Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria

The Roman Greek Museum in Alexandria, one of the largest museums in Egypt, and the only one in Egypt that specializes in the artifacts and civilization of Egypt in the Greek and Roman eras. Since 1889, the Italian sculptor Giuseppe Botti has been building a museum in Alexandria to protect its artifacts from displacement and destruction, and has been doing so until the museum was established and opened on June 1, 1892. The current building is the oldest building in Egypt, designed as an architectural museum, and was opened on September 26, 1895. In September 2005, a decision was made to close the museum to carry out a comprehensive project to expand and develop the museum. A new design was put in place, in addition to the upper floor, and a new layout was implemented for the museum's display, which is divided into 27 rooms, according to specific topics that highlight the aspects of Egyptian civilization in the Greek and Roman eras, up to 641 AD. The Founder Alexander In the fall of 332 BC, Alexander the Great advanced to Egypt and defeated the Persian army without fighting, and the Egyptians welcomed him as their governor. On his way to visit the Temple of Amun in Siwa, Alexander the Great chose the location of the Egyptian hunter's village of Rakouda to establish the new Iskanderian capital. The Ptolemaic Reign Ptolemy declared himself king of Egypt in 305-306 BC, but the building of the castle was completed. He was followed by 14 kings, all of whom bore the name of Ptolemy, leading to that famous ambition, Cleopatra VII. The daily life in the Ptolemaic era The Tanagra The Ptolemaic group of statues known as the Tanagra dates back to the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, depicting women, girls, and children from the Iskanderian community. The Wall This wall painting depicts a wall of a cemetery in the Wardian region, in the western front of Iskanderia. It depicts the view of the wall, which realistically reflects the rural environment of Egypt. The Roman Rule Octavian took over Egypt after the defeat of Marcus Antonius, so Actium and Mars were established in 31 BC, where Egypt became a state that followed the emperor personally, and the nobles could not enter it without his permission. The daily life in the Roman era The Roman House Here is a replica of a Roman house, re-formed with modern materials. The house consists of a bedroom, decorated floors with two paintings by Fousey Fisain. In the back, there is a mural of a private library, depicting the next part as a kitchen and bathroom from the Roman era. The Black Head This is a group of marble statues, made with high-tech tools. It dates back to the Roman era, and was discovered in the vicinity of the Black Head Temple, the only temple discovered in Alexandria in good condition. The Religious Life The new Ptolemaic Kingdom needed a god to combine the doctrines of its nobles, from the Egyptians and the Greeks. As for Serapis, he is the Greek incarnation of the god Osir-Apis, with a horn in the mouth, and the image of Osir in the body of the horse Apis, while his human form was of Greek gods such as Zeus. The Temple of Tempsah The god Tempsah was the main worshiper in the region of Fayoum, so he did not enter a city from its cities from a temple of his with its many names. This temple was built by the secundary citizen Agathodorus ben Agathodorus and his wife Isidora and their sons. The Secular Life It is likely that Patlamios I was the one who started the project of establishing the museum and the library. The museum and its large library played a major role in the secular and literary life in Alexandria and the Hellenistic world, where many members of the capital's elite and the minorities link themselves to the museum in their portraits and inscriptions, and they were small in their daily lives in the form of philosophers and scholars of Greek culture. Life after death Egypt witnessed a rare mixture between three civilizations. Egypt, the greatest in human history, was a pioneer in funeral beliefs and produced a unique cultural product, where tools and relics were buried with the dead. Funeral furniture in the Greek and Roman eras witnessed continuity and change at the same time. One of its most important was the pictures of the mummies, the vases, some rings, the funeral paintings, the canopies, the torches, and the coins. Life and art in the Byzantine era Byzantine art was an imperial art developed from the Christian Greek culture and the artistic production of the Eastern Roman Empire. As were all of the Christian and Greek classical myths as well as the main sources of inspiration for this art. Coptic art Coptic art began to appear in Egypt around the 2nd century AD. With the spread of Christianity, it became a given that most of the popular art production for Egyptian Christians was Coptic art. Nile Alexandria used to drink the water of the Nile, which would come to it through the contact of the lake of Mariott in the southern part of the city. The ancient Egyptians embodied the Nile with a man with a belly and arms, a symbol of fertility. In the frame of the Greek vision to identify the rivers, the Nile was also identified in the Roman and Ptolemaic eras. Economic life Retirement In every Greek city, retirement was the center of life and the meeting place of its citizens. Retirement, as a word, means market, but its functions extended to include all activities of the population. Trade Greece became known on the eastern side. During the Persian Wars, it became a source of basic goods in Greek worship, one of the most important of which was steam. The Greek control over Egypt was a turning point in eastern trade. Cities such as Pernik, Marseille, Meuse-Hormoz, Abu-Shar al-Qibla, and Arsinoe were created. Architecture Alexandria was a Hellenistic city with a Greek architectural appearance. The architects of Alexandria and their artists exercised a wide freedom in choosing the style and architectural methods that suit the environmental conditions and the geographical nature of the place. Therefore, in Alexandria, new directions were created in the implementation of traditional Greek architectural styles as well as in the architectural ornaments and decorations. The king, Kamil Abu Saadat, was an Egyptian diver who loved fishing in the war. In 1960, he reported that he found a large number of buried artifacts on the shore of the island of Pharos. It was only when these artifacts were excavated in 1968 that he found a large statue of him. He believed that he was the god of Isis Pharya, an attribute that associates Isis with the island of Pharos. But now we know that she was a Ptolemaic queen who resembled Isis.