Like Marseille and many other Mediterranean cities, "Alexandria is a port city, a city of emigration, a city of immigration, a cosmopolitan city", recalls Arnaud Quertinmont, one of the curators of "Alexandria: future precedents" (until May 8 at the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations, the Mucem).
Founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC.
J.-C., the city is during Antiquity the second biggest city of the Roman world, behind Rome.
Built to manage trade in the Mediterranean basin, it is also a center of cultural, religious and scientific influence.
Over the course of five sections exploring the town planning of the city, the link between power and knowledge, the daily life of the Alexandrians, their religion and the heritage of the city, the exhibition, by juxtaposing some 200 archaeological works and historical testimonies with about fifteen contemporary creations, intends to "scratch a little the myth which covers Alexandria and return to archaeology", summarizes Arnaud Quertinmont.
Exhibition "Alexandria: future precedents" at the Muceum in Marseille on February 6, 2023 © Nicolas TUCAT / AFP
However, he adds, "we must not evacuate this myth, it is excessively important and shapes our imagination".
A place of astonishing "cultural bilingualism" - witness, for example, this small bronze of the pharaoh represented in the guise of Horus, a man with the head of a falcon adorned with an imperial cuirass, symbol of Roman power -, Alexandria is illustrated also by its multiple heritage, from scientific discoveries such as the basics of pneumatics and hydraulics to its poetry and literature, developed in the city library and museum.
However, today there are few traces of ancient Alexandria: "Alexandria is a multiple city. Unlike other cities like Rome, we do not have one occupation that is superimposed on another, the city center moved", points out Arnaud Quertinmont.
Exhibition "Alexandria: future precedents" at the Muceum in Marseille on February 6, 2023 © Nicolas TUCAT / AFP
"Alexandria was partially leveled by a tsunami in the 4th century AD, it was bombarded in the 19th century and today it faces rampant urbanism. It is therefore difficult to grasp the archaeological reality of Alexandria", adds he.
It nevertheless remains today a city apart, in Egypt, as in the Mediterranean basin, summarizes Sarah Rifky, another of the curators of the exhibition.
"Alexandria is an incredibly important city for understanding not only Egypt, but the whole Mediterranean, partly because of its historical heritage (...) but also because the city has been an important node for capitalism and the modernization of Egypt and for the essential symbolic political role it has played since the 1950s," she said.
© 2023 AFP