Surely Egyptians were not the only ones to build research areas or libraries. I am curious if there were other such locations in other cultures at around the same time or even before, and where can I get more information about them if they do/did exists?
Can I ask where you have seen it held up as a model for modern higher education? Ive seen it rightly or wrongly marked as an instance of the "loss of knowledge" or human development but that's about it.
I find it actually interesting that people have construed it as some sort of proto research university or some such.