Day Tour to Alexandria City from Cairo by Car

Your guide and driver collect you from your hotel lobby in a private, air-conditioned vehicle for the drive up to Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast. The early start covers the roughly 2.5-3 hour journey along the desert road, so you arrive with a full day ahead in the city.

Carved three levels deep into the bedrock nearly 1,900 years ago, these catacombs blend Egyptian funerary tradition with Greek and Roman artistic styles in a way found almost nowhere else in Egypt — sphinxes alongside Medusa heads, and Anubis dressed in Roman military armor. Maro guides you down through the burial chambers, pointing out where these three cultures collided in a single set of carvings.

"This is where you see Alexandria's whole identity in one place — Egyptian gods carved with Greek and Roman style. Nowhere else in the country blends the three like this," says Maro Saeed, your guide.

Standing nearly 27 meters tall and cut from a single block of pink granite hauled from Aswan, this is the only ancient monument in Alexandria still standing exactly where it was first erected. Despite the name, it has nothing to do with the Roman general Pompey — it was actually raised around 298 AD in honor of Emperor Diocletian, and the "Pompey" label stuck centuries later after a mistranslation of the Greek inscription at its base. Maro shares the story of the governor named Publius who dedicated it, and how the confusion between his name and Pompey's in Greek script gave the column its lasting, inaccurate name.

"Almost every visitor assumes this was built for Pompey. It wasn't — that's just a translation mistake that stuck for hundreds of years. The real story is arguably more interesting than the myth," says Maro.

A relaxed midday break at a local seafood restaurant along the Corniche, where the day's catch is grilled simply and served fresh. Maro can point you toward Alexandria specialties if you'd like recommendations, or leave you to enjoy the seaside setting at your own pace.

"Alexandria's seafood is different from anywhere else in Egypt — this city has always faced the sea, not the Nile. Lunch here is part of understanding the place," says Maro.

Built in the 15th century using stone salvaged from the ruins of the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, this fortress still guards the harbor from the same spot the lighthouse once stood. Maro points out where archaeologists believe submerged lighthouse remnants still lie in the bay, and the citadel's walls offer sweeping views over the Mediterranean.

"The lighthouse stood here for over 1,500 years before an earthquake brought it down. Some of these very stones once formed part of it," Maro notes.

A modern tribute to the legendary Library of Alexandria, once the largest repository of knowledge in the ancient world before its destruction, this striking sun-disc-shaped building sits directly on the Mediterranean shoreline. Maro shares the story of the original library's rise and eventual loss, and points out the building's design details, including the granite exterior engraved with characters from scripts and alphabets across the world.

"The original library was the internet of its time — everything anyone knew, in one place. This building is Egypt saying that spirit isn't gone," says Maro.

Private transfer back to Cairo, door-to-door. It's a fairly long drive back, so feel free to rest along the way — your guide is happy to chat about the day or point out sights as you pass through the delta region.