We flew back to the Marriott Cairo for one night and a farewell dinner for six of our party. We had time on our arrival for a tour of houses of worship in Old Cairo. In the Hanging Church our lessons in Coptic Christianity, which includes 20% of the Egyptian population. Caroline, our Tour Leader is a Coptic Christian. “Coptic” means Egyptian. The Hanging Church is built over the foundation of a temple and has no foundation of its own. From there we moved onto the Ben Ezra Synagogue, now an  Egyptian Antiquarian site. It’s major claims to fame are its location where Moses was found in his basket in the Nile and the contents of the geniza which provides a rich documented history of the Jews up until  the first World War. (a geniza is a storage place for documents and books containing the name of G-d which are no longer usable). 

The next morning the rest of us were up and on the bus by 9 to head to Alexandria. The ride of about 3 1/2 hours was broken up by a stop at the Bishoy Monastery

which has many claims to fame ranging from its age to the body of Saint Bishoy which is in its casket in a totally uncorrupted state, as we were told. Its a long story but some time in the 4th century Saint Bishoy unknowingly carried Jesus up a long steep hill. Also two recent Egyptian Popes rose from the among the monks. The most recent died 12 years ago. There have been 118 such popes.

Arrival in Alexandria at the Steigenberger Cecil Hotel was in time to refresh with showers and relax a bit before Dinner.  Our room has a plaque reading Mohamed Ali Clay on the door and a picture of Mohamed Ali in the room, no further information.

 This is another of the classic old hotels with open cage elevators and rooms that open on to balconies over the Mediterranean. Fortunately the windows have been modernized and do a good job of keeping out the street noise. A late departure gave us a relief form the busy touring schedule. Our two stops were the Jewelry Museum where the wealth of the King Farouk and his royal predecessors is on display. The building housing the display is itself a lavish display of wealth and the jewelry and other articles on display  speak to a gilded age of royal wealth beyond any understandable bounds. Here is a link to several pictures  The last stop of the day, following lunch, was the Alexandria Library. This is not the famous library that was burned down centuries ago, this was completed 2002. It is near where scholars think the original was located. Rather than my raving on about this institution here is the English language version of the website be sure to click on the photo gallery link to view this exquisite complex.