Alexandria amphitheatre

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Unlike some of us I tend to have to grab quick shots of things as I'm usually away with the family and can't concentrate on any one thing at a time.
I'd love to be able to have the freedom to wander at will and not have complaining kids hanging on - "Where are we going?" - "When, why, what, how?", "I'm hungry/thirsty, where's the toilet" etc, etc.

However, I'll stick up here some photos of the only Roman amphitheatre in Egypt, plus some other random stuff.
It's from the 2nd century AD and as they go, is quite small. On the site though there are some other interesting things.










On the site were several ruins of houses, even a marble Roman bath(?)



Also the ruins of an old villa where the only interesting thing was the floor mosaics, some of birds -

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I didn't see that when I was in Alexandria. It's great. The bird mosaics really make one wonder about how genteel certain aspects of Roman live may have been. I can imagine the slave scrubbing those tiles in the kitchen while another slave makes guacamole for the mead party that evening, before the visit to the vomitorium.

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Other random things from a quick visit to the city -

The city was founded by Alexander the Great and became the capital of Egypt for close on a thousand years until after the Muslim conquest where the capital moved to closer to it's present day situation in Cairo.
One of the 'main men' of Alexander was a bloke called Ptolemy who ended up ruling Egypt but not until after he'd had a long and glorious career assisting Alexander with his campaigns.
One reason Ptolemy may have been away from home for so long and readily followed Alexander was what was waiting for him at home - this is reputedly a mosaic depicting the wife of Ptolemy -

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Other random pictures from around the city -

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A drive of a few hours across the top of the Nile delta leads you to Port Said, the entrance (or exit depending on which way you are going) of the Suez canal.
Unfortunately we only had time for a quick stop for lunch and a drive through the town, but it's been noted in my diary for a return visit, then through Ismailia to Cairo.

On the northern coast is a very big lake, salt water, where the traditional boats have a flatter appearance, to cope with the shallow waters, rather than the river craft that have a deeper draft. The name for all these types of sailing boats in Egypt (for those who don't know) are called fellucas/feluccas.
Under full sail, to me, they are one of the most beautiful types of sailing boat.






One thing that caught my eye in Port Said was this 'installation'(?) just at the side of one of the roads. I need to go back one day and find out about it -

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I expect the Vomitorium was well used.