We got up this morning and had our tour of Alexandria. Few fun factoids. The coast is called the Corniche Coast. The city was rebuilt three times due to massive earthquakes that destroyed it in 1100, 1400, and the last time in 1992. A lot of what used to be here either sunk (Cleopatra had her palace on an island that's now 7 meters under the water) or was reused in new construction. The Lighthouse of Alexandria (one of the 7 wonders of the world fell in an earthquake and was reconstructed into a medieval fort - which fell down and was reconstructed to look like the old fort.) Only a small number of things remain - mostly found by accident.
We drove back to Cairo. Our worst problem was the traffic once we got back into the city. A three hour drive took 5 hours. But we're back in the comfortable hotel. We'll leave for the airport tomorrow, then a BMI flight back to London. The next day we get up at dawn and take our United flight back to LA.
Here's some photos from today.
By the way, Google Egypt sand storm July 15. There are some aerial photos from NASA that are impressive. Also: here's a link to the Alexandria library - they are trying to digitize everything
www.bibalex.org they also have a lot of old pictures and maps.
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