Library of Alexandria discovered

BBC News ^ | Wednesday, 12 May, 2004 | Dr David Whitehouse

[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.

[Southack]

"Its rulers built a massive lighthouse at Pharos, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the famed Library of Alexandria."

The Library, the lighthouse, and the Great Pyramid(s).

3 ancient wonders all built within mere miles of each other. The rest of the ancient world combined only managed to cobble together 4 more comparable wonders.

[muleskinner]

The library was also an un-named source for this -celebrated & unmentionable Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred! It seems that this shocking blasphemy was produced by a native of Sanaa, in Yemen, who flourished about 700 A. D. & made many mysterious pilgrimages to Babylon's ruins, Memphis's catacombs, & the devil- hunted & untrodden wastes of the great southern deserts of Arabia- the Raba el Khaliyeh, where he claimed to have found records of things older than mankind, & to have learnt the worship of Yog-Sothoth & Cthulhu.

[theDentist]

Likeness of an Alexandrian Library Cop...
You don't want him after you for an overdue scroll!

[dangus]

Ahhh... you don't think maybe the guy who compiled the list of the 7 wonders just liked his Egyptian honeymoon, do you?

[blam]

"The rest of the ancient world combined only managed to cobble together 4 more comparable wonders."

You're forgetting Sundaland that went underwater at the end of the last Ice Age...and, a number of people believe it was these refugees who inspired these structures through-out the world.

See: Eden In The East, by Dr Stephen Oppenheimer and Voyages Of The Pyramid Builders by Dr Robert Schoch.

[blam]

BTW, the oldest bronze making site every discovered is in Thailand.

[Doctor Stochastic]

The Library wasn't one of the Seven Wonders.

[WVNan]

From "The Conflict Between Religion and Science". Vol XII by John Draper, published 1890.

"The true, the most glorious monument of the Macedonian kings of Egypt is the Museum. Its influences will last when even the pyramids have passed away."

"The Alexandrian Museum was commenced by Ptolemy Soter, and was completed by his son Ptolemy Philadelphus. It was situated in the Bruchion, the aristocratic quarter of the city, adjoining the king's palace. Built of marble, it was surrounded with a piazza, in which the residents might walk and converse togethr. Its sculptured apartments contained the Philadelphian library, and were crowded with the choicest statues and pictures. This library eventually comprised four hundred thousand volumes. In the course of time, probably on account of inadequate accommodation for so many books, an additional library was established in the adjacent quarter Rhacotis, and placed in the Serapion or temple of Serapis. The number of volumes in this library, which was called the Daughter of that in the Museum, was eventually three hundred thousand volumes in these royal collections."

"For the perpetuation of knowldge: Orders were given to the chief librarian to buy at the king's expense whatever books he could. A body of transcribers was maintained in the Museum, whose duty it was to make correct copies of such works as their owners were not disposed to sell. .....

"One of the chief objects of the Museum was that of serving as the home of a body of men who devoted themselves to study, and were lodged and maintained at the king's expense......in connection with the Museum were a botanical and a zoological garden...for the purpose of facilitating the study of plants and animals. There was also an astronomical observatory ....

"The library in the Museum was burnt during the siege of Alexandria by Julius Caesar."

After a siege of fourteen months, and a loss of twenty-three thousand men, the Saracens captured the city. In his dispatch to the khalif, Amrou enumerated the splendors of the great city of the West." (no date given)

Another interesting tidbit: " His (Cyril, Bishop at Alexandria)hold upon the audiences of the giddy city was, however, much weakened by Hypatia, the daughter of Theon, the mathematician, who not only distinguished herself by her expositions of the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle, but also by her comments on the writings of Apollonius and other geometers. Each day before her academy stood a long train of chariots; her lecture-room was crowded with the wealth and fashion of Alexandria. They came to listen to her discourses on those questions which man in all ages has asked, but which never yet have been answered; "What am I? Where am I? What can I know?"

