Watching recent events in Egypt, one can't help but think of that country's long and fascinating history. Not the lease significant part of that history is the Library of Alexandra, in it's day the largest library in the world. Not everyone is aware that there is a new Library of Alexandra, which opened in 2002 in an award-winning building. If you'd like to know more about the library, there's an interesting and informative recent article about it in the Wall Street Journal (Feb. 8, 2011).

In less than 10 years of operation, the library has introduced information technology considered cutting edge anywhere on the globe. [...]. With some 1.5 million visitors and 700 events last year, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (the library is formally known by its Latin name) has become a gathering place for scientists, literary figures and other thinkers from around the world.

The library has come through the recent upheavals with no problems. Despite the fact the Egyptian government turned off the Internet for several days, the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine of 150 billion archived webpages, stored on servers in the Alexandria Library, continued to function without disruption. And how appropriate that the archive has its home in the reincarnation of one of the world's first and most famous libraries.