Alexandria's Library - an unbelievably beautiful unusual structure housing a mammoth heritage

Alexandria evokes many wonderful memories for me.  For a wonderful three years, as an undergraduate, I was a Founder-Member of The Alexandrians’ Dining Club in Cambridge where I spent my time purportedly studying but actually having a fine time enjoying the true pleasures of the university. Our motto in Latin translated into English was “I hate a fellow drinker with a good memory the day after” .... Our emblem was a stork and a wine glass. Thus are happy memories made of a city which I had yet to see ! 

When we planned the trip to Egypt, Alexandria had to be on our itinerary. The agent had said “Upon arrival Alexandria, you will visit the Citadel of Qait Bay (from inside), Bibliotheca Alexandria (The Library) and Al Morsy Aboul Abbas Mosque”. My travel diary states that the journey from the Meredien Pyramid Hotel to Alexandria was 205 kms and back was 211 kms. We took 2.45 hrs to reach and 3.00 hours on the return on the excellent Alexandria Desert Road which by passes all towns en route. This is a six lane highway and there is a similar desert road which we took when we went in the opposite direction to Port Said and Suez Canal later.

Our guide Hanan, sent by the local agent, was well meaning but not used to clients like us who do in-depth homework and don’t see/do the usual tourist activities ! We arrived at the busy intersection, the other side of the Corniche, where the first thing I saw was this huge wall with strange ancient writing on it; very impressive. Where is the library I wondered as I could not see a tall building with millions of books in it? Hanan obtained the passes and we entered a courtyard. As you see from the panorama shots, you still don’t see the massiveness of the structure. This was most unusual. 

We let her take us inside and we began with the exhibit to Anwar Sadat, ex President of Egypt. It’s a memorial to his work. Hanan took us to see some exhibit with modern art. At this point, we stopped and asked exactly what was her schedule in the library. Turned out she was to show us the Sadat, modern art and antique clothes exhibits only. That was the guide’s plan for the Library. When I asked what about the library and its books, she was amazed as if I had asked a ridiculous question. So, we said: Follow us, pay all the tickets involved and don’t say a word whilst we speak to any Library person. We did not want her involvement / curtailing any talk by a Library guide. 

Then began our most memorable tour of this institution. The original library, famous for having acquired a large number of papyrus scrolls, due largely to the Ptolemaic kings' aggressive and well-funded policies for buying texts, was destroyed centuries ago. The person responsible for its destruction is Julius Caesar.  Caesar was pursuing Pompey into Egypt when he was suddenly cut off by an Egyptian fleet at Alexandria. ... The fire spread and destroyed the Egyptian fleet. The accounts by Plutarch, Aulus Gellius, and others indicate that troops of Caesar accidentally burned the library down during or after the Siege of Alexandria in 48 BC. The city then renowned for being the capital of learning in ancient Egypt had actually also begun to decline with many scholars leaving it. Wikipedia, that fount of modern knowledge, has an extensive write up on the old library and its establishment and progress thru the ages

“The idea of reviving the ancient Library of Alexandria was first proposed in 1974. In May 1986, Egypt requested the Executive Board of UNESCO to allow the international organization to conduct a feasibility study for the project. This marked the beginning of UNESCO and the international community's involvement in trying to bring the project to fruition. Starting in 1988, UNESCO and United Nations Development Fund worked to support the international architectural competition to design the Library. Egypt devoted four hectares of land for the building of the Library and established the National High Commission for the Library of Alexandria. Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak took a personal interest in the project, which contributed to its advancement.  Completed in 2002, the Bibliotheca Alexandria now functions as a modern library and cultural centre, commemorating the original Library of Alexandria. In line with the mission of the Great Library of Alexandria, the Bibliotheca Alexandria also houses the International School of Information Science, a school for students preparing for highly specialized post-graduate degrees, whose goal is to train professional staff for libraries in Egypt and across the Middle East. The Bibliotheca Alexandria is trilingual, containing books in classical Arabic, English and French”.

“The dimensions are vast: the library has shelf space for eight million books, with the main reading room covering 20,000 square metres (220,000 sq ft) on eleven cascading levels. The complex also houses a centre for conferences and some amazing specialized libraries e.g. The Rare Books and Special Collections Library, The Microforms Library, Maps, The Arts and Multimedia Library, The Taha Hussein Library for the visually impaired and the blind, The Young People's Library for young people, and The Children's Library for children. it has four museums,  four art galleries for temporary exhibitions, fifteen permanent exhibitions, 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 detail their period of Moorish rule. The French gave documents dealing with the building of the Suez Canal”.

 “Due to the lack of available funds, the library had only 500,000 books in 2002, low compared to other national libraries. However, in 2010 the library received an additional 500,000 books from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. It has been estimated that it will take 80 years to fill the library to capacity at the current level of funding. The library relies heavily on donations to buy books for its collections”.

We entered the actual library area and were stunned into silence when we saw the multi layered library falling downwards towards the Corniche. We now understood why we could not see a skyscraper type building! The inside is just awesome. No other word describes it. The people of Alexandria are the luckiest people in the world to have such a facility and such dedicated staff. We walked the central section, saw the various printing machine models thru the ages e.g. Heidelberg Press and some interesting displays of ancient artefacts. We went to various levels and browsed the sections. 

We were very keen to see the Rare Manuscripts section. We landed up in the Rare Manuscripts Library which holds 6,000 manuscripts not open to all and sundry but we could see some of them in an exhibit area where 120 old manuscripts were displayed. A young lady, barely in her mid-20’s came over and gave us a superb talk, section by section, book by book of each exhibit and its history. 

The first item was the 1^st volume of 21 volumes on the French Expedition of 1821. There was the Gutenberg bible facsimile – two column in 42 lines. There was the oldest interpretation of the Holy Quran 978 AD. It was written on wooden fibre pages! The earliest writing shows dots were added to stop confusion and to ensure correct pronunciation. We learnt that each major area of the library has these young guides who are fully trained and give these talks for free. Some sections like Antiquities charge a separate entry fee. 

We saw the museum with models of the Citadel and other buildings. There is a Library shop and cafeteria. The former we saw , the latter we gave a miss as we had still to see the  Citadel of Qait Bay and the Al Aboul Abbas Mosque.... and of course have lunch at the Greek Club at the other end of the 20 kms long Corniche....sitting there up in the balcony area facing a whole pier of yachts etc.

So ended our tour of the Alexandria Bibliothèque. It’s a place where one would love to go for a few weeks of study – as you saw from the list of reading galleries, the subjects are vast and varying.  We only hope the reader numbers will grow as time passes and youngsters realise the importance of learning and the availability of knowledge at their doorstep.  I know that if Mumbai ever had such a facility it would be over crowded with readers in no time. 

Any text in quotes is courtesy of Wikipedia. 
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