One
of the best ways of discovering Alexandria is by tram. The main
Ramlah
line which is also the oldest, leaves from Maydan Sa`d
Zaghluwl
(square) in the city center and follows a route which
runs more or less parallel to the "Korniysh" (Corniche).
It was originally a railway line, built and operated by a British company
commissioned by khidiwiy (Khedive) Isma`iyl to service
various coastal towns and villages scattered among the dunes from which
the name "Ramlah" is derived. At the time the area to the east "al-Raml
"sand had a population of at most five hundred inhabitants,
but the beauty of the site and the reputedly therapeutic value of the climate
soon encouraged prominent Alexandrians to establish their summer residences
there.
Over
the years the Ramlah suburb became a permanent residential district
and the population increased to such an extent that today only a few of
the old villas have survived the high-rise construction of the last few
decades.
The
observant visitor will, however, notice the few surviving remnants of extravagant
early 20th-century architecture. The Ramlah line opened in 1863
and
operated for the first year with horsedrawn carriages. The following year
steam engines were introduced. The terminus was on the present site of
the Bulkeley Station, and there were departures every hour. In
1868
the line was extended to Schutz Station, and, twenty years later,
to San Stefano; in 1891 new stations
Tharwat Pasha,
Laurens, Saraya were added. In 1904 the line was electrified
and a new branch line was constructed to create a more direct link between
Bulkeley
and San Stefano. Finally the line was extended in
1910 to
Victoria
Station, which is now the terminus.
Ramlah
Station the tram terminus is in an extremely busy part of the city,
invaded from dawn until dusk by a host of street vendors and small craftsmen
such as the traditional shoe-shiners. Near the present site of the station
and opposite the modem Hotel "Metropole", the CAESAREUM once
stood, a sumptuous temple built by Cleopatra for Mark Anthony
and completed, after their double suicide, by Octavian (Augustus),
who dedicated it during his lifetime to imperial worship. In A.D. 356
the temple was sacked by Constantine II, and razed to the ground
.
It
was here that the famous mathematician Hypatia was killed by being
stoned to death in 415 A.D. Her murder marks the height of the persecution
of nonbelievers in Alexandria.
Nearby
was the location of the deceptively named "Cleopatra's Needles'
that decorated the temple, and which remained in Alexandria until they
were transported to London's Embankment (in 1877) and New
York's Central Park (in 1879), where they still stand. The pink
Aswan granite "needles" had originally been
erected in front of the temple of Heliopolis in Cairo
by Thutmose III before being transported to Alexandria
on
the orders of Julius Caesar.
Stations:
"Mazariytah" the name of the first station on the tram line, is
a corruption of "lazaretto" (built nearby by Muhammad
`Aliy in 1831 and subsequently transferred to the other
end of the city). En route to the station the line passes the Ibrahiym
al-Qa'id Mosque, which was built in 1951 by Mario Rossi.
Al-Shatbiy
named after a Muslim suwfiy who died in 1272, is situated
outside the old city walls. It is here that the cemeteries for members
of the city's non-Muslim faiths (the main Muslim cemetery is at Bab
Sidra)
can be found, which were built in the mid-19th century near an ancient
necropolis.
Al-Ibrahiymiyah
services a district constructed on agricultural land belonging to ‘Amiyr
(Prince) Ibrahyim Ahmad, which was sold off in lots
in 1888 by a real estate company Sporting is named after the 100 faddan/acres
Sporting
Club, founded in 1889, and still remains one of the city's
more fashionable districts. Siydiy Gabir is the name not
only of the tram station, but also of the railway station on the
main Alexandria-Cairo line and the district surrounding the nearby
mausoleum of Siydiy Gabir (1145-1217), who was an Andalusian
traveler. The tramline forks after Mustafa Pasha and
Bukeley
stations, merges again at
San Stefano. The more direct, northern
line passes through Saba Pasha,
Glymenopoulos Ziziniyah,
Laurens, Saraya and finally to
Siydiy Bishr
.
Siydiy
Bishr
is renowned for its unspoiled beaches, and it was here
that the rernains, of the 2nd-century Ra's al-Suwdah
temple were discovered in 1936. Victoria was named after
Victoria
College, founded the British in 1899. The college was renamed
the aI-Nasr College after the Suez Crisis. In 1909
it
moved its premises to the far end of the Ramlah
line, but only after
it had managed to ensure that the line would be extented to one of
its entrances.
Although
committees were often formed to give "Egyptian" names to
all the stations on this line, most of them are still known by their original
names, which they were located, evoking the topography and cosmopolitanism
of Alexandria.
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