Alexandria

Alexandria was the intellectual capital of the ancient world and then it was a provincial capital with a very good harbour, and then it was a city that grew sideways while the sea kept taking ground. It is the most contradictory place in Egypt, and that is exactly why it is worth three days.

The Corniche

The Corniche is the road that runs along the seafront for about fifteen kilometres, from the Qaitbay Citadel to the Bibliotheca. On a weekday morning it is men playing chess, women walking dogs, and the occasional wedding photo shoot with a backdrop of a warship.

The Bibliotheca and the Manuscript

The modern library opened in 2002, partly funded by UNESCO, and its manuscript museum holds a fragment of the Papyrus Scroll of the Books of the Dead, nine metres of hieratic script on papyrus that survived because it was thrown away as rubbish by the Egyptians who had no interest in a pagan text.

Qaitbay

The fifteenth-century Qaitbay Citadel stands on the site of the original lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. You cannot climb to the top any more, but the view from the ramparts over the two harbours and out to the Mediterranean is one of the best free things in the city.

The fish

Alexandria is a city of fish. Eat it grilled at the small places off the Corniche where the price is written on the wall in marker pen, and where the absence of a menu is itself a recommendation.