We have only gone on a few walks around the hotel in the last few days. We slept in, got our wash done, had a spa day. booked multiple places in Japan and did other trip planning. We booked a driver to take us multiple places for four hours. At noon we were off to the Alexandria Catacombs. It was discovered by a donkey and his cart falling into part of the entrance area. Excavations began in 1892 and the main tomb was finally discovered in 1900. These catacombs date as far back as the 1st century CE and were used until the mid 4th century. These tombs are unique as they combine Greek, Roman and Egyptian artistic styles. We headed down via the spiral staircase to the first level. The first level did not have much so we headed to the second level where we hit the jackpot. Many large open areas and the most decorated of all the tombs. We were waiting for a big group to vacate the decorated tomb when the lights went out. It was suddenly very dark and luckily we had out phones to light up our path. The ceilings were low so we had to watch out for headbangers, At the same time the steps were very uneven so it was not an easy go. Lesl.ie and I tried to take pictures with one of holding the phone on flashlight mode and the other holding the camera. The lights did not come back on so we headed back up to the surface
WTF Alexandria, this is a street!
A fine church on the ride
Roadside market
Minarets
A horse cart with tomatoes
The tuk tuks are fully decorated
Sarcophagi
The headless sphynx's
A sundial
It ain't heavy, its my very very old brother
This lion must have spouted water at some time
This crypt was found in 1957 while they were digging the foundations to a new buiulding
The interior fresco paintings were well preserved but the crypt was in bad shape
Rather than try to dig out the entire crypt they created a replica
The fresco paintings were place inside the replica crypt
Snake!
These paintings are the Falcon Horus wearing the crown of the unified upper and lower kingdoms
The top cap to the spiral staircase
Perhaps the older entrance
The central shaft where the bodies could be lowered
Getting lower
A very large opening with multiple niches
The roof of the room is vaulted
The square bits along the top look like Greek crown molding
Shell motif from the Romans
Small openings took us through to even larger openings. It looks like a Roman pediment
This area was larger than the rest
The bricks looked pretty new but the crypts were very old
Arches and stonework were most likely added for extra support
An older section
Little did we know what to expect
The area was the site of the horse racing stadium so of course there were horse bones
Ventilation?
There were half a dozen tours that came through
Some paintings on the wall
A very large section
A rather noisy fan bringing in fresh air to keep us all alive. It was very quiet when the power went out
Using the phone to take some pictures was not ideal
It is creepy they way they are illuminated
Nice beard on the snake
Birds for heads!
Very fancy columns
The base of the column
Spooky!
The whole snake
The Bull
Horus the bird head is here
The dead person and the jackal headed god Anubis
So many deities
A very regular set of openings
The map up on the topside
The sphynx who lost his head
The gate out
