The story of Sky of Alexandria, the first planetarium show ever produced entirely in the Middle East, revolves around the evolution of Man’s vision of the sky in search for answers to its riddles and laws of motion across time. The show explains how time is an important factor in the evolution of knowledge and the changes in ideas, opinions, and visions.

Using advanced technologies, the production team showcased the most important contributions of the scientists of the Ancient Library of Alexandria, especially in the field of astronomy. The viewers of the show will see how the contribution of each scientist added to previous knowledge. In the beginning of the show, the viewer enters the Ancient Library and feels the glory of Apollonius, Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, Ptolemy and others; as he watches them move, discuss and observe, he will join them in gazing at the Sky of Alexandria. In this part, the viewer hears the narrators deep voice:

“the Sky of Alexandria has remained an opened book for the viewing of scientists … scientists who were occupied with the knowledge of how far the Sun is, how far from us the Moon is, what orbits the other, where the center of the Universe is, and how big the Universe is … they searched the sky to learn the relationships between the stars, their positions, and their motion … they watched, observed and thought.”

The show then moves forward through time to the present where the viewer looks at the Sky of Alexandria today and sees how our vision has changed from that of the ancients. Modern science and the new observational technologies allow us to see what our predecessors could not see. In a voyage from the Earth to the Moon and a journey amidst the planets of the Solar System, we discover that what we see and know today is attributed to contributions of the ancient scientists.

The Sky of Alexandria is the first Egyptian scientific planetarium show; it has been produced by the Arab Academy for Science and Technology that was responsible for the animated graphics and direction. The original idea and script were laid by the astronomers and specialists of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Planetarium Science Center; the scientific content was revised by Dr. Farouk Elbaz. The show was executed and installed by a collaborative team from both the Planetarium Science Center and the Multi-Media Center at the Arab Academy for Science and Technology.

From the left:

Eng. Hoda Elmikaty, Dr. Gamal Mokhtar, Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Dr. Mohamed Youssef