by Gustavo Correia

Created on: June 02, 2007

Let's take a trip back to the past. City of Alexandria, in Egypt. Year of 283 BC. This is the scenario in which was developed one of the most important and innovating constructions ever made by men the Royal Library of Alexandria.
More than 2000 years before the radio, the TV, the airplane and the internet were invented, the Royal Library of Alexandria had documents from Assyria, Greece, Persia, Egypt, India and many other nations. Over 100 scholars lived there full time to perform research, write, lecture or translate and copy documents. Also, the Library received people from several different civilizations, becoming the home for numerous experiments and inventors in all fields of study, including names like Archimedes, Ptolemy and Galen, great geniuses from the past.

The loss of the Library has been lamented for ages. But how it happened is still a mystery, haunted by different stories. It has been estimated that at one time it held over 700,000 documents. Under the saying of being "a great library with all the knowledge of the world", the library was victim of many possible invasions. Including attacks from other nations in a try to steal and destroy scrolls that supposedly contained the key of alchemy secrets of making gold and silver. In the list of the most wanted for the destruction of the Royal Library of Alexandria we have Julius Caesar, Theophilus and Moslems under the control of Caliph Omar. All of these are blamed for burning parts of the library in different times. "The real tragedy of course is not the uncertainty of knowing who to blame for the library's destruction but that so much of ancient history, literature and learning was lost forever." (Chesser 2)
The ashes from Alexandria made priceless documents disappear, making unknown a lot of knowledge of men and that is why it is considered such a significant event in history. Being knowledge the base of education it is impossible for me not to see the end of the Royal Library of Alexandria as a symbol of education importance.
Education can define the future of any nation, education can be without a doubt a weapon against poverty; education allows us to understand the world, helping us to understand the blessings of diversity. But we are failing in providing education for everyone and if I could change any event in the history, I would never let a single book of the Library of Alexandria burn, to remember the world that not a single person should be deprived of education. If I had such power, the Royal Library of Alexandria would be an icon for all of us.
In ancient times, the Library of Alexandria sharing its knowledge gave the world many discoveries. The use of knowledge allowed men to develop technology. We developed comfort, we developed speed, but that was not enough. Humanity cries out for a better world and a better world cannot be built while ignorance still leads men to so many conflicts.

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