Following the customary setup of the Thinking the Mediterranean series of conferences sponsored by the Ramses2 network, a conference by two speakers on Commercial Routes in the Mediterranean was held at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s conference center on 15 March 2008.

The first speaker, Maria Christina Chatziioannou, professor of history and archaeology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, delivered a lecture entitled “The Mediterranean and the Greek Entrepreneurs as Traders during the XVIII–XIX centuries”. The second speaker, Farouk Abaza, professor of modern and contemporary history at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Alexandria, gave a talk on “Commercial Routes in the Mediterranean in the 19th Century and the Relationship between Egypt and the Mediterranean Countries.”