Egypt · Mediterranean Coast
Alexandria
The city Alexander founded and Cleopatra ruled, now a faded, sea-sprayed Mediterranean port whose ancient wonders lie mostly underwater.
Alexander the Great founded it and Cleopatra ruled from it, but almost none of that city stands above ground: the lighthouse lies in the harbour and the ancient library is gone. What remains is a long, salt-worn Mediterranean corniche, the Citadel of Qaitbay built on the lighthouse's foundations, Roman catacombs and a marble theatre, and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a modern library raised as the old one's successor. Egypt's second city is slower, breezier and more seaward-looking than Cairo, with belle-epoque cafes and some of the best seafood in the country.
Suggested stay
2–3 days
Language
Arabic
Currency
EGP
Timezone
UTC+3
Why you'll love Alexandria
The corniche a seafront road curving around the bays the length of the city, best walked at dusk when everyone comes out to the sea wall
Ancient layers Roman catacombs, a marble theatre and Pompey's Pillar, the fragments of the Ptolemaic capital that survived above ground
Seafood choose your fish from the ice by weight and have it grilled or baked with rice in a port that still eats from its own sea
Cafe culture belle-epoque coffeehouses and Greek patisseries left over from the cosmopolitan century when the city looked to Europe
Best time to visit
all year
18-31° days
31.199° N, 29.895° E
UTC+3 · Africa/Cairo
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Weather & when to go to Alexandria
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best all year
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Alexandria
No bad season. Winter stays mild and brings the year's only rain in short, blustery bursts that throw spray over the corniche, while summer is when Cairenes pour in to escape the heat, so city beaches and seafront hotels are at their most crowded, especially over the Eid holidays.
Top things to do in Alexandria
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Citadel of Qaitbay - the fort on the lighthouse site
history 👍 PopularA fifteenth-century Mamluk fortress at the tip of the Eastern Harbour, built partly from the fallen stones of the Pharos lighthouse. Walk the ramparts for the view back along the corniche, with waves breaking on the rocks below.
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Bibliotheca Alexandrina - the library reborn
culture arts history 👍 PopularA vast tilted disc of a building on the Eastern Harbour, its granite outer wall carved with letters from scripts around the world. Inside, the reading room steps down in terraces, with small antiquities and manuscript museums and a planetarium alongside.
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Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa - Egyptian gods in Roman dress
history ⭐ Highly recommendedSecond-century tombs cut several levels into the rock, reached down a spiral stair around a shaft once used to lower the dead. The central tomb shows Anubis and other Egyptian gods dressed as Roman soldiers, the city's mixed culture carved in stone.
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Kom el-Dikka - the Roman theatre in the city centre
historyA small horseshoe of white marble tiers uncovered under a downtown hill, beside the remains of baths, lecture halls and the Villa of the Birds with its floor mosaics. Compact, and an easy walk from Raml Station.
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Pompey's Pillar - the column on the Serapeum hill
historyA single granite column, raised for the emperor Diocletian and misnamed by later travellers, standing on the site of the Serapeum temple with a pair of sphinxes and underground galleries around it. Combine it with the catacombs nearby.
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Montaza Palace Gardens - royal grounds on the eastern bays
scenic 👍 PopularThe last king's summer estate at the far eastern end of the city: pine and palm gardens, sheltered coves and a turreted palace you view from outside. Egyptian families picnic here in numbers on Fridays and holidays.
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Anfushi fish restaurants - seafood by weight
food ⭐ Highly recommendedIn the old Bahary quarter behind the Western Harbour, places like Kadoura lay the day's catch on ice: point at fish, prawns or squid, pay by weight, and it comes grilled or fried with salads, tahini and sayadeya rice.
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Raml Station cafes - Trianon, Delices and the Cavafy Museum
culture arts foodThe old centre around Saad Zaghloul Square keeps its Greek-era patisseries and grand coffeehouses, Delices and Trianon among them. A short walk away, the poet Cavafy's flat is preserved as a small museum.
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Alexandria National Museum - the city in one villa
history culture artsAn Italianate mansion holding a compact run of the city's history from pharaonic statuary through Ptolemaic, Roman and Coptic pieces to Islamic objects, including finds raised from the harbour floor.
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Abu al-Abbas al-Mursi Mosque - the saint of the harbour
culture arts historyThe city's best-loved mosque honours a thirteenth-century Andalusian Sufi saint, rebuilt in the twentieth century in cream stone with a tall minaret and arabesque domes. It stands in Anfushi, close to the fort.
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Eastern Harbour - dive the sunken royal quarter
history adventureShallow dives off Qaitbay and in the harbour pass toppled columns, sphinxes and blocks from the lighthouse and the Ptolemaic palace district. Visibility is often poor, and it is archaeology underwater rather than reef diving.
Best areas to stay in Alexandria
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Raml Station and Downtown
First-time visitors $$Belle-epoque squares, trams and old cafes
Explore hotels in Raml Station and Downtown →
Stanley
Sea views $$Bay views under the landmark bridge
Explore hotels in Stanley →
San Stefano
Resort comfort $$$Glossy seafront towers and a mall
Explore hotels in San Stefano →
Montazah
Quiet and green $$Royal gardens and sheltered family coves
Explore hotels in Montazah →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Alexandria
Getting to & around Alexandria
Getting there
Fly into HBE west of the city, or ride the train up from Cairo, which is how most visitors arrive
Flight
Borg El Arab International Airport (HBE)
Borg El Arab sits in the desert southwest of the city and is now Alexandria's only commercial airport. Taxis and ride-hail apps reach Downtown in around an hour, longer when the coast road is busy.
