Roman Theatre at Kom el-Dikka

A small, beautifully preserved Roman theatre — 13 semicircular marble rows of seating arranged around a perfect circular orchestra — at the heart of one of Alexandria's biggest archaeological digs. The site occupies a city block in the centre of downtown, only a short walk from the railway station.

Beyond the theatre itself, the open-air site includes lecture halls of the Alexandrian university (one of the few late-Roman teaching complexes anywhere to survive), a residential district with surviving mosaic floors (including the famous 'Villa of the Birds'), and parts of an imperial bath complex. The theatre's acoustic is famous: stand on the marked stone at the centre of the orchestra and a normal speaking voice projects to the topmost row of seats. Allow 90 minutes; the Villa of the Birds mosaics require a separate ticket.

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A story
Kom el-Dikka means 'mound of rubble' — the site was a Napoleonic-era hill of debris over the ancient city. Excavations began in 1960 under a Polish-Egyptian team and revealed not just the small theatre, but an entire late-Roman urban quarter: villas with mosaic floors, bath complexes, lecture halls for the city's late-antique university, and workshops. The site is still being excavated. The theatre itself was built in the 2nd century, modified for academic use in the 4th-6th centuries, and abandoned after the earthquake of 535 AD.