Sultan Qaitbey built this picturesque fortress during the 14th century to defend Alexandria from the advances of the Ottoman Empire. His efforts were in vain since the Ottomans took control of Egypt in 1512, but the fortress has remained, strategically located on a thin arm of land that extends out into Alexandria’s harbor from the corniche. The fortress’ current form is not the original. It was heavily damaged during the British bombardment of Alexandria during a nationalist uprising against British hegemony in 1882 and rebuilt around the turn of the 20th century. As with most things in Alexandria, the building itself is not what is most significant about this location. Qaitbey built the fortress here to take advantage of an exist foundation on the site—that of the legendary Pharos Lighthouse, which by the 14th century had fallen into ruins due to repeated damage by earthquakes.
The Arabic name translates to English as “the mound of potshards”, referring to the broken dishes and plates that marked the area before the tombs were discovered below. This extensive complex of impressively decorated tombs dates from the Roman Era and are considered as one of the “Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages”. The tombs at Kom Al-Shuqafa are thought to have originally belonged to a single wealthy Roman family that began using it for burials around the 2nd century AD; however, the complex was significantly expanded and it was used though the 4th century AD. It contains a large number of graves, including a mass grave of animal and human remains that is attributed to a mass execution carried out in Alexandria by the Roman Emperor Caracalla in 215 AD.The tombs are organized around a central spiral staircase that leads down through several levels. The lower levels are flooded, but in the accessible areas the walls of the tombs are extensively decorated. They display an unusual fusion of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian iconography given the era of their construction. In Egypt in the early centuries AD, the Roman Empire was in control, but the influences of ancient Egypt and Greek culture, due to the legacy of Alexander and the Ptolomies, were still strong. The figures carved into the walls of the tomb often combine the forms of ancient Egyptian gods with Roman and Greek dress or creatures from Greek and Roman mythology with pharaonic symbols.
Alexandria National museum is located in a former Italianate mansion. It's the former home of a wood sales person.It used to house the United States consulate. The building dates back to 1926, located around a large garden, in addition to housing a basement. The three-storey palace was a meeting place for the Egyptian upper-class society of Alexandria.
Roman amphitheatres are amphitheatres – large, circular or oval open-air venues with raised seating – built by the ancient Romans. They were used for events such as gladiator combats, venationes (animal slayings) and executions. About 230 Roman amphitheatres have been found across the area of the Roman Empire. Early amphitheatres date from the republican period,[1] though they became more monumental during the imperial era .
A massive 30m column looms over the debris of the glorious ancient settlement of Rhakotis, the original township from which Alexandria grew. Known as Pompey’s Pillar, for centuries the column, hewn from red Aswan granite, has been one of the city’s prime sights: a single, tapered shaft, 2.7m at its base and capped by a fine Corinthian capital. The column rises out of the sparse ruins of the Temple of Serapeum, a magnificent structure that stood here in ancient times The column was named by travellers who remembered the murder of the Roman general Pompey by Cleopatra’s brother, but an inscription on the base (presumably once covered with rubble) announces that it was erected in AD 291 to support a statue of the emperor Diocletian. Underneath the column, steps lead downward to the ruins of the great temple of Serapis, the hybrid Greek and Egyptian god of Alexandria. Also here was the ‘daughter library’ of the Great Library of Alexandria, which was said to have contained copies and overflow of texts. These scrolls could be consulted by anyone using the temple, making it one of the most important intellectual and religious centres in the Mediterranean. The temple was attacked during the Jewish Revolt in AD 115–117, but it was the Christians who launched a final assault on pagan intellectuals in AD 391 and destroyed the Serapeum and its library, leaving just the lonely pillar standing. The site is now very forlorn, little more than rubble pocked by trenches and holes, with a couple of narrow shafts from the Serapeum to explore below, a few sphinxes (originally from Heliopolis) and a surviving Nilometer (a structure used to measure and record the level of the Nile in ancient times). The pillar on top is the only ancient monument remaining whole and standing in Alexandria today. The guards can be slightly pushy here. When taking a taxi here, ask for it by the Arabic name, Amoud Al Sawari. The fare should be LE30 to LE35 from Midan Saad Zaghloul.
