Modern Library Alexandria
The idea of ​​reviving the ancient library of Alexandria in modern times,
was first proposed in 1974, when Lotfy Dowidar was president of Alexandria University.
In May 1986, Egypt requested UNESCO’s executive council to authorize the international organization
​​to conduct a feasibility study for the project.
This was the beginning of UNESCO and the international community’s efforts to bring the project to fruition.
Since 1988, UNESCO and the UNDP have contributed to supporting the international
architectural competition to design the library.
Egypt devoted four hectares of land for the construction of the library and established the National High Commission for the Library of Alexandria.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak took a personal interest in the project, which contributed greatly to its progress.
The Bibliotheca Alexandrina, completed in 2002, now functions as a modern library and cultural center,
commemorating the original library of Alexandria.
In line with the mission of the Great Library of Alexandria, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina also houses
the International School of Information Science (ISIS),
a school for students preparing for highly specialized postgraduate degrees,
with the aim of training professional staff for libraries in Egypt and throughout the Middle East.
In the year 331 B.C. Alexander the Great stood with some of his advisors in the small Egyptian fishing village of Rhakotis on the Nile Delta.
Here Alexander decided to found a new city and name it after his favorite person, himself.
Those who were with him had no chalk to outline the boundaries and roads,
so they pulled out a thin line of barley flour from bags.
When birds came from everywhere to consume the meal,
Alexander thought this was a bad omen. Not true, his advisers said.
Like the meal to the birds, they predicted, Alexandria will one day attract many and be a feeder and nurse to the world.
And they were right, when Alexander died eight years later, Ptolemy, one of his famous generals, could
to secure the part of Alexander’s empire that included Egypt.
He ruled as Ptolemy I (Soter) and he invited his friend Demetrius of Phaleron to create the best library in the world in this new city of Alexandria.
Or did Demetrius propose that idea to Ptolemy? Either way, they both deserve credit for the library
in Alexandria in the early 300s BC, Demetrius had fled from a Greece that did not want him,
and his aim was to build a library to rival even that of Athens.
Demetrius had been a student of Aristotle, and later his successor and director of Aristotle’s school, the Lyceum.
Therefore, the new library in Alexandria was destined to be more than a collection, but a teaching and learning institution
