Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria – in pictures

The view across the Eastern Harbour towards Fort Qayt Bey (on the site of the ancient Pharos) from the Athineos cafe
'But here, at least, in Alexandria, the sea-breaths save us from the tideless weight of summer nothingness, creeping over the bar among the warships, to flutter the striped awnings of the cafes upon the Grande Corniche' ... Durrell's Alexandria has vanished now, if it ever existed, but six decades after the publication of the Alexandria Quartet, traces of it still remain Photograph: Michael Haag, author of Alexandria: City of Memory, Yale University Press, London and New Haven

The poet Cavafy, c1900
Cavafy is quoted extensively throughout The Alexandria Quartet and presides over the whole series as a genius loci. The narrator of Balthazar names him alongside Antony and Cleopatra when recalling the city's leading lights Photograph: From Alexandria: City of Memory by Michael Haag, Yale University Press, London and New Haven

Rue Lepsius in the 1980s
The flat with the balcony and washing once belonged to the poet Cavafy. At the time this picture was taken, it was a cheap pension Photograph: Michael Haag, author of Alexandria: City of Memory, Yale University Press, London and New Haven

Cavafy's flat
By the time this picture was taken in the early 2000s, the Cavafy museum had opened in his flat Photograph: Michael Haag, author of Alexandria: City of Memory, Yale University Press, London and New Haven

Burg el Arab in the late 1930s
In the first volume of the Alexandria Quartet, Nessim builds a summer palace in Burg el Arab for his wife, Justine Photograph: From Alexandria: City of Memory by Michael Haag, Yale University Press, London and New Haven

Durrell's second wife Eve Cohen
Eve is widely thought to have been one of the main inspirations for Justine, and the first novel in the Alexandria Quartet is dedicated to her Photograph: From Alexandria: City of Memory by Michael Haag, Yale University Press, London and New Haven

The entrance to Ambron villa, where Durrell lived during the second world war Photograph: Michael Haag, author of Alexandria: City of Memory, Yale University Press, London and New Haven

Durrell's tower at the Ambron villa
It was here that Durrell wrote Prospero's Cell, his 'guide to the landscape and manners of the island of Corcyra', and began the book that would become The Alexandria Quartet Photograph: Michael Haag, author of Alexandria: City of Memory, Yale University Press, London and New Haven

Josa and Oswald Finney's ballroom
The scene of fabulous parties and costume balls – and murder and conspiracy – in the Alexandria Quartet Photograph: From Alexandria: City of Memory by Michael Haag, Yale University Press, London and New Haven

Durrell with his daughter, Penelope, in Alexandria
Durrell fled to Alexandria with Penelope and his wife, Nancy, after escaping the Nazi occupation of Greece during the second world war Photograph: Photograph from Amateurs in Eden by Joanna Hodgkin

Lawrence Durrell with his first wife Nancy Myers and baby Penelope
Nancy left Durrell in Alexandria, during the second world war Photograph: Photograph from Amateurs in Eden by Joanna Hodgkin

Lawrence Durrell on a duck shoot on Lake Mareotis
This experience was recreated in the dramatic final pages of Justine Photograph: From Alexandria: City of Memory by Michael Haag, Yale University Press, London and New Haven