The Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa: Alexandria's Underground Necropolis

In 1900, according to the story every guide in Alexandria still tells, a donkey pulling a cart near the district of Kom El Shoqafa put a leg through the ground and opened a hole into a buried stairwell that no one had entered in more than a thousand years. Other, less colorful accounts credit a local stoneworker with breaking through to the same hidden shaft while quarrying nearby. Either way, what the discovery revealed was one of the largest and strangest burial complexes to survive from Roman Egypt: a multi-level tomb carved into the bedrock south of the city's ancient center, where Egyptian funerary tradition, Greek decorative taste and Roman portrait style sit on the same wall, sometimes in the same carved figure.

The Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa (the name translates roughly as "Mound of Shards," a reference to broken pottery once piled around the entrance) are not a single tomb chamber but a descending complex of halls, staircases and burial niches, built to serve a prosperous Alexandrian family and then expanded for a wider community over several generations. This guide covers what the site actually contains, why its art looks the way it does, and how to fit a visit into a wider Alexandria day — for the broader logistics of getting to Alexandria and combining it with other sites, see our Alexandria day trip guide.

How Were the Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa Discovered?

The accepted story, repeated in most guidebooks and by most licensed guides, is that in 1900 a donkey fell through a hole in the ground and landed in the entrance shaft of a tomb nobody living remembered. It's the kind of detail that makes for a good tour anecdote, and it is widely repeated, but it rests on secondhand telling rather than a contemporary written record. A parallel account, treated as equally credible by some historians, holds that a local stoneworker broke into the hidden chamber while working a quarry in the area, and that his discovery was then reported to the Egyptian Antiquities Service, which excavated and documented the site in the years that followed.

Whichever version is closer to the truth, the practical outcome was the same: a buried necropolis that had gone unnoticed for roughly 1,700 years was suddenly exposed to archaeologists working in a city that had already spent a century digging up fragments of its ancient past. Because the site was unknown before 1900, it had never been looted in antiquity or in later centuries the way many above-ground tombs had been, which is part of why its decoration survives in such unusually complete condition.

What Do the Three Levels Contain?

Kom El Shoqafa is commonly described as a three-level complex, cut straight down into the limestone bedrock to a depth of roughly 35 meters. A spiral staircase, built around a wide circular shaft that also served to lower bodies and building material, connects the levels and still carries most visitors down today. The uppermost level holds what was originally a banqueting hall, a stone-cut space with benches arranged for the funerary meals that Alexandrian families held at the tomb on the anniversary of a death, a practice inherited from both Egyptian and Greco-Roman mourning customs.

The second level is the main event: a large central hall fronted by a facade carved to resemble a temple pylon, leading into a sunken burial chamber ringed with dozens of individual loculi, rectangular niches cut into the rock to hold a single body each, originally sealed with stone slabs. The third and lowest level is where the site's story runs out of certainty for most visitors, since it is largely flooded by groundwater that has risen since the catacombs were carved, and is generally closed to the public; what little has been surveyed there suggests it continued the same pattern of burial chambers rather than anything structurally different.

Why Does the Art Mix Egyptian, Greek and Roman Styles?

What makes Kom El Shoqafa unusual among Roman-era sites in Egypt is not any single carving but the way three visual traditions sit stacked on top of each other without fully merging. The main burial chamber's entrance is flanked by two colossal figures carved in the rigid, frontal pose of pharaonic statuary, wearing the headdress of ancient Egyptian gods, but their faces and musculature are rendered with the naturalism of Greco-Roman sculpture, a hybrid that has no real precedent at older Egyptian sites.

Inside, the god Anubis — traditionally shown as a jackal-headed figure guiding the dead in ancient Egyptian belief — appears carved wearing the armor and cloak of a Roman legionary, standing guard in a pose borrowed straight from military funerary monuments found elsewhere in the Roman Empire. Elsewhere in the same chamber, classic Greek decorative motifs, garlands, grape vines and small coiled serpents, appear framing distinctly Egyptian scenes of mummification and judgment. Archaeologists generally read this mixture as a reflection of Alexandria's population at the time the tomb was carved, likely in the 2nd century CE: a Greek-speaking, Roman-administered city whose residents wanted to be buried with full Egyptian funerary protection while commissioning their tomb from craftsmen trained in Mediterranean artistic conventions.

What Is the Hall of Caracalla?

