Alexandria

Alexander founded the city on a strip of land between the sea and Lake Mariout. After his death, his general Ptolemy made it the capital of a dynasty that ruled Egypt for three centuries, ending with Cleopatra VII. Alexandria became the largest city of the Greek world.

The Pharos lighthouse, completed in the 3rd century BC, was one of the Seven Wonders; it was damaged by earthquakes and finally collapsed in the 14th century. The Citadel of Qaitbay was built on its site in the 1470s, partly from its stones. The Great Library aimed to collect all the world's knowledge; scholars there measured the Earth's circumference and edited Homer. The modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina opened in 2002 in its memory.

The catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa, from around the 2nd century AD, mix Egyptian, Greek and Roman art in a single tomb — Anubis dressed as a Roman soldier. Pompey's Pillar, a Roman column of red Aswan granite, stands nearby.

In the 1960s, clearing a site for new buildings at Kom el-Dikka uncovered the only Roman theatre found in Egypt — a small auditorium of marble tiers — together with baths, lecture halls and villas with mosaic floors. It is one of the few places where the ancient city, buried beneath the modern one, can still be walked through.

The seafront Corniche curves for more than 15 kilometres around the Eastern Harbour. At its eastern end, the gardens of Montaza surround the palaces of the last royal family — the Salamlek of 1892 and the larger Haramlik, completed in 1932 — with beaches and palm-lined paths open to visitors.