Alexandria and Cairo, from past to present
Journalists had a busy itinerary on a trip to Alexandria organized by the Onassis Foundation for the opening of the Church of the Holy Virgin, newly renovated at the foundation’s expense. The event was honored by secular and clerical leaders: Greek President Karolos Papoulias and the governor of Alexandria sat side by side in the church, while Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios and Alexandria Patriarch Theodoros II read the service, in the presence of diplomats and notables from both countries. The Onassis Foundation officials who put their vision for the church into practice received distinguished awards from the Alexandrian Patriarchate. The foundation’s president, Antonis Papadimitriou, was awarded the Grand Cross and Star of St Mark, while the two honorary vice presidents and life members, Pavlos Ioannidis and Apostolos Zambelas, received the Cross of St Mark. The schedule continued with a visit to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a modern wonder on the site of the ancient lighthouse of Alexandria. PR director Taher Halifa, former Egyptian ambassador to Athens, greeted the Greek delegation, offered them a reception and gave them a guided tour. At the entrance to the library, the marble statue of Demetrius Falireos (350-280 BC), a pupil of Aristotle, is a reminder to visitors that it was Falireos who first thought of creating the ancient library of Alexandria to store all the wisdom of the world. The library has issued a bookmark with a picture of his statue and the address of their website (www.bibalex.org). Norwegian architects from Unesco built the ultra-modern library with a view of the Corniche, Alexandria’s renowned 46-kilometer coastal avenue. The roof allows sunlight in at an angle; the external wall slopes and has an uneven surface, like that of the Pyramids now that their smooth outer layer has been removed. Internally, the walls mimic the papyrus cylinders on which the wisdom of the ages was written. The journalists saw a lot – the new Archaeological Museum of Alexandria, the Averoff Gymnasium, the renovated Patriarchal Mansion in what was once the Tossitsas School, and the offices of the Greek community of Alexandria. The community held a reception in honor of the men who renovated the church: architect-engineer Giorgos Tsoutsouras, civil engineer Takis Panagiotopoulos and Onassis Foundation General Secretary Giorgos Zambelas, who supervised the project. The most moving parts of the trip were the visit to the house of C.P. Cavafy, whose poetry was a monument to Alexandria, and to the Greek community’s cemetery, to see the graves of Benakis, Salvagos, Zervoudakis and other leading Alexandrians. Then it was time to go by road to Cairo, ancient and modern. The first stop was at Giza to see the Pyramids and the Sphinx, followed by the colorful El Khalili market and an extensive guided tour of the museum. A performance of the symphonic cantata «Ode to Alexander» in the forecourt of the Pyramids for the centenary of Cairo’s Greek community attracted officials from Greece and Egypt as well as the two patriarchs. The ode is by Giorgos Hadzinassios with songs by Giorgos Papacostas. The composer was at the piano and he conducted the Cairo Orchestra and Choir in the second part of the performances. Lasers lit up the night sky over the Pyramids. A documentary by Nikos Sofianos – who traveled from Mount Olympus to the estuary of the Indus in the Arabian Sea asking «Is Alexander the Great alive?» – was screened during the cantata. As the composer said, the answer came from the Sphinx: «He is alive, and he is Iskander El Akbar,» as Alexander is known in Egypt. We bid farewell to Alexandria and Cairo, both of which bear signs of their Greek heyday. We sailed across the Nile, prayed at the Church of the Virgin, and admired the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, where a preliminary agreement was signed by the Onassis Foundation and the library to share the costs of renovating the famous Antoniadis Villa.
