Customizable Private Day Tour to Alexandria from Cairo

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.