Alexandria National Museum

Getting to the Museum

The first place I visited for my project in Egypt was the Alexandria National Museum. Getting to the museum was a bit of an adventure. I decided to take a cab from my apartment, since—with a little bit of haggling—it is relatively cheap to get into the city in a taxi. I told the driver I wanted to go to the Alexandria National Museum, and finally he said, “mouseion?” and I nodded. I figured that since it is called the Alexandria National Museum, it would be the ‘museum’ in the city. Half an hour later, he dropped me off in front of a building covered with scaffolding and with the word ‘MOYZEION’ written across the top in Greek. I tried to explain this was not the right place, and I even showed him the picture in the guide book, but clearly he didn’t understand what I meant and I couldn’t explain where I wanted to go. This was my first adventure into the city, so I did not know the neighborhoods. I got out of the cab, paid, and tried to figure out where I was. I realized quickly that this was the Greco-Roman museum, which was closed for renovations. It was on a map in my guidebook, but the Alexandria National Museum was on a different map, so I couldn’t figure out how to get from one to the other. I wandered until I found a main road and decided to hail a cab to take me to the correct museum, wherever it was. If the driver didn’t know, I would try a different taxi. Thankfully, the first one I hailed had another person in the passenger seat (taxis will often pick up more than one fare at once) who explained to the driver where I wanted to go. When I asked how much he gave me a very, very low number, which made me realize I probably was really close to the museum. However, I paid and let him drop me off right in front of the museum. After that, I knew how the two maps connected! Despite the short period of time of being stranded in Alexandria and not knowing where I was, I successfully made it to the museum.

The Collections

The Alexandria National Museum had an excellent collection. It is housed in an old Italian mansion and organized by different eras in Alexandrian history. In the basement were ancient Egyptian artifacts from the Pharaonic times, on the main floor were Greco-Roman things, and upstairs held sections for Islamic art and other pieces from the past two millennia. Also on the main floor was a collection of submerged antiquities. This room held a few heads of statues, some jewelry, and other small pieces found during some early excavations in the harbor. While the pieces themselves were not the most spectacular from the marine archaeological excavations in Alexandria, I was pleased that these underwater artifacts had their own space in the city’s main historical museum. This shows that Alexandria values its underwater antiquities as an important section of the city’s historic treasures.

Underwater Antiquities Collection 

The room had large pictures from the excavations on the wall. The lighting was darker than in other rooms and had a blue tint to it. By trying to give the room an underwater atmosphere, the space invites visitors to imagine these pieces being discovered and raised. I found this focus on the excavation exciting. Obviously the statue head of a Roman emperor was originally displayed above ground. It only ended up underwater because of an earthquake which submerged part of the ancient city. Other statues in the museum aren’t shown surrounded by the dirt from which they were dug. I was impressed that they were intentionally exposing visitors not only to the history of these antiquities, but also to the process of underwater archaeology.

The rest of the museum was also fascinating, and it was a great history lesson on Alexandria. And don’t worry, getting home was much less of an adventure than finding the museum!

~Kristine