- Mrs. Colonel Elwood, 1830 -
The City of
Alexandria
I saw the sun rise over a garden of date-trees and as their
light feathery tops waved and danced in the morning beams… I
believed myself to be actually in Africa, for hitherto I could
have fancied I had been in a dream… there stood the obelisk
which bears the name of that cunning gipsy, who queened it so
bravely over the lords of the world, and for the sake of whose
beaux yeux an empire was lost by the love-stricken Antony…
Founded in 1892, the Graeco—Roman Museum of Alexandria has already celebrated its centenary. Its vast collection, gathered together over these hundred years, is the product of donations from wealthy Alexandrians as well as of excavations led by successive directors of the institution, both within the town and in its environs. Certain other objects have come from the Organization of Antiquities at Cairo (particularly those of the Pharaonic period) and from various digs undertaken at the beginning of the century in The Fayoum and at Benhasa (Middle Egypt). Housed within an historic building whose beautiful neo-classical facade of six columns and pediment bears the large Greek inscription, ‘MOYXEION’, the Museum consists of 27 halls and an attractive garden, which offer an excellent introduction to the Greek and Roman art of Egypt.
