Al-Suhaymi House

Bibliotheca Alexandria considered to be Arab and international beacon, in addition to being one of the giants cultural monuments, it is the first digital library in the twenty-first century, as it is the fourth largest francophone library in the world.

Bibliotheca Alexandria 

•  The ancient library of Alexandria was known as the Royal Library, it was one of the greatest libraries in ancient world, it held many volumes, and Papyrus rolls between 400.000 to 700.000 dealing with all sciences, as it was founded in 288 B.C by Ptolemy I the successor of Alexander the Great, as he was cultured leader, and lover of literature.

How Bibliotheca Alexandria collection of value books grew so large in ancient period?

• That happened by decree from Ptolemy III, as he ordered all the visitors of the city to surrender all the books, and scrolls in their procession, they were copied by officials scribes, the copies were delivered to the previous owner, and the original were kept in ancient library, in addition Ptolemy sent representatives throughout the world, to collect reference works, the huge number of original books inside the library made the great thinkers flocked to it, to study, and exchange idea, Euclid, Archimede were studied there, addition to Eratothius who was the first to calculate the diameter of the Earth.

• Unfortunately the ancient library of Alexandria was destroyed, due to a huge fire, as Julius Caesar in 48 BC burned 101 ships that were located on the shore of the Mediterranean in front of the Library of Alexandria, and the fire spread to the library, which destroyed everything in it.

• That wasn’t the end of this legend building, as after 2000 years the Egyptian government, and UNESCO organisation combined their efforts, to revive the Great library, they sponsored architecture competition, for designing the building of the new library, first prize was won by Norwegian company, among 524 companies from 52 countries, its  building took about 7 years from 1995 to 2002, while the cost of this project was 200 million dollars, the opening ceremony was attended by President of France, Greece, Romania, King of Spain, Queen Rania of Jordan.

Location

It's location is in a wonderful location, as it facing the Mediterranean Sea on the north side, and Alexandria University on its southern side, it's very close to the site of the old library.

Statue of Ptolemy I

• Ptolemy I was the founder of the old library, so the Egyptian governorate placed him here at the entrance of the library, to welcome visitors of the new library, this statue was one of the sunken monuments, that have been at the bottom of the sea in the east of the port for 2000 years, it was caught from the sea by the French Egyptology Jean-Yves Emperor, the statue is made of pink granite, and consists of 4 pieces (Body, head, crown and arm).

 Design concept

• It is a simple circle leaning towards the sea, partially submerged in a pool of water, which representing the image of the Egyptian sun, that illuminates the world, and human civilization, while the outer wall is made of gray granite from Aswan, and carved with symbols of 120  letters  from known, and forgotten languages, symbolizing world cultures throughout different historical eras.

Demetrius statue

• The first thing will meet after the entrance is Demetrius statue, who was working as an advisor to Ptolemy I, and he was the architecture who planned the ancient Library of Alexandria, he was an Athenian politician,  philosopher, and Alexander's colleague.

Callimachus triangle hall

• Callimachus trinagle hall located at the entrance of the Library, as it is intended to give library visitors a chance, to peek into the reading room without disturbing the readers, it was named callimachus as the proportion of the poet of the Greek, where he was the first to develop the rules of classification of books (indexing) in the Ancient Library of Alexandria. 

• The Library of Alexandria consists of 11 floors, four of them are under the surface of the ground, the top two floors are similar to a ship, they are intended for meetings, while the last two floors belong to the management of the library.

• The degree of inclination in the roof allows sunlight to enter, without the inconvenience of readers with direct rays, it is used to light up by two colors blue, and green, which represent the land and the sea, as these colors give a sense of comfort to the visitors, and readers, while the inner wall of the library contains rectangular openings similar to those in the old library, where the papyrus scrolls were preserved, and these openings were created here, to simulate the ancient library, and they also help absorb noise.

Bulaq Press

• Bulaq presswas established during the reign of Muhammad Ali in 1820, as  it considered to be the first official print government press in the history of Egypt, it was transferred to the library to preserve it, and highlight it 's historical value. 

• The importance of the printing press is that it is more than just machines, this print journalist was a source of knowledge in the form of books that Egypt desperately needed, the first book on which was printed was an Arabic-Italian dictionary.

Artifact of the Kiswah of  Holy Kaaba 

• This antique piece dates back to the 1820s, It is part of the cladding of the holy Kaaba, which was made from black silk, about 120 kg of gold, and 100 kg of silver thread, which isused to sew Quranic verses, it is changes annually on the 9th of Dhul-Hijjah.

Museums

• Museum of Manuscripts , the Museum of Antiquities, the Museum of the History of Science , and the Sadat Museum

(Bachelor) Specialized Research Centers

• It has 7 specialized research centers ( Manuscripts , Cultural and Natural Heritage Documentation Center, Calligraphy and Writing, Informatics Sciences, Alexandria and Mediterranean Studies, Arts, Scientific Research, Dialogue Forum ).

Planetarium Science Center (PSC)

• Planetarium science center (PSC) was designed in the shape of outer planet behind in orbit, to be settled in the orbit of the library, the purpose of it is to show films about celestial bodies, the planetarium can accommodate a hundred people, and gives each of them the feeling that they are inside a spaceship among the stars, and planets with sound and light effects, All of that made the library as centerpiece for both learnings, and debate.