Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories - The Great Library of Alexandria (Premium)

Episode Date: November 29, 2021

This is a preview episode. Get the full episode, and many more, ad free, on our supporter's feed: https://getsleepy.com/support. The Great Library of Alexandria Tonight, we’ll be walking the halls of perhaps the greatest library of the ancient world. And we might even run into one of the most famous scholars of the age while we’re there. 😴  Sound design: ocean waves, sea breeze, distant gulls 🌊💨 Narrator: Thomas Jones 🇬🇧 About Get Sleepy Premium: Help support the podcast, and get: Monday and Wednesday night episodes (with zero ads) The exclusive Thursday night bonus episode Access to the entire back catalog (also ad-free) Premium sleep meditations, extra-long episodes and more! We'll love you forever. ❤️ Get a 7 day free trial, and join the Get Sleepy community here https://getsleepy.com/support. And thank you so, so much.  Tom, and the team. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi, Thomas here. You're listening to a preview episode. You can enjoy the entire story tonight by subscribing to our supporters' feed. There you'll get access to the entire back catalogue, bonus episodes, and more, and it's all completely ad-free. Click the link below to learn more. And thank you so so much. Me and the team really appreciate your support. You step out of the shade of your home and feel the blazing golden sun on your skin, tempered by the cool breeze blowing off the middle sea. The gentle ocean wind coming from the north tugs at the extra fabric of the tunic around your legs.

Heading out of the yard, you let your hand run over the rough, sandy coloured bark of your favourite sickermal. It's a young tree transplanted here recently, like most of the buildings and most of the people. This year is 241 BCE, and the entire city of Alexandria is less than a hundred years old. Alexandria is less than a hundred years old. As you head down the hill, you duck in and out of the shade in the Egyptian quarter of town. Hints of the fishing village that stood on the place that became Alexandria are visible all around.

You catch glimpses of Egyptian lotus columns throughout this part of the city. The decorative sections at the top, called capitals, are carved into intricate and beautiful flower petal shapes. There's even the occasional old modern brick home or shed tucked away among the modern, truss-roofed Greek villas. This is your favourite part of the walk. You start at a street corner and let the procession of a nobleman parade go by lazily. A train of impeccably robed servants passes by with an important looking man at the head, riding a beautiful Egyptian stallion.

Glancing down the hill, you can see between the gaps in the buildings. There, over the blue-green sea, stands the lighthouse of Alexandria. It was only finished recently, but it still takes your breath away. Everyone says it's the tallest building in the world, and you believe it. This incredible structure is more than 300 feet tall from the base to the statue of the god on top. The morning sun glimmers off the limestone and granite, and smoke billows from the lantern room, guiding ships from every corner of the world. The building is monumental, embodying the beauty and power of modern civilization, all block edges and sheer faces of stone. Egyptian trade ships and Greek trierims with their giant sails and rows of aures bob through the harbour beneath the great lighthouse.

There's so much to look at in such a busy port you think to yourself. Continuing on, you soon come to the expanse of the Kanopus Way, a bustling main street paved in stone. It stretches from the sungate on the east end of the city to the moongate on the west. Decorative rectangular pools divide the center of the main thoroughfare. You're not really supposed to play in the water, but everyone does, especially the children. You head over to a storm just a stone throw from the Agora, the huge plaza where the canopus meets the soma. That's the large street running from the south end of the city to the royal district following the water.

From the vendor you order a popular local snack, fried fish, caught fresh this morning. As you sit by one of the fountains in the middle of the street, you let yourself people watch for a moment. So many interesting individuals pass you by. There are Egyptian farmers with carts pulled by donkeys heading to the markets. Greek tradespeople, Ambul past, engaged in a friendly discussion about stonework. Guards and army officials travel on small Egyptian horses, and the occasional chariot flies past its wheels and the horses hooves creating a rhythmic pattering sound on the stone.

You close your eyes and let yourself fall into the lullaby of the city. you