In many cities, spring marks the beginning of a slower season, when people can relax and start to take life easy again, when homes empty out as people go away on holidays. For residents of Alexandria, Egypt’s second largest city, the opposite is the case. While the people of Cairo prepare to leave their city for cooler and quieter areas, the residents of Alexandria prepare for a huge influx of people, brought to the city by its temperate climate, beautiful scenery, and many attractions.
Since its founding in 331 BC by Alexander the Great, Alexandria’s fortunes have declined and grown again. For centuries a centre of learning and culture, Alexandria was well known in the Greco-Roman world for its famous library and impressive lighthouse. These ancient marvels disappeared centuries ago, broken down by earthquakes and damaged by wars. As the city’s historical records indicate, the city gradually decreased in importance until finally it was little more than a fishing village. In the last two centuries, however, Alexandria has once more become an important part of Egyptian life, both in commerce and tourism. Now the city is flourishing once again.
The coming of spring brings warmer weather and new plant growth to Alexandria. Although weather statistics show that the temperature can reach 30 degrees Celsius in summer in Alexandria, uncomfortably warm when combined with high humidity, spring is generally mild in this Mediterranean city. Alexandria receives about 200 millimeters of rain every year, a huge amount in a country where some regions have had no rain in years. Average temperatures are generally similar to Cairo’s, with spring temperatures generally between 15 and 20 degrees Celsius, but the cooling effect of the sea keeps Alexandria from experiencing many of the scorching temperatures of the capital city.
With spring comes a new season of growth for the foliage of Alexandria. Although the city sometimes seems to be a mass of concrete and steel, the trees lining many of the streets add life to the city. On the seaside walkway, the corniche, the waves crash into the rocks on one side while the flowers still bloom along the sidewalks. Although many of the flowers die before the heat of summer comes, they provide a welcome splash of color in spring.
Spring in Alexandria is in many ways the calm before the storm. Although the streets may be crowded with visitors from Cairo and around the world on holidays like Easter and Sham el Nessim (“sniffing the breezes”), the city is as quiet as a metropolis of 5 or 6 million people can be before that time comes. However, with its many attractions, including a new library, built only in the past decade to commemorate the ancient one, Alexandria is never without visitors. Whatever the season, Egypt’s famous coastal city is worth seeing.
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