The Apis bull
Black granite statue.
Roland Unger — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Rowyda elshaer — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Sohilaali869 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Sohilaali869 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dennis G. Jarvis — CC BY-SA 2.0
Alexandria's oldest museum, founded in 1892 and opened in its present building with a columned classical facade in 1895, to show the city's antiquities from the Greek and Roman eras, when Alexandria was the Ptolemaic capital and one of the greatest cities of the ancient world. It reopened in 2023 after a closure and restoration that lasted nearly two decades. Its collection runs to tens of thousands of objects: marble and granite sculpture, the best known a black granite statue of the Apis bull, mosaics, coins, mummies, funerary portraits and small terracotta figures, telling of the blending of Egyptian and Greek civilisation in this city. Since the restoration the displays are modern and well lit, with galleries arranged by theme and period. A foreign visitor's ticket costs about four hundred Egyptian pounds according to the ministry list, and it opens from nine to five. It sits in the city centre near the Alexandria National Museum and the Kom el-Dikka theatre, and deserves two hours for lovers of ancient history.
Black granite statue.
Ptolemaic-era art.
After two decades' restoration.
Museum Street, central Alexandria, near Tariq al-Horreya
Kom el-DikkaThe largest above-ground archaeological site in Alexandria, in the heart of the 7 minutes walk
Alexandria National MuseumA museum in an elegant Italian-style mansion on Tariq al-Horreya in central Alex8 minutes walk
Bibliotheca AlexandrinaThe new Library of Alexandria, a revival of the memory of the ancient Library of14 minutes walk
Alexandria CornicheThe coastal road that curves along Alexandria's shore for some twenty kilometres14 minutes walkYes, it reopened in 2023 after a long restoration closure of nearly two decades.