Beth's Cruise Day 8

Jan 12
Wow was I tired. Like, pry me out of bed with a crowbar (or the promise of more Egypt) tired. We discovered, to our delight, we were on the same bus as our Alabama buddies, two older couples from Alabama who have sort of adopted us. We started with the catacombs of Kom El-Shugafa ( the Hill of Broken Plates) where we could not take pictures :-( . The catacombs date back to the second century A.D. and are an excellent example of how Egyptian culture had become a blend of the traditional Pharonic and Greek cultures. For example, the façade of the main tomb for the governor of Alexandria and his family included a mummification scene with Anubis, protection from both Isis and Medusa, and a scene of the governor offering a necklace to the bull god Serapis. Serapis is a combination of the greek god Zeus (king of the gods, known to take shape as a bull) and the Egyptian bull god Apis. Together they are “Serapis”. The tomb didn’t just contain the governor. There were hundreds of “Locali” or small rectangular holes for other mummies. There was also a large hall with a hole named Caracaulla’s hole for the Roman Emperor Caraculla who massacred hundreds of people in that hole for an uprising. Another point of interest is who they credit the discovery of these catacombs to. Give up? It’s a donkey. The poor thing fell down the hole of Caraculla in 1892, discovering the catacombs.
From there we went straight to the National Archaeological Museum. Originally the house of a wealthy lumber merchant and then the U.S. consulate, it was returned to the Egyptian government for the museum. It has a large collection ranging from Greco-Roman art to Coptic Christian artifacts and of course, a few mummies. However, I felt like our tour guide droned on and on about the Greco-Roman section and rushed us through the rest. From there, we had a photo stop at the royal gardens and palace of Farouk (now a hotel) and his private house (now the president’s residence).
We then continued on to the Fortress built on the site of the ancient Lighthouses of Alexandria which collapsed due to mining beneath them for treasure. It was built by some Sultan (honestly could not pronounce or remember his name). Finally, we ended with another photo stop at a mosque in the center of town. It’s supposedly one of the most beautiful and once again I can’t pronounce/remember the name. Arriving back on the boat, we had dinner and a nap before our spa treatment. Having been pampered beyond belief, we decided to get dressed up and do dinner at the Italian place on board. It was probably the best meal we have had yet. We then topped off the night with drinks and dancing with Hencel.