No visit to Egypt is ever complete without a visit to Alexandria, the coastal town on the Mediterranean Sea just over 200 km from Cairo. We were not sure if the Library of Alexandria figures high among the city’s tourist attractions — considering that many people, while chalking out Egypt tour plans, skip Alexandria entirely. But for the literary-minded a visit to this modern library can be

 an eye-opener — and a way to remember an ancient seat of learning that disappeared from our midst around 1,600 years ago.

At the express wish of Alexander the Great, Ptolemy Soter sought out Demetrius of Phaleron, a student of Aristotle, to help him build the library, an opportunity that Demetrius was quick to seize. The library was destined to be much more than a mere depository of scrolls. It would welcome learned Greeks and scholars from around the world to come and work side by side in pursuit of knowledge in mathematics and medicine, literature and poetry, physics and philosophy. The new library was to be universal. It would aim for complete coverage of everything ever written. It was to be one place on earth where all the written works published anywhere in any land was to be collected.

The order went out that every ship seeking to berth at the port of Alexandria had to give an undertaking that it would part with all manuscripts in its possession to enable the staff at the library to make copies. If the ship had to leave in a hurry, it had to leave the manuscripts behind. The library had obviously little regard faor intellectual property rights, and Ptolemy’s agents scoured the entire Mediterranean in search of books. To be fair, Ptolemy did write to all sovereigns of the then world, asking to borrow their books for copying. Athens lent him the texts of Euripides, Aeschylus and Sophocles. It is said he had them copied but kept the originals, thus forfeiting the fortune of 15 talents he had deposited as a bond.

The library’s collection grew over the years, and it soon possessed over 700,000 mixed scrolls with multiple works, plus another 90,000 single scrolls. Another "daughter" library emerged — the Serapeion, housed in the temple of Serapis. Even Julius Caesar, chasing Pompey into Egypt, is said to have consulted its scrolls. Some of the most important scholars in the history of learning have been associated with the library, some even as its librarians.

Aristarchus was the first person to state the earth revolved around the sun. Eratosthenes, a past librarian, proved the earth was spherical and calculated its circumference. Hipparchus developed the first atlas of the stars. Euclid wrote his Elements of Geometry in the library. Zenodotus and Alexandrian grammarians established the basis of literary scholarship. Archimedes was a visiting scholar. The list goes on and on.

The library suffered a slow decline from the time of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. A part of the library was accidentally set on fire during Caesar’s Alexandrian wars. Subsequent Roman Armies coming to Alexandria perhaps destroyed the library, and even fires from ships could have spread to it as it was very close to the sea. Whatever remained of the library fell prey to opposing Armies and to the Arab invaders in 641 AD. When asked what to do with the remaining books in the library, Caliph Omar is said to have sent this reply: "If the content of the books is in accordance with the Book of Allah, we may do without them, for in that case, the Book of Allah more than suffices. If, on the other hand, they contain matter not in accordance with the Book of Allah, there can be no need to preserve them. Proceed then and destroy them." The story of Arab burning of the books is a legend, as is the story that the books burned for a period of six months and that the fires were used to keep the public baths warm.

Sadly, there is no visual, sketch or painting of the ancient library of Alexandria today. All that survives is a fragment of scroll zealously preserved in the rare collection section of the modern library. The pivotal point in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (the new library of Alexandria) is the Callimachus Triangle. Callimachus was a poet from Cyrene. He was possibly one of the assistants to Zenodotus of Ephesus, but never held the formal post of a librarian. In Callimachus’ time, the ancient library of Alexandria contained some 400,000 scrolls. Callimachus holds pride of place in the new library because he painstakingly catalogued all the library’s holdings by subject and by author, with a short description of each. Fittingly, he is regarded as the father of library science. In the triangle, it does not require a great deal of imagination to visualise Callimachus hard at work, looking out occasionally at the expanse of the library through the glass vestibule.

And what a library it now is. From the many competitive designs, a new, bold, evocative and inspiring design was chosen from Norway. The architectural firm Snohetta was awarded the prestigious contract, with an avant-garde design by Thorsen, Dykster and Kapeller. The new library is one of modern Alexandria’s wonders. From the vantage point of the Callimachus Triangle, one gets to see the expanse of the library gently sloping to the left. It has been so designed that the last four floors on the far left are below sea level. Recessed lighting and skylights ensure plenty of light. The skylights symbolise eyes, with shades like eyelashes. Stacks of books are lit by individual lights on the racks. To maintain historical continuity with the ancient library, the side panelling on walls have built-in recesses, as if to store scrolls. Books are arranged by subject, starting with the root of knowledge like philosophy, history, mathematics, religion etc, and ending with digital technology.

In spite of the constant flow of visitors, silence is maintained so that working scholars are not disturbed. This is done by ensuring that working tables and stacks are placed away from visitor areas. In keeping with the digital age, there are numerous computer terminals on different tables. But it was gratifying to see students reading and taking notes diligently from books. Clearly, not all the world’s knowledge is on the Internet yet. In tune with its illustrious predecessor, the new library is a centre for the production and dissemination of knowledge and a place of dialogue and understanding between cultures and peoples.

The general section holds about 500,000 books and over 25,000 journals, along with an Internet centre and archives. But one of the most distinguishing features of the new library are its specialised units — for the arts, multimedia and audiovisual materials; for the visually impaired; for children; young adults; microfilms and rare books and special collections. In keeping with its legacy, the library contains three museums: for antiquities; manuscripts and the history of science. It also has a planetarium, a concert hall, a conference centre and four art galleries. Among permanent exhibits, the ones on impressions of Alexandria, Arabic calligraphy, the history of writing and instruments of astronomy and science are well worth a visit. Among its specialised activities is a project to introduce young people to the hybrid world of the electronic and the printed word, and to take it to schools through the Bookmobile. A section to impart special training to budding librarians would have got Callimachus’ approval.

A walk on the promenade around the library is deeply enriching: a blue water body surrounds the sloping outer façade of the library, and at eye level this water merges with the bright blue expanse of the Mediterranean nearby, giving the impression that the library is almost floating on water. A bust of Alexander dominates the promenade. In a fitting gesture — indicating that the library intends to be an international centre of education and learning — a section of the outer wall has words inscribed from all languages of the world. Trying to spot an Indian language in that mix can be hazardous, for care must be taken not to fall into the water! It was gratifying to spot "Nee" (you) in Malayalam without any mishap.

To wind up, the guide proudly shows off a new "book espresso machine" near the reception area, which can instantly print, bind and deliver a book in all of 15 minutes, which is said to be one of 15 such machines worldwide. Just outside is a full-sized statue of Demetrius of Phaleron, founder of the ancient library of Alexandria. Fittingly, Demetrius has his back turned to the book espresso machine.

By Sridhar Balan