The Library of Alexandria.

1. Artist impression (i think)

Ok, so this is something near and dear to my heart, has been since i was about 6yrs old, The Library of Alexandria.

Built around the 2nd to 3rd century BC, this was THE library you wanted to visit, it had scrolls from practically everyone you could think of back then, all the leading experts in philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, physics, geometry, engineering, geography, physiology, and medicine (i mean it was a power house!)

while the library itself was immence, dedicated to the nine muses, it was part of a larger campus as it were, with lecture halls, meeting rooms, reading rooms, a shared dining area and gardens to relax. This Museum of Alexandria also had rooms to study astronomy, and a zoo for exotic animals.

but im getting off topic, some of the more notable people to visit, lecture and study at the library were Euclid (inventer of Geometry), Archimedes (greek Inventer and maths wiz), Eratosthenes (father of Geography), Herophilus (The first Anatomist), Erasistratus (founded the first school of anatomy), Hipparchus (The founder of Trigonometry), Aedesia (Female philosopher), Pappus (funder of Hexagon Theorem), Theon (Scholar and Maths wizz), Hypatia (Female philosopher, maths wizz and astronomer), and Aristarchus (credited with the very first solar system model with the sun in the center)

heres a description of alexandria - https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/1822/

2. Assassins Creed Origins screenshot

the library also had an aquisitions department and a collections department (which i think is brilliant).
The aquisitions dept had the most simple job, any book that came into Alexandria, by road or sea was confiscated, taken to the library, copied and then the copy was given back to the previous owner, with the original stored in the library. The collections dept basically monitored the collection and made sure it was safe and secure, cities could offer goods/money to loan copies of scrolls held in the library.

that is amasing forsight to catalogue and preserve knowledge in a time when you would not expect it.

3. Artist Impression

now for the sad bit, the library was a beacon in the world until the Romans invaded in 30 BC, in which the Romans did what they do best and destroyed everything, well more to the point Caesar destroyed everything, but i digress.

apparently during the civil war someone tryed to cut off Caesars communications and he set fire to his ships to remedy this, which spread to the docks and the library, although some first hand sources mention that the Serapeum (a smaller library/temple) survived this first attempt.

interestingly though the Library of Alexandria was reported to have been destroyed Four times, by the afore mentioned Caesar (by Fire), by Aurelian (through damage brought on from fighting), by Theodosius (because it was a pagan temple) and by Amr ibn al-'As (because the books didnt conform with the Quran).

4. Library at Ephesus

so due to this kinda hap hazard way of slowly destroying the library nobody has a clue what it looked like, there are tones of artists impressions, and some historians think it had a similar layout to the library at Ephesus but its anyones guess at this point.

oh before i forget, if you get the chance to play Assassins Creed Origins they have done tours around Ancient Egypt, one of these tours is around the Library of Alexandria, admitedly its not very long, but it does mention some of the history. (i may have walked it about 10 times *ahem*)

interestingly though while the library itself was destroyed, its begining to look like a lot of the scrolls might not have been lost (if you believe it or not), through the House of Wisdom (a public acedemy and intellectual center in Bagdad), the Academy of Gondishapur (the most important medical center in the 6th - 7th Centuries, Iran) and the Imperial Library of Constantinople (which sadly, was the last great library of the ancient world)

most of what we know today was first devised and written down within the walls of the Library of Alexandria, the House of Wisdom and the Academy of Gondishapur, which is kinda huge when you think about it. but in 2002 the Bibliotheca Alexandrina was opened as a monument to what the library lost to antiqity stood for, which is quite fitting if you ask me.

House of Wisdom - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Wisdom
Academy of Gondishapur - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_of_Gondishapur
Imperial Library of Constantinople -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Library_of_Constantinople

so next up is Hebrew myths if i remember right, so if you enjoyed this, and have anything to add or if you want me to cover anything comment below or pm me!