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It should be remembered that, although the Pharos excavation is greater in terms of logistics and finance than any other single archaeological intervention at Alexandria, it is still one among other salvage operations conducted by the CEA. At the moment, Alexandria is going through a new phase in its development. Certain types of building are no longer considered viable given the pressure on space, and, little by little, old cinemas, billiard halls, warehouses and garages in the centre of town are being destroyed to make way for office and apartment blocks. This situation provides an opportunity for the archaeologist to slip between the phases of destruction and reconstruction to check on the nature of those ruins that might be found under the town. On every occasion there are a good ten metres and two millennia of history to be discovered and the information gleaned from one site is complementary to that from another. These interventions are at the request of the Egyptian authorities and it happens that a shortage of funds can lead to the unwilling inability to tackle certain plots. In such cases it is, unfortunately, the bulldozer that too often replaces the archaeologist and the deep foundations of a modern high-rise can destroy any ancient vestiges. Within the premises of the Centre there is a permanent team working on the topography of the city and developing a Geographical Information System. This system provides a computerised data base of all the archaeological excavations of the 19th and 20th centuries as well as modern interventions and locates them on a digitised map of present-day Alexandria. This allows the archaeologists to view the excavations within the larger scale of the city and not just as individual sites. The base map, upon which can be superimposed all the 19th century and earlier maps, also permits a general reading of the urban growth of Alexandria with an opportunity to spot anomalies and particularities that may suggest promising new areas for exploration. In all its fields of work the Centre is committed to collaboration with the Egyptian authorities and Egyptian scholars. Apart from regularly involving local archaeologists and EAO inspectors in the CEA directed digs, the Centre is training four Egyptians in topographic and related information technology, six in ceramic restoration techniques and is providing a number of university students with important experience in archaeological research and a unique opportunity to develop scuba-diving skills and underwater excavation methods. Land excavations
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