New Alexandria Library, Picture of the Week 18.12.12

The interior roof structure of the Biblioteca Alexandrina. The form of the

columns, widening at the top and opening out into the glazing is an abstract

representation of the shape of the papyrus plant, so essential to the scholars

of the ancient kingdom.  

The Eastern Harbour of Alexandria has been a crossroads of culture and continents for four thousand years. This is where the Pharos lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, guided people from all nations safely into port; where Queen Cleopatra first laid eyes on Julius Caesar, and later Marc Antony.

Also, this was the site of the Great Library of Alexandria, the great repository of knowledge of the ancient world.

Ancient Egypt included two of the Seven Wonders, the Pharos and the Great Pyramid, but the Great Library was not one, although it was arguably more important. It was said to have been destroyed by the Romans on the death of Cleopatra, in fact there was a fire in part of the library but it was re-built.

There followed a slow decline with the rise of Christianity, when the learning contained at Alexandria was questioned. In 391 AD the  mathematician and astronomer Hypatia was murdered by a Christian mob as she travelled to the library where her father worked. This marked the end of Alexandria as a centre of learning. Archbishop Theophilus ordered the destruction of all 'Pagan' sites, including the library and its contents, and half a millennium of scholarship was lost.

The ancient library of Alexandria was a crucial repository for the ancient world of learning from approximately the third century B.C. to the fourth century A.D. The new Biblioteca Alexandrina was opened in 2002 also on the Eastern Harbour approximately on the site of the original. It was sponsored by UNESCO, involved ten years of planning and construction and a cost of £130 million. Whilst it lays no claim to contain all the world's knowledge, The Biblioteca Alexandrina is a beautiful, ultra- modern building, inside and out, and is open to public, scholars and tourists alike.

See:- http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/oct/16/arts.education

and: - http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Hypatia-Ancient-Alexandrias-Great-Female-Scholar.html