Alexandria,
princess
and
whore.
The
royal
city and
the anus
mundi.
-
Lawrence
Durrell,
The
Alexandria
Quartet
ALEXANDRIA
turns
its back
on the
rest of
Egypt
and
faces
the
Mediterranean,
as if
contemplating
its
glorious
past; a
hybrid
city
characterized
by
Durrell
as the
"Capital
of
Memory".
One of
the
great
cities
of
antiquity,
Alex
slumbered
for 1300
years
until it
was
revived
by
Mohammed
Ali and
transformed
by
Europeans,
who gave
the city
its
present
shape
and made
it
synonymous
with
cosmopolitanism
and
decadence.
This era
came to
an end
in the
1950s
with the
mass
flight
of non-Egyptians
and a
dose of
revolutionary
puritanism,
but
Alexandria's
beaches,
restaurants
and
breezy
climate
still
attract
hordes
of
Cairenes
during
the
summer,
while
its
jaded
historical
and
literary
mystique
remains
appealing
to
foreigners.
And when
El-Iskandariya
(the
city's
Arabic
name)
palls,
you can
easily
enough
take a
bus to
Mersa
Matrouh
and
continue
on to
Siwa
Oasis.
The
City
I
loved
the
shabbiness
of
the
streets
and
cafés,
the
melancholy
which
hung
over
the
city
late
of
an
evening,
the
slow
decay
(not
destruction,
mind
you)
of
what
the
Europeans
had
left
behind
when
they
fled.
-
Charlie
Pye-Smith,
The
Other
Nile
Alex
encourages
nostalgia
trips
and
random
exploration,
if
only
because
"the
sights"
are
limited
and
chance
incidents
often
more
revealing.
Don't
be
afraid
of
following
your
nose
and
deviating
from
the
usual
itineraries,
which
could
be
completed
in a
day
if
done
at
the
trot
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