Deluxe Tours offers one-of-a-kind traveling activities that allow you to explore Alexandria in Cairo in your own way. Your tour guide will pick you up at 07:00 am from your hotel in Cairo / Giza . Go close to experience the wonders of the world up close with the most budget-friendly deals on things to do for your customizable day tour to Alexandria from Cairo. Lavished car drive will pick you up right on time for a journey to Alexandria. Perceive all of the sights you want to see and then have a wonderful lunch at the Fish Market restaurant and also enjoy the stunning front harbor view. You will love to enjoy the scenic drive, and all the city had to offer. Whatever you like, nature, culture, food, or a bit of adventure, Deluxe Tours have the perfect activity for you! https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g295398-d459902-Reviews-Alexandria_National_Museum-Alexandria_Alexandria_Governorate.html
Excellent service. Door to door from our hotel. Nevin answered all our questions in detail and gave us a magnificent insight. Car, entrance fees, food all included. Even the hawkers were kept at bay. Highly recommended.
Our private day tour from Cairo to Alexandria was absolutely perfect! The entire experience was nicely arranged and everything proceeded exactly as planned and on time. Our driver was excellent, and the tour guide who joined us in Alexandria was incredibly informative, bringing the history of the city to life. We were able to visit many of the most interesting sights Alexandria has to offer. A particular highlight was the lunch – the singari fish was the best meal we had during our entire stay in Egypt. Highly recommended!
We had the pleasure of being driven from Cairo and conducted around Alexandria by two good and efficient people, driver Abdul and the super knowledgeable and expressive english speaking guide Marco. Visited The Catacombs, The Roman Amphitheatre and The Library of Alexandria, with Marco furnishing interesting gen on their history. Marco's subtle humor and his pleasant chat kept us interested. He took pains to locate and direct us to the best Koshary making place in Alexandria... so he not only won our hearts but our stomachs. I wish him all the best!
We were able to select wide range of attractios, from Montazah Gardens and Fort Qaitbey, allowed us to tailor the tour to our interest. Lunch and snacks were provided and everything was included in the price which made easy planning.
Alexandria is a city rich in stories, and I left with a deeper appreciation for its heritage. I loved wondering through the local markets and tasting fresh seafood. The customizable aspect meant I could choose places to visit. Thanks guys!
This tour was perfectly focusing on giving me chance to explore all the highlights of this beautiful coastal city at my own pace. I Truly appreciated the flexibility of the tour which allowed me to spend more time at places I enjoyed.
The ability to choose from variety of attractions, like the Alexandria made it flexible and personalized. The bilingual driver was professional and helpful. Lunch and snacks were well planned and satisfying.
Marco arranged a fantastic trip to Luxor, I thought Cairo was amazing but Luxor is another level! Although we only had one day here, we managed to squeeze so much in! The valley of the kings was amazing! Luxor temple and the temple of Karnak… mind blowing!
We are just on our way back from this tour, it was great, especially with our very kind, sociable and experienced tour guide, "Marco". We had a good experience with the Deluxe Tour during our 4-day trip.
We did this trip before an organized tour focused on ancient Egypt (we had an extra day). While Alexandria is a reference to the downfall of the pharaoh's Egypt, our amazing guide, Essam (a University professor), gave us a lot of interesting information on both the Greek/Roman objectives we were visiting and on the overall context of the pharaoh's Egypt, that helped us better understand and plan the whole tour that followed. Thank you Essam!
Had an amazing tour with Eslam and our driver Ashraf. They fetched us on time from our hotel and took us to see all the sights. Eslam saved us a lot of time by using his "Contacts" so we don't have to stand in lines for tickets. He was very knowledgeable about all the history and took some amazing photos of my wife and I. He never rushed us and allowed us as much time as we wanted to take in the sights and attractions. He was super patient with all our questions and requests and even provided some input to make things better! He bought us Ice creme multiple times as he could see we really enjoyed it and made a lot of funny jokes, but also taught us a lot about the country and the people. This tour made our 2 days in Alex amazing and i will definitely recommend this to anyone.
Great tour—I highly recommend it! Our driver Badr and tour guide Nashat were extremely professional, flexible, knowledgeable and kind! We had a lot of fun and everything went smoothly
Zanaty was my guide for this full day tour and another tour that I booked with them. The 3-hour one way (6 hours both ways) drive was smooth and comfortable. My driver was very polite although he didn’t talk much. It’s a good day out and I felt safe as a solo female traveller.
