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Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Long, long ago (so long ago, in fact, that it sounds almost mythical), the Royal Library of Alexandria in Egypt was the largest library in the world. It housed, some say, around a million scrolls full of vast reams of knowledge. Then mysteriously, it was no more – and no one really knows why. It most likely burned to the ground, taking all of its scrolls with it. Its destruction may remain a mystery, but now, 2,300 years after it was created, the library has been resurrected. In 2003, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina rose, gleaming in its modernity, out of the city's harbor.