CAIRO - Located within walking distance of Tahrir Square in central Cairo, the Egypt's Institute stood intact for more than 100 years. The building, constructed in the early 20th century, was the third venue of the Institute, which historians said had been created upon orders from Napoleon Bonaparte, the commander of the French Expedition to Egypt (1798-1801). Tucked between the historic building of the American University in Cairo and the Egyptian Parliament, the Egypt's Institute was a treasure trove of books. According to some estimates, they were 200,000 volumes – all, alas, reduced to ashes in a matter of hours. The books, including an original text of The Description of Egypt, were among the casualties in the clashes between angry protesters and soldiers in central Cairo on December 17 – ironically the day when the Arab Spring blossomed one year ago in Tunisia. "The blaze gutted the building," Mohamed el-Sharnoubi, the Secretary-General of the Egypt's Institute, said at the weekend. "The destroyed tomes represented Egypt's heritage. The books, dating from 1798 [the year of the French Expedition to Egypt], have all been lost," added a shocked el-Sharnoubi. "A precious part of Egypt's history has gone up in flames," he told Egyptian television. Other irreplaceable treasures that went up in flames included an atlas of Egypt published in 1752 and a work on the arts of ancient India, as well as countless rare maps and precious documents. The blaze, which raged for long hours inside the historic building, resulted from violent clashes between anti-military protesters and soldiers on one of the corners of Qasr Al-Aini Street, home to a number of major institutions in Cairo. The Government blamed the blaze on "a handful" of arsonists, "who sought to destroy the nation's history". In an angry statement, it vowed to hunt down and bring to justice those "who deliberately torched this unique heritage, which is a symbol of Egypt's civilisation". Apparently fire broke out in the huge library, when petrol bombs were lobbed inside it on the second day of the clashes. It took fire engines several hours to arrive. They were probably busy putting out other fires ignited in the Cabinet headquarters, just yards away, or in the neighbouring building of the Roads and Bridges Department, both of which were damaged in the violence. However, governmental officials have blamed the belated arrival of the firefighters on diehard protesters, who allegedly targeted them with a barrage of petrol bombs and rocks. The Institute was a mecca for scores of Egyptian and foreign scholars in different academic disciplines. Thousands of Egyptian and foreign visitors, who passed through the iconic Tahrir Square, were unaware of the presence nearby of this Institute that, according to the history books, was set up with the aim of propagating knowledge and helping the country to progress. As the intensity of the clashes between the protesters and the Army eased late on Saturday, it dawned upon some people who happened to be near the smouldering building that there was a wealth of information burning inside. They rushed inside and tried desperately to save anything they could. They managed to rescue some partially burnt books, which they handed over to the soldiers positioned outside. Nonetheless, it was too late because all the invaluable books had already been lost to the fire.
