Our next stop was the sprawling Amphitheatre site.

It was discovered during the 1960s when a government building was planned for this location over the ruins of a Napoleonic fort that had earlier been destroyed.

It was the first, and so far only one discovered in a city which, according to an ancient source, once had four hundred of them.

The marble was imported from Europe (probably Italy). It could hold up to 700 to 800 people.

According to the Polish-Egyptian excavation team:

“It is for the first time ever that such a complex of lecture halls has been uncovered on any Graeco-Roman site in the entire Mediterranean. With this discovery, the physical remains of an antique academic institution and perhaps the oldest "university" in the world have come to light.”