Sunday, December 11, 2005

Bibliotheca Alexandrina

A piece about the past and present of the famous Alexandrian library: "Bibliotheca Alexandrina, an attempt at engineering a rebirth of a lost inheritance and heritage, was inaugurated in 2002 and is located in the old Royal Quarter in almost exactly the same area where the first ancient library was located. Under the aegis of the Ptolemaic dynasty the ancient library of Alexandria was founded in the Third Century B.C. within the Mouseion or the temple of muses. A smaller "daughter" library was built later in the temple of Serapis (a Hellenised Egyptian deity). Both these libraries housed in the royal precinct, the Brucheion, were considered a single entity. In that period, Alexandria became a centre of book trade right across the Mediterranean and the library became a focal point of convergence for knowledge, culture and language. An academy, of sorts, where scholars with different disciplines, found a podium to debate and deliberate. Legend has it that under the Ptolemies the library was given protection from the wedges, chasms and separatist tendencies that govern politics and statehood management".
See the above article, with photos of the modern version, for the complete story about the library.

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