Product Description

Alexandria has had a checkered history since its foundation by Alexander the Great in 331 B.C. From its glorious days as the intellectual center of the Hellenistic and early Christian world, it declined into a near-forgotten backwater with a population of only a few thousand at the time of the French invasion of 1798. Renewed prosperity and commercial growth came in the nineteenth century under Muhammad 'Ali. Today it is Egypt's second city and the favorite summer resort of millions of Egyptians. In this guide to one of the world's great cities, Michael Haag explores Alexandria's past and present in word and picture, from the ancient Pharos to the new Bibliotheca Alexandrina, from Anfushi to Montazah. He directs our curiosity not only toward the ancient monuments of the city and its fine Greco-Roman Museum and new National Museum, but also to the ambience of a more modern era, that cosmopolitan Alexandria alive with the literary echoes of Cavafy, Forster, and Durrell. Beautifully illustrated with 125 color photographs, this is a fascinating armchair tour of the pageant that is Alexandria.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #303197 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 80 pages

About the Author
Michael Haag is a London-based writer and photographer whose work has appeared in Vogue. He is the author of Alexandria: City of Memory, and he has written and photographed Alexandria Illustrated (both AUC Press, 2004).

Customer Reviews

Atmospheric journey through a magical city
Michael Haag's book of photographs and text on Alexandria, Egypt, is an atmospheric journey through a city that he has sensitively brought to life and made magical. Through his eyes you taste something of the old cosmopolitan city as it was in the the 1920s, 30s and 40s -- the city described in Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet. If you have ever wondered about that evocative city, this book will present it to you tangibly in photographs. It is a wonderful book for the armchair traveller, and also for the visitor to Alexandria today. I cannot praise it highly enough.

Alexander's dream come true.
The pictures in this book are outstanding.I was born in Egypt from Italian parents,during the golden days when so many nationalities prospered.For a very long period Alexandria was no longer an interesting place to visit or to discover.I think that the golden age has come back.The archeological discoveries,and the flow of foreigners coming into the city is making Alexander's dream come true once again.
Alexandria is practically built on top of the old city,so I would not be surprised if there were to be extraordinary discoveries in the future.Among them Alexander's mausoleum.

In 1967 and for many years afterwards Alexandria was dead in
every sense of the word.Many foreigners lost their properties and belongings and just ran away.
Many of these gorgeous properties are still there, gorgeous homes as you can see them in the pictures in this book.
El Attarin is the place to find so many antiques,which in New York would be sold for thousands of dollars.

You can also learn and read about the different influences of cultures that created Alexandria.I strongly feel that this is the best book on Alexandria I have seen so far.

It shows the Old and New Alexandria,its old history and today as it is developping.

Very well done and very well written.

stunning
I love the vivid pictures in this book! It's short on text but you could easily spend many happy hours poring over Alexandria's grand ports, hotels and public squares.