Menna

Menna, on the day you arrived, Alexandria was doing what Alexandria does best in early September: glittering under a late-summer sun, the Corniche humming with traffic, the sea breeze politely trying to argue with the heat and mostly losing. Somewhere in the city a brand-new person made her grand entrance, and with all due respect to the Mediterranean, the Library of Alexandria and two thousand years of history, you were the most interesting thing to happen there that Monday.

The wider world, meanwhile, was in a reflective mood. Just two days earlier, an estimated two billion people had watched the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, and the week had also brought the death of Mother Teresa in Calcutta, so newspapers everywhere were thick with black borders and tributes. In Egypt, Hosni Mubarak was president, Kamal Ganzouri was prime minister, and the country was busy hosting the world's young footballers. Elsewhere, Tony Blair was a few months into his new job in Britain, Bill Clinton was in the White House, and Hong Kong had only just been handed back to China that July. It was a world wondering what the last few years of the century would bring, and as it turned out, the answer was you.

Culturally, 1997 was a golden year to land in Egypt. Amr Diab's 'Nour El Ain' was still pouring out of every car window, café and wedding hall, its title track on its way to becoming one of the most famous Arabic pop songs ever recorded. At the cinema, Mohamed Fouad and Mohamed Henedy had turned 'Ismailia Rayeh Gayy' into a surprise blockbuster that summer, and Alexandria's own Youssef Chahine had just been honoured at Cannes's 50th festival, a nice reminder that your city has always produced people worth watching. Further afield, a little-known British book called 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' had come out in June, and a computer named Deep Blue had recently beaten Garry Kasparov at chess. Phones were for talking, the internet screeched when you connected, and nobody had ever photographed their lunch.

Snapshot facts are AI-generated and may occasionally contain inaccuracies.

Football, of course, was everywhere. Egypt was hosting the FIFA U-17 World Championship from 4 to 21 September, with matches in Alexandria as well as Cairo, Ismailia and Port Said, so the city was full of flags, whistles and very confident teenagers. Al Ahly were the reigning league champions, which delighted half the country and gave the other half something to grumble about over tea. The weather was classic Alexandrian September: warm days around 30°C, humid evenings and a sea that was still perfect for swimming.

So that's the world you joined, Menna: a city by the sea, a summer that hadn't quite finished, and a song that wouldn't leave anyone's head. A lot has changed since then. The music moved to streaming and the phones got smarter, but some things stay the same, like the Corniche at sunset and the people who were glad you arrived. Happy birthday. The world was busy that week, but it made room for you, and it has been better for it ever since.