Archaeologists have uncovered the real life site of the fabled ancient university of Alexandria. Nevine El-Aref reports A Polish-Egyptian archaeological team has recently discovered a limestone complex of 13 auditoria along the northern side of the Roman theatre portico in downtown Alexandria's Kom Al-Dikka area. The explorers are confident that they have found the site of the city's fabled ancient university, which is thought to have schooled some 5,000 students at a time. Most of the auditoria feature three rows of 3.5 metres high benches running along the walls on three sides and forming a semicircle at the end. Lecturers most probably used an elevated seat in the centre. Culture Minister Farouk Hosni called the discovery "very important not only for Alexandria but for the entire world". Hosni said that information about Alexandria's ancient intellectual life had previously only come from manuscripts, letters, biographies, textual references and other documents by well-known philosophers, professors and scholars. "Now, after uncovering these auditoria, we have concrete evidence of Alexandria's great academic institution, when Alexandria dominated the Mediterranean region during the late Roman period." Hosni also ventured that it might have been the "oldest university in the world". Alexandria's power and influence in the region increased from the moment the city became Egypt's capital in 320 BC. Its rulers built the massive lighthouse that was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, as well as the famous Alexandria library, which was said to contain every book that had ever been written. The university, meanwhile, was widely known as a centre of excellence for scholars from around the world, and was the alma mater of Archimedes, Euclid, and the astronomer Eratosthenes, who calculated the earth's diameter. Supreme Council of Antiquities Secretary-General Zahi Hawass said the discovery's importance also stemmed from it being the first ever complex discovered on any Graeco-Roman site in the entire Mediterranean region, thus providing a complete vision of academic life during the fifth and sixth centuries, not only in ancient Alexandria but in Athens, Rome and Constantinpole (Istanbul) as well. According to Grzegory Majchereck, director of the Polish mission in Kom Al- Dikka, the discovery also revealed that Alexandria continued to be a great intellectual centre even after the deterioration of the fabled Alexandria library in the fourth century AD. Majchereck also said the discovery had helped shed light on the function of the nearby Roman theatre in the late antiquity era; "after being a theatre for musical concerts, it became a part of the very same complex serving the needs of a larger group of students," he said. When the next archaeological season begins in September, excavators will brush away the sand to also bring other seven halls that have already been located by the Polish mission into the light.
