As the sun rises over the Egyptian coastline, one of the world's largest private yachts steams towards Alexandria. Standing on its upper deck is Julius Caspar, billionaire oil tycoon and philanthropist, who is returning to the city on his 80th. birthday. And as he gazes at the approaching waterfront, he recalls his youth as an impecunious Armenian bank clerk in what was then the most glittering centre of the Mediterranean and his frustrated love but ever haunting love for an 18 year old heiress before his subsequent escalade to riches and worldwide recognition. Set against a changing backdrop...

Two thousand three hundred years ago the world's first great Library and international Culture Centre was created by the Pharaoh Ptolemy I Soter. The Shores of Wisdom tells the story of this ancient Library and Mouseion of Alexandria and how it influenced Western thought as much as, if not more than, Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum at Athens. It sketches the portraits of the men and women responsible for the Library's fame, such as Euclid and Archimedes, the astronomers Aristarchus and Claude Ptolemy, the polymath Eratosthenes, the philosopher Philo, not forgetting the early Christian...

La premiere grande biblioteque et centre culturel du monde etaient crees par le pharaon Ptolemee I Soter il y a deux mille trios cents ans. Les Rivages de la Connaissance racontent l'histoire de l'ancienne Bibliotheque et du Mouseion d'Alexandrie, et l'influence qu'ils eurent sur la pensee occidentale, autant si ce n'est plus que lAcademie de Platon et le Lycee d'Aristote a Athenes. Les portraits des homm es et des femmes responsables de la renomee de la Bibliotheque y sont esquisses: Euclide et Archimede. Des astronomes tels qu'Aristarque et Claude Ptolemee, Eratosthene le mathematicien et...