Oct 30 – Kom El Dikka, a Fortress and the new Alexandria Library

Despite Egypt’s long and proud history they have spent time under the dominion of conquerors.  Today we visited the site of a Roman city in Alexandria.  The Kom El Dikka.  It had one of the smaller theaters that we have seen.  And there were a number of other ruins.  We sat at the top and enjoyed the view while the others wandered down in the ruins.

Then it was on to the Alexandria Library.  According to our guide, when US President Nixon visited Egypt in 1974 he wanted to see the Library of Alexandria.  You know, the one that burned down sometime around 640 AD. This got the city fathers to thinking…and they decided that they wanted to create one of the greatest libraries in the modern world. 

They went on a major fundraising binge and raised enough money to build their dream.  UNESCO even created a commission to help with the conceptualization and planning.  They also launched a worldwide search for a design (won by a multinational team from Norway).  The results…this new library opened its doors in October 2002. 

The walls surrounding the building and parts of the outer shell have letters from every known written language in the world.  

The complex consists of a conference center, a planetarium and the massive library. 

Planetarium

The main library building is 160 meters in diameter and 30 meters high and shaped like a disc.  The disc is tilted like a sun dial towards the Mediterranean Sea with lots of slit opening in the roof to let in the light without letting in any direct sunlight.  It is striking.

Some of the walls in the main reading hall were of highly reflective, polished black granite.  The roof windows made interesting reflections on the granite.

The one massive, eleven-level reading hall is 220,000 square feet and con seat over 2,000 people.  It has shelving for over 9 million volumes.  There are exhibition halls and meeting rooms and specialized rooms for things like maps and multimedia and musems. 

Egypt was once under French rule and the French donated a huge number of books from the French National Library.  This library is now the sixth largest Francophone library in the world. 

They had an interesting exhibit of really old printing presses set up in the main reading hall.

We had a great time poking around and exploring and snapping photos.  We have found that libraries all over the world are often a great place to visit and explore and photograph.  And this place was especially interesting. 

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More Alexandria Library
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After leaving here we headed over to the Qaitbay Citadel.  It is at the far end of the harbor and sits on the probable location of the ancient wonder of the world, the Alexandria Lighthouse. 

An original stone from the citadel

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More Qaitbay Citadel
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After exploring the citadel Joan and Earl headed back to the hotel to enjoy the luxuries there.  (Joyce and Ben had skipped todays touring as Joyce wasn’t feeling well.)  The rest of us had a lovely lunch overlooking the harbor.

View of the library from our lunch spot.

The drive back to the hotel was along the Corniche.  This drive is lovely but most of the buildings along it really need a scrub and a new paint job.

We spent an afternoon of relaxation in the hotel.  We ate out on the open restaurant near the beach that night.  Would have loved to have had a day just to relax at the beach or pool(s) at this hotel.