alexandria - uniwersytet warszawski

Zsolt Kiss

ALEXANDRIAPAST RESEARCH

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A Napoleonic fort once overlookedthe center of the town from the top of anartificial hill that stood majestically be-tween the Main Railway Station and theGovernor’s seat. In 1894-1895, British ar-chaeologist D.G. Hogarth tunneled into thehillside, excavating rubbish from Mamluktimes and massive brick remnants thataroused no special interest. In the late1950s, local authorities decided to developthe area, building in place of the ruinedfort a new building for the municipaladministration. This required archaeologi-cal testing of the area before constructionwork could proceed and the Egyptians ap-proached Professor Kazimierz Michałowski,then lecturing as a visiting professor at theUniversity of Alexandria, to investigate the site.

Thus started the Polish archaeologi-cal adventure on Kom el-Dikka. In the fall of1960, Michałowski and his team of archae-ologists began a project that has now con-tinued for close to half a century. The firsttask of the archaeologists and later architectsin conjunction with architectural restorerswas to save this part of ancient Alexandria

from modern building development. Thechallenge was to work quickly and inten-sively, as demanded by the pace at which thecity was growing, without sacrificing scien-tific reliability and these requirementsMichałowski met. There is no better proof ofhis success than the continued Polish presenceon Kom el-Dikka.

Even before monumental brick walls,identified as of Roman date, started appear-ing in the deep trenches, the requirementsof scientific reliability demanded of the Polishteam to deal with the abundant relics origi-nating from the artificial mound of Mamluktimes. Based on the finds, the pottery inparticular, Władysław Kubiak published animportant study of the life and trade of me-dieval Alexandria. The underlying brick ruinsproved even more significant – in a city solacking in vestiges of its glorious past, theywere a foretoken of an important archaeo-logical discovery (and a tourist attraction tocome). Kom el-Dikka was saved!

First, however, the archaeologists hadto explore the Arab burial ground that hadoverrun the artificial mound of ruins. Basedon the pottery, the cemetery was dated to

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the 12th-13th centuries. Masonry tomb su-perstructures were often grouped in largerquarters and furnished with mihrabs. This firstlevel of tombs (which is referred to as theUpper Necropolis) turned out to be the latest;the earlier burial ground, which had de-veloped in and on top of the ancient ruins,was dated to the 9th and 10th centuries.The tombs in this “Lower Necropolis” wereoften graced with funerary stelae inscribedin Kufic characters. Anthropologist ElżbietaPromińska studied the skeletal material,producing an in-depth analysis of the com-position of the population of medievalAlexandria, the longevity of the inhabitantsand the diseases they suffered from. Thehistorical conclusions were of no less im-portance: the cemeteries were proof thatthe mound must have been outside thelimits of the early Arabic town. The onlynon-funerary vestiges of medieval timeswere the few poor huts with animal pensof the Fatimid period (11th century) dis-covered in 1975-1977 to the east of theRoman street R4 (the cemetery started be-yond this road to the west).

Through the 1960s and 1970s thePolish team doggedly worked on uncover-ing the massive brick remains which weresoon identified as a monumental bath com-plex of Imperial foundation. The thick brickwalls were part of the heated building withnumerous pools. Pillars in the hypocaust cel-lars under room floors showed how thebuilding had been heated by combustiongasses circulating among them. The hot aircame from furnaces that were installed inthe complex of subterranean corridorswhich also held stores of fuels and othersupplies necessary in a bath. The corridors arethe best preserved part of the bath. Half of themain hall, the caldarium where hot bathing

took place, was ripped out by an explosionof gunpowder in the Napoleonic fort, whilethe cold-bathing section of the bath, built ofstone blocks, suffered at the hands of me-dieval masons searching for building mate-rial to be used elsewhere in the town. Thispart with the entrance facade from street R4was dismantled practically down to theground. Surprisingly, the next-door masonrycistern, which acted not only as a waterreservoir but also as a pressure tower for thebaths, survived with much less damageand still dominates the ruins on the south.

The excavations were paralleled byimmediate preservation and conservationof the complex, carried out by the mission’sarchitect and conservator, Wojciech Kołątaj,who directed the mission in 1966-1972 andfrom 1985 until his retirement in 2004.Kołątaj’s work on the Kom el-Dikka bathswas crowned with his monograph study ofthis architectural complex from its foundingin the middle of the 4th century AD throughits development and decline by the mid7th century.

The Roman bath occupied onlypart of the site of the old fort. In 1964,the municipal authorities decided to builda new theater on empty ground just southof the trenches. When foundation pillarsstarted being driven in by heavy construc-tion equipment, part of a great arch wasuncovered. Again Michałowski was aroundto provide an expertise and there was nomistaking the ruins – it was an ancientRoman theater! The authorities immedi-ately stopped the building project andPolish archaeologists and architects weremoved to the new sector.

Thirteen rows of marble bencheswere cleared, revealing the elongatedhorseshoe-shaped audience which was

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two-thirds preserved. The marble andgranite columns of the portico along thetop of the audience lay collapsed on theseats. At the open end of the hall were twohuge pedestals. Very soon people startedtalking of the “Roman theater” in Alexan-dria, even though by rights it was no morethan an odeon, meaning a hall for musicaland poetic performances and recitations.