My wife and I arranged for a private custom tour of Alexandria as part of a larger package we arranged through Deluxe Tours Egypt. Our guide and driver picked us up from our hotel and gave us an overview of Alexandria's history as we drove to our first stop, the catacombs. Our driver dropped us off at the entrance with our guide Mohamed. Mohamed secured our tickets and began taking us through the background of the site to provide us with appropriate context at the right level of detail without going too deep. As we descended into the catacombs, Mohamed ensured we took our photos from the best locations and covered the highlights for the key attractions. When we finished the catacombs, our driver met us at the front entrance and took us to Fort Qaitbay and then to the Bibliotheca. At each location, Mohamed was intuitive in providing us with information we would find interesting and entertaining. When we completed our tour, we said our farewells and our dedicated driver for the day drove us back to Cairo and dropped us off at our hotel. Overall a seamless and highly enjoyable experience.
We had an excellent day in Alexandria with Mohammed. He is getting his PhD, so he knows the history extremely well. He had an answer for every question we asked (and we ask a lot of questions!). But he also has a great personality and was good company. Highly recommended. We enjoyed every stop, but the Roman catacombs in particular blew me away. (Lunch and coffee was also excellent. He knows where to go!) Also, when we told him that our Luxor trip the next day had been canceled less than a day in advance (a different company failed to secure our plane tickets, even though we had booked in AUGUST), Mohammed helped us arrange a tour the next day of Sakkara & Memphis that we loved. Big thanks!
Knowledgeable, professional and friendly guides - thank you to Nashat, Sami and Mohammed - and good drivers. I had a lovely time exploring Cairo and discovering Alexandria. I would recommend Deluxe tours. Sophie
We traveled with 3 senior citizens and 2 others including myself. Our trip to Alexandria was perhaps one of the highlights of the tour and Mohamed was our day tour guide. Funny, respectful, articulate, knowledgeable, and studying to be a hieroglyphics scholar, the way he read the hieroglyphics at the tombs gobsmacked us. He was definitely one of the best tour guides we had during our tour of Egypt.
The day trip to Alexandria from Cairo is a bit of a long day but it's totally worth it. Our guide Mohammed was a professional in the field and a native of Alexandria so he know very small details about the stops which were fascinating and all the ins-and-outs of the city. I would highly recommend this for anyone interested in visiting. It would be nice to spend a full day in the city but our trip was compressed for personal reasons so this day-trip gave us everything we wanted in a tight timeframe.
Wagy very pushi person to take you where he gets comision, takes you to expensive places. Lunch very poor and you have to pay for the extras that they order and you don’t ask. No connection with restaurant and boring place.
Terrific day trips in Cairo- library, citadel, catacombs… lots of history! Our guide Mohammed was smart, personable, funny, and flexible!
Mohammed was friendly, adaptable, easy going, funny, smart, and humble. We had an extraordinary day seeing the sights in “Alex” with Mohammed leading us…. A+
Amazing experience. Really loved this tour and really enjoyed Alexandria. My tour guide Mohamed was stellar, brilliant, and very passionate about ancient Egyptian history. He had a great sense of humor and was a cheerful person. I was very comfortable with him and it felt more like two good friends just hanging out in town. Highly recommend this tour if you’re in Cairo. Alexandria is definitely unique in its own way. If you want to see a mix of Greek and Egyptian architecture and art, this is the place to visit. It is extremely interesting and beautiful. Once again highly recommend this tour and make sure to ask for Mohamed!
We did a this tour with Morsi as the guide and Ayman our driver. The tour was perfect. We enjoyed a lot, the explanation where super interesting and we couldn't have done it without the wonderful help of our driver. Both of them are really nice and helpful. And always willing to show us the best of the city. Highly recommended.
We spent a full day with Mohamed, our guide appointed by Deluxe Tours. He introduced us to his city - Alexandria, making sure we got to not only see all the highlights but also benefited from his personal experience as a true local. We are a group of 8 friends & Mohamed ensured we were all looked after, cracking jokes & livening up our trip with lots of laughter. He introduced us to a terrific place for falafel (Mohamed Ahmed Restaurant) & also had the local sugar cane juice - very refreshing! We visited the catacombs, roman theatre, bibliotheque & citadel & Mohamed told us the history in an entertaining manner. His knowledge of Egyptian hieroglyphics is impressive. His easy manner & knowledge made us feel that we got to know Alexandria in a very personal way. Request for Mohamed when u book a tour through Deluxe Tours & you’ll be guaranteed a terrific time! Thank you Mohamed!
