The Great Library at Alexandria. The new one.

That’s Ptolemy I Soter on the corner, who founded the Great Library. His statue was fished out of the harbor, where most of classical Alexandria is still under five meters of water. Who knows what else is down there?

The center photo is of the exterior of the new Great Library, granite blocks from Aswan carved with letters and symbols from every century and every culture, from Sumerian cuneiform to Japanese Kana, from Braille to bar code.

And then there is the reading room. It feels like a holy place when you are standing in it. Appropriate, since it is consecrated to learning. A cathedral of knowledge, with roots going back two millennia.

[photos by me, Alexandria, Egypt, December 2019]

Chatter Random Saturday Alexandria Bibliotheca Alexandrina Egypt Great Library