While Cairo is the beating heart of Egypt’s Pharaonic and Islamic grandeur, Alexandria is its intellectual and cosmopolitan soul. Known affectionately as the “Pearl of the Mediterranean,” Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BCE to be the ultimate link between the Nile Valley and the Hellenic world. For nearly a millennium, it served as the capital of Egypt, a city where Cleopatra VII charmed emperors and where the ancient world’s greatest minds—from Euclid to Eratosthenes—pushed the boundaries of human knowledge.
A day trip from Cairo to Alexandria is more than a geographic shift from the desert to the coast; it is a temporal journey into a unique “Middle Age” of Egyptian history. Here, the rigid lines of Ancient Egyptian art softened into the fluid grace of Greco-Roman sculpture. This Private Odyssey is designed for the discerning traveler who seeks to peel back the layers of a city that once housed the legendary Pharos Lighthouse and the Great Library—two wonders of the world that still haunt the modern skyline.
As you leave the bustle of Cairo behind, the air begins to change, carrying the salt and breeze of the Mediterranean. You are following the path of conquerors, scholars, and poets. Welcome to Alexandria: a city with its back to the desert and its face turned eternally toward the sea.