Train
Misr Station
Frequent trains from Cairo's Ramses Station take around 2.5-3 hr, stopping at Sidi Gaber before ending at Misr Station near the centre
Coach
Moharram Bey bus station
Coaches run from Cairo and the Delta along the desert road, with some companies also stopping near Sidi Gaber
Cruise
Alexandria Port
Mediterranean cruise ships dock at the main port on the Western Harbour, many running excursions on to Cairo and Giza
Getting around
Ride-hail
Uber and Careem are the easiest way along the corniche for most visitors: no haggling, and the driver knows the address
TBC
Taxi
Black-and-yellow taxis cruise the corniche constantly; agree the fare before you get in
TBC
Tram
One of Africa's oldest tram systems, slow and characterful; the Raml line has been slated for rebuilding, so check it is running
TBC
Walking
Good between Raml Station, the library, Kom el-Dikka and the fort; the city is long and thin, so ride between distant districts
Free
Day trips from Alexandria
Rosetta (Rashid)
Half dayOttoman merchant town
The Nile-mouth town where the Rosetta Stone was found, with a run of brick Ottoman merchant houses with carved wooden screens, the Qaitbay fort of Rashid and boats working the river.
Getting there
car | tour
About 1 hr each way by car or tour
El Alamein
Full dayWWII battlefield
The 1942 desert battlefield, with the Commonwealth war cemetery, the German and Italian memorials on the coast road and a military museum. Pair it with a swim off the white-sand North Coast beaches.
Getting there
car | tour
About 1.5-2 hr each way west by car or tour
Abu Qir
Half dayFishing bay
The bay where Nelson destroyed Napoleon's fleet in 1798, now a fishing suburb known across the city for seafood eaten on the water, and offshore the sunken ruins of Canopus and Heracleion.
Getting there
car
About 45 min east by car or taxi
Wadi el-Natrun
Full dayDesert monasteries
Four walled Coptic monasteries in a desert depression, among the oldest in Christianity and still home to working communities of monks, who often show visitors around the old churches themselves.
Getting there
car
About 1.5 hr each way by car on the desert road
A little history of Alexandria
Alexander the Great founded the city in 331 BC on a strip of land between the sea and Lake Mariout, and his general Ptolemy made it the capital of a Greek-speaking dynasty that ruled Egypt for three centuries. Under the Ptolemies it became the largest city of the Mediterranean, home to the Pharos lighthouse, one of the seven wonders, and the Library and Mouseion that drew scholars from across the known world. Cleopatra VII was the last of the line, and Rome took the city after her death in 30 BC.
The Arab conquest of 641 moved Egypt's capital inland, earthquakes brought down the lighthouse, and the city shrank to a small port. Muhammad Ali's canal to the Nile revived it in the nineteenth century, and Greeks, Italians, Jews and Levantines built the cosmopolitan city of Cavafy and Durrell. Most of those communities left after 1956, and the city has since faced its own Arab Mediterranean shore.
Alexander the Great founds the city on the coast west of the Nile delta
The Pharos lighthouse is completed on the island at the harbour mouth
Cleopatra VII dies and Egypt passes to Rome, with Alexandria as its capital
A tsunami from an earthquake off Crete floods the city and sinks part of the royal quarter
Arab armies take the city and Egypt's capital moves inland to Fustat
Sultan Qaitbay builds his fortress on the site of the fallen lighthouse
The Mahmoudiya Canal reconnects the city to the Nile and trade returns
Nasser announces the nationalisation of the Suez Canal in a speech in Alexandria
The Bibliotheca Alexandrina opens near the presumed site of the ancient library
Know before you go
Payment
Cash preferred
English
Widely spoken
Wifi
Workable
Power
Type C / F
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+20
Mobile network & SIM card
Get an eSIM before you fly
A Egypt eSIM installs in minutes and works the moment you switch off flight mode. No SIM swap, no roaming bill.
FAQs about Alexandria
▸ When is the best time to visit Alexandria?
Any month works. The sea keeps the city milder than Cairo all year: winter is cool and brings the only rain, in short blustery spells, while summer is warm and humid but breezy on the corniche. Summer is also peak domestic season, so expect busy beaches and fuller hotels then.
▸ How many days do you need in Alexandria?
Two days covers the fort, the library, the catacombs, Pompey's Pillar and Kom el-Dikka with time for a long seafood dinner. A third day lets you add Montaza, a museum and a slow evening on the corniche, or a half-day trip to Rosetta.
▸ Can you visit Alexandria as a day trip from Cairo?
You can, by early train or car, but it is a long day of about five or six hours in transit for a city that rewards an overnight. Staying a night lets you see the main sites at an easy pace and catch the corniche at dusk, which is half the point.
▸ What is left of ancient Alexandria?
Less than the name promises. The lighthouse, the library, Cleopatra's palaces and Alexander's tomb are all gone or underwater. What survives is Roman and later: the catacombs, the theatre at Kom el-Dikka, Pompey's Pillar and the finds displayed in the city's museums.
▸ Can you swim at Alexandria's beaches?
Yes, but the city beaches are crowded and conservative, and many women swim covered. Hotel and club beaches at San Stefano and Montaza are calmer. For clear water and white sand, Egyptians head west along the North Coast toward El Alamein.
▸ Is Alexandria safe for visitors?
Crime against visitors is uncommon, and the city feels less pressured than Cairo, with far less hustling at the sites. Traffic on the corniche is the everyday hazard, so cross carefully. Dress conservatively, especially away from the hotel strips, and women travelling alone should expect some street harassment.
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