The Library of Alexandria was founded in the 3rd century BC to collect written materials from various cultures. It had two libraries and spaces for scholars. Its size is unknown, but it was believed to be the largest in the ancient world. The library’s destruction has been blamed on multiple people, and no documents have been positively traced to it. A site speculated to be the original Library of Alexandria was uncovered in 2004, shedding more light on the structure.
The Library of Alexandria was a legendary research institution founded by Ptolemy I of Egypt. In modern times, the Library of Alexandria is probably best remembered for its fate: according to a number of historians, the library was looted and burned, though probably in a series of events, rather than all at once. The precise nature of the Great Library is a topic of discussion among scholars, as little information exists about the actual library, and mythology and legends have obscured the actual picture quite completely.
This institution was certainly founded in the 3rd century BC, with the aim of collecting written materials from numerous surrounding cultures. Indeed, two separate libraries housed the collections of the Library of Alexandria, which included parchments from Greece and Rome as well as Egypt. The Library of Alexandria also had meeting rooms, dormitories and other spaces for the use of scholars, scribes and copyists.
Presumably, the massive collections of the Library of Alexandria were gathered partly through judicious trade and partly by force. According to legend, all visitors entering Alexandria were obliged to surrender any written material they had to copy in the library, which would have greatly expanded the holdings. No one really knows what the full size of the library’s collections were, as there is no bibliography or catalogue, but it was believed to be the largest in the ancient world.
The destruction of the Library of Alexandria has been blamed on multiple people. Supposedly, Julius Caesar accidentally set the library on fire in 48 BC, but Aurelian and Theophilos around the 3rd century AD have also been attributed to the library’s destruction, as has the Muslim conquest, which took place in the 6th century. The most likely explanation is that everyone is responsible and that the library was chipped apart before vanishing entirely.
Archaeologists uncovered a site they speculated to be the site of the original Library of Alexandria in 2004. The site has shed more light on the nature of the structure, indicating that the classrooms and other facilities suggested a high level of information sharing and education going on at the Library. No documents have been positively traced to the Library of Alexandria, although there are many contemporary references to works in the Library which later surfaced in translation or copy form. However, given that some of these references are after the destruction of the library, it can be difficult to determine which authors were actually housed in the collections of the Library of Alexandria.
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