DISCOVERING ALEXANDRIA BY TRAM
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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`iylto service various coastal towns and villages scattered among the dunes from which the name"Ramlah" is derived.
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| Saad Zaghloul |
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 Ramlahline 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,
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| Old San Stefan |
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", theCAESAREUM 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.
In his deceptively named "Cleopatra's Needles' that decorated the temple, and which remained in Alexandria until they were transported to London's Embankment (in 1877) andNew 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 IIIbefore 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 in1272, 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 remains, of the 2nd-century Ra's al-Suwdah temple were discovered in 1936. Victoria was named afterVictoria College, founded the British in 1899. The college was renamed the aI-Nasr Collegeafter 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 extended 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.
© Ishinan 2003
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Districts-of-Alexandria
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