Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Alexandria, Egypt

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Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt, is a modern tribute to the legendary ancient Library of Alexandria, once the greatest repository of knowledge in the classical world. Officially inaugurated in 2002 after decades of planning and international collaboration, the library was designed by the Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta and built on a site near the original library’s location, adjacent to Alexandria University and the Mediterranean Sea.

Its striking circular structure, tilted like a sundial toward the sea, symbolizes the cyclical nature of knowledge and the rising sun of enlightenment. The granite façade is etched with characters from over 120 writing systems, celebrating the diversity of human expression. Inside, the library boasts a vast reading room that spans 20,000 square meters across eleven cascading levels, capable of housing up to eight million books.

It also includes specialized libraries for children, the visually impaired, and multimedia resources, as well as a planetarium, four museums, art galleries, and permanent exhibitions. Among its treasures are rare manuscripts, digital archives, and collections donated by institutions like the Bibliothèque nationale de France, which gifted 500,000 books, making it one of the largest Francophone libraries in the world.