Day Sixteen

Day 16: Alexandria

Today we had make sure we were packed and ready to check out by 6am to go on a day trip to Alexandria. Visit the most common tourist attractions such as the stanley bridge, Citadel Castle , The Catacombs, Montazah Palace, the Roman Temple Pompey's Pillar and other famous statues placed all over the place.  

Alexandria is a 2 hour drive from Cairo. It is surrounded by the mediterranean sea that's why most the people were so calm and there was a lot less traffic on the road. Everyone seemed more relaxed.

While we were driving around Alexandria we saw some of the most famous statues. Here are just a few i took while we were driving around.

To get from one side of Alexandria to the other you need to cross the Stanley bridge. People always go fishing on the bridge and it has such a beautiful view of the ocean. It almost reminds me of a London style bridge with the light posts and the shape of the buildings.

We started the day off heading to Montazah Palace. The palace belonged to King Farriock and was made by his grandfather. The palace was passed out through the family. In world war 2 they used the palace as a hospital. Nowadays it doesn't get used only we can take photographs of the outside behind a fence. I could easily imagine what the inside would be like because the exterior was so incredible. We then walked from the castle to one of the most famous acting locations. This included little huts made out of straw, two bridges made from palm tree trunks and little villas overlooking the ocean. It was a spectacular view!!

After the palace we then headed off to the Roman Theatre. This was pretty incredible. They discovered the theatre when they wanted to create a hospital where the theatre stood. They started digging and then they discovered the steps, the stage and started finding columns still in place. I guess that meant they had to pass over the idea of building a hospital there :P 

On the top level of the roman theatre there were statues that have been pretty destroyed. But there was a fascinating story about these statues. People wanted to transport these statues off to France by boat. The boat capsized and the statues were all lost at sea. About 30 years ago divers discovered the ruins of these statues under water so they got cranes and lifted up the statues trying to save as much as possible. 

After the roman temple headed off to The Catacombs. This tomb almost looked like an ordinary building until you look around the side and you can see a stair case leading you down to thousands of tombs. There are over 5000 tombs in this area and I'm sure there are thousands more to be discovered. They originally found out about the tomb by a boy riding his donkey falling down into the tomb. Nowadays people can enter into the tombs and see all the little alleyways that lead around the underground. All though there seemed to be so many bodies all cramped up into one space. The only people who were buried together were families. We weren't allowed to bring our big camera in but luckily I had my iPhone and I took some sneaky photographs!! 

Pompey's Pillar: The Memorial Of Diocletian (Pompey's Pillar) 

Pompey Pillar is the biggest memorial column in Egypt. It is a huge column of red granite, its total height is about 28 m with a diameter at the base of 2.7 m, and towards the capital at the top it tapers to 2.3 m. 

We couldn't enter inside so the only photographed we could take were outside but you couldn't see the whole thing which was annoying. 

We then visited the Citadel Castle. This castle is over 700 years old. There used to be a lighthouse next to it but there was an earthquake that destroyed the lighthouse. Luckily the castle stayed safe. We couldn't go inside either but we could take photographs of the outside. By this time the sand storm hit so the sky wasn't very clear. Surrounding the castle there were so many little wooden boats anchored up near a jetty. We walked around the foreshore while getting blasted with sand haha was not very pleasant. 

At the start of the day the sky was so nice and blue and then all of a sudden you could hardly see anything. This sand storm came out of no where. The sand comes from the desert and it blocked the entire view. We then went to a restaurant to have lunch while lunch was over the sky started to clear up again just by the time we were about to leave. 

Before we left we visited one of the biggest shopping malls in Egypt. It was huge there was a h&m!!!!! We spent a few hours there to Kill time before we had to go to the airport. 

Our flight was leaving Cairo at 11 pm to head towards Dare slam so had to make sure we got there 3 hours before. We got there in plenty of time and ate quick dinner because wasn't sure if the dinner was provided, but of course it was provided but nothing gluten free :( the flight to Dare-slam is only 6 and a half hours so should be there for around 5:30 am. 

I hope this flight isn't too long and I get some sleep on it! Xx