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CHAPTER FIVE

INTO THE LIGHT

As Polios had predicted, we came under the shadow of the massive lighthouse of Alexandria and into the Great Harbour about the middle of the morning. The harbour was absolutely vast, with forests of masts clustering around the quaysides. At some point back in Alexander’s time they had connected the mainland to the Pharos Island where the lighthouse now stood by means of a huge mole and this had the effect of dividing the intervening channel into two. Eunostis Harbour was on the other side of this man-made isthmus and was used by naval ships – Roman galleys and transport vessels. The wide bay we found ourselves in on this side was divided yet again by a harbour wall which gave extra protection to an inner basin they called Kibotos and this was where we were now heading. A harbour official was shouting instructions to our ship, waving his hands and pointing further inside to a space where we would be able to draw alongside other ships already moored there. After a tricky set of manoeuvres, Polios managed to set the ship beam-on some three ships out from the quay wall and with the help of the crew from the other vessels we made fast to the gunwale of the outermost. We had arrived.

THE JOURNEY