Ephemera

Fragile Cemeteries

Cemeteries are often the last physical legacy of former communities who have migrated away and are often exposed to the vagaries of time, vandalism and land speculation. The conditions in the Middle East are often extra heightened as the former Western Levantine / Greek / Jewish communities have all but left completely and the political climate in many countries is volatile and these monuments are often not seen as their own national story or even best forgotten. There are however a few individuals in many countries who go out of their way to record, photograph and sometimes restore and protect these tombs that is a link to a different world where these communities not only co-existed but created wealth and stability in generations past. This gallery is a small slice of some of those tombs that have survived till today and some that have been restored and we are grateful for those individuals who have dedicated time and funds in this endeavour.

Views of the Greek Orthodox Cemetery of Port Said, Egypt.

The above tombstones before restoration.

The Old British Protestant Cemetery in Alexandria, Egypt - Besides the two U.S. Consul Generals, there are some other significant figures buried there to include the son of Dr. Livingston, the relatives of Rudolf Hess, the assistant to Howard Carter (the discoverer of King Tutankhamun), and dozens of graves of British soldiers who died in the Anglo-Egyptian war and fighting Napoleon in 1801. The old British Protestant cemetery in Alexandria is flanked on one side by a Coptic Christian cemetery and the other side by the Greek Orthodox cemetery.

images courtesy of Mark Marrano, 2022

This cemetery viewed around the 1940s.