Why was the Library of Alexandria burned down?

Anyone involved in archaeological research of Alexandria will welcome this latest publication with great interest. Following in the wake of Stefan Riedel’s Die Basileia von Alexandria. Topographisch-urbanistische untersuhungen Zum Ptölemaisch Königsviertel (Brepols, 2020) is this new study of the topography of Alexandria which covers both the city and its suburban districts. Appearing almost 30 years after Barbara Tkaczow’s The topography of ancient Alexandria (archaeological map) (Warsaw, 1993), Amr Abdo’s book brings an excellent opportunity to reflect on and take stock of recent achievements in the field.

Abstract Many reasons have been offered for Alexander the Great’s foundation of Alexandria in Egypt. He wished to create a great economic and cultural centre, or a naval base from which to control the Aegean, or simply to expand his prestige. It has also been argued that Alexander may have had no greater purpose at all and that this entire episode in the Alexander saga owes much to Ptolemaic propaganda. This paper will argue that this Alexandria, like the Conqueror’s other foundations, was primarily to be a military base in a foreign land, designed to thwart any future attempt, in this case by the Egyptians, to free themselves from his control.

Abstract Ammianus Marcellinus, a fourth-century writer, reported that after an earthquake, on 21 July 365, the sea retreated and then flooded numerous coasts, among them Alexandria (Egypt) and Methoni (southwest Greece). Several other ancient authors seem to mention this event as a “universal earthquake.” The inferred tsunami is usually assigned to reactivation of a fault in the Hellenic (Aegean) Arc, derived from an up to 9 m seismic uplift of Crete. Modeling of this uplift revealed an 8.5+ magnitude earthquake and a tsunami that affected most of the Eastern Mediterranean. For Alexandria, a flooding wave arrival is predicted, and marginal impacts are not excluded because of the topography of the ancient town. On the other hand, ancient sources lead to contradictory results, from no damage to devastation, but new historical evidence indicates that many of the historical reports of the critical period are biased by religious and political ideas, and the Ammianus description was questioned. Hence, for Alexandria there exist three scenarios: major destruction, marginal damage, and no damage by the 365 tsunami. To shed light to this debate (1) ancient sources were analyzed in view of new evidence for their significance, (2) possible impacts of a tsunami in the town’s infrastructure were discussed, and (3) possible impacts of a major destruction were investigated in the framework of the well-known ecclesiastical and civil history of Alexandria. The main conclusions of this study are that (1) no significant tsunami destruction is likely for Alexandria, in agreement with sedimentary evidence, and no major tsunami runup for Methoni; (2) a major earthquake in 365 is likely offshore Crete; and (3) it is inferred that Ammianus brings together two tsunamis, a local slump offshore that produced water retreat and then flooding and local denudation in the eastern Nile Delta, and a second tsunami generated by a fault offshore Crete or in the Ionian and the Adriatic Sea.

The city of Alexandria exerts a powerfl hold on the Western imagination, as part of, but distinct from, the rest of Egypt. The recent undersea discovery of part of the Pharos (lighthouse) and Cleopatra's palace, and the resurrection on land of the ancient Mouseion-Library, are transforming perceptions of Alexandria's cultural heritage.

The Heythrop JournalVolume 62, Issue 2 p. 403-404 Book Review The Library of Alexandria: A Cultural Crossroads of the Ancient World. Edited by Rico, Christophe and Dan, Anca. Pp. xxix, 409, Polis Institute Press, 2017, £54.00. Robin Waterfield, Robin Waterfield Lakonia, GreeceSearch for more papers by this author Robin Waterfield, Robin Waterfield Lakonia, GreeceSearch for more papers by this author First published: 08 March 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/heyj.13885Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume62, Issue2Special Issue: Classical CultureMarch 2021Pages 403-404 RelatedInformation

