Bibliotheca Alexandrina

History:
• Alexandria Library - The Famous Library of Alexandria is now being rebuilt on what is believed to be the original site of this great source of knowledge. This web site has a brief section on Alexandria Library, but not in detail.
• The BBC reports that a joint Egyptian-Polish team believes that they have discovered the ancient Library of Alexandria, including ancient lecture halls or auditoria, in the Bruceton region of the ancient city. 
• There was another daughter library at Pompey's pillar (which was not built by Pompey by the way). This one survived for 4 more centuries, but was plundered by Christian fanatic mobs. The same mob dragged the philosopher/mathematician/priestess Hepatic.

THE ancient world's foremost centre of higher learning, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, rebuilt in modern splendor, opens today in an effort to restore Egypt's academic reputation.

Egyptian officials hope that the £140 million project, two decades in the making, will reassert its academic pedigree, which has never been the same since the library was destroyed by fire more than 1,500 years ago. But today's opening to academics and journalists ahead of the formal ceremony in October has been overshadowed by a row over censorship which is threatening libraries and bookshops across the country.

This cosmopolitan city drew Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, and Jews nto a unique and not entirely harmonious coexistence. The Alexandrian Museum and Library, then, was an ideal place for scholars from these different cultures to meet and exchange learning, and was a repository for the literature and accounts of the Alexandrian intelligentsia and the Roman Empire in general. However, while sources agree on the Museum's uniqueness and value, no surviving account of its activities actually exists, and modern scholarship has largely ignored this poorly-documented portion of history.

In reality, the Library and its community of scholars not only flourished during the Hellenistic era of the Ptolemy’s, but continued to survive through the Roman Empire and the incessant turbulence of the Empire's most volatile and valuable city. For valuable indeed was the granary of the empire, which was also a prosperous trade center between east and west, linked to the Mediterranean and, not far to the east, to the Red Sea and Indian trade routes via a canal.

This cosmopolitan city drew Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, and Jews into a unique and not entirely harmonious coexistence. The Alexandrian Museum and Library, then, was an ideal place for scholars from these different cultures to meet and exchange learning, and was a repository for the literature and accounts of the Alexandrian intelligentsia and the Roman Empire in general. However, while sources agree on the Museum's uniqueness and value, no surviving account of its activities actually exists, and modern scholarship has largely ignored this poorly-documented portion of history.

Books about Bibliotheca Alexandria

The Library of Alexandria
By Roy M. MacLeod

The Library of Alexandria was one of the greatest cultural adornments of the late ancient world, containing thousands of scrolls of Greek, Hebrew and Mesopotamian literature and art and artifacts of ancient Egypt. This book demonstrates that Alexandria became--through the contemporary reputation of its library--a point of confluence for Greek, Roman, Jewish and Syrian culture that drew scholars and statesmen from throughout the ancient world. It also explores the histories of Alexander the Great and of Alexandria itself, the greatest city of the ancient world. This new paperback edition offers general readers an accessible introduction to the history of this magnificent yet still mysterious institution from the time of its foundation up to its tragic destruction.
More Details:
The Library of Alexandria: centre of learning in the ancient world
By Roy M. MacLeod
Edition: revised, illustrated
Published by I.B.Tauris, 2004
ISBN 1850435944, 9781850435945
196 pages
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Movies about Bibliotheca Alexandria

Asian cinema

In this Oscar-nominated Japanese movie from 1964, four separate stories are told, each with an element of the supernatural. In one, a blind musician who is protecteted by monks after violent ghosts ask him to sing for them; in another, a samurai must choose between love and money; in a third, a man keeps seeing a mysterious face in the reflections of his cup of tea.
Showing 7 p.m. Monday evening at the Main Auditorium of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria. Subtitles unspecified. Free entry.
More Details:

Ararat

As part of Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s World Peace Day ceremonies, there will be a screening of Ararat, a touching drama about the Armenian genocide that will leave you thinking. Film is showing Monday evening in the main library at 9:30 p.m.
More Details:

Bibliotheca Alexandrina: El Shatby, Alexandria.