A side chamber near the main burial hall is commonly known as the Hall of Caracalla, after a grim tradition — not confirmed by contemporary written sources and treated cautiously by Egyptologists — that links it to a massacre the Roman emperor Caracalla is said to have ordered in Alexandria in 215 CE, in retaliation for insults from the city's population. Early excavators reported finding animal bones, including horse remains, in the chamber, which fed the association with a historical atrocity, though the connection between this specific room and that specific event has never been established with certainty.

What is clearer is that the chamber was reused, likely by Christian Alexandrians in a later period, which is itself a useful data point: Kom El Shoqafa was not sealed and abandoned the moment it was finished, but remained part of the living city's burial practices across several centuries and at least two major religious traditions.

Why Is Kom El Shoqafa Called a Wonder of the Middle Ages?

Travel writing and some tour guiding in Alexandria describe the catacombs as one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages, a label that sounds official but is a traditional, popular designation rather than a modern archaeological or UNESCO classification — there is no single authoritative medieval list that all historians agree on, and the phrase should be read as a mark of the site's long-standing local reputation rather than a formal title. What is not in dispute is that Kom El Shoqafa is the largest known Roman-period burial complex in Egypt, and one of relatively few sites anywhere that shows Egyptian, Greek and Roman funerary art combined this directly in a single structure.

That reputation is worth taking at face value even without an official designation: nowhere else in Egypt do visitors descend into a single tomb and see pharaonic gods in Roman military dress, Greek funerary banquet halls, and Egyptian mummification scenes within the same few rock-cut rooms.

Visiting the Catacombs Today

The catacombs sit in the Karmouz district of Alexandria, a short drive from the city's waterfront, and close enough to Pompey's Pillar that the two are almost always visited back to back on a half-day stop. The site opens daily, with hours and ticket prices set by Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and subject to change, so confirming current opening times and fees shortly before a visit is worth the extra minute rather than relying on an old blog post.

Inside, expect stone stairs, low lighting, and noticeably cooler, more humid air than the street above — a mild jacket or layer is useful even on a hot Alexandria afternoon. Photography rules inside the tomb chambers can change, so check with on-site staff rather than assuming a phone camera is automatically allowed. The lowest level's partial flooding means there is sometimes standing water visible near the base of the staircase; railings and lighting are in place, but visitors with mobility concerns should ask staff about the current state of the stairs before descending.

How Does Kom El Shoqafa Fit Into a Wider Alexandria Visit?

Most Alexandria day trips from Cairo build their itinerary around exactly this cluster: the catacombs, Pompey's Pillar a short walk or drive away, and the Qaitbay Citadel on the opposite side of the city near the harbor. For the logistics of getting to Alexandria, how long to budget, and which other sites fit into a single day, our Alexandria day trip guide covers the wider picture; this page is deliberately focused on the catacombs themselves rather than repeating that planning information.

If the mix of civilizations on display here interests you, the modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina makes an interesting contrast a short drive away: a 21st-century building built explicitly as a tribute to the lost ancient Library of Alexandria, standing in for a different kind of cultural layering than the one buried underground at Kom El Shoqafa.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did a donkey really discover the Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa?

That is the most repeated version of the story — a donkey reportedly fell through the ground in 1900 and exposed the entrance shaft — but it is passed down anecdotally rather than documented at the time, and some records instead credit a local stoneworker who broke into the tomb while quarrying nearby.

How many levels do the catacombs have, and can you visit all of them?

The complex is generally described as having three levels cut roughly 35 meters into the bedrock. The upper two are open to visitors; the lowest level is largely flooded by groundwater and is not accessible on a typical visit.

Why does the art at Kom El Shoqafa look so unusual?

Because it combines three traditions in one place: Egyptian gods and funerary scenes, Greek decorative motifs, and Roman-style figures and armor, reflecting the mixed Greek, Egyptian and Roman population of Alexandria around the 2nd century CE, when the tomb was carved.

Are the Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa really a Wonder of the Middle Ages?

That label is a traditional, popular designation used in travel writing rather than an official modern classification, but it reflects a genuine reputation: the site is the largest known Roman-era burial complex in Egypt.

How long should I plan for a visit to the catacombs?

Most visitors spend 45 minutes to an hour inside, and the site pairs naturally with a stop at nearby Pompey's Pillar on the same half-day.