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Club Nautique Hellénique d'Alexandrie (Egypt)

Last modified: 2010-02-27 by ian macdonald
Keywords: club nautique hellénique d'alexandrie | alexandria |
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[Club Nautique Hellénique d'Alexandrie] image by Ivan Sache, 3 January 2010

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About the flag

The town of Alexandria (3,917,082 inhabitants in 2002) is a very cosmopolitan place, whose atmosphere has been immortalized by the local Greek-speaking poet Constantine P. Cavafy (1863-1933) and the British novelists E.M. Forster (1879-1970) and, mostly, Lawrence Durrell (1912-1990), the author of the famous tetralogy "The Alexandria Quartet". While living in peace with each other, the different communities of Alexandria set up in the beginning of the 20th century their own sports clubs, which were indeed the center of each community's social life.

"Club Nautique Hellénique d'Alexandrie" (Alexandria Hellenic Watersports Club) was founded by the Greek community in 1909, with a French name, as well as Greek and Arabic, but not English, counterparts. Similar Swiss, Italian and English clubs were founded at the same period. A photo available on the website of the "Odyssée - Périples et découvertes" association shows the burgee of "Club Hellénique d'Alexandrie" as a triangular white pennant with a broad blue cross and a very thin blue saltire. The intersection of the cross' arms is made of a white square charged with two Greek letters φ (Phi). Not too visible on the photo, the letters are confirmed by the photo of the burgee applied to the wall of the club, available on the website of the "Amicale Alexandrie Hier et Aujourd'hui" website. Both sources show the plaque with the trilingual name of the club.
http://www.odyssee-periples.org/periples/Alexandrie/Alexandrie.php
http://www.aaha.ch/photos/club-nautique-grec.htm

Ivan Sache, 3 January 2010