Now, if you, like me, think that looks an awful lot like a fort instead of a lighthouse, you'd be right. That's Fort Qaitbey, which was built on top of the ruins of the Lighthouse of Alexandria, which was destroyed by a series of earthquakes back around 1300AD. But this is what it probably looked like...
Outside of the Giza Pyramids, it was the tallest building in the world for its entire life.The next stop was the New Library of Alexandria, which was built close to where the original Library of Alexandria stood. Unlike the Lighthouse, I knew going in that the library was destroyed in a fire, and that virtually everything in it was lost. Whether it was by Caesar or some other battle is apparently still up for debate, but the new library is incredible. Finished in 2002, it has room for 8 million volumes, has a 70,000 square foot reading room that has multiple tiers and natural lighting, and a number of museums.
We toured the library and then had a gorgeous lunch at the Fish Market. This might have marked my first meal that was not a Mixed Grill since my arrival in Cairo, and it was a welcome change. The views weren't too shabby either...
After lunch we met with the Entrepreneurship Business Forum. Seated at a rather formal round table, complete with a microphone system, we met with a number of local business owners who had recently started businesses and Egypt. It was a very enlightening conversation, from which I took away a few thoughts. The first was that because Egypt is a little late to the game in globalization enterprises, it enjoys what has become a unique advantage in cost and labor - the result of which being that almost any idea put forward by the group was deemed a possibility by the panel. (Well, not counting the idea to organize the millions of street vendors selling hand soap and paper towels. Tough to figure the profit angle on that one, or so said the panel). In addition, the government is offering huge monetary advantages to companies who open offices in Egypt, as evidenced by the Smart Village. So with so many opportunities and so much monetary aide, what's the catch? First, individuals put themselves at great risk when opening businesses in Egypt due to outdated bankruptcy and business laws - so you'd better be, or at least have the backing of, a large cash-heavy company that could afford to buy their way out of a bad situation. In addition, the market of Egypt is tough to figure out. One panel representative scoffed at the idea of a Walmart coming to Cairo and noted a failed effort by a European company to back up the claim. The next panel member noted a successful similar venture and found the idea extremely likely to succeed. With no credit system in place, extremely high illiteracy rates, and unique cultural issues for working women, there are a number of landmines that must be avoided. This backed up the earlier comments by Vodafone from our previous visit.
We headed out for a few quick stops after the meeting, including the Roman Ampitheatre and the Catacombs. The ampitheatre was very cool, complete with numbered seats and rows that seated up to a possible 100,000 people.
We also visited the Catacombs, which unfortunately didn't allow cameras. Probably one of the coolest places we saw in Alexandria, we descended a circular staircase into a multi-room tomb that was discovered by accident in 1900. The bottom floor, and some of the 2nd as well, were submerged, but exploring what was above water felt just like an Indiana Jones movie. I snagged a picture off the web of the main entry way of the tomb for an idea of what they were like.
We then headed home, where I unfortunately became the unofficial 12th member of our group to become sick...
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