The Graeco Roman museum

Egypt felt in the hand of Roman during the last Queen of Egypt reign of Cleopatra when Caesar besieged the city in 48 B.C. Cleopatra wasn't a pure Egyptian, here family ascended from the Greek blood line, and as we all know, her family (the Ptolemaic dynasty) were originally Greeks. Caesar ended the Ptolemaic dynasty which lasted for three centuries and caused a huge fire in the city of Alexandria that was a communication centre between the west and East. The fire burned down the old bibliotheca and left Alexandria destroyed. However, Alexandria city remained a center point for scholars and famous intellectuals during the Greco Roman period. Since then, Egypt became a Roman province, and assumed very important role of the empire. The Roman era in Egypt left several monuments and ruins of the Roman cultures which are now displayed in the Graeco Roman museum of Alexandria. Travel to Egypt has organized Alexandria day tours that also include many of Alexandria attractions like the Alexandria library, Pompey's pillar, the Roman Amphitheatre and the catacombs of kom El shoqafa for anyone who interested in Rome history in Egypt.

The Graeco Roman museum

The impressive art museum contains a wide range of objects and antiques from the region. The Graeco Roman museum of Alexandria was built in 1892 with a very classic design. Then, in 1895, I was transferred to another location. It houses antiques and sculptures from the Greek and Rome period in 331 B.C _ the 7th century. Among the displayed antiques in the museum, the most wonderful masterpieces are Hellenistic sculptures. The museum started with 11 galleries, but later, I was renovated and enlarged into 25 gallery rooms. The museum houses great coins collection that we'll talk about it in details and Hellenistic statues beside some mummies and busts for Roman Emperors. The Tanagra figurines in the museum reflect a very important historian stage which is the shift between the Pagan religious and Christianity. This shows how people shifted from worshiping Serapes statues (popular god for Egyptians and Greeks) into actually believing in Christ. 

The museum collection

The museum contains thousands of precious antiques and amazing collection. Among them, the huge collection of metal coins that covers along historian Era and different centuries (from 360 B.C to the Ottoman period in the 19th century). The coins collection is arranged according to chronological sequence that starts from the 3rd century B.C to the 7th century A.D, and this considered as amazing record of the changeable civilization process. The museum displays very artistic Hellenistic sculptures like the very popular and beautiful alabaster statues of a good Roman shepherd, and Aphrodite torso. One of the many galleries houses rare collection of sarcophagi's. Best of them is the one that shows a group of Greek gods (Adriane, Hercules and Hypnos). The museum not only emphasizes the Graeco Roman artistic statues for their religious gods, but also highlights rulers for statue ruins like the red granite head for Ptolemy VI that was founded in Giza. Also, one of the room galleries is devoted to pharaonic mummy's sarcophagi's.

The Roman Era in Egypt

 Egyptians had unique lifestyle and rare taste in their architectural buildings, and the Romans followed the same policy by building pharaonic temples and cities but with a touch of Roman's art. 30 B.C was the official year of ending the Egyptian rule over Egypt and declaring the Roman domination, but Egypt managed to remain independent and Egyptians tried to stick to their traditions and religious customs. In many invasion cases, the occupied nation mostly get effected by the foreign invaders, but it seems like it went the opposite way in which the Roman were extremely influenced by the Egyptian's life style and civilization. They believed in their religious gods, created similar tombs and temples, depicted themselves as pharaohs on the walls of the temples and wore their clothes.