Our guide Mohamed Salama was amazing from the beginning of our trip to even after we departed for the day! His kindness and passion for the history of Alexandria is palable and makes everything much more interesting to see. Alexandria was amazing and not to be missed!
Best experience in Alexandria, nice people , guide was informative, cover all the main attractions, Lunch was very delicious by the sea
It was a great time in Alexandria. Nevine took us to many places there from museums to restaurants. Thanks Nevine 👍🏻
As single women with my kids in middel east for first time!wanted to make sure to find good company to make sure all well organized, Best thing when i contacted deluxe tour Geroge was really helpful answered me withvall detials Every thing was clear with good price We felt veryvsafe every where we been with deluxe tour been so looked after and super organized
Had amazing time with deluxe tour!visited luxor nole cruise and saw the pyramid was amazing with camel rode had such amazing time no hustle at all our tour guide Peter was so helpful and help us to get our souvenir from local in great price. We got chance to see the library of Alexandria was so wisdom and lunch by sea view best seafood ever Definitely will book with them again, 😊
It was an amazing trip , car was clean , guide was very informative, thanks for this amazing trip, will back again soon
It was an amazing experience. Maruah was the best guide. She gave us a lot of explanation with a clear English. The restaurant includes in our tour was great as well.
Our passage through Alexandria was incredible. We visited the Library, ss Catacombs and several important points in the history of the city and the world. Guide Maruah made it all the more special. At the end we had a delicious typical lunch.
Best tour guide and best tour around Alexandria, the guide was very informative and helpful, driver was perfect , food was delicious, all the Experince was perfect, i high recommend this company
I was picked up at my hotel and off we went to Alexandria. There I was able to see the Catacombs, Citadel, and Bibliotheca. Had early dinner at a restaurant with a great view of the Citadel and the Mediterranean sea.
Hi. My son and myself, were picked up on time by our guide MoursiTaking us first to the Giza plateau. ( pyramids and Sphinx ). We then moved on to the Museum of civilisation. At all times Moursi was informative and his attention to detail was excellent. All in all, a fantastic day, never to be forgotten. Thank you Moursi . Kevin.
Nice tour with Sameh Ahmed the guide and Ahmed Yassen the driver in Alexandria. We discovered a nice place of history. Sameh and Ahmed were really nice with us, advices a lot and help us to find a solution for an issue we got with a personal things. Thanks guys it was a lovely moment. Elodie & Bruce
We had a great tour visiting Alexandria as day tour , it’s was around 3 hours driving from Cairo, the Lunch was perfect, Victor Was our guide was very informative and Ahmed the driver is the best person can avoid you traffic.
Had a great trip with Neveen & Heni. I wanted to be the first person into Giza plateau so we left Downtown Cairo at 6:45 am and were the first tourists into Giza when it opened at 7:30am. Neveen was a knowledgeable Egyptologist and did a great job describing what I was seeing and answering any questions I had - she also was a good photographer. Most importantly to me, she was great at letting me go at my own pace (usually hyper speed). We followed Giza with Saqqar (where I enjoyed going into the tomb of Usar). We then went to Dahshur. I enjoyed going into both the bent and the red pyramids. Then we had a nice simple vegetarian lunch. We then drove back to Cairo and toured the Egyptian Museum. I then had them drop me off in the Coptic Quarter for me to explore on my own.
we had an amazing tour of Alexandria Victor has a degree in Egyptology and a bountiful knowledge of her beloved home land. Victor is very personable and makes sure to give you the utmost wealth of current findings in Egypt with the historical back stories on each venue that you choose to visit. I can not recommend a better tour guide than him.
Excellent guide and very professional, not only in his explanations but also to respond to all my concerns, always attentive when requesting me to take a photo.
We had an excellent day with my friend, driver Abdul drove very well and I waited everywhere, always on time and. our guide Mohamed, excellent!!!! A professional. Titled and. with an excellent humor. To recommend!!!
Fantastic experience in a coastal city. Great for having a contrast with the desert landscape in Cairo. I loved the tour, it was a good way to know the influence of the Europeans in Egypt. Beautiful Egyptian food and very friendly guide 😀
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