ABSTRACT
In autumn 1989 the first stone of the New Alexandrina or Bibliotecha Alexandrina was laid. The project – which is a joint venture between the Egyptian government and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) – aims to recreate the ancient Mouseion (Museum/Library) on what are believed to be the ruins of its original site along the Corniche at Alexandria, Egypt. The ceremony made front-page news in Europe. One observer commented that ‘it seems as if the West is regaining something fundamental to its heritage or, even more, to its very beginnings’. Turning her attention to the possible reactions of Alexandrians to the new project she mused that, ‘in Alexandria, this lonely stone sitting in the middle of an empty plot by the sea has the power to annoy. It is also an object of pride’, and concluded ‘to be an inhabitant of a legendary city whose glorious past has disappeared is something that can be both brandished like a flag and merely suffered’ (Errera 1997:129).
