Culture

Bibliotheca Alexandrina

The Royal Library of Alexandria, or Ancient Library of Alexandria, in Alexandria was probably the largest, and certainly the most famous, of the libraries of the ancient world. It flourished under the patronage of the Ptolemaic dynasty, and functioned as a major center of scholarship, at least until the time of Rome's conquest of Egypt, and probably for many centuries thereafter. Alexander, although picking the site and planning the general layout of the city, died before he could take part in the construction of the library or academy that was created in his name.

A Note on Terminology: The Greek term bibliotheke (βιβλιοθήκη), used by many historians of the era, refers to the [royal] "Collection of Books", not to any building, nor to the social networks which sustained and operated the collection, which complicates tracking the history and chronology of its destruction. The Royal Collection can be viewed as having begun in the Royal Quarter's building(s), commonly known as "The Great Library," and continued to be housed, at least in part, at the Serapeum "Daughter Library" (Abaddi)

Generally thought to have been founded at the beginning of the third century BC, the library was conceived and opened either during the reign of Ptolemy I Soter or during the reign of his son Ptolemy II. Plutarch (AD 46–120) wrote that during his visit to Alexandria in 48 BC, Julius Caesar might have accidentally burned the library when he set fire to his own ships to frustrate Achillas' attempt to limit his ability to communicate by sea. According to Plutarch's account, this fire spread to the docks and then to the library.

However, this version of events is not confirmed in contemporary accounts of Caesar's visit. In fact, it has been reasonably established that segments of its collection were partially destroyed on several occasions before and after the first century BC.

The idea of reviving the old library dates back to 1974, when a committee set up by Alexandria University selected a plot of land for its new library, between the campus and the seafront, close to where the ancient library once stood. The notion of recreating the ancient library was soon enthusiastically adopted by other individuals and agencies. One leading supporter of the project was H.E. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak; UNESCO was also quick to embrace the concept of endowing the Mediterranean region with a center of cultural and scientific excellence. An architectural design competition, organized by UNESCO in 1988 to choose a design worthy of the site and its heritage, was won by Snøhetta, a Norwegian architectural office, from among more than 1,400 entries. At a conference held in 1990 in Aswan, the first pledges of funding for the project were made: USD $65 million, mostly from the Arab states. Construction work began in 1995 and, after some USD $220 million had been spent, the complex was officially inaugurated on October 16, 2002.

The dimensions of the project are vast: the library has shelf space for eight million books, with the main reading room covering 70,000 m² on eleven cascading levels. The complex also houses a conference center; specialized libraries for the blind, for young people, and for children; three museums; four art galleries; a planetarium; and a manuscript restoration laboratory. The library's architecture is equally striking. The main reading room stands beneath a 32-meter-high glass-panelled roof, tilted out toward the sea like a sundial, and measuring some 160 m in diameter. The walls are of gray Aswan granite, carved with characters from 120 different human scripts.

The collections at the Bibliotheca Alexandria were donated from all over the world. The Spanish donated documents that detailed the ruling of the Moors. The French also donated, giving the library documents dealing with the building of the Suez Canal. In 2009, H.E. French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave half a million books to the library as a gift to H.E. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The gift makes the Bibliotheca Alexandrina the 6th largest collection of French books outside of France.Bibliotheca Alexandrina maintains the only copy and external backup of the Internet Archive.

For further information visit  http://www.bibalex.org

Alexandria Museums