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Zoom in! new Library of Alexandria Review

Alphabets.

Here, I find myself willing to beg your attention for a few seconds! .... May I?

As you are quite aware nations use the names or sounds of the first letters of their alphabet to name it. e.g. Greeks used [ Alpha+Beta : ALPHABET]. The Arabs used the names [Aleph+Ba : ALEPHBA], or the sounds of the first four letters [ Aleph + Ba + Gim + Dal : ABGaDyeah].

But How Greeks got such characters and relevant sounds?

Egyptian hieroglyphics and Sumerian cuneiforms were the only known forms of writing in ancient times. Both scripts, though separately created, used picture writing. Eventually, pictures or signs represented sounds. By about 1200 B.C., the Phoenicians had developed symbols which in time became a real alphabet from which the Greeks derived theirs. The characters represent in all probability an early forking from the Sinaitic, which constitutes the connecting link between the Phoenician alphabet and its Egyptian ancestor.

The Egyptian symbol for the ox head was given the Semitic name Aleph and was sounded as "A", to get it: Flip ‘A’ vertically ! Imagine an ox head with its two horns! The symbol for house became Bet and was sounded as "B". The symbol for Camel’s head and neck became Gamal and was called Gamma and sounded as “G” ….
…and so on:
for door Dalet and sounded D,
for water Mem, Myah and sounded M to get it imagine the water waves*,
for teeth Sin and sounded S, compare Greek Sigma and the teeth*.

Address: Alexandira, Egypt

Directions: Shatby / Silsila

Tanagra Greco Roman monuments Review

Tanagra was a chief town of east Boeotia in Greece. In the 4th century it declined in importance, but it flourished in Hellenistic and Roman times. In Alexandria such trracotta figures kept the name and the art.

Address: Alexandria, Egypt

Directions: Alexandria National Museum

There had been a lighthouse in this place... fort of Qaitbey Review

On this island of Pharos, which Alexander the Great connected with Alexandria mainland by a mole nearly a mile long, Ptolemy 2nd erected a lighthouse, said to be the first of its kind. It was one of the Ancient World’s Seven Wonders.

Not only had its high brazier of fire guided the ships into harbour, but it had housed a large garrison in its three hundred rooms. Gone was its vast mirror of legendary fame, it had been said that cities far away could be glimpsed in it like mirages, and that should and enemy ship appear, the rays of the sun could be relfected on it with enough intensity to envelop it in flames.

During the 14th century successive earthquakes and a gigantic tidal waves demolished the city. All traces of the wonderful lighthouse vanished.

Nowadays we can see a Fort instead...

Address: eastern of alexandria-Anfushi area

Directions: Alexandria, Egypt

The Medusa legends. kom el shokafa catacombs Review

The belief / legned, that Medusa head turned to stone anything that met its gaze, led to the representation of the head as a protective figure on shields and on walls.

In another legend Aphrodite the goddes of beauty –out of jealousy of the other charming lady Medusa- turned her face into hideous, eyes into glaring and girdles of hair into serpents. Sigh! What a pity!

This photo shows such Medusa-shields as well as the snakes to protect the sarcophagos and destroy the unwanted beings !

Ancient Egyptians adopted the “false doors at the tombs” as a clever way to deceive thieves.

The pic is imported from the mentioned site; as photos are no longer permitted inside the Catacombs.

Directions: at western end of Alexandria

Poor Great Donkey! Thank you. kom el shokafa catacombs Review

The Kom As-Shouqafa Catacombs were accidentally discovered in 1900 when a donkey and cart fell through the ground revealing the undergroung chambers and tombs.

What is so funny is when a large chamber "the Funerary Hall of Caracalla" was opened, it hosted skeletons of horses as well. The Emperor was inordinately fond of horses.

It seems that our poor donkey was keen to find out some of his kinship ancestors!

I hope you don't miss the next page!

Address: Alexandria, Egypt

Directions: Konm As-Shoqafa, Nasreya, Karmouz.

Pompey's Pillar Pompey's Pillar Review

The Site:Alexandria Serapeum.

The Monument:A column raised in 300 A.D. in honour of Emperor Diocletian, who saved the city of Alexandria from a frightful famine.On the western side of the column is engraved, "To the just Emperor, the god of Alexandria, the invincible Diocletian." Nevertheless It was called Pompey’s Pillar by the French under certain mistaken impression regarding Pompey’s head.The Arabs called it "Amoud el-Sawari", Column of the Horsemen, bearing in mind or rather imagination that it might have been a base of the emperor’s statue as a cavalry on his horse.

The Material is 22 meters height and 9 meters diameter of polished red granite brought from Upper Egypt across the Nile! You will soon ask HOW? The ancient Nilometer at the site shows that the Nile Canobic Branch had been penetrating this area to its mouth at Canope (known now as Abu Qir) on the Mediterranean Coast.

