Carolyn got the day off from school to take us on a tour of Alexandria. Our tour guide, George, is very politically opinionated. That adds an interesting color to his commentary. As we are heading out of Cairo, he points out other enclosed communities. He refers to them as desert reclamation projects offering housing outside of Cairo for commuters. He has already told us that the population of Cairo ranges from 19 to 23 million depending on what time of day it is. I’m not convinced this kind of sprawl will do anything to solve the traffic problems of ever increasing population in the city. The advantage I see is that these are areas where the lack of government resources isn’t affecting basic services. Assuming you can afford to live there.
Between Cairo and Alexandria the van broke down, but the driver pulled some wire and a screwdriver out of the glove box and was able to fix it. I expect every tour to have one bad food stop and one crazy attraction that tries to take my money. We stopped for coffee at an attraction that is trying to be part zoo, part amusement park, and part circus. It’s serving decent coffee and doesn’t appear to be selling anything. In the late morning, it’s mostly just sad looking animals in cages. Clean, apparently well cared for, but still in small cages.
Also, an angry Ostrich tried to eat Carolyn.
Pigeon coops everywhere along the sides of the road. George claims the people used to eat them, but now are more civilized. I don’t mention dinner last night.
Did you know that if you build a mosque on your property here, you don’t have to pay property tax? Not for Coptic Christian churches, though. Did you know you only pay taxes for a completed building, so if you have an unfinished roof that may become an additional floor, you don’t have to pay taxes. Also, with the revolution, government services have gone from poor to nearly non-existent. Small government heavily tied to religion, pretty much the far right’s paradise.
Our first stop was the catacombs, no cameras allowed. The main tomb has three levels below ground, but the third is under water and parts of the second have water seeping in. Niches are carved in limestone walls with lots of erosion. Since we can’t take pictures, I am forced to reference Whiterun's Hall of the Dead.
This complex was originally built for a wealthy family, but once there stopped being visitors to those few, the city opened it up to the wider populations. The size and location of the niches indicates socioeconomic standing, with some middle class mummies in larger ones and the cremated remains of entire families sharing some of the smaller ones. Currently, they are all empty. In the entry area and larger chambers of the original occupants there is a mixture of Greek and Egyptian iconography that is really interesting. I hope Bill tells the story about the pottery because I am already fuzzy on the details.
Next was this pillar that is the only remaining part of a temple. They’ve pulled several worn sculptures and remnants of pillars out of this site and left them on display.
There were some underground excavations at the site that we walked through and took some pictures. Similar to the catacombs, but these nooks were previously filled with books instead of urns.
There were also some well-preserved sphinx statues that may or may not have been in a part of the ruin tourists are allowed. I decided that since I could see lots of footprints and the rope didn’t completely block access that it was fine. They guys hung back, so I had to take my own picture with one of them.
Next stop was the remains of the great lighthouse which is now a fort. I’d never seen the Mediterranean before. Getting there involved a traffic jam so bad that a police officer had to come by and direct traffic. It was kind of exciting. The pictures are insufficient. George used it as an example of how things are worse now than they used to be.
We followed this with a very late, not very good lunch. Looks like it should be great, right?
Our final stop of the day turned out to be the first instance of last year’s revolution actually effecting our travel. We were supposed to go to the new Great Library, built on the remains of the original great library, but its hours have been totally unpredictable so it was already closed for the day when we got there. We still wandered around outside, which was fantastic as well, but I didn’t get to use, or even see, the espresso book machine.
As bad as traffic seemed today, George claimed that it would be worse tomorrow because of the Pope’s funeral. We stayed in for a lovely chili dinner and made some preparations for tomorrow night’s flight to Luxor. At some point I suppose I should try souvenir shopping.
Between Cairo and Alexandria the van broke down, but the driver pulled some wire and a screwdriver out of the glove box and was able to fix it. I expect every tour to have one bad food stop and one crazy attraction that tries to take my money. We stopped for coffee at an attraction that is trying to be part zoo, part amusement park, and part circus. It’s serving decent coffee and doesn’t appear to be selling anything. In the late morning, it’s mostly just sad looking animals in cages. Clean, apparently well cared for, but still in small cages.
Also, an angry Ostrich tried to eat Carolyn.
Pigeon coops everywhere along the sides of the road. George claims the people used to eat them, but now are more civilized. I don’t mention dinner last night.
Did you know that if you build a mosque on your property here, you don’t have to pay property tax? Not for Coptic Christian churches, though. Did you know you only pay taxes for a completed building, so if you have an unfinished roof that may become an additional floor, you don’t have to pay taxes. Also, with the revolution, government services have gone from poor to nearly non-existent. Small government heavily tied to religion, pretty much the far right’s paradise.
Our first stop was the catacombs, no cameras allowed. The main tomb has three levels below ground, but the third is under water and parts of the second have water seeping in. Niches are carved in limestone walls with lots of erosion. Since we can’t take pictures, I am forced to reference Whiterun's Hall of the Dead.
This complex was originally built for a wealthy family, but once there stopped being visitors to those few, the city opened it up to the wider populations. The size and location of the niches indicates socioeconomic standing, with some middle class mummies in larger ones and the cremated remains of entire families sharing some of the smaller ones. Currently, they are all empty. In the entry area and larger chambers of the original occupants there is a mixture of Greek and Egyptian iconography that is really interesting. I hope Bill tells the story about the pottery because I am already fuzzy on the details.
Next was this pillar that is the only remaining part of a temple. They’ve pulled several worn sculptures and remnants of pillars out of this site and left them on display.
There were some underground excavations at the site that we walked through and took some pictures. Similar to the catacombs, but these nooks were previously filled with books instead of urns.
There were also some well-preserved sphinx statues that may or may not have been in a part of the ruin tourists are allowed. I decided that since I could see lots of footprints and the rope didn’t completely block access that it was fine. They guys hung back, so I had to take my own picture with one of them.
Next stop was the remains of the great lighthouse which is now a fort. I’d never seen the Mediterranean before. Getting there involved a traffic jam so bad that a police officer had to come by and direct traffic. It was kind of exciting. The pictures are insufficient. George used it as an example of how things are worse now than they used to be.
We followed this with a very late, not very good lunch. Looks like it should be great, right?
Our final stop of the day turned out to be the first instance of last year’s revolution actually effecting our travel. We were supposed to go to the new Great Library, built on the remains of the original great library, but its hours have been totally unpredictable so it was already closed for the day when we got there. We still wandered around outside, which was fantastic as well, but I didn’t get to use, or even see, the espresso book machine.
As bad as traffic seemed today, George claimed that it would be worse tomorrow because of the Pope’s funeral. We stayed in for a lovely chili dinner and made some preparations for tomorrow night’s flight to Luxor. At some point I suppose I should try souvenir shopping.
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