Alexandria

Why go

A library rebuilt as an argument — the Bibliotheca Alexandrina of 2002, on the site of the ancient one. Cavafy's city — the Greek poet of Alexandria lived and worked here, and his flat is a museum. Layers under the streets — Greco-Roman catacombs, a Roman theatre and Ptolemaic remains under the modern city. A Mediterranean corniche — twenty kilometres of seafront, faded and enormous.

The character

Alexander founded the city in 331 BC, and under the Ptolemies it became the intellectual capital of the ancient world: the Library, the Museion, Euclid, Eratosthenes measuring the earth's circumference, the Septuagint translated. The lighthouse on Pharos was one of the seven wonders. Almost none of it survives above ground — earthquakes, subsidence and rebuilding took the lot, and the Ptolemaic royal quarter is now under the harbour, where divers still bring up sphinxes.

The second Alexandria was cosmopolitan and recent: Greek, Italian, Jewish, Armenian and Levantine merchants ran a cotton port from the 1860s until Nasser's nationalisations in the 1950s emptied it. Constantine Cavafy, who wrote in Greek and worked as a clerk in the irrigation department, is that city's poet, and E. M. Forster and Lawrence Durrell added to the literature. What remains is a huge, worn Egyptian city of five million with a European skeleton, a magnificent corniche and an unusually complicated relationship with its own past.

Places of character

Bibliotheca Alexandrina — a Norwegian-designed disc of granite carved with scripts, holding eight million volumes' capacity. Cavafy Museum — his flat on Rue Lepsius, kept as it was, with the icon corner and the desk. Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa — second-century tombs mixing Egyptian, Greek and Roman iconography, three levels down. Roman amphitheatre at Kom el-Dikka — with a villa of birds mosaics and lecture halls beside it. Fort Qaitbey — built on the ruins of the Pharos lighthouse, using its stone. Cecil Hotel and the corniche cafés — the remains of the cosmopolitan city, worn but standing.

The way to do it

Take the train from Cairo rather than flying — two and a half hours along the Delta. Read Cavafy first; two poems are enough to change the walk. See the catacombs early. And spend an evening simply on the corniche, which is where the city actually is.

One perfect day

Coffee, then the catacombs at opening, descending three levels past the banquet chamber to the tombs. Kom el-Dikka's amphitheatre next, ten minutes away. Late morning at the Bibliotheca — the reading room is one of the great modern interiors. Seafood lunch at the fish market where you pick and they cook. Afternoon at the Cavafy flat, small and quiet, then Fort Qaitbey on its spit with the harbour behind. Sunset along the corniche with the whole city walking. Dinner late, and a coffee at a café that has been open since the 1920s.

Grand hotels

Cecil Hotel — 1929 on Saad Zaghloul Square; Durrell put it in the Quartet and Churchill stayed. Steigenberger Cecil — the same building under modern management, which is the honest way to describe it.

When to go

Best expression: April to June and September to November — warm, clear, and the sea breeze working. Consider: winter, mild and empty, though the Mediterranean storms can be dramatic. Avoid if possible: August, humid and crowded with Egyptian holidaymakers.

The frame

Ideal stay 2 nights · Minimum 1 night · Best arrival train from Cairo, 2h30 · Airport HBE, 45 km, or via Cairo · Walkability the corniche and centre yes; the rest by taxi · Best without a car yes