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The city of Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC as he made his way to consult the oracle at Siwa Oasis as to whether he was genuinely the son of Amun. Alexandria became the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt, and grew to become one of the most prosperous and culturally significant cities of the Hellenistic age.
The Alexandria Graeco-Roman Museum was inaugurated in 1895 to showcase objects from the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, both from Alexandria and from elsewhere in Egypt. It is housed in an attractive neoclassical building whose front declares it to be a ΜΟΥΣΕΙΟΝ, ‘place of the Muses’. This recalls the memory of the mouseion that stood nearby in ancient times as the gathering place of seekers of knowledge who hoped to be inspired by the Muses.
From 2005 to 2023, the building was closed and underwent a major renovation. Now it is open to the public again and is a major attraction for visitors to Alexandria. There are two floors of galleries: the ground floor displays a stunning collection of both Ptolemaic- and Roman-era objects, while the upper floor covers the Nile, the economy (including a major coin collection), and the arts.
Key to rooms on the plans
1. Egypt and Greece
2. Ptolemaic rule
3. Daily life in the Ptolemaic Period
4. Roman rule
5. Daily life in the Roman Period
6. Religious life
7. Science and intellectuality
8. The afterlife
9. The Late Roman Period
10. Life and art in the Byzantine Period
11. Coptic art
12. The queen
13. The Nile
14. The economy
15. Alexandrian arts
16. Founders of the museum
Selected highlights
On entering the museum, the visitor turns right into Room 1 and is greeted by several heads of Alexander the Great. The life-size head I photographed was found inside the royal quarter of ancient Alexandria. It has clearly suffered some damage, but the facial features and hairstyle indicate that it represents Alexander, who was held in high regard throughout the Ptolemaic Period.
I was next struck by a large mosaic panel, said to be the face of Queen Berenike II, wife of Ptolemy III. She is depicted as Alexandria, the Mistress of the Sea, holding a ship’s mast, and wearing a headdress in the shape of a ship’s prow and a brooch shaped like an anchor. Unusually, the mosaic has been signed by its artist, Sophilos. This mosaic was found in 1918 at Thmuis in the Delta, and celebrates Egypt’s naval prowess at the time, around 240 BC.
Very many Tanagra figurines have been found in the Alexandrian cemeteries of the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. They are painted terracotta statuettes, typically around 15cm tall, whose earliest examples were found in the Greek city of Tanagra. They represent women and children engaged in the activities of daily life: for example, a woman may hold a musical instrument or be nursing a baby. The delicate modelling of the clay and soft colours are attractive to modern eyes. Whether they were primarily intended as grave goods, or were first produced as purely decorative items and later deposited in graves, is still a matter of debate.
Augustus (Octavian) was Rome’s first emperor. Following the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC, civil war broke out with Octavian, Caesar’s adopted son, fighting for power. Following the defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra in 31 BC by Octavian’s forces, Egypt became a Roman province, and subsequently Octavian became Emperor Augustus. However, Egypt continued to be important as a key source of wheat for the Empire. The head of Augustus in the Graeco-Roman Museum exhibits his typical hairstyle, with three curls of hair on the right of his forehead, and two on the left.
Vespasian had a leading role in the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43, occupying the Isle of Wight and defeating tribes as far west as Devon. When Vitellius was proclaimed emperor by the senate in AD 69, the Year of the Four Emperors, Vespasian challenged Vitellius. War ensued, and Vitellius was defeated and was killed in Rome. Emperor Vespasian brought much-needed political stability and an ambitious building programme. He was acclaimed in Alexandria as the divine son of Zeus-Amun. He is said to have performed miracles there, healing blindness and helping a lame man to walk.
The Apis bull had been a sacred animal in the Memphis region since the earliest dynasties. On becoming pharaoh, Ptolemy I promoted a new anthropomorphic god as a fusion of Osiris and Apis, named Serapis, who became an important deity in Egypt throughout the Ptolemaic Period, worshipped by both Egyptians and Greeks. The life-size Apis statue in the museum was found in pieces at the Temple of Serapis in Alexandria in 1895, and has been successfully reassembled. It was probably dedicated by Emperor Hadrian to Serapis when Hadrian visited Egypt in AD 130. The sun-disc above the bull’s head shows how Apis is linked with Hathor. The forward-facing ears suggest that Apis is ready to listen to his supplicants.
Isis-Thermouthis was a fusion of the goddesses Isis and Renenutet, the snake goddess of harvest, who was especially worshipped at Medinet Madi in the Fayum (for more on Renenutet, see here). On the three-sided pilaster in the Graeco-Roman Museum we can see Isis-Thermouthis with a snake tail on the front face, Harpocrates with his finger to his mouth on one side, and Amenemhat III, builder of the original temple to Renenutet at Medinet Madi, on the other. This object dates from the 1st or 2nd century AD; Amenemhat was revered in the Fayum throughout the Graeco-Roman Period for his past achievements.
In the Roman Period, mummy portraits were painted in a naturalistic style on wooden boards attached to mummies, most commonly in the Fayum region. Most have been detached from their mummies and are displayed on their own in museums, so I was pleased to see the in situ example in the museum. The young man has curly hair and a beard. His naked shoulders are unusual – perhaps he was an athlete.
St Menas was an Egyptian soldier in the Roman army who was executed around AD 300 for refusing to recant his Christian faith. His body was originally taken to Alexandria, but later the city’s patriarch had a vision ordering him to place the body on a camel and head into the desert. Not far from Alexandria, the camel stopped and refused to go any further. This was taken as a sign that the body should be buried there, at the pilgrimage site now called Abu Mena (see ‘News’ in AE 150 for the site’s recent renovation). In the marble relief in the museum, Menas is shown in a typical pose, accompanied by two camels, the animals who carried him to his final resting place.
Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love and beauty, who in Egypt was equated with aspects of Hathor and Isis. The marble statue upstairs in the Graeco-Roman Museum shows her about to bathe, accompanied by Eros. She has taken off her cloak, which rests on the vase beside her, and is reaching down to take off her left sandal. Although damaged, this piece is a key highlight of the museum’s collection.
Visiting the museum
The Graeco-Roman Museum is in the centre of Alexandria and is open seven days a week, so it is easy to visit. Photography with either a phone or a camera is allowed without any restriction or further charge. There is a ramped entrance and accessible toilets inside for visitors in wheelchairs, and a lift to the upper floor.
The renovated museum accords with the modern fashion inside museums with walls painted in sombre colours and spotlights to pick out the displayed objects. This gives a sense of drama, but the harsh lighting makes it difficult to study objects from all directions. I would favour more neutral lighting, but this is a minor criticism. The Graeco-Roman Museum generally succeeds where many museums fail: it is clean and welcoming, and nearly all the objects are briefly explained with labels in Arabic and English. It is one of the great museums of Egypt, and I would encourage all visitors to Alexandria to enjoy its comprehensive display of fine objects from Egypt’s Ptolemaic and Roman Periods.
Geoffrey Lenox-Smith holds the Certificate in Egyptology from Birkbeck, University of London, and is one of our regular ‘Out and about’ contributors.
All images: the author, unless otherwise stated
