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Alexandria Green Plaza...
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Shop until you drop at the Hilton Alexandria Green Plaza hotel in the Green Plaza Mall, with 370...
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Alexandria
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Description
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Alexandria is the chief seaport in Egypt, and that country's second largest city, and the capital of the Al Iskandariyah governate.
Very little of the ancient city has survived into the present day. Much of the royal and civic quarter has sunk beneath the harbour due to earthquake subsidence, and much of the rest has been built upon in modern times. "Pompey's Pillar" is the most well-known ancient monument still standing. It is located on Alexandria's ancient acropolis — a modest hill located adjacent to the city's Arab cemetery — and was originally part of a temple colonnade. Including its pedestal it is 30m (99 feet) high; the shaft is of polished red granite, roughly three meters in diameter at the base, tapering to two and a half meters at the top. It has, however, nothing to do with Pompey, having been erected in AD 293 for Diocletian. Beneath the acropolis itself are the subterranean remains of the Serapeum, where the mysteries of the god Serapis were enacted, and whose carved wall niches are believed to have provided overflow storage space for the ancient Library.
Alexandria's catacombs, known as "Kom al Sukkfa" are a short distance southwest of the pillar, consist of a multi-level labyrinth, reached via a large spiral staircase, and featuring dozens of chambers adorned with sculpted pillars, statues, and other syncretic Romano-Egyptian religious symbols, burial niches and sarcophagi, as well as a large Roman-style banquet room, where memorial meals were conducted by relatives of the deceased.
The most extensive ancient excavation currently being conducted in Alexandria is known as "Kom al Dikka", and it has revealed the ancient city's well-preserved theatre, and the remains of its Roman-era baths.
Alexandria is the chief seaport in Egypt, and that country's second largest city, and the capital of the Al Iskandariyah governate.
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