Alexandria Library

Originally founded in the 3rd century, the Alexandria Bibliotheca is a striking piece of 21st century architecture. The library is credited with preserving the most knowledge of the ancient world and holds nearly 9 million books. The building itself boasts a visually stunning main reading room and the complex houses several smaller specialized libraries, a conference center, art galleries, and a planetarium. The building exterior is decorated with characters from 120 different written languages as a reference to the wealth of knowledge from around the world that is held in the library. This library is the successor of the Great Library of Alexandria, one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world, which was accidentally burned by Julius Caesar.