Buddha's Statue found in Egypt / Alexandria
The most significant evidence is the Berenike Buddha, a 71 cm (28 in) marble statue discovered in 2022 in the forecourt of a Temple of Isis. It is the first ancient Buddha image found west of Afghanistan, proving that Buddhist devotional practices occurred within Roman Egypt, not just among transient travelers.
Dated to the 2nd century CE, it depicts the Buddha in a Gandharan style (Greco-Buddhist art) with a halo of sunrays and a lotus flower.
The statue is made of Mediterranean marble (Parian or Anatolian), not Indian stone. This proves that artisans in Alexandria possessed the technical knowledge and iconographic familiarity to sculpt the Buddha in the Gandharan style for a local or regional patron. The existence of such a workshop implies a resident community of Indian Buddhists in Alexandria wealthy enough to commission religious art, or at least a high demand for such objects among the Indian diaspora passing through the city.














