In September 1842, the Prussian expedition led by Richard Lepsius reached the harbour of Alexandria. The ten expedition members consisting of Egyptologists, architects and draughtsmen settled in for the next two weeks in one of the modern hotels in the new city centre of Alexandria. During their stay in the two thousand years old coastal town, they visited the ancient monuments in order to record previously unknown inscriptions and discover new artefacts, before finally setting out on their three-year expedition through the land on the Nile.