Bibliotheca Alexandrina

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina, opened in 2002 on the Alexandria seafront, is a modern library and cultural centre conceived as a revival of the legendary ancient Library of Alexandria, the greatest of the classical world, destroyed in antiquity. Its architecture is bold: a huge tilted disc, like a second sun rising from the Mediterranean, its slanting roof glazed to flood the interior with northern light, and its grey granite exterior carved with letters and characters from scripts around the world. Inside, a vast terraced reading room descends in levels, one of the largest in the world, and the complex holds museums, galleries, a planetarium and rare manuscripts. It is both a working library and Alexandria's leading cultural landmark, and a symbol of the city's ambition to reconnect with its scholarly past.

History

The idea of reviving the Library of Alexandria goes back to 1974, when a committee of Alexandria University chose a plot between its campus and the sea, close to where the ancient library had stood. UNESCO joined the project and in 1988 held an architectural competition, won by the Norwegian office Snøhetta among 524 entries, and the first funding pledges, US$65 million, were made at a conference in Aswan in 1990. Construction began in 1995, and after a further US$220 million the library was inaugurated on 16 October 2002, its reading room then the largest in the world, with shelf space for eight million books. The Internet Archive gave it a copy of 10 billion web pages and a book-scanning facility, and in 2009 the Bibliothèque nationale de France donated 500,000 books (Wikipedia, Bibliotheca Alexandrina).

What's there

• The main reading room - the vast terraced hall under its slanting glazed roof.
• The engraved exterior - the granite wall carved with characters from world scripts.
• The museums and galleries - antiquities, manuscripts and rotating exhibitions within.
• The seafront setting - the disc rising beside the Mediterranean Corniche.

When to go

Open year-round; spring and autumn bring the mildest weather to Alexandria, while the sea keeps summer cooler than inland Egypt. The reading room is best appreciated by day when the roof fills it with light. Check opening days, as it closes on certain days of the week.

What to expect

It is a working library and cultural centre, so parts are given over to study and access to some areas is restricted or ticketed separately; a guided tour helps you see the highlights. The building's modern architecture is the draw, not ancient relics, so visitors expecting the original library will be disappointed, as nothing of it survives. Alexandria's traffic and seafront bustle surround it.

Nearby

The Qaitbay Citadel, the catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa and the Corniche are elsewhere in the city.

Key facts