Author: Athanasios Koutoupas

  • On Alexandria’s Fouad Street, some have a longing for the elegant past

    On Alexandria’s Fouad Street, some have a longing for the elegant past

    ALEXANDRIA, Egypt: Along Fouad Street, a Costa coffee shop near old buildings with Italian and French architecture reminds Egyptians that commercial ventures threaten to erase traces of Alexandria’s aristocratic past. Named after King Fouad I, who died in 1936, the street is a throwback to a time when the arts flourished in a cosmopolitan city…

  • The story of cities: how Alexandria laid foundations for the modern world

    The story of cities: how Alexandria laid foundations for the modern world

    Soon after conquering Egypt, Alexander had a dream in which Homer visited him and spoke lines from The Odyssey. Among them was a reference to the Egyptian island of Pharos in the Mediterranean, and so the next morning Alexander travelled to Pharos and stood upon its rocks, clutching the golden casket and staring out at a…

  • Alexandria’s ancient sites face extinction due to stalled renovation

    Alexandria’s ancient sites face extinction due to stalled renovation

    Eighty percent of the province’s sites, meanwhile, have not been touched by conservators for tens of years. Archaeologists have told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the whole history of Alexandria is threatened with extinction,  especially since the only UNESCO-registered ancient Coptic site, the Abu Mina archaeological zone, may be removed from the organization’s world heritage record due…

  • Plan to restructure Alexandria Port to be delivered in Q1 2016: Minister of Transport

    Plan to restructure Alexandria Port to be delivered in Q1 2016: Minister of Transport

    The Port of Singapore is developing a comprehensive plan to reform Egypt’s ports. Alexandria Port is the first port to be addressed in this more over-arching framework, Al-Geioushy said Monday during the International Maritime Transport and Logistics Conference. Cooperation between Egypt and Singapore aims to reduce port operations expenditures. There are currently more than 4,000…