in 1938 to designs by an Italian architect. To me it has an air or romantic faux-orientalism that reminds me irresistably of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton

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The Mamluk fortress of Qait Bey was built in the fifteenth century on the site of the famous Pharos of Alexandria, destroyed by an earthquake some hundred years previously, and using some of the stones from the ruins. The fort was heavily shelled by the British in 1882 but it has (apart from the minaret of the mosque within the inner tower) recently been restored.

The fort is worth visiting both in it's own right as an impressive piece of military architecture and also for the fantastic views of Alex which it offers. I visited on a Saturday and the place was full of Alexandrians enjoying a day out, lots of children running about exploring the walls and groups of people taking eachothers photos on their mobile phones.

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Address: Can't miss it, West along the Corniche.

It was a close call, this could have been in 'Tourist Traps'. It's pretty well advertised as such, and expecting little I took a walk and investigated. Talking a walk through a new city with a thoroughly unimportant objective comes high on my 'Things to do' list.

I was in no way disappointed. Just a rocky outcrop with some semi-excavated fragments of wall, random chunks of carved stonework. Big red granite column. A place to stand and think about how many of the great works of the past have been destroyed.

Diocletian? his memorial is to have the start of his reign, a period of bloody repression for the Christian religion, taken as Year One, the Year of the Martyrdoms, in the Coptic calendar.

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