Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Alexandria was selected by Alexander the Great as the capital of his empire in 320 BC, and it soon became the most powerful and influential city in the region. The original Library of Alexandria was founded in 288 BC by Ptolemy I (Soter) under the guidance of Demetrius of Phaleron. It was a temple to the muses (Mouseion in Greek; Museum in Latin) and functioned as an academy, research center, and library. The great thinkers of the age flocked to Alexandria to study and exchange ideas. At the ancient library of Alexandria:

• According to an account 100 years later, Ptolemy convened 72 rabbis to translate the Hebrew scriptures into Greek - this was the Septuagint (from the Greek word for "70"), which was the version of the Bible used by Hellenistic Jews and early Christian theologians
• Aristarchus was the first person to state that the earth revolves around the sun, 1800 years before Copernicus
• Eratosthenes proved that the earth was spherical and calculated its circumference with amazing accuracy, 1700 years before Columbus
• Hipparchus established the first atlas of the stars and calculated the length of the solar year accurately to within 6.5 minutes
• Callimachus the poet described the texts in the library organized by subject and author, becoming the father of library science
• Euclid wrote his elements of geometry, the basic text studied in schools all over the world even now
• Herophylus identified the brain as the controlling organ of the body and launched a new era of medicine
• Manetho chronicled the pharaohs and organized Egyptian history into the dynasties we use to this day
• Zenodotus and the grammarians established the basics of literary scholarship with their meticulous definition of the Homerian text for the Iliad and the Odyssey

The modern Biblioteca Alexandrina is intended to recapture the spirit of the original Library of Alexandria as a center for learning, dialogue, and rationality. The trustees have set out these four main objectives:

• to be the world's window on Egypt
• to be Egypt’s window on the world
• to meet the challenge of the digital age
• to be a center of learning and dialogue