(Cyril, promted by jealousy) "As Hypatia repaired to her academy, she was assaulted by Cyril's mob...a mob of many monks. Stripped naked in the street, she was dragged into a church, and there killed by the club of Peter the Reader. The corpse was cut to pieces, the flesh was scraped from the bones with shells, and the remnants cast into a fire. For this frightful crime Cyril was never called to account. It seemed to be admitted that the end sanctified the means."

"So ended Greek philosophy in Alexandria, so came to an untimely close the learning that the Ptolemies had done so much to promote. The "Daughter Library," that of the Serapion, had been dispersed. The fate of Hypatia was a warning to all who would cultivate profane knowledge." (A.D.414)

This book is part of my colletion of old books and has some fascinating things in it.

[Southack]

There was no vote for the 7 wonders; it's just one guy's opinion versus another's.

Your list wants to place the pyramids, the hanging gardens, the statue of Zeus, the building of Artemis, the mausoleum, the colossus, and the lighthouse as the 7 greatest ancient achievements...

...but I would list the pyramids, the hanging gardens, the Great Wall of China, the Library of Alexandria, the Colossus (or perhaps the Colosseum because it survived), the Taj Mahjal, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria as the 7 greatest ancient wonders.

[Destro]

This was the source of Europe's exposure to Plato's and Aristotle's writings during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

That is false. The West was exposed to the classics via the refugee scholars from Constantinople when that city fell to the Turks.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

they used the books to heat their baths for months.

Six months. And do you know how fast parchment burns? Excuse me, I am going to go cry now.

[roadcat]

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?

Yeah, but Gore made it easier for Bush, since Gore invented the internet tool for Bush to do searches. (Did Gore say he invented libaries, too?)

[JusPasenThru]

Ceser? Ceezor? Caeser? Coesoh?

Aw crap, I'm from Florida. I bet I screwed up the voting machine.

AND Mr. Wisenheimer, I was a member of the Senate when I voted for him.

[nopardons]

It's CAESER and I didn't know that you were THAT old. hehehehehehehe

And it's MRS. Wisenhiemer.:-)

[Doc On The Bay]

The area Should be VERY CAREFULLY EXAMINED.

ANY "Remnants of Scrolls" should be Considered "Great TREASURES!!"

If, in fact, "Alexandria" has been Discovered, ANY & ALL "Finds" are Prescious Beyond Calculation!!

Doc

[aruanan]

"The library was later destroyed, possibly by Julius Caesar who had it burned as part of his campaign to conquer the city."

I understood that it happened when Cesar was in Egypt, making time with Cleopatra, and there was an uprising within his legions. Caesar burned his fleet to prevent the insurgents from capturing them, and therefore being able to use them against Cesar, and unfortunately much of the library also caught on fire.

However I am not positive if that was the only fire that ever occurred at the Alexandria library.


The museum and library survived for many centuries but were destroyed in the civil war that occurred under the Roman emperor Aurelian in the late 3rd century AD; the daughter library was destroyed by Christians in AD 391.

The Alexandrian library and museum were founded and maintained by the long succession of Ptolemies in Egypt from the beginning of the 3rd century BC. The library's initial organization was the work of Demetrius of Phaleron, who was familiar with the achievements of the library at Athens. Both the museum and the library were organized in faculties, with a president-priest at the head and the salaries of the staff paid by the Egyptian king. A subsidiary “daughter library” was established about 235 BC by Ptolemy III (Euergetes) in the Temple of Sarapis, the main museum and library being located in the palace precincts, in the district known as the Brucheium.
--The Encyclopedia Britannica

[small voice in the wilderness]

I think the blame for the fire belongs to the snippy librarians. How can you yell FIRE when all you get is SHHHHHHHH.

[The Iguana]

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.

Alexander never intended Alexandria to be the capital of his empire. That honor eventually went to Babylon.

Alexandria did eventually become the capital of the Ptolemaic successor state to the empire centered in Rgypt.

[SunkenCiv]

Just adding this to the GGG homepage, not sending a general distribution.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.

[Unknowing]

Small detail in the article is incorrect: Socrates never published.