The BA Alexandria Project organizes a lecture entitled “Automatic Doors and the Ancient Library of Alexandria”, delivered by Dr. Mona Mohamed El-Shahhat, Professor of Greco-Roman Archaeology, at the Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University. The lecture is held on Monday, 26 September 2022, at 1:00 pm, in the BACC Delegates Hall.
The lecture deals with "doors" and their manufacture in ancient times, particularly among Greeks and Romans, and their importance in ancient architectural buildings. It also sheds light on one of the scholars of the ancient Library of Alexandria, Heron of Alexandria, the mathematician and engineer who lived in the first century AD, and who was especially interested in applying the principles of mathematics to implement the idea of doors that open by themselves, which is what we now call "automatic doors". Therefore, this type of doors appeared in ancient times and was closely related to the scientific and architectural heritage of ancient Alexandria, whose impact has extended across the ages and to our present time.