5005 Duke Street
Alexandria, VA 22304-2903
Posted on 05/17/2004 10:10:51 AM PDT by presidio9
Archaeologists have found what they believe to be the site of the Library of Alexandria, often described as the world's first major seat of learning. A Polish-Egyptian team has excavated parts of the Bruchion region of the Mediterranean city and discovered what look like lecture halls or auditoria.
Two thousand years ago, the library housed works by the greatest thinkers and writers of the ancient world.
Works by Plato and Socrates and many others were later destroyed in a fire.
Oldest University
Announcing their discovery at a conference being held at the University of California, Zahi Hawass, president of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that the 13 lecture halls uncovered could house as many as 5,000 students in total.
A conspicuous feature of the rooms, he said, was a central elevated podium for the lecturer to stand on.
"It is the first time ever that such a complex of lecture halls has been uncovered on any Greco-Roman site in the whole Mediterranean area," he added.
"It is perhaps the oldest university in the world."
Professor Wileke Wendrich, of the University of California, told BBC News Online that the discovery was incredibly impressive.
Alexandria was a major seat of learning in ancient times and regarded by some as the birthplace of western science.
Birthplace of geometry
It was a tiny fishing village on the Nile delta called Rhakotis when Alexander the Great chose it as the site of the new capital of his empire.
It was made Egypt's capital in 320 BC and soon became the most powerful and influential city in the region.
Its rulers built a massive lighthouse at Pharos, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the famed Library of Alexandria.
It was at the library that Archimedes invented the screw-shaped water pump that is still in use today.
At Alexandria Eratosthenes measured the diameter of the Earth, and Euclid discovered the rules of geometry.
Ptolemy wrote the Almagest at Alexandria. It was the most influential scientific book about the nature of the Universe for 1,500 years.
The library was later destroyed, possibly by Julius Caesar who had it burned as part of his campaign to conquer the city.
Guess I have to return that book now ...
I hope your humor and Freeper etiquette improve the longer you're here.
Caesar burned it by accident, he set fire to an enemy fleet and the fire spread. Terrible lose, Muslims of 7th century would not have burned it. Todays Muslims might.
Somewhere I've read that the library was destroyed when the Byzantine general Belisarius retook Alexandria from the Vandals in Justinian's reign (mid-500s AD). Or you could just say that the destruction has been put by someone or other at every hiccup of history from about 50 BC to 700 AD.
It isn't humor when you talk about burning down buldings that that are the only place for some kids to get books from. The comment was made in bad taste and I think you know that.
So it took 2000 years to find a library, and we knew what city it was in. But they expect Bush to find WMDs in a place where they were deliberately hidden, and we don't know where?
bttt
awesome
5005 Duke Street
Alexandria, VA 22304-2903
Arabs used to take baths?!? Wow. Who knew?!
Must have been the non-Muslim Arabs.
yes, but many of his lectures and sayings were written down by his students and thus preserved for posterity. Among the most famous were his last words:
"I drank what?"
Don't blame me. I voted for Julius Caesor.
bttt
You would have had to vote for him for Senator,though, because ONLY the Senators could have made him a Proconsul.Pompeii was one of the triumpherate and it was in the battle AGAINST Pompeii,that the Alexandrian library caught fire.
Right you are.
Correct!
Interesting conjecture, what did survive was enough to develop the calculas (at least integral calculas) but the Arabs who translated it did not understand what they had. It took until the enlightenment and Issac Newton to realize and "rediscover" it. But I am astonisned that othes before him did not realize from the proofs of Archimedes what was already done.
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