The Royal Library of Alexandria or Ancient
Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt,
was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world.
It was dedicated to the Muses,
the nine goddesses of the arts. It flourished under the patronage of the Ptolemaic dynasty and
functioned as a major center of scholarship from its construction in the 3rd
century BC until the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BC, with collections of
works, lecture halls, meeting rooms, and gardens. The library was part of a
larger research institution called the Musaeum of
Alexandria, where many of the most famous thinkers of the ancient
world studied.
The
library was created by Ptolemy I Soter, who was a Macedonian general
and the successor of Alexander the Great. Most of the books were kept as papyrus scrolls.
It is unknown how many such scrolls were housed at any given time, but their
combined value was incalculable.
The
library is famous for having been burned down,
resulting in the loss of many scrolls and books; its destruction has become a
symbol for the loss of cultural knowledge. A few sources differ on who is
responsible for the destruction and when it occurred. There is a mythology of the burning of the Library at Alexandria,
but the library may in truth have suffered several fires or other acts of
destruction over many years. Possible occasions for the partial or complete
destruction of the Library of Alexandria include a fire set by Julius Caesarin
48 BC, an attack by Aurelian in
the AD 270s, and the decree of Coptic Pope Theophilus in AD 391.
But now, The idea of reviving the old library dates
back to 1974, when a committee set up by Alexandria University selected a plot
of land for its new library, between the campus and the seafront, close to
where the ancient library once stood. The main reading room stands beneath a
32-meter-high glass-panelled roof, tilted out toward the sea like a sundial,
and measuring some 160 m in diameter. The walls are of gray Aswan granite,
carved with characters from 120 different human scripts.
- Nathania Amanda Nugraha & Mashliha Ulya El Madinta
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