"Science and the technical wonders it produces CAN blaze suddenly towards the heavens and then just as quickly return to the desert sands, lost and forgotten."
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The Antikythera Device, a computer from ancient times recently determined to be an accurate mechanism for determining the movements of the Sun, Moon and five known planets of the ancient world. Source: Wikipedia, taken from APOD for December 5, 2006. |
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Jay Hilgartner sits at a computer station in today's modern Library of Alexandria where he recently visited. The new library is built on the site of the ancient Library of Alexandria, where detailed plans for building a device such as "The Antikethera Mechanism" may have been kept. All photos by the author unless otherwise noted. Click HERE for interior of library, and HERE for exterior. |
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The exterior of the ancient temple site of the Serapeum. Photo by Jay Hilgartner. |
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A sketch of the internal workings of the Antikythera Mechanism. Source: Scientific American article, June 1959: by Derek J. de Solla Price |
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A dark and mysterious passageway under the ancient remains of the Serapeum in Egypt. Some 40,000 ancient scrolls were said to have been salvaged from the great library at Alexandria and shelved here after the destruction of the great library. They remained here for only a short time until this site was also destroyed by fire in A.D. 391. Photo by Jay Hilgartner. |
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