Library of Alexandria

ancient Egypt · knowledge · history

Massive scroll collection. The library held somewhere between 40,000 to 700,000 papyrus scrolls at its peak, making it one of the largest libraries ever built. Scholars are still not sure of the exact number because records from that long ago are hard to verify.

Part of the Mouseion. The Library of Alexandria was not alone, it was part of a bigger research center called the Mouseion, named after the Muses, the nine goddesses of the arts in Greek mythology. The whole place was dedicated to studying and preserving knowledge.

Built by Egyptian kings. The library was probably started during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, though the idea may have come from Demetrius of Phalerum, an exiled leader from Athens living in Egypt. The Ptolemaic kings spent lots of money to buy and collect texts from all over the world.

Universal knowledge hub. The Ptolemaic rulers had a special plan to gather books and scrolls from everywhere, not just Egypt. They wanted one library that held the world's knowledge all in one place.