The Roman theatre of Kom El Deka and the mathematics lessons

To go back to Roman times, one crosses the threshold of the site of Kom El Deka, whose artistic heart beats loudly in the beautiful theatre, the only one still standing in all of Egypt, almost entirely reconstructed. It was erected using white marble to form the 13 rows designed to seat the spectators, while the granite columns were transported here from the city of Aswan in the south. Unfortunately, a terrible earthquake in the 5th century razed it to the ground. Crossing the colonnaded street, one gets an idea of how architecturally imperious Alexandria was in Roman times, and reaches the Auditoria where lessons in oratory and philosophy, mathematics, grammar and law were given, with students sitting and listening on stone benches. The thermal baths area, consisting of a series of pools where water was administered at different temperatures, has also survived to the present day. In recent decades, the so-called Villa of the Birds has come to light, named after the ornithological scenes depicted on the coloured mosaics on the floor.