ALEXANDRIA
this gallery about alexandria is a short extract out of the comprehensive booklet regarding alexandria which was created in nov 2018. it is available within "exacting essays about thrilling targets", and loaded there as rohrmann, bernd: alexandria - comprehensive essay. nov 2018.
HISTORY
alexandria was founded in 332 b.c. by alexander the great. it soon became egypt's captial. it stayed so after the roman empire took over in 30 b.c., until the muslim conquest of egypt in 641 a.d.
and who is the most famous resident of alexandria? yes, of course cleopatra, the last pharao~ queen of the ptolemaic eggypt.
the greatest feature of historic alexandria was its library, for a long time the by far largest in the world. it was founded, probably, during the reign of ptolemy ii philadelphus (285-246 b.c.). here is a reconstruction of this building complex.
there were no books at that time - the texts and sometimes pictures were stored on papyros rolls, called scrolls. well-established libreries had thousands of them; the alexandrinan one owned supposedly 400000 scrolls, and was for several hundred years the "centre of learning" and the dominant research center.
assumed are two locations, within or near to the royal palace, south of the eastern harbour.
yet the library was not fully supported anymore by the roman empire - and then destroyed, sadly so, at first in 272 a.d. and finally by the muslim caliph omar in 642 a.d. and of this fabulous instition there are no ruins left!
even though the roman rule lasted more than 600 years, until 641, not much is left from their shape of alexandria - because of the massive changes under muslim reign.
the city appearance was now dominated by the many mosques; some were very large indeed.
meanwhile egypt's center was fustat, and later, from 1180 onwards, nearby cairo. nevertheless, alexandria did reasonably well, especially because the main branch of the vital river nile was nearby.
as the map below shows, all essential buildings are located around the east harbour, including forts and religious buildings.
for current alexandria, its modern harbour, sitting west of the center, is the genuine 'powerhouse'.
the governors of alexandris were always aware of the alexandria library's demise. eventually, in 1974, efforts to re-create it became serious - the university of alexandria selected an area for this, near to the location of the gone library.
this was then supported by the unesco, and in 1988 they eventually organized an architects competition. out of more than 1000 entries, sensationally a norwegian company won.
construction started 1995, and in 2002 the immense configuration was inaugurated, named "bibliotheca alexandrina".
the design is very special - the building is placed in a pool and twisted. the outer wall, made with aswan granite stones, shows lots of words, using a variety of languages.
in addition to the library, bibliotheca alexandrina also contains facilities for conferences and a planetarium. beside that distinctive building is a statue of alexander the great - reminding that all this goes ultimately back to him.
finally, something truly indispensable for this traveller is about everywhere in alexandria - cafes! many have maintained a traditional style. water pipes are usually still alive. and friendliness is vivid in any case!
