Egypt - 11 October 2010 (2)

Theatre or Lecture Theatre?

Sunken Antiquity - Column

Sunken Antiquity - Sphinx

We drove around the site of Pompey’s Pillar on our way to our next stop.  This was a small site where several Roman ruins had been excavated.  Mona spent a lot of time at the top of the site, talking about the artefacts displayed here, which had been salvaged from under the sea.  Although the usual explanation for the sunken antiquities is that the city was inundated following an earthquake, Mona said that many of the items salvaged had been deliberately thrown into the sea to block the harbour and prevent an invasion.

Roman Baths

Villa of the Birds

She also had a unique explanation for the theatre which was found on the site.  Some excavated rooms on the site had steps at one end.  This led Mona to believe that they were classrooms and formed part of a school.  She said that the theatre, which was not very big considering the size of ancient Alexandria, was a lecture theatre, just like we have in universities today.  I have never come across a school in any Roman site I have ever visited and there were definitely none on any other site on our tour, but perhaps the presence of the famous library made Alexandria special in this respect.

A Schoolroom?

"Don't Climb the Auditoria"

When Mona had finally finished all her explanations, we were allowed down to look at the excavated ruins.  She remained at the top.  The ruins also included some Roman baths and another building called the “House of Birds”.  When we went down, there were other groups of tourists, many of whom could not understand the sign saying “don’t climb the auditoria”.  We went to look at the other buildings first.  Patience paid off and we finally had the theatre to ourselves.  Mona had said that the acoustics were really good.  Encouraged by Caroline and Barry, I tried singing again, but it was not the same as in Cyrene because there was no audience sitting on the seats.  Without an audience, I could not hit the high notes very well, so I gave up.