Our first stop:
the catacombs!

Alexandria, "Pearl of the Mediterranean", is the second largest city in Egypt and seems more Mediterranean than Middle Eastern.

Founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, Alexandria became the capital of Graeco-Roman Egypt, home of Pharos, the legendary lighthouse that was one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

The catacombs date back to the late first century AD. Kom El-Shuqafa lies on the site where the village and fishing port of Rhakotis, the oldest part of the city that predates Alexander the Great.

The catacombs are a melding and mixing of the cultures and traditions of the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.

Though the funerary motifs are pure ancient Egyptian, the architects and artists were clearly trained in the Greco-Roman style.

The catacomb type necropolis was widespread during the first three centuries in Rome. This type of catacomb was usually limited to the burial of deceased Christians. It was, to the believers of this new religion, an asylum where they could be safe from the injustice of the emperors. However, in the necropolis of Kom el-Shuqafa there is no trace of Christian burials.