Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa

The Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa are a three-level underground necropolis cut into bedrock in Alexandria's Karmouz district, discovered by accident in 1900 when a donkey fell through the roof of the site. Dating from the 2nd century CE, during the height of Roman rule in Egypt, the catacombs represent one of the most striking examples of Egyptian-Greco-Roman funerary syncretism, blending pharaonic iconography, Hellenistic sculptural style and Roman burial architecture in a single complex. The uppermost level centres on a rotunda with a spiral staircase descending around a shaft originally used to lower sarcophagi; the second level holds the main tomb chamber, guarded by carved figures wearing Roman military dress but posed in traditional Egyptian style, alongside reliefs depicting Anubis in a Roman legionary's armour and Sobek-headed figures in classical drapery. A large banquet hall, the Triclinium, was cut into the rock nearby for funerary feasts held by mourning families, with stone benches arranged around a dining area. The third level is flooded by groundwater and closed to the public. Many original loculi, or burial niches, remain visible along the corridor walls, some still bearing traces of their carved decoration, though grave goods and remains were removed by early 20th-century excavators and are now held in the Graeco-Roman Museum collection. The site was consolidated and fitted with protective railings and lighting during 20th-century restoration campaigns by Egypt's antiquities authorities, and the accessible upper two levels are in stable, well-preserved condition. There is no separate exhibit sequence; visitors descend the spiral staircase and move through the chambers in a fixed loop dictated by the tomb's original layout.