From Demetrius to Serageldin

Abstract

The delayed inauguration of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina was scheduled for Oct 16, 2002. The new building stands, according to its director, Dr Ismail Serageldin, a mere stone's throw away from the ancient site of the complex of buildings known as the Great Library of Alexandria, whose first chief, from around 290 BCE, was Demetrius of Phalerum. Close by, the glories of Cleopatra's palaces are now emerging from the Mediterranean, and the lost lighthouse of Pharos is another distinguished neighbour. Two millennia ago, Alexandria was a focal point of Graeco-Roman-Egyptian culture, and the library had the authority to search all ships for manuscripts—the owner got a copy back, the library kept the original. No-one knows exactly when the ancient library was destroyed, along with its estimated 700 000 scrolls (thought to be equivalent to over 100 000 print books), but the plan to resurrect it began in the 1970s and took off with the Aswan Declaration of February, 1991. When books collected in the 1990s were transferred to the new buildings last year there were already twice as many as the equivalent in the lost library.