A Light History of Hot Air by Peter Doherty

Author:Peter Doherty [Doherty, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780522855234
Google: a9Q8ngEACAAJ
Publisher: Melbourne University Press
Published: 2008-01-15T03:05:40+00:00

Beacons

On Alexander the Great and the Hatteras Light

On a fine, clear morning, we looked out from an open terrace set high in the facade of Egypt’s magnificent, modernist Biblioteca Alexandrina. The encircling, light grey outer wall of the Biblioteca stretched beneath us. Carved with symbols, hieroglyphs and letters both archaic and modern, it symbolises the complexity, beauty and continuity of language and the written word. Beyond that lies the contrast of a busy, dirty highway, packed with commuters, trucks and the commercial life of a modern city. What most draws the eye and the mind that it serves, though, is the peaceful harbour and breakwater of the ancient port of Alexandria, then the dark blue of the Mediterranean beyond.

According to the director, Ismael Seregeldin, stone building blocks from the ruined Great Library of Alexandria were directly in front of us, though now under water. Founded by Ptolemy I, the Great Library was a beacon of light and learning in the ancient world. Among other functions, it served as the collection of record for that extraordinary creativity that we associate with Athenian democracy. Presaging our era when one copy of every book published is held in one or other National Library, Ptolemy III ordered that all manuscripts and scrolls brought to Alexandria must be surrendered while they were copied by scribes. The papers of Archimedes and Euclid were stored there, more than a hundred scholars were in full-time residence and it is thought that the library functioned a little like a university of today.

The location of the world’s first great library in North Africa reflects the fact that early Alexandria was as much Greek as Egyptian in character. Philip II of Macedon unified the Greek city states, then his son, the warrior Alexander the Great, disseminated Hellenic power and culture throughout the Mediterranean region and beyond. Among Alexander’s many achievements were the liberation of Egypt from Persian rule in 332 BCE and, after Homer appeared to him in a dream when he was camped opposite the tiny island of Pharos, the founding of the city that bears Alexander’s name. Dead at thirty-three, he didn’t even see the first buildings on the site. According to legend, his body was preserved in a barrel of honey so that it could be taken to Alexandria, where it remained on display in a glass sarcophagus for many years.

Alexandria passed through Roman (30 BCE), Islamic (642 CE), French (1798), then British (1882) control, before becoming modern Egypt’s second city and main port. During July 1942, Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Corps pushed the British Eighth Army led by Claude Auchinleck back across the desert to El Alamein, a small, coastal railway junction 102 kilometres west of Alexandria. In October, now commanded by Bernard Montgomery, the Eighth Army’s tank and infantry brigades, including Australian, New Zealand and Greek battalions, fought the second battle of El Alamein that ended the Nazi presence in North Africa. Neither Alexandria nor Cairo ever came under German control.

The atmosphere of turmoil and intrigue in

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