2006-12-27 An eye-opener

Pollard and Reid throw us into a wondrous world of forty-storey lighthouses, Manhattan street-grids and inquisitive minds circa 300BC. Ancient Alexandria spawned an astonishing number of breakthroughs across physics, astronomy, medicine and mathematics, all carefully logged in its grand library which sadly ceased to exist many centuries ago. A wonderful example of early 'open-source' software, the library attracted its disciples, each working on the discoveries of his predecessor in order to progress to the next level. Much of this work was lost for centuries, re-discovered only recently and it is surprising how much of Alexandria's output affects our lives today.

This is an important book written in an accessible style which succeeds in piecing together a reconstruction of a long-gone ancient civilisation influenced by the Greeks, the Romans and the Egyptians.