No wonder that one of the most important meetings of the editors of the largest encyclopedia in history, Wikipedia, took place under the roofs of the new Library of Alexandria, undoubtedly the most important one in history.
The doomed ceiling of the library is an impressive coffered construction of 32 meters high where we can spot 4,200 different alphabet letters engraved on its surface. The Library of Alexandria, replacing the one which in the past was destroyed by the ignorance and fanaticism of Roman, Copts, Christians and Muslims, is a colossal project which started in 2002 but still continues to expand its bibliographic collection.
For now, we will find 1.5 million books in 80 languages, but its maximum capacity goes up to about 8 million books. There are 50,000 maps, 10,000 manuscripts, 50,000 rare books and also copies of the modern world, with 10,000 and 50,000 visual multimedia audio files.
It is not known whether the stack of works’ project will keep going on: in a new digital world, to accumulate the maximum number of physical books no longer seems such a smart idea.
Therefore, in the basement of the library we find Digital Lab, a program to digitize old books in an automated way. The Library of Alexandria, consequently, no longer aspires that much to become a place where to gather many books but to become a place that specializes in certain subjects.
Nowadays, the library receives around 800,000 visitors every year. The new building was built near the sea wall, in Al Shatby in front of Al Selsela beach, a few meters from where it is assumed that the old library was. Outside, the building recalls the famous lighthouse of Alexandria. The cover is made of glass with a metallic structure. The great outer curved wall was built of granite from Aswan. Inside, hardwood line the halls, and the floors we will step on are also made of oak.
Photos: goodhike, Turismo Egipto, Roberto Sanchez.
