The President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos and the President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades visited the city of Alexandria following an invitation by Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.
The leaders were invited to attend an event called "Nostos, The Return", and involves the collaboration of the Greek, Egyptian and Cypriot diaspora.
The Greek President met with the members of Alexandria's Greek community which he referred to as a vibrant community of the diaspora that has provided Greece with many of its benefactors and world literature figures like poet Constantine Cavafy and Stratis Tsirkas.
Pavlopoulos visited the Patriarch of Alexandria and Greek community schools where he was impressed by the vibrancy of Hellenism.
"This is a pilgrimage on behalf of all the Greek people, to these people who still guard the "Thermopylae" of Hellenism. They are the descendents of our great ancestors who helped the country get on its feet. They helped the spirit of Hellenistic Alexandria to continue and thrive. And most importantly, they taught their youth that Greece should always be in their souls. I become even more optimistic when our relations with our friend and sister country Egypt are exceptional. And we are all fighting for a better world, peaceful, stable, democratic. A world that defends humanity, solidarity and democracy," said the President.
Pavlopoulos also took the opportunity to visit the new library of Alexandria, which commemorates the famed Alexandria Library of the Hellenistic age.
"This library is traversing its own brilliant and creative path, one shared by modern Egypt and Greece " said the President.