The area surrounding the train station in Alexandria was buzzing with tourist buses and school trips. A sign reading “Kom Al-Dikka Monuments Area — Roman Theatre” was noticeable as tourists and others lined up before the ticket office in preparation for a tour. A list of ticket prices and visiting times (from 9am to 5pm) and regulations hung on the office.
Our journey started in front of the theatre gate. We were excited to find out more about the area’s Roman Theatre. Few people, if any, would likely know that every stone has a meaning and a historical significance, the kind of stories that are so appealing to visitors. Asking for the company of a tour guide would definitely make the journey more enjoyable.
Our tour guide was Kholoud Shawki, who received us in her office on the archaeological site near the Roman Villa of the Birds. “This archaeological gem was excavated by a Polish mission to Egypt in cooperation with Egyptian archaeologists in 1960,” Shawki said. “It is located west of the ancient royal district and is considered the most important ancient neighbourhood of Alexandria.”
The area includes the theatre and other buildings that are unique testimony of their period in Alexandria. “They reflect the significant cultural and educational role that Alexandria played during the Roman era,” Shawki said.
On our way to Shawki’s office, we noticed a sign leading to the Roman baths and water tanks, which piqued our curiosity. Our guide’s passion for archaeological research, and particularly for this historical site, was contagious, and we were soon eager to listen to every story she had to tell about the place.
The passion in Shawki’s eyes, reflected in her voice, turned bricks and mortar into books of history. We were walking down the memory lane of the Roman Empire. Shawki started the tour by giving details about each structure. Granite columns featuring inscriptions herald the entrance of the theatre surrounded by various statues that had been excavated from the Mediterranean Sea off Alexandria.
The Roman Theatre in Alexandria was a place for research, study, and music during the Roman era, and not just for theatrical performances.
“It was an amphitheatre, not a theatre,” Shawki explained. “It was something like a lecture theatre, not a place for theatrical performances.”
She moved to the centre of the area where we were standing, and to our surprise her voice became suddenly amplified. She smiled and asked us to stand on a circular stone in the middle. Our voices echoed in the same way.
“There is a circular stone at the centre of the theatre, which if you stand on it your voices are amplified, as if using a microphone,” Shawki said. It explains why the Roman Theatre sometimes hosts summer concerts from the Opera House in Alexandria.
The Roman Theatre in Alexandria is a small amphitheatre that can only accommodate 500 people. It served as a cultural platform, a conference hall and an academy, and there were also 22 classrooms nearby. The place hosted classes and served as a meeting place for local politicians. It was more like a small government building, and it is considered the first college in Egypt.
“There was another Roman Theatre in Alexandria that the Polish mission also discovered,” Shawki said. “It was located in the eastern area, but it was totally ruined. It is also believed that a Ptolemaic theatre once existed in the area where the modern Faculty of Dentistry is located now,” Shawki said.
In contrast, the Roman Theatre or Colosseum in Rome was a huge place that could accommodate thousands of spectators. “Unfortunately, the Romans used to enjoy the sight of bloodshed because they were the controllers of a vast empire that had expanded by virtue of killing,” Shawki noted.
The colosseum was built in the form of a circle so that all the spectators would have a fair view of the events staged below. Slaves were thrown to lions in the colosseum, and it was a place where the early Christians were tortured and killed.
INSCRIPTIONS
As we walked further into the Kom Al-Dikka site, we dived deeper into the realm of intriguing tales, especially as we saw many inscriptions that resembled graffiti on the stones.
Next to the Theatre is a group of stones featuring Arabic inscriptions in Kufic script dating back to the Arab conquest of Egypt in the seventh century CE. There are also many Roman drawings.
Next to them is a stone engraved with the cross of the sixth-century Roman emperor Justinian I (Justinian the Great), considered a saint in the Egyptian Orthodox Church. The inscriptions on the stones also tell the story of the ancient blue and green teams that, according to Shawki, were famous rivals, just like today’s rival soccer teams.
Shawki explained that several parties, taking up different colours for their logos, were formed under the rule of the emperor Justinian in the middle of the sixth century. “The green, blue, orange, red, and white teams did not start as political parties, and instead they were popular sports teams that took up certain colours as their logos,” she said.
“Those teams soon gained popularity as well as the support of important people, who used to encourage their competitions in sports and horse-riding as shown in the inscriptions. Soon these teams became politically tinged.”
Such events did not take place inside the theatre, which was roofed to protect students attending classes there, according to Shawki.
