Alex is a city to explore at random, it's as important to enjoy the atmosphere as it is to see the "sights". The city centre now stretches back from Midan Saad Zaghloul also known as Raml Station, it is the city's downtown square, on the seafront, where there is a statue of the twentieth century Alexandrine nationalist leader celebrating Saad Zaghloul's successful attempt to unify the Egyptian people in 1919 against the British.

This was formerly the site of the Caesareum, a magnificet begun by Cleopatra for her lover Antony and subsequently completed their enemy Octavian and dedicated to himself. Two famous obelisks ( one, known as "Cleopatra's Needle", now the Embankment in London, the other in New York's Central Park) were once here but all traces of the temple have disappeared.

 . Cleopatra's needles once stood here. The statue of the Twentieth Century Alexandrine nationalist leader celebrates Saad Zaghloul's successful attempt to unify the Egyptian people in 1919 against the British. The renovated historic Cecil Hotel can also be seen in the background.  => next