ABSTRACT
This chapter is to map the process of this Egyptianizing movement which takes the Alexandrina from the attics of legend and myth in order to recast it in terms of future visions for Egypt. The Bibliotecha Alexandrina project which aims to revive the ancient Alexandria Mouseion/Library represents a very specific intervention and engagement with the use of ancient Egyptian architectural motifs and constructions. The international enterprise is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge, and will attract scholars from many countries. It will celebrate the cosmopolitanism that is the city and culture of Alexandria, and the traditions of internationalism, critical questioning, and freedom of enquiry that were at varying times the hallmarks of the ancient library. Contemporary Egyptianization, therefore, exacts a challenge to the academic purchase on the old Alexandrina paradigm. The other dynamic relates to the traumatic separation or departure during the 1950s of foreign Alexandrians known as Khwaga.
