El Tugareya on The Corniche

Alexandria is a Mediterranean Port City in Egypt. The city was founded by Alexander the Great _Al Iskendariyya_ in 331BC. During the Hellenistic period it was home to the Pharos lighthouse ranking among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and its Great Library was considered the archive of ancient knowledge. Cleopatra and Marc Antonius fell in love here and both died on it's shore.
Alas the Pharos collapsed and the Great Library was torched, part of the ancient city disappeared under the sea. Another part disappeared under the modern city, so there are few visible remains of its glorious past. The city was in decline.
Napoleon's invasion in 1798 was the turning point in Alexandria's fortune, recognising its strategic importance. In the 19th century Alexandria became one of the Mediterranean's busiest ports and attracted a cosmopolitan mix of people, including Turkish and Egyptian traders, Greeks, Jews, Italians amongst others. Alexandria took on a mythical quality and attracted intellectuals, writers and poets.
In 1952 in an anti-colonial pro-Arab wave provoked by Colonel Nasser, Alexandria lost it's cosmopolitan community, who fled in the 50's. The remaining non-Egyptians were forced out a few years later during the Suez Crisis, when Nasser confiscated foreign properties and nationalised many foreign-owned businesses.
Today the library is rebuild in the sun-shaped ultra modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina on the once-grant seafront Corniche as a symbol of the city's latest reincarnation as Egypts cultural capital.
The famous corniche is 25Km long and a very pleasant walk between the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and Fort Qaitbey, the place where the famous Pharos once stood. Grand Old world cafes, restaurants and patisseries are facing the seafront. The city still has a very cosmopolitan feel.