WATANI International
22 August 2010
Following some ten years of excavation and restoration work, the Marina al-Alamein archaeological site on Egypt’s north coast, some 98km west of Alexandria, will open to the public in mid-September. Culture Minister Farouk Hosny said a high tech lighting system has been installed, to allow visitors to view the entire site in the evening. The site will thus be open to visitors during the mornings and evenings, an arrangement described by Mohamed Abdel-Maqsoud, head of the Central Administration of Lower Egypt at the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), as exceptionally convenient.
Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the SCA, said the site included Roman villas and baths, as well as Graeco-Roman markets, remains of a church, tombs, streets and a Roman theatre. He explained that the Marina Alamein site was the most important port during the Graeco-Roman era which began in 330BC and extended throughout the first six centuries AD. It is the first archaeological site on the north coast, Hawass said, to be developed as a tourist-friendly site.
Abdel Maqsoud explained that the Graeco-Roman name of the site was “Locasiss,” meaning “the white shell”, a name probably earned because of the softness and whiteness of the sands in the area. The goddess of love, Aphrodite, was worshipped there and the statues found depict her emerging from a white shell.
Sabri Abdel-Aziz, Head of the Ancient Egyptian Department at the SCA, described the Marina Alamein site as the largest on the north coast, extending along some 189 feddans. The site’s restoration and conservation projects are carried out with the collaboration of the Polish Archaeological Institute in Cairo and the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE).
The fee for entrance to the site will be EGP5 for Egyptians, and students will be allowed in at half-price.