“The championships were held in the arena near Karmouz,” she said. “The two most famous teams resembled our rival Ahli and Zamalek football teams today and were given the names of the Green and Blue teams. These started to play a political role after a division in the Coptic Church. The Green party was supported by the public, while the Blue party was on the side of the emperor. Unfortunately, the two teams became engaged in politics, rather than in sports.”
There are the remains of 22 classrooms at the site. Each is made of bricks and one can still spot a designated place for the professor atop a staircase that was probably meant to keep him above the students. The students were seated on slightly elevated stones in front of their teachers. It is said that the foundations of an early Roman villa were also discovered inside one of the classrooms.
Walking down into this Roman archaeological realm, we spotted the remains of buildings in red brick. According to Shawki, those were the Roman baths that are similar to today’s spas and saunas.
Shawki said that the water used was heated in a place that looked like a stove under each building, where slaves would light fires to provide heat. The very idea took us back in time to the Middle Ages.
To our surprise, we learned from Shawki that the Romans had also adopted a recycling system to reuse the water drained from the baths, passing it through underground pipes and filling tanks that ultimately provided water for bathrooms.
We moved to a place surrounded by granite columns where the Romans used to exercise after bathing. Nearby stood the remains of another brick building that looked like the bathroom buildings and turned out to be water tanks in which water was stored.
VILLA OF BIRDS
Leaving these buildings behind, visitors can take stairs down to the remains of a building called the Villa of the Birds. This contains floor mosaics of different birds, explaining the name.
Nearby is another exquisite mosaic that one could mistake for a cross at first glance. The mural, however, says welcome in Latin and was meant to welcome visitors. Inside the villa are the remains of a statue of a Roman lady.
“The area as a whole is called Kom Al-Dikka because it does not only include the Roman Theatre but also monuments dating back to the Ptolemaic and Islamic periods,” Shawki said.
The word kom, meaning “heaps” in Arabic, was probably chosen because rubble had piled up in layers over time, concealing the remains below. Excavations in the area have discovered an ancient cemetery dating back to the Arab conquest of Egypt.
At the end of the tour, we decided to take some rest in Shawki’s office. We were in a different state of mind, so inspired by the tour, and felt that her explanations had made the visit unique and had left an unmistakable impact on us as visitors.
Shawki sipped her tea and said that unfortunately not every visitor is able to attend a comprehensive tour. “However, knowing the stories behind this place makes a huge difference to one’s enjoyment. You feel different when you leave because the place is not just a beautiful archaeological site but is also a place full of history and meanings.”
She said that her explanations had changed the viewpoint of one American tourist who had wondered why he had had to pay an extra fee for a villa visit. He soon changed his mind, though, when he took a guided tour.
“I took him on a tour inside the villa, explaining every detail of the mosaic floors and how they developed over the centuries;” Shawki went on. “I also explained the method of construction and the difference in the method of placing the stones in terms of size and how each of them referred to a different era.”
One intriguing sight was that of a statue that seemed to stand alone inside the villa. Although it is not in its original location, Shawki explained that it “symbolises the Roman interest in placing statues of the gods or of one of the emperors inside their homes.”
“I explained to the American tourist the difference between the mosaic floors, paying particular attention to the ones that carry images of mythological figures such as Dionysus or Bacchus, the god of wine,” she went on. “The Romans loved these because they were the symbols of festivities, wine and joy, things they liked to reminisce about in their villas.”
Shawki paused a little in order to stress an important point.
“A first-time visitor might just admire the Roman villa as no more than a set of archaeological remains,” she said. “But that first impression changes once you are told the history of the place and how it is linked to our reality today.”
“Our eyes are not enough to understand the beauty of the place; we also need to employ our imagination, which can give the visit a different dimension, leaving an impact on our minds. The American tourist, for one, was ultimately grateful and felt that the extra ticket represented value for money. The same thing applies to Egyptian tourists, who feel gratified when they get the opportunity to listen to such stories.”
Noha Hanno, a photographer encountered at the site, is a case in point. Initially, her visit was only meant as a way for her to take photographs illustrating the beauty of the place. Thus, she did not ask for a guide and depended on the few signs in place for guidance.
She wanted to know more, however, and we decided to volunteer some of the stories we had enjoyed during our visit.
“At first, I thought I was just seeing archaeological remains, but now I know they have a meaning,” she said. “There should be more such tours for all school children and tourists.”
* A version of this article appears in print in the 25 July, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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