Choosing Alexandria

I suppose I should share why I chose to go to Alexandria in the first place! When researching shipwrecks and submerged ruins when planning my application, I came across Cleopatra’s sunken city. In a series of earthquakes, part of Alexandria sank into the harbor. The Lighthouse of Alexandria, which is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and a section of the ancient city  are now submerged in the Mediterranean. While diving these ruins sounded fantastic, I knew I needed to find more than just cool ruins to justify going to Alexandria for my project. Sure, getting to dive is an awesome part of my project, but I also wanted some sort of museum or project to study while there in order to learn how the ruins are being protected and promoted in the community. I read online about a potential underwater museum being built at these ruins. Not a dive park, with signs underwater, but a full museum with large glass tubes through which visitors would walk. How fascinating! I knew there would be no museum when I visited, but it would be great to learn about the planning and see how the underwater heritage is currently being portrayed in the city. 

When I first planned out my Knafel Fellowship year, I intended to stay in each place for 2 months at a time, with maybe a bit of traveling around the country the last few weeks just for fun. But after spending July and August in Sweden, I realized that I really didn’t need two full months in one place. Also, a lot of the countries to which I am going have underwater heritage in different regions. So I decided to spend September in Alexandria. For October, I would go to the Red Sea to dive a few wrecks (and also do some reef-dives while I’m there) and then travel around to see ancient tombs and temples with my mom when she visited. I couldn’t go to Egypt without seeing the pyramids! I’ve now split up my time in similar ways for my other countries. In Turkey, I spent a month in Bodrum, most of December in Istanbul, and I’m going to travel around a little at the end of December before going to South Africa. I think this system works well, as I can learn even more by looking at different cities. It also gives me time to explore these countries above-land a bit, since I am here anyway! 

~Kristine