Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue

A vast, beautiful synagogue on Nabi Daniel Street, restored to its original 1850 glory after the Egyptian government undertook a major refurbishment that opened in 2020. The interior is in the late-Italianate style favoured by Egypt's 19th-century Jewish bourgeoisie: marble columns, frescoed ceiling, a grand bimah and ark of carved wood and gold leaf.

The synagogue is still consecrated and used for the rare communal services held by Alexandria's tiny remaining Jewish community. Visitors are welcome by appointment through the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism; some guided tours of the city's heritage now include a stop. Bring ID. The building is a moving monument to a community that has all but vanished.

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A story
Alexandria had one of the largest Jewish communities in the ancient Mediterranean — perhaps 200,000 in Cleopatra's time. The community persisted through the Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Ottoman, and modern eras, swelling in the 19th and early 20th centuries with the cosmopolitan trade boom. After the founding of Israel in 1948 and the Suez Crisis in 1956, the community emptied — from 40,000 in 1947 to fewer than 50 by 2000. The Eliyahu Hanavi synagogue, restored at the expense of the Egyptian government in 2018, is now one of just a few functional synagogues left in Egypt.

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