Tsunami extreme events present a highly significant hazard and considerable risk to the coastal communities. The continued occurrence of tsunami incidents, together with population growth, increases the risk in coastal communities. Two known catastrophic historic tsunamis in Alexandria occurred in the years 365 and 1303AD, with reported wave heights of 1m and 2.9m, respectively. Approximately 5000 people lost their lives and 50,000 homes were destroyed in the city after the earthquake in 365. The 1303 tsunami destroyed the great lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. In order to avoid such events in the future, a detailed knowledge about the tsunami phenomenon and its potential risk is needed. In this paper, the vulnerability and risk to the city of Alexandria will be examined by remote sensing and GIS techniques considering three scenarios. Methodology used depends on building a comprehensive GIS in addition to recent satellite images. After digitizing raster data, it was then stored into a vector format. A digital parcel map was created; attributes (like distance to shore line, elevation, land use/cover, and population) for each polygon were added. Using the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission images, a digital elevation model was created, to test all the tsunami scenarios (based on 5m, 9m, and 20m wave's height). Finally, vulnerability analysis including physical as well as social and economic constraints was executed for the determination of the vulnerability level of elements. Results indicated that Alexandria city is highly vulnerable to tsunami hazard. Very high risk covers the biggest portion of the area in Alexandria (49.16% and 58.71%), followed by high risk (30% and 28.41%), medium risk (13.61% and 7.76%), and low and very low risk (20.82% and 12.88%).

The field of anatomy, one of the most ancient sciences, first evolved in Egypt. From the Early Dynastic Period (3100 BC) until the time of Galen at the end of the 2nd century ad, Egypt was the center of anatomical knowledge, including neuroanatomy. Knowledge of neuroanatomy first became important so that sacred rituals could be performed by ancient Egyptian embalmers during mummification procedures. Later, neuroanatomy became a science to be studied by wise men at the ancient temple of Memphis. As religious conflicts developed, the study of the human body became restricted. Myths started to replace scientific research, squelching further exploration of the human body until Alexander the Great founded the city of Alexandria. This period witnessed a revolution in the study of anatomy and functional anatomy. Herophilus of Chalcedon, Erasistratus of Chios, Rufus of Ephesus, and Galen of Pergamon were prominent physicians who studied at the medical school of Alexandria and contributed greatly to knowledge about the anatomy of the skull base. After the Royal Library of Alexandria was burned and laws were passed prohibiting human dissections based on religious and cultural factors, knowledge of human skull base anatomy plateaued for almost 1500 years. In this article the authors consider the beginning of this journey, from the earliest descriptions of skull base anatomy to the establishment of basic skull base anatomy in ancient Egypt.

AbstractThe ancient city of Alexandria was often referred to as Alexandria ad Aegyptum in Roman documentary, epigraphic and literary sources; this phrase was translated in Greek as ἡ Ἀλεξάνδρεια ἡ πρὸς Αἰγύπτῳ. The grammatical phrasing implies that Alexandria was seen as being ‘near’ or ‘next to’ Egypt, not ‘in’ Egypt. This observation has given rise to the scholarly view that Alexandria was not part of Egypt. In this article the function of the designation ad Aegyptum and of similar designations within literary, papyrological and epigraphic sources ranging from 300 b.c.e. to 640 c.e. will be closely examined. This article argues that the expression can be seen as reflecting both the distinction and the close connection between Alexandria and Egypt on the basis of geographical, political and socio-cultural factors.

The Arabs never could have burned the Library of Alexandria in642 A.D. for the simple reason that it was 250 years that no longer existed. Ithad been destroyed in 391 by the same fanatics who 25 years later murderedHypatia, the most clear-thinking woman of Classical times. This research isbased on sources which specifies the origin and the reason of the forgery.

Abstract In 2004, fire struck the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek (HAAB), particularly affecting its seventeenth-century collections, among them rich holdings of works associated with the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft (Fruitbearing Society), the foremost seventeenth-century German cultural society. Scholars and librarians feared that unique copies of titles that Society members deposited or once owned, which represent valuable source material relating to early modern German and European thought and culture, were lost or damaged in the fire. This article examines the development and dispersal of the library of the second head of the Society, Duke Wilhelm IV of Sachsen-Weimar, and analyzes its Society connections and context, including the handling of deposit copies members sent to the Erzschrein, or Society archive. This library, as one of the predecessor libraries to the Ducal Library and ultimately the HAAB in Weimar, is a channel through which unique copies of Society works may have reached the HAAB. Through analysis of archival sources related to Wilhelm’s library and the Society in Weimar, application of bibliographic methods, and physical inspection of HAAB copies of Society titles for evidence of provenance, this article investigates their fate from a qualitative perspective in the wake of the library fire.