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Today was our last day on the ferry. We headed out for some air:
Down on the car deck we checked out the safari route and vehicles:
Nice sunny day:
The guy who watches for icebergs?:
We approach Alexandria, Egypt. That light flat thing is the world's largest library:
We enter Alexandria harbor:
The royal palace:
After a lengthy customs and immigrations routine (including checking for drugs and explosives) we finally make it to our hotel. This is the El Salamlek Palace Hotel. It was once used by the king of Egypt - King Farouk. The place is amazing:
Our room:
The dining room:
Now lest you think we are being extravagant over here, this place actually costs less than a Hampton Inn back home!
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Today we started by walking on the grounds of the palace.
Only to discover that another of King Farouk's palaces lay closer to the ocean:
The locals were out fishing early:
Our first tour of the day was of a 2nd century catacombs. We descended down a spiral stairway to get to the location of the cripts. The catacombs are huge and everything was carved out of solid limestone. Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed inside.
Our next stop was the ruins of a 2nd century Greek building that housed the first library known to exist.
The pillar is made of a single piece of red granite which was brought 1000 miles from where it was mined in Aswan. The sphynx is over 4,500 years old.
Below ground has been excavated the oldest known library. Scrolls were kept in the cubby-holes in the sides of the passageway.
Next we visited a mosque in the Spanish style:
We also stopped off to see the excavated Roman Theater. This was a small theater used for plays and performances.
Various rooms fo the performers:
This is Qait Bey, an early fort built on the spit that originally housed the first lighthouse - built by Alexander in the 2nd century BC. The stones used in building the fort are from that first lighthouse.
We ended the day by visiting the world's largest library.
This library is ultra-modern and houses over 7 million books (and growing)!
