Downtown DistrictAlexandria Governorate
العربية
Places of worshipEliyahu Hanavi Synagogue

Places of worshipThe cosmopolitan city

Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue

On Nabi Daniel Street, this synagogue preserves a chapter of Alexandria’s Jewish history, its architecture restored between 2017 and 2020.

The cosmopolitan city
Rebuilt in the 19th century — foundation plaque dated 1881
Opening hours
Visits by prior arrangement, subject to security procedures
Tickets
No published entry fee — please arrange in advance
Administrative section
El Attarin
Open in maps(External link)Its place in time

Image credits

What sets it apart

A basilica-plan prayer hall of five aisles, with columns on marble bases, Corinthian capitals and cross vaults, seating 700

9 documented memories

Its place in time

The cosmopolitan city · 1860 – 1950

The district at the height of its plurality: Greek, Italian, French, Levantine, Jewish and Armenian communities; the tram, theatres, hotels and cafés; classical, Art Nouveau and Art Deco buildings.

  1. Fouad Street — the Canopic Way331 BC — the Canopic Way
  2. Roman Theatre at Kom El DikkaRoman era, most likely 4th century — uncovered in 1964
  3. Shallalat GardensOn the line of the 9th-century wall, under Ibn Tulun
  4. Remains of the Alexandria City Wall9th century — under Ibn Tulun
  5. Misr Railway StationThe railway from the 1850s — present building 1927
  6. Mahatet El Raml & Saad Zaghloul SquareFrom 1863 — the Ramleh line’s terminus
  7. The Alexandria Tram1863
  8. Eliyahu Hanavi SynagogueRebuilt in the 19th century — foundation plaque dated 1881
  9. Graeco-Roman Museum1892
  10. The Statue of Nubar PashaUnveiled in 1904, according to a museum record
  11. The Windsor Palace Hotel1906, by the hotel’s own account
  12. Cavafy MuseumCavafy’s home from 1907 to 1933
  13. The Lycée Al-Horreya1909–1910 — the Shatby building from 1913
  14. Sayed Darwish Theatre — Alexandria Opera House1921 — the Mohamed Ali Theatre
  15. Alexandria National MuseumLate-1920s palace — museum since 2003
  16. The Cecil Hotel1929
  17. Museum of Fine Arts1954
  18. Bibliotheca Alexandrina2002
  • Ancient Alexandria331 BC – 7th century AD
  • The Islamic centuries7th century – 1805
  • The Mohamed Ali revival1805 – 1860
  • The cosmopolitan city1860 – 1950
  • Contemporary Alexandria1950 – today
A blue tram running along a street in central Alexandria amid the traffic
Before it in timeThe Alexandria Tram1863
The Berenice II mosaic on display at the Graeco-Roman Museum
After it in timeGraeco-Roman Museum1892

Highlights

  • 1Columns on marble bases with Corinthian capitals
  • 2A hall seating about 700
  • 3The full restoration project
  • 4Its Nabi Daniel Street setting

The story

  1. The synagogue stands on Nabi Daniel Street, on the site of an older synagogue of the prophet Elijah that Jewish travellers described in the fifteenth century. That building was destroyed during the French campaign of 1798 — on Napoleon’s orders, according to the Encyclopaedia Judaica. The synagogue was rebuilt in stages in the nineteenth century, and its foundation plaque bears the date 1881. It served the Alexandrian Jewish community, one of the largest in the cosmopolitan city.

  2. The building has a basilica plan, with five aisles divided by tall columns on marble bases with Corinthian capitals, and seats about 700 worshippers.

  3. Services stopped in 2012 for security reasons, and in 2016 part of the roof over the stair to the women’s gallery collapsed in a winter storm. Restoration began in 2017, and the synagogue reopened on 10 January 2020. A visit should respect its character as a place of worship and a record of the city’s Jewish community.

  • The façade of the Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue with its rose window and marble steps
    The façade of the Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue with its rose window and marble steps

Memories of the place

Every memory is taken from a published, documented source.

  1. 1481

    The Italian traveller Rabbi Meshullam of Volterra wrote that Alexandria’s Jews had two synagogues, a big one and a small one, and that all of them testified the small one had been built by the prophet Elijah, who used to pray there.

  2. 1798

    During the French conquest, Napoleon imposed heavy fines on Alexandria’s Jews and ordered the ancient synagogue associated with the prophet Elijah to be destroyed.

  3. 1850Sources differ on this date

    The family of Muhammad Ali Pasha began rebuilding the synagogue.

  4. 1881

    The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities dates the present building to 1881, the date on its foundation plaque (5641 in the Hebrew calendar).

  5. September 2012

    The authorities cancelled the Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur services at the synagogue over security concerns.

  6. 2016

    The synagogue was closed after part of the roof over the stair to the women’s prayer gallery collapsed in a winter storm.

  7. 2017

    Restoration began under a protocol between the Antiquities Ministry and the Armed Forces Engineering Authority.

  8. 2018

    The World Monuments Fund included the synagogue in its 2018 World Monuments Watch.

  9. 10 January 2020

    Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Enany reopened the synagogue after its restoration, which cost nearly LE65 million according to the ministry’s projects official.

Around it

© OpenStreetMap

Nearby landmarks

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