In 1966 Wojciech Kołątaj embarkedon a restoration of the theater building.He replaced the missing elements of theseating and raised the columns on top ofthe audience. Archaeological and theoreti-cal studies allowed him to reconstruct theappearance of this monumental structurewith its dome resting on arcaded nichescrowning the top of the audience and twoenormous columns at the open end.

This “concert hall” was foundedmost likely in the 4th century, at the sametime as the neighboring Baths, but in the6th century was completely rebuilt, givena dome and turned into an auditorium.Zbigniew Borkowski’s research on thegrafitti and inscriptions found inside thebuilding confirmed that it was used in thetimes of Heraclius and was abandonedwith the coming of the Arabs.

The Polish team also explored apaved portico lining the western facade ofthe theater building and bath. Under thispavement (as well as under the audiencehall) archaeologists have uncovered ves-tiges of luxurious houses of the 1st and2nd centuries AD, obvious proof that thedistrict served a different function in ear-lier times.

The reconstruction was a spectacu-lar achievement. The theater was openedto tourists (it was even used for perform-ances) and it germinated the idea for a zona

monumentale, a zone of antiquities in thecenter of modern Alexandria. But therewas still some unexplored ground on Komel-Dikka, on the other side of street R4. In1972, the army started building a large air-raid shelter and it hardly came as a surpriseto the archaeologists when they found an-tique ruins. Once again the scholars’ argu-ments were sufficient to save yet anotherfragment of the ancient metropolis.

Between 1972 and 1980 MieczysławRodziewicz directed a concerted effort toclear this residential quarter (he later pub-lished it in exemplary fashion). The dis-covery of houses and workshops from the4th-7th centuries clarified the urban situa-tion of late antique Alexandria i n thisregion: a complex of public buildings tothe west of street R4 and to the east of ita crowded quarter of modest houses withsmall ateliers and shops. In underlying lay-ers, corresponding to the city of the 1stand 2nd centuries AD, the houses were justas spacious and resplendent as the struc-tures discovered west of the street. Theywere furnished with fine mosaic floors (in-cluding one with representations of birds,restored and on display now.

In 1981-1983, the Polish missionuncovered three small lecture halls, to thewest of the baths; another three werebrought to light further south by Zsolt Kiss’team in 1986-1987. The next four years,after Grzegorz Majcherek took over ashead of the archaeological mission, weredevoted to the investigation of anotherfragment of the residential quarter fromthe Late Ptolemaic and Early Roman peri-ods, east of street R4, as well as in the areasouth of the baths and under the pave-ment in front of the theater building. Theteam recorded numerous pieces of archi-

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tectural decoration, wall paintings, mosaicsand statuary. In 2003, Majcherek returnedto exploring the area west of the publicbaths and between the southern portico ofthe bath and the theater building, discover-ing further lecture halls belonging to a pre-sumed “university” complex.

The combined effort of Polish ar-chaeologists, architects and restorers has sal-vaged a whole quarter of the ancient town.Work is being continued even while spe-cialists research the discoveries made so far,preparing successive volumes of theAlexandria publication series.

Select bibliographyM. RODZIEWICZ, La céramique romaine tardive d’Alexandrie, Alexandrie I, Varsovie 1976Z. BORKOWSKI, Inscriptions des factions à Alexandrie, Alexandrie II, Varsovie 1981M. RODZIEWICZ, Les habitations romaines tardives d’Alexandrie à la lumière des fouilles polonaisesà Kôm el-Dikka, Alexandrie III, Varsovie 1984Z. KISS, Sculptures des fouilles polonaises à Kôm el-Dikka (1960-1982), Alexandrie IV, Varsovie1988Z. KISS, Les ampoules de Saint Ménas découvertes à Kôm el-Dikka (1961-1982), Alexandrie V,Varsovie 1988.W. KOŁĄTAJ, Imperial Baths at Kôm el-Dikka, Alexandrie VI, Warsaw 1992Z. KISS et al., Fouilles polonaises 1986-1987, Alexandrie VII, Varsovie 2000B. TKACZOW, Architectural Styles of Ancient Alexandria. Elements of Architectural Decoration fromPolish Excavations at Kom el-Dikka (1960-1993), Alexandrie VIII, in print

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Plan of Polish excavations on Kom el-Dikka (Drawing W. Kołątaj, D. Tarara)


Kom el-Dikka. The heated part of the public bathsand the southern portico viewed from the south(Photo Z. Kiss) Kom el-Dikka. Wojciech Kołątaj supervising the

anastylosis of a granite column in the southernvestibule of the theater building

(Photo W. Jerke)


Kom el-Dikka. Late Roman House D east of street R4,with central courtyard, workshops and living quarters(Photo Z. Kiss)

Kom el-Dikka. Mosaic floor with peltae from a luxurious residence of the 1st-2nd century AD

east of street R4 (Photo Z. Kiss)


Kom el-Dikka. Late Roman lecture halls discovered in 1981-1983 west of the public baths (Photo Z. Kiss)

Kom el-Dikka. Marble head of Alexander the Great discovered in the Roman house south of the public baths

(Photo W. Jerke)


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