The Library of Alexandria Lives Again

IT WAS one of the most famous libraries of its time. It made its host city, Alexandria, Egypt, a mecca for the world’s greatest minds. When it disappeared​—how, no one knows for sure—​gone with it were priceless works whose absence adversely affected scholarship. Now, that grand library has, in effect, been brought back to life.

The rebuilding of Alexandria’s famous library has produced a structure of unusual shape. The main building of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, as the new library is officially called, resembles a giant tilted drum. The glass-and-aluminum roof (1)​—which is nearly the size of two football fields—​is slit with north-facing windows that illuminate the main reading room (2). The broad, truncated cylinder contains the main public spaces and extends partly below sea level. The building’s flat, shiny surface slopes gently down from a height of seven stories to carve out a deep well. From a distance, with sunlight reflecting off its metallic surface, the building looks like the rising sun.

The outside of the central drum presents a sheer, sweeping curve of gray granite, carved with rows of letters from ancient and modern alphabets (3). Arranged in tiers, the letters fittingly represent the building blocks of knowledge.

An open, multitiered reading room fills most of the cylinder’s interior (4). Storage space for 8,000,000 volumes is tucked into the building’s underground recesses. Other features include exhibition spaces, lecture halls, special provisions for the visually impaired (5), and a planetarium​—a separate spherical structure resembling a satellite halted in mid-orbit (6). Sophisticated computer and fire-extinguishing systems complete this state-of-the-art institution.

Living Up to Past Glory

The rebuilt library opened in October 2002, and it contains some 400,000 books. An elaborate computer system allows access to other libraries. The main collection focuses on eastern Mediterranean civilizations. With space for 8,000,000 books, the Library of Alexandria aspires to enhance the stature of this ancient city.