Alexandria to Cairo

We woke to another sunny warm morning. Beautiful morning on the Mediterranean.

We started our day visiting the Library. Alexander the Great wanted Alexandria to be a centre of knowledge. He asked people coming to the city to pay an entrance fee of some knowledge of where they came from. For example, a book or a treasure or a map. Much was collected but unfortunately the works in the original library were lost. The current library has space for 15000 books over 11 floors. The library houses around 12000 books and they are in the process of digitizing all the books. Anyone, anywhere in the world can download a book. They also have permanent exhibits as well as a rare book museum.

The building was designed as part of an Unesco contest, which was won by a Norwegian architect. The building is designed to represent

a rising sun. There is a small planetarium beside it which is meant to represent the earth revolving around it. It was interesting to walk the whole 11 stories.

Next we went to see another archeological site that was discovered by accident when archeologists were looking for Alexander’s and Cleopatra’s tombs. It is the site of an amphitheater, lecture halls and bath houses. It also has some statues that were found under the seas. It is believed the were in the Sea after a tsunami hit Alexandria.

We headed back to Cairo to end our trip of Egypt. A four hour return trip.

Our last night in Egypt was at Le Meridian Hotel attached to the airport.