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FROM THE SQUARE TO MEX.
ROUTE:—By the Rue des Soeurs and Gabbari, taking the Mex Tram (White
Star). The journey is uncomfortable and uninspiring, but Mex is
pleasant.
We start from the south side of the Square, down the long Rue des
Soeurs, which takes its name from the Roman Catholic Convent and School
near its entrance. The surroundings become squalid.
Right of Rue des Soeurs:—Rue Behari Bey leads to the mound of
_Kom-el-Nadoura_, which rises abruptly out of mean streets. Its history
before the arrival of Napoleon (1798 p. 86) is unknown. His engineer
Cafarelli fortified it for him, and it held back the British advance in
1801, (p. 88). The entrance is on the south side, through a doorway by a
winding path fringed with prickly pear and pepper trees. The summit—104
feet above the sea—is now used as a signalling station and observatory
under the Ports and Lights Administration. Interesting set of
instruments, and fine view of harbour and city. At the N.N.W. corner are
some remains of Cafarelli’s masonry.—Outside the Fort, in the Rue
Babel-Akhdar (Section II) is the Gold and Silver Bazaar.
Left of Rue des Soeurs is the Genenah, a curious rabbit warren.
The tram passes down Rue Ibrahim Premier. To the right, close to the
docks, in the Rue Karam, is a Franciscan church and school. They are
modern and of no interest, but stand on a site that was important
historically. Here was the _Church of St. Theonas_ (p. 46) and the early
palace of the bishops. Here St. Athanasius was brought up. The Arabs
(641) incorporated what they found into a fine Mosque, called the Mosque
of the Seventy (from some fallacious connection with the Septuagint) or
the Mosque of the 1000 Columns. It was on the lines of the Mosque of Ibn
Touloun at Cairo; the Rue Karam bisects its area; its prayer niche faced
south west. It was standing in a ruined condition when the French came,
and was turned into artillery barracks.
Just before the tram reaches the Canal we pass, right, the cotton
exchange of Minet-el-Bassal. A visit—introduction necessary—is
interesting. The Exchange is round a pleasant courtyard, with a fountain
in the midst. Samples are exhibited. The whole neighbourhood is given up
to this, the main industry, of Alexandria; warehouses; picturesque
wooded machinery for cleaning the cotton and pressing it into bales; in
the season, the streets are slippery with greasy fluff.
The Mahmoudieh Canal (p. 91) is now crossed. The banks have here their
original stone casings and double descents, recalling the commercial
enterprise of Mohammed Ali. A walk along the banks to the left is dirty
but attractive; it can terminate at the Kom es Chogafa Catacombs
(Section III). Right, the Canal enters the Western Harbour.
Then comes the district of Gabbari, called after a sheikh of that name.
Here was the Western Cemetery of the Ancient City; the finds have been
taken to the Museum (Room 14). Nothing interesting until Mex.
_Mex_, once a fishing village, might have become a prosperous suburb of
Alexandria, like Ramleh. But the intervening slums have choked access to
it. It lies midway on the big curve of the Western Harbour, the waters
of Lake Mariout being close behind. There is a good pier, with a wooden
causeway that leads on to a distant rock. The little sea front has
rather a Neapolitan air.
Beyond Mex are the limestone quarries that provided the stone for the
ancient and the modern towns. They are cut in the ridge that here
separates lake and sea.
The village of Dekhela lies further along the beach. Fine walk from it
to Amrieh (Section VIII). Beyond it the desert begins, strewn with
fragments of antique pottery.
Beyond Dekhela, at the western point of the Harbour: _Fort Agame_. A
strategic point in Napoleonic times (p. 86) and in the Bombardment of
Alexandria (p. 94). Magnificent bathing. Just off the Fort is _Marabout
Island_, so called from the tomb of a local saint which stands here,
adorned with votive models of boats. Makrizi (writing in the 14th cent.)
says that men lived longer on Marabout Island than any where else in the
world, but no one at all lives here now. From it extends the chain of
reefs that close the entrance of the Western Harbour (p. 6).—It is easy
to visit this district from Alexandria by sailing boat, but not easy to
get back again in the evening when the wind drops.
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