The bewitching silhouette and treasures of the new Library

It is really refreshing to see how animated and busy young Egyptians are at the new Alexandrian Library opposite the Corniche. Designed by the Scandinavian firm Snøhetta, it has 11 floors and can hold up to four million volumes, which can rise to eight thanks to the use of compact storage facilities. Certainly, iconic is its circular, sloping structure, descending towards the water and the city's rounded harbour, by virtue of a diameter of 160 metres and a height of 32 metres, and then sinking about 12 metres into the ground. An open plaza and a reflecting pool surround the building, while a footbridge connects the city to the nearby University of Alexandria. The roof, composed of metal flakes reflecting the sun's rays, winks at the ancient island of Pharos located opposite. Precisely the circular shape is meant to express the continuity between past, present and future, while inside, during guided tours, one appreciates the system of sloping tiers of steps and the tall columns: the extremely valuable collection housed in the Manuscript Museum, which even includes the only fragments of a papyrus that belonged to the original Ptolemaic Library, and the three other museums dedicated respectively to Egyptian President Muhammad Awar al Sadat, to the History of Science and to archaeology enrich the immersion in the knowledge embodied by this cosmopolitan city, which never ceases to enchant and bewitch.