Library of Alexandria discovered

Originally posted by Anonymous ATS
This is an absolutely amazing find, do you know if they found anything else?

Originally posted by Kandinsky
Since the discovery in 04, the subject seemed to go the way of the Library itself. Very little appears to have been written in the meantime. It's probably due to the dig being difficult and unconventional. Underwater digs are fraught with problems, require higher funding and are naturally vulnerable to seasons and weather.

Anyway, Raising Alexandria is more recent and contains far more information than the BBC example. If you find any more good links, please post them

The first chief of the library, Eratosthenes, measured the earth's circumference to an accuracy within a few hundred miles. The library contained an unparalleled collection of scrolls thanks to a government edict mandating that foreign ships hand over scrolls for copying. And the ships arrived from all directions.

Some sailing on the monsoon winds imported silks and spices from the western coast of India via the Red Sea; the valuable cargo was then taken overland to the Mediterranean for transport to Alexandria. One ship alone in the third century b.c. carried 60 cases of aromatic plants, 100 tons of elephant tusks and 135 tons of ebony in a single voyage. Theaters, bordellos, villas and warehouses sprang up. Ptolemy granted Jews their own quarter, near the royal quarter, while Greeks, Phoenicians, Nabateans, Arabs and Nubians rubbed shoulders on the quays and in the marketplaces. Lest they be overrun, the Greek-speaking rulers periodically banished the far more numerous Egyptians to the countryside.