The next morning we were on the road at 7am for a 230 km bus ride to Alexandria. This city was designed and built by Alexander the Great and now houses a population of 7 million. It is a strategic sea port on the Mediterranean. The city coast line makes the Gold Coast look like a small fishing village. There were thousands and thousands of high rise apartments stretching for over fifty kilometers along the coast and at least one kilometer deep. They were all very old, but very impressive. We had lunch in a restaurant within the royal palace grounds of King Farouk. He was overthrown by the military in 1952 and had to do a fast exit on his yacht. He sailed from his royal harbor to Italy where he spent the rest of his life. Egypt then became a republic. King Farouk’s palace is magnificent. He also built another beautiful palace for his two wives, in the same grounds but about a kilometer away. We visited a number of sites in Alexandria including the remains of Egypt’s biggest ever temple that was destroyed by an earthquake in 729.