The year before this photo was taken, there were a lot more of many different sizes; it was so overcrowded that I remember there were 'layers' of tortoises in places. I was pleased to see that they'd cut down on the number of tortoises but there aren't any visible babies - so, unfortunately, it might be possible that these were all collected from the wild rather than having been bred at the zoo. These beautiful reptiles are still available to buy as pets in Egypt, though not as easy to come by as they used to be.
The reptile house isn't in great shape. A small building with antiquated displays, almost every enclosure was a sandy box but now they've been trying to liven it up by putting hiding places and basking spots in many of the displays.
The number of Egyptian tortoises at Alexandria has fluctuated a lot since then, they had none for several years. As of this summer, they had two sharing this same vivarium with a few spur-thighed tortoises.
