Ptolemaic Egypt · 331-240 BC

Alexandria: the library and the lighthouse

The Ptolemies built a Greek city on the Egyptian coast and filled it with every book they could find. Students explore the Museum and Library, the lighthouse on Pharos island, and the scholar who measured the Earth with a stick and a shadow.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, 331 BC to 240 BC
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

The Ptolemies built a Greek city on the Egyptian coast and filled it with every book they could find. Students explore the Museum and Library, the lighthouse on Pharos island, and the scholar who measured the Earth with a stick and a shadow.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate Alexandria and explain why Alexander chose this site in 331 BC.
  • Describe the Library and Museum and name two scholars who worked there.
  • Explain how Eratosthenes estimated the size of the Earth.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

331 BC

A site on the edge of Egypt

Open the map in 331 BC on the Egyptian coast west of the Nile Delta. Alexander chose a strip of land between the sea and a lake, with the island of Pharos offshore to shelter a harbor. Turn on Historical Events (Political) and find "Founding of Alexandria". Why not build in the Delta itself?

Open this view on the map
b

283 BC

The Library

Jump to 283 BC and find "Library of Alexandria Founded" in Historical Events (Cultural). Ptolemy I and II paid scholars to live in the Museum and had ships in the harbor searched for books to copy, until the shelves held hundreds of thousands of scrolls. What could that do for a new kingdom?

Open this view on the map
c

240 BC

Measuring the Earth

Go to 240 BC and travel up the Nile to Syene (Aswan), where the midsummer sun shines straight down a well at noon. Eratosthenes, head of the Library, measured the shadow in Alexandria that day and the distance between the cities, and worked out the size of the Earth. Find both places.

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Alexandria was called "Alexandria by Egypt", not "in Egypt". The rulers spoke Greek and most of the population was Greek, Jewish and Egyptian. Was it an Egyptian city at all?
  2. The Ptolemies paid scholars to study anything they liked, with free meals and no teaching duties. Why would a king pay for geometry and poetry?
  3. Euclid's geometry textbook written here was used in schools for 2,000 years. What makes a book last that long?
  4. Eratosthenes got the Earth's size nearly right with a shadow, a well and some geometry. What does his method teach about how to measure something too big to see?
  5. The Library was damaged by fire in 48 BC and faded over the following centuries; nobody knows exactly how it ended. Why do people still argue so passionately about its loss?
4

Game round

10 min

Play one round of Rule History as Cleopatra VII, the last Ptolemy and, say ancient writers, the first of her family to learn Egyptian. Discuss: she grew up beside the Library. How might a ruler who read widely rule differently from one who did not?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.