Alexandria's
state-of-the-art library, designed by
Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta,
was inaugurated in 2001. Alexandria was
founded by Alexander the Great in or around
334 BC (the exact date is disputed) as
Aleksándreia. Alexander's chief
architect for the project was Deinocrates
of Rhodes. Ancient accounts are extremely
numerous and varied, and much influenced
by subsequent developments. One of the
more sober descriptions, given by the
historian Arrian, tells how Alexander
undertook to lay out the city's general
plan, but lacking chalk or other means,
resorted to sketching it out with grain.
Alexander's seers, and in particular Aristander
of Telmessus, interpreted this as an omen
that the city would prosper, particularly
in grain. Other authors make the omen
not the grain itself, but the arrival
of flocks of birds to eat it. In any case,
the story explains Alexandria's role as
the shipping-point for Egyptian grain,
which fed the Hellenistic and Roman world.
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