Travel: Alexandria - following in the steps of Cleopatra

The Telegraph - UK (Diana Preston)

A bronze coin in the Alexandria Museum depicts Cleopatra in masterful profile. The most important woman in ancient history, she took the two greatest Romans of her day – Julius Caesar and Mark Antony – as lovers.

Had the ancient world had soap operas, writers could have found all the material they needed in the Egyptian queen's story and her capital, Alexandria. Ambition, assassination, seduction, betrayal, suicide and excess – Alexandria and Cleopatra had them all.

Although the city she knew has mostly vanished, enough remains to conjure her turbulent world. Founded near a fishing village on the Mediterranean by Alexander the Great, Alexandria was by Cleopatra's time a populous, clamorous, glamorous city. Even then, it attracted visitors eager to inspect its boulevards, sphinxes and brilliantly decorated temples.