Get in amongst the dead! (Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa (Alexandria, Egypt))

Member Name: dangaroo

Product:	Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa (Alexandria, Egypt)
Date:	01/08/09 (34 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Spooky underground alleys, impressive archaelogical site, cheap

Disadvantages: Bit tricky to find

Using a lonelyplanet map it took us a long time to find the Catacombs of Kom el-shoqafa, although obvious when you get there, we'd taken a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in a pretty squalid part of Alexandria. Fortunately, I find that the more squalid the neighbourhood, the more helpful people tend to be in Egypt and it was no time at all before we were shown the way out, strangely enough the child not even insisting on any backsheesh.

The catacombs of Kom El-Shoqafa are considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages and tend to cover Egyptian, Roman and Hellenic architectural styles and time periods. It is thought that from the 4th century AD it was not used until 1900 when a donkey apparently fell down a shaft leading to it and led to its discovery.

Initially it is thought to have been designed as a burial ground for just one family but ended up housing a lot more bodies and no one really seems to know why. It's not all just nice deaths down here as perhaps the most famous sarcophagi houses the bodies of people who were ordered to be massacred by Caracalla, whether these are the leading citizens of the time who had annoyed him by criticising his claims of killing his brother Geta in self-defense or whether they are bodies from the battle that followed, it remains to be seen.

The darkly lit tunnels that lead to tombs where both people and animals are buried, is pretty spooky, the catacombs are impressive and we got there just before it closed and wanted to get our value for money and ended up being followed by a soldier with a gun who was trying to usher us out but kept on loosing us in the nooks and crannies (we of course just wanted to explore it a bit more and were pretending to have not seen him!). Oh, the added fun!

Due to the fact that no one else was down in the catacombs, it was pretty much the only archaelogical site that had an air of Indiana Jones adventure about it and I'd definitely recommend a little visit because it's pleasantly different to the tourist filled haunts along the Nile.

Summary: Definitely worth going