Alexandria – Kom el-Dikka

  • Project name:

    Polish-Egyptian Archaeological and Conservation Mission to Kom el-Dikka
    البعثة البولندية-المصرية لأعمال الحفائر الأثرية والصيانة بكوم الدكة الاسكندرية

  • Type of site:

    Ancient city and necropolis

    Location:

    Egypt
    Modern Alexandria, center of ancient Alexandria

    Dating:

    – Ptolemaic period (2nd–1st century BC)
    – Roman period (1st–3rd century AD)
    – late antique and Byzantine period (4th–7th century AD)
    – early Islamic period (8th–13th century AD)

    It is the only ancient “university” discovered so far in the whole of the Mediterranean area.

Most interesting finds:

– complex of late Roman auditoria – the only archaeologically excavated ancient university complex /Fig. 1, 2/
– complex of Imperial baths with cisterns (and a unique water tower) /Fig. 3, 4/
– the only Roman theater excavated in Egypt /Fig. 5, 6/
– monumental portico /Fig. 13/
– late Roman domestic quarter
– houses from the Roman period decorated with mosaics in the domestic quarter /Fig. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12/

History of research:

Dates of PCMA mission’s work:

1960–

Type of research:

excavations, conservation project

Directors:

Leszek Dąbrowski (1960–1962)
Stanisław Jasiewicz (1962)
Władysław Kubiak (1963–1966)
Wojciech Kołątaj (1966–1972)
Mieczysław Rodziewicz (1972–1984)
Wojciech Kołątaj (1984–2001)
Grzegorz Majcherek, Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw (2002–)

Directors of archaeological study programs reporting to the Director of research:
Zsolt Kiss (1986–1987)
Grzegorz Majcherek (1988–2001)

Co-operating institutions:

– Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw
– Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities
– National Museum in Warsaw
– Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures Polish Academy of Sciences (formerly Research Center for Mediterranean Archaeology Polish Academy of Sciences)
– State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw
– Warsaw University of Technology

Additional information:

Work on Kom el-Dikka was started in 1960 by Prof. Kazimierz Michałowski as salvage excavations but soon turned into regular archaeological fieldwork. It has been conducted from the very beginning by the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw in close cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities. A joint Polish-Egyptian mission was established in the 1980s in order to realize a large-scale conservation project aimed at transforming the site into an archaeological park. The Prime Minister of Poland and the Andrew Mellon Foundation provided funds for the mission. In 1998–1999, as part of a grant awarded by USAID, a pavilion housing the exposition of floor mosaics undergoing treatment in the original place of discovery was erected.

Description of the site and research:

Kom el-Dikka, located in the center of modern Alexandria, is both the biggest and the only archaeological site which allows researchers to study the urban fabric of this ancient city in a wider urban context /Fig. 14, 15, 19/. The excavations conducted here for more than half a century have led to a better understanding of the city’s past, from topography and architecture to the daily life of its inhabitants, during a very long period: from the 2nd century BC through the 14th century AD.

In the first three centuries of our era, the whole area of the site was covered with magnificent city residences. Their rich architectural decoration, wall paintings and sculptures, including depictions of Alexander the Great himself /Fig. 16/, as well as colorful floor mosaics with geometric, floral and figurative decorations /Fig. 9, 10, 11, 12/ are the best illustration of the grandeur and wealth of the city’s inhabitants. At the end of the 3rd century AD, the city was considerably destroyed as a result of political turbulence, rebellions and bloody pacifications ordered by Roman emperors. Although it was later rebuilt, it never returned to its former glory. New, significantly smaller and more modest houses, often multi-storied and inhabited by several families, accommodated now also workshops producing bronze and glass objects.

In the 4th century AD, the center of the city became a huge construction site. The core of the new large-scale urban project was a complex of big Imperial baths flanked by monumental colonnades /Fig. 3, 4/. Numerous public buildings were built around it /Fig. 15/, including spacious bathing chambers which could accommodate hundreds of users every day, bathing pools, gymnasia for sports, public latrines. A complex system of furnaces was used for heating water, which was drawn from the nearby cisterns /Fig. 17, 18/.

A wide colonnade portico running north-south was a monumental setting for the unique academic complex, comprising 22 auditoria, which was built here in the 6th century AD. It is the only ancient “university” discovered so far in the whole of the Mediterranean area. No wonder that ancient Alexandria, at the time one of the leading centers of education and learning, is nowadays called the “Oxford” of late antiquity.

The perfectly preserved auditoria /Fig. 1, 2/, built in a row along the portico, were furnished with low stone benches for students and an elevated seat for the lecturer. The nearby theater, a symbol of both the site and the city, was first used as an odeon for music performances. At the beginning of the 6th century, when its auditorium was rebuilt in a horseshoe shape and a roof was added, the theater became the largest room of the complex, the auditorium maximum. Both the auditoria with the theater and the baths constituted the social and cultural center of late antique Alexandria.

At the end of the 7th century AD, Alexandria was in decline. Grand public edifices were abandoned and devastated. In the following centuries, the whole area was turned into a large rubbish dump and cemetery – a truly symbolic end to a great city.

Conservation is an important part of the mission’s work at Kom el-Dikka. As a result, an archaeological park of almost 4 ha was established at the site /Fig. 13, 18, 20, 21, 22/. Monumental ancient buildings, the only ones of their kind preserved in the whole of Egypt, can be seen here in their original urban setting. The theater and auditoria, baths, cisterns, houses and colonnade porticoes have become part of the landscape of the modern metropolis and are nowadays one of the biggest tourist attractions.

Other materials about the mission:
Project bibliography:

Gallery:

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