Jan. 2014:  “The Alexandria villa that inspired one of the 20th century’s most acclaimed works of literature could soon be demolished, according to its new owner. Villa Ambron was once the home of Lawrence Durrell, the British author twice shortlisted for the Nobel prize for literature, whose experiences while living at the villa inspired his most famous work, The Alexandria Quartet. But the businessman who owns it says it may soon make way for a high-rise apartment block. If bulldozed, Durrell’s crumbling former home would become the 36th listed building from Alexandria’s fin-de-siècle heyday to be demolished in five years, according to campaigners. Up to 25 of the buildings were destroyed illegally by developers, prompting Alexandria’s historians and architects to fear for the legacy of a city that was once one of the grandest in the region. Many of the 1,135 buildings nominally protected by a 2006 preservation order…