Historical
Dimensions
The international community has
taken the first step towards effacing the disaster caused by the
fire that burned down the old library, more than 1600 years ago,
by supporting the Revival of the Ancient Library of Alexandria
Project.
At the meeting point of the three continents, Asia, Africa and
Europe, Egypt has been the cradle of civilizations since ancient
times. After more than 4000 years of development of the
Pharaonic culture, the Greek dynasties, begun with the Ptolemies,
made it possible for Alexandria to be the world's intellectual
and commercial capital and metropolis. The Library they built
there, in the fourth century BC, became the world's first
university with its college scholars including such famous names
as Euclid, Erastosthenes, Heron and Archimedes, to name but a
few.
The great library, which also served as a publishing house, was
built at the side of the museum.
Anticipating our modern libraries in the way it was run, it had
a catalogue of all the works it possessed - 700,000 of listed
and classified manuscripts already in the third century BC - and
enjoyed "legal deposit rights", thereby, being
entitled to make a copy of every book that entered the country. |
Home | Historical
Dimensions | Objectives | The
Aswan Declaration
Location | Design
of New Building | Milestones | Facts
and Figures
Time Schedule | Photo
Album | Rare Books, Manuscripts
Design, Layout and Graphic Art by Jimmy
Dunn, an InterCity
Oz, Inc. Employee
All content, Graphic Art, Design, Layout, and Scripting Code Copyright
1996 by InterCity Oz, Inc.
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