Bibliotheca Alexandrina

The main reading room seats 2,000 across eleven cascading levels under a tilted glass roof, and it is one of the great modern interiors anywhere. The granite exterior wall is carved with characters from every writing system in existence.

The complex also holds an antiquities museum, a manuscript museum, a planetarium and the archive of the internet's early years, donated by the Internet Archive.

Opened in 2002, designed by Snøhetta after an international competition. The ancient Library, founded in the 3rd century BC, declined over centuries rather than burning in one dramatic fire — a fact the new library's guides enjoy correcting visitors on.