The Crown is Corinthian Greek Style.

The top of the pillar’s crown was accessed in a very simple, easy but funny method: They flew a kite; when the thread reached the top, they lowered it till the ground and fastened a thick rope capable to raise people to the top…. Believe it! It isn’t a joke of mine.

In a VT meeting here, two of my virtual daughters. VT comate Mrs. Lana, in her fortnight visit to Egypt in March ‘05; and my student –the assistant curator, who graciously guided us to the Serapeum. Cordial greetings for both.*

Address: Alexandria, Egypt

Directions: Karmoz, Alexandria popular area

The First approach to Alexandria

Quote:
" The Macedonians went on along the Nile to the northwest, passed the old Greek ports of trade Naucratis and Marea, and reached the Mediterranean again. In January 331, Alexander decided to found a new town on the western mouth of the Nile, which was to be called Alexandria. The actual founding ceremony took place on 7 April . In fact, it was not a completely new foundation: archaeologists have discovered older walls and we know its old name, Rhacotis, from literary sources. As always, Alexander had several motives to found a new city. He may have been happy that he could leave behind his wounded and his veterans, who could begin a second life. Many Greek emigrants came to the new city. But Alexandria was to be more than just a settlement for veterans and immigrants: its location in the northwest of Egypt strongly suggests that the founder of the city wanted to open a trade route to the Aegean sea. As such, it was to be one of his greatest and most lasting successes."
Unquote (The map and the text are copied from: *http://www.livius.org/aj-al/alexander/alexander08.html),

Address: Nile Delta before the foundation of Alexanria

Directions: Egypt

Website: http://www.livius.org/aj-al/alexander/alexander_t10.html

The Revival of Bibliotheca Alexandrina new Library of Alexandria Review

It is another sample of the international sincere co-orporation.*

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is located on a magnificent site in the Eastern Harbor, facing the sea on the north, and Alexandria University Complex on its southern side.
It overlooks the Silsilah Peninsula. It is very close to the location of the Old Library in the Brucheion (the Ancient Royal Quarter), as verified by the 1993 archeological survey.
The Library of Alexandria complex includes: the Main Library, Young Peoples' Library, Library for the Blind, Planetarium, Science Museum, Calligraphy Museum, Alexandria Archeological Museum, International School of Information Studies (ISIS), Conservation and Restoration Laboratory, Conference Center of Alexandria and Ancillary Services, Multipurpose Rooms and Exhibition areas.

Address: Alexandria, Egypt

Directions: Shatby / Silsila

A 21st-century version new Library of Alexandria Review

Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a 21st-century version of the great classical library.

It is a modern glass-and-steel structure with giant exterior grey granite walls carved with hieroglyphs and symbols from every known alphabet worldwide.

In fact it is an architectural showpiece that symbolises the sun rising out of the Mediterranean and the rebirth of Alexandria in the late 1990s.

The new library includes three museums and five specialised research institutes. Its shelves contain 200,000 books on every field of science and information. The Bibliotheca has room for about five million books.

It also includes a digital library of books manuscripts and papyri written before the invention of printing, allowing all researchers to obtain copies of these valuable documents.

Address: Alexandria, Egypt

Directions: Shatby / Silsila

The catastrophe new Library of Alexandria Review

There are several stories:

1) In 47 B.C., when Caesar was in Alexandria, some 40,000 volumes which were stored near the arsenal -perhaps with the view to theri shipment to Rome, were accidentally burtnt.

2) The Royal Library
The Royal Library was an unfortunate casualty of war. In 48 B.C., Caesar found himself involved in a civil war between Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy XIII. Caesar sided with Cleopatra and was soon besieged by land and sea by the Ptolomaic forces. He realised that his only chance lay in setting fire to the enemy fleet and it was by this drastic measure that he managed to gain the upper hand. But the fire, in the words of Plutarch, spread from the dockyards and destroyed the "Great Library".
The Daughter Library
As regards the Daughter Library, it continued to function throughout the Roman period under the protection of the Sarapeum. Nevertheless, with the end of paganism and the ascendancy of Christianity in the fourth century, the Sarapeum lost its sanctity. In 391, when the Emperor Theodisius ordained the destruction of all pagan temples, contemporary eyewitnesses assert that the Sarapeum, together with all its contents, suffered complete annihilation.

3) The story that it was finally burnt by Arabs is now discredited; since, when the Arabs conquered Egypt in 642 A.D., the Alexandria Library no longer existed. It is noteworthy that no historians of the conquest, whether Byzantine or Arab, ever mention any accident that could have occurred to the Library. It was not until six centuries later, during the time of the Crusades, when all of a sudden a story emerges, claiming that the Arab general Amr Ibn Al-As, had destroyed the books by using them as fuel for the baths! [Ref. my Professor Dr. Mustafa El-Abbady].

Address: Shatby / Silsela

Directions: Alexandria, Egypt