Alexandria Travel Guide: Egypt's Mediterranean City (2026)

Alexandria is the Egypt that faces the other way. Founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC and once the intellectual capital of the ancient world, home to the legendary Great Library and the Pharos Lighthouse, today's "Alex" trades desert for sea spray and pharaonic temples for Greco-Roman ruins and faded Belle Epoque grandeur. It is an easy day trip from Cairo and a genuine change of register, the one Egyptian city where the Mediterranean, not the Nile, sets the mood. See it on the interactive map.

Bibliotheca Alexandrina

The city's must-see is a deliberate act of revival. Opened in 2002 beside the eastern harbour, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a vast tilted glass-and-granite disc, its outer skin carved with the scripts of the world, designed to evoke a second sun rising from the sea and to reclaim the spirit of the lost ancient library. Inside, the cascading main reading room seats thousands across eleven terraced levels, and there are antiquities, manuscript and science museums, plus a planetarium. Even if you never open a book, the architecture alone justifies the visit.

Qaitbay Citadel and the ghost of the Lighthouse

On the tip of the eastern harbour stands the Citadel of Qaitbay, a compact 15th-century fort built in 1477 on the exact spot, and partly from the tumbled limestone, of the Pharos of Alexandria, the ancient Lighthouse and one of the Seven Wonders of the World, finally toppled by medieval earthquakes. The seafront walk out to it, past fishermen and spray, is the most Mediterranean thing you will do in Egypt, and the views back over the curving Corniche are superb at golden hour.

Roman Alexandria underground

The city's classical layer is best felt below ground at the Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa, a haunting multi-level 2nd-century AD necropolis where Egyptian gods and Roman togas share the same carved walls, reached by a spiral staircase that winds around a central shaft once used to lower the dead. Nearby stand the Roman Amphitheatre at Kom el-Dikka, the only one of its kind in Egypt, and Pompey's Pillar, a lone red-granite column that once marked a great temple to Serapis.

Palaces, gardens and Belle Epoque charm

Alexandria's real pleasure is its atmosphere of romantic decline. Stroll the Montazah Palace gardens above the sea, walk the long seafront Corniche, and take coffee in a faded grand cafe like the century-old Trianon or Delices. This is the cosmopolitan, Greek-and-Italian-flecked city that the poet Cavafy and the novelist Lawrence Durrell immortalised; Cavafy's apartment is now a small, moving museum, and the secondhand bookstalls still carry the ghost of literary Alexandria.

Where and what to eat

This is Egypt's seafood capital. In the Anfoushi district near the citadel you can pick your fish from the catch of the day and have it grilled, and the city's old fish restaurants serve sayadeya (spiced fish with rice) and fresh prawns at a fraction of European prices. Finish with a sweet from a historic patisserie.

Practical tips

Alexandria is about 2.5 to 3 hours from Cairo, with frequent comfortable trains (the fastest option) and easy car transfers. A long day trip covers the highlights; an overnight lets you slow down for the seafood and the cafes. It is pleasant most of the year, busiest during the Egyptian summer holidays, and atmospheric (if wet and windy) in winter. Pair it with a Cairo stay, see the Cairo travel guide, and slot it into a longer trip via the Egypt Travel Guide 2026 or the 